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THE UNITED STATES 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY 
 
 PORTRAIT GALLERY 
 
 Eminent and Self-made Men. 
 
 IOWA VOLUME. 
 
 CHICAGO AND NEW YORK: 
 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
 
 1878. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 HISTORY, one of the most interesting and instructive studies of modern 
 ages, is composed in a large part of biographies of men made great by 
 their own heroic and noble exertions. Guided by the philosophic principle that 
 all men are, in a great measure, architects of their own destinies, and that the 
 laudable example of those who have honorably won their way to success will 
 ever inspire the struggling mass of humanity to greater effort and nobler aspira- 
 tions, the publishers of this volunie here present some of the most prominent 
 facts and incidents in the lives of the leading citizens of Iowa, who have, to a 
 great extent, made the history of this state. 
 
 In selecting names for the Biographical Dictionary, the publishers have 
 aimed to give a life-like sketch of the representatives of the various interests of 
 the state: the professional men, the business men, the agriculturists, and indeed 
 all who have taken part in the intellectual, political and material progress of the 
 people. All that lavish expense and untiring labor could do in obtaining and 
 compiling the material has been done. That the work is perfect, the publishers 
 do not flatter themselves. A few persons, unfamiliar with the importance of the 
 work, have failed to furnish the requisite information ; others, from vain pride, 
 have refused ; others, again, who are worthy citizens, have, from a false modesty, 
 refused to give particulars — all forgetting that in a few years their names, with- 
 out a record, will be lost in oblivion, and their posterity deprived of the gratifi- 
 cation and advantage of reference to an honorable ancestry. However, it is 
 claimed, and justly, too, that this is the best publication of the kind ever offered 
 to the public. It is durably and elegantly gotten up ; profusely illustrated with por- 
 traits, in which the accuracy of photographic art is transferred to steel by the 
 best engravers of England and America ; and withal is a work which, as the 
 added years go by, will grow in importance and be more highly prized by all who 
 may fortunately possess it, and especially by the friends and relatives of those 
 enrolled upon its pages. 
 
THE UNITED STATES 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 lOlJ'A VOLUME. 
 
 HON. JAMES W. GRIMES, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 AMONG the men whose, personal history is in- 
 iV separably interwoven with that of the state, 
 and whose name deserves a foremost rank, is James 
 Wilson Grimes. He was born in the town of Peer- 
 ing, Hillsborough county. New Hampshire, on the 
 20th of October, 1816, and was of Scotch-Irish de- 
 scent, his ancestors emigrating to this country from 
 north Ireland, to which place they had previously 
 emigrated with a colony from Argyleshire, Scotland. 
 His parents, John Grimes and Elizabeth nee Wilson, 
 were also natives of Deering, New Hampshire. Of 
 a family of eight children born to them, James was 
 the youngest. In early childhood he evinced a taste 
 for learning, attending the district school and also 
 studying Latin and Greek under the instruction of 
 the village pastor. He completed his preparation 
 for college at Hampton Academy, and entered Dart- 
 mouth College in August, 1832, in the sixteenth 
 year of his age. Upon leaving college in February, 
 1835, he commenced reading law with James Walker, 
 Esq., in Petersborough, New Hampshire. Being 
 young and adventurous, and wishing to carve a for- 
 tune for himself, he left his native home in 1836 for 
 the far west, landing in Burlington, then a new town 
 in what was known as the " Black Hawk Purchase." 
 Here he opened an ofifice and soon established a 
 reputation as a rising lawyer. In April, 1837, he 
 was appointed city solicitor, and, entering upon the 
 duties of that office, assisted in drawing up the first 
 police laws of the town. In 1838 he was appointed 
 justice of the peace, and became a law partner of 
 William W. Chapman, United States district attorney 
 for Wisconsin Territory. In the early part of the 
 year 1841 he formed a partnership with Henry W . 
 
 Starr, Esq., which continued twelve years. This 
 firm stood at the head of the legal profession in 
 Iowa. Mr. Grimes was widely known as a counselor 
 of superior knowledge of the law, and with a clear 
 sense of truth and justice. Mr. Grimes was chosen 
 one of the repiesentatives of Des Moines county in 
 the first legislative assembly of the TVrritory of Iowa, 
 which convened at Burlington on the i 2th of Novem- 
 ber, 1838; in the sixth, at Iowa City, on the 4th of 
 December, 1843 ; and in the fourth general assembly 
 of the state, at Iowa City, on the 6th of December, 
 1852. He early took front rank among the public 
 men of Iowa. He was chairman of the judiciary 
 committee in the house of representatives of the first 
 legislative assembly of tlie Territory of Iowa, and all 
 laws for the new territory passed through his hands. 
 
 Mr. Grimes was married to Miss Elizabeth Sarah 
 Neally, at Burlington, on the 9th of November, 1846. 
 
 He always took an active part in all movements for 
 the advancement of education and reform. 
 
 In February, 1854, Mr. Grimes was nominated by 
 a convention of the whig party for governor of the 
 state. It was the largest state convention of that 
 party ever held in Iowa, and the last. He assumed 
 the duties of the office in December, 1854. Soon 
 after his election it was proposed that he should be 
 sent to the United States senate, but he made it un- 
 derstood that he should fill the term of office for 
 which he had been chosen, and he served his full 
 term to the entire satisfaction and acceptance of all 
 parties. He was a faithful leader in the political 
 regeneration of the state. He introduced liberal 
 measures to develop the resources of the state and 
 to promote the interests of all educational and hu- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 mane establishments.. Up to the time of his election 
 as governor democracy reigned supreme in the terri- 
 /tory. The representatives in congress were allies of 
 the slave power. He, after being elected, gave his 
 whole soul to the work, and it may truly be said that 
 Governor Grimes made Iowa republican and allied 
 it with the loyal states. On the 14th of January, 
 1858, hq laid down his office only to be placed in 
 another and greater one. On the 25 th of January 
 of the same year he was nominated by the republican 
 caucus for United States senator. He took his seat 
 in the senate on the 4th of March, 1859, and was 
 placed upon the committee on naval affairs on the 
 24th of January, 1861, on which he remained during 
 the rest of his senatorial career, serving as chairman 
 from December, 1864, and giving close attention to 
 all matters referred to this body. He was early 
 known as an active, earnest and able working mem- 
 ber of the senate. He was a close observer of every 
 military and naval movement, and a fine judge of the 
 official capacity and skill of the different command- 
 ers. Knowing the resolution and determination of 
 the southern leaders in the rebellion, he advocated 
 the prompt and vigorous prosecution of the war. 
 The navy was his favorite arm of service, he con- 
 sidering it the stronghold of public defense. 
 
 Mr Grimes voted for the Pacific Railroad bill on 
 the 20th of June, 1862, and for establishing the gauge 
 of the road, from the Missouri river to the Pacific 
 ocean, at four feet eight and a half inches, on the 
 18th of February, 1863. 
 
 On the i6th of January Mr. Grimes was again 
 chosen United States senator from Iowa for six years 
 from March, 1865, receiving the votes of all the 
 members of the general assembly, in joint conven- 
 tion, but six; one hundred and twenty-eight out of 
 one hundred and thirty-four. His counsel was often 
 sought in matters of great moment and in cases of 
 peculiar difficulty. Always ready to promote the 
 
 welfare of the state, he gave, unsolicited, land worth 
 six thousand dollars to the Congregational College 
 at Grinnell. It constitutes the " Grimes Founda- 
 tion," and is " to be applied to the establishment and 
 maintenance in Iowa College, forever, of four scholar- 
 ships, to be awarded by the trustees, on the recom- 
 mendation of the faculty, to the best scholars, and 
 the most promising, in any department, who may 
 need and seek such aid, and without any regard to 
 the religious tenets or opinions entertained by any 
 person seeking either of said scholarships." These 
 terms were imposed by Mr. Grimes and assumed on 
 the 20th of July, 1865, by the trustees. He received 
 the honorary degree of LL.D., in 1865, from Dart- 
 mouth College, and also frorn Iowa College. He 
 also aided in founding a public library in Burlington, 
 donating five thousand dollars, which was expended 
 in the purchase of costly books, and subsequently 
 sent from Europe two hundred and fifty-six volumes 
 in the German language, and also contributed six 
 hundred volumes of public documents. 
 
 In January, 1869, he made a donation of five 
 thousand dollars to Dartmouth College, and one 
 thousand dollars to the " Social Friend," a literary 
 society of which he was a member when in college. 
 
 His health failing, Mr. Grimes sailed for Europe 
 on the 14th of April, 1869, remaining abroad two 
 years, reaching home on the 22d of September, 187 1, 
 apparently in improved health and spirits. In No- 
 vember he celebrated his silver wedding, and spent 
 the closing months of his life with his family. He 
 voted at the city election on the 5th of February, 
 andupon the evening of the 7th of February, 187 2, was 
 suddenly attacked with severe pains in the region of 
 the heart, and died after a few short hours of intense 
 suffering. A post-mortem examination revealed or- 
 ganic disease of the heart. He was mourned by 
 many as a man of ability, integrity and public spirit, 
 who fearlessly fulfilled whatever he deemed his duty. 
 
 HON. HENRY J. B. CUMMINGS, 
 
 WINTERSBT. 
 
 HENRY J. B. CUMMINGS, member of con- 
 gress from the seventh Iowa district, was born 
 in Newton, Sussex county. New Jersey, on the 21st 
 of May, 183 1. His father. Colonel Heman L. Cum- 
 mings, was a native of Litchfield county, Connecti- 
 cut, and a man of moderate means. His mother's 
 
 maiden name was Ann Garton Johnson. Henry was 
 the eldest child. He had a brother, Louis Jerome, 
 three years younger, who died in Winterset on the 
 ist of August, 1856, of disease contracted by expos- 
 ure, while with General James Lane, in efforts to 
 make Kansas a free state. He was a young man of 
 

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THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 patriotic and npble impulses, of considerable culture 
 and ability. 
 
 The subject of this sketch is great-great-grandson 
 of General Daniel Brodhead, who was one of the 
 generals in the revolutionary war, the friend and 
 confidant of General Washington, by whom he was 
 assigned to the command of Fort Pitt, now Pitts- 
 burgh. General Brodhead was enabled to maintain 
 peace with the Indians in western Pennsylvania and 
 Ohio, in great part by the confidence they had in 
 him. They made him one of their chiefs, and gave 
 him the name of Great Moon. In the family is pre- 
 served a Masonic apron worn by General Brodhead 
 in the lodge of which Washington was at the time 
 master, and several letters written to him by Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 In 1840 Heman L. Cummirigs moved with his 
 family from New Jersey to Muncy, Lycoming county, 
 Pennsylvania, and Henry received his education in 
 the common schools of that state, supplementing it 
 with a year's study in a private school. He then 
 spent a year or two in the pineries of Lycoming 
 county, most of the time making a hand in a saw- 
 mill. Like many young men who have subsequently 
 gone to congress, he felt called upon to teach a pub- 
 lic school ; but two months' experience convinced 
 him that he could not excel as a pedagogue, and 
 that ended his services as a teacher. 
 
 In 1848 he comiTienced the study of law, reading 
 a year and a half, when, having a natural taste for 
 printing, he went, in 1849, 'o Schuylkill county, 
 Pennsylvania, where he made an agreement to learn 
 the trade in the office of the "Schuylkill Haven 
 Map," he to commence as "devil," and to serve 
 three years, but his name was to appear as associate 
 editor. After about a year his uncle, Henry Johnson, 
 a lawyer of large practice and great reputation, a 
 prominent state senator in Pennsylvania during the 
 civil war, and now practicing in Des Moines, Iowa, 
 purchased the office, and the paper was edited and 
 managed exclusively by his nephew, assisted by 
 his brother, who here joined him. This arrange- 
 ment continued until the autumn of 1852, when 
 Henry returned to Muncy and finished his law 
 studies in the office of his uncle just mentioned, 
 being admitted to the bar early in 1854. 
 
 Late in the next year Mr. Cummings started for 
 Iowa, crossing the Mississippi river on the ice on 
 the I St of January, 1856. He went directly to Win- 
 terset, Madison county, and immediately opened an 
 office. The anti-Nebraska party had carried Iowa 
 
 in the autumn before, and early in the spring of 
 1856 the republican party was being organized in 
 the state. Mr. Cummings joined with others in call- 
 ing a public meeting to organize the county. The 
 meeting was largely attended, but only eight persons 
 would assist in the organization. Mr. Cummings 
 also aided in organizing Adair and Cass counties, 
 and, with others, thoroughly canvassed these coun- 
 ties before the election. He was nominated by the 
 republicans of Madison county that year for prose- 
 cuting' attorney, and was elected, holding the office 
 two years and three months, at the end of which 
 time it was abolished by the new constitution of the 
 state. He held the office of mayor of Winterset for 
 two terms. 
 
 On the 4th of March, 1857, at Muncy, Pennsyl- 
 vania, Mr. Cummings was married to Miss Annie 
 Webster Robb, youngest daughter of William F. and 
 Mary Robb, of the last named place. They have 
 one daughter, Laura Justina, who was married in 
 November, 1876, to James W. Miller, at present one 
 of the editors of the Winterset " Madisonian." 
 
 Mr. Cummings continued the practice of the law 
 until the breaking out of the rebellion, when, after the 
 firing on Fort Sumter, a company of home guards 
 was organized at Winterset, and he was elected cap- 
 tain. Governor Kirkwood having notified him that 
 it was desired that Madison county should furnish* 
 a company of men for the United States military 
 service. Captain Cummings immediately reorgan- 
 ized his company, and in July, 1861, acting under 
 orders from the governor, he took his company to 
 Council Bluffs, where it became company F of the 
 4th Iowa Infantry, Colonel G. M. Dodge, commander 
 of the regiment. While in camp there, at a meeting 
 of the officers of the regiment. Captain Cummings 
 was recommended to be commissioned major, but 
 as the two field officers already appointed were re- 
 publicans, the governor concluded it would be better 
 to take a democrat for the third office, and on that 
 ground declined to appoint Captain Cummings. He 
 continued with his company until, as part of General 
 Samuel R. Curtis' army, it reached Helena, Arkansas, 
 in 1862. After the battle of Pea Ridge, Missouri, 
 in March of that year, his superiors in rank having 
 been wounded or being absent, he fell into command 
 as ranking captain of the regiment, and command- 
 ed it on its march through southern Missouri and 
 northern Arkansas to Batesville. Captain Cummings 
 readily acquainted himself thoroughly with the mili- 
 tary rules and regulations, and this fact was recog- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 nized in his appointment several times as judge ad- 
 vocate of important courts-martial. He was a strict 
 disciplinarian, considerate of his men, and one of 
 the best drill-officers in the service. A good trait 
 of his character in the field was that he was always 
 strictly temperate and never profane. 
 
 On reaching Helena, Captain Cummings returned 
 to Iowa on sick leave, but bearing a letter from Gen- 
 eral Curtis to Governor Kirkwood, asking the latter 
 to advance the captain in one of the new regiments 
 then forming. The governor commissioned Irim col- 
 onel of the 39th Infantry. The regiment rendez- 
 voused first at Des Moines, and then at Davenport. 
 In November, 1862, Colonel Cummings was Ordered 
 to report at Corinth, Mississippi, where he was as- 
 signed to the command of that post. There he had 
 charge of three regiments, the white refugees com- 
 ing into the federal lines, and the contrabands, the 
 last being employed in running a cotton plantation. 
 When he took the post it was considerably in debt, 
 but he soon paid off that indebtedness, and when he 
 was relieved there were several thousand dollars in 
 its treasury. The colonel was regarded as pecu- 
 liarly fitted for post duty, and had several important 
 commands of that nature, among them at Culleoka, 
 Tennessee; Athens, Alabama; Rome, Georgia, and, 
 as above stated, at Corinth, Mississippi. 
 ' His regiment joined the army advancing on At- 
 lanta, at Chattanooga, and was the first that went 
 through the Snake Creek Gap in the movement 
 flanking Dalton. When the army reached Kingston 
 the brigade to which his regiment belonged was 
 stationed at Rome, Georgia, and remained there on 
 the flank during the entire siege of Atlanta. It also 
 was part of Sherman's array that marched to the sea. 
 
 Having served three and a half years, Colonel 
 Cummings mustered out on the ist of January, 1865, 
 and returned to Winterset. In 1869 he purchased 
 the Winterset " Madisonian," and has been connect- 
 ed with it ever since. As a journalist, he has been 
 a success, making the Winterset "Madisonian" rank 
 among the ablest country papers in the state, popu- 
 larizing it at home by making home news a specialty, 
 and giving the agricultural interest of the county 
 due prominence. He seems to know by intuition 
 what the needs of his readers are, and has the ability 
 to meet theirwants to their satisfaction. As a writer, 
 his style is not ornate, but simple, clear and forcible. 
 
 In November, 1876, he was elected to congress in 
 one of the strongest republican districts, carrying 
 every one of the ten counties in liis district, and hav- 
 
 ing a majority of nearly eight thousand votes over 
 his democratic competitor, Samuel J. Gilpin, Esq., 
 with whom he held nearly forty joint discussions. 
 As a public speaker, he is more logical than fluent. 
 He makes no claim to being an orator, yet has good 
 command of language. Whatever is necessary he 
 can say on any occasion, and say it well and forcibly. 
 His manner is dignified and impressive,' his words 
 are always well chosen, and his ideas are expressed 
 on the rostrum as clearly and forcibly as in his edi- 
 torials. He has the air of frankness and truth, and 
 so impresses his hearers. In the joint canvass spo- 
 ken of his friends were more than satisfied, 
 
 He is a member of the committee on claims, one 
 of the most important and responsible committees 
 of the house. The following extract from an edi- 
 torial letter to the Des Moines "Daily Register" is 
 given to show his standing as a congressman : 
 
 Our own member, Colonel Cummings, is making a good 
 name for himself quietly and not slowly. He is a close 
 student of the house and its rules, and is alwa^ s in his seat. 
 No one keeps a better run of the business in the house, or 
 has a clearer head in regard to anything that is going on. 
 He looks after details industriously, and in all the depart- 
 ments has already formed a popular acquaintance with the 
 powers that be, — which is one of the wisest things that a 
 congressman anxious to serve his district can do. I predici 
 that in caring for the interests of the district, and in serving 
 promptly and well all his constituents who have affairs here 
 to attend to, Colonel Cummings will be found the equal of 
 any man that the former fighting, but now Quaker, district 
 of Iowa has ever had. In the house, too, he will be equally 
 faithful and vigilant, and guard with jealous eye and intel- 
 ligent zeal the public good. The colonel and his amiable 
 and entertaining wife have cozy quarters at the Ebbitt house, 
 where Iowa people will always find a cordial welcome, and 
 seventh district folks meet the unaffected cheer and hospi- 
 tality of home. 
 
 On the ist of April, 1878, he made his first speech 
 in the house; it was in opposition to the payment of 
 southern war claims. The speech was widely copied 
 and highly commended by the press of the state. 
 
 As a citizen. Colonel Cummings stands well. He 
 is always ready to take a part in every enterprise for 
 the benefit of the public. He has been active and 
 prominent in all measures for the public good ; his 
 special forte, in fact, is in his executive ability. 
 
 He is a prominent member of the Masonic order, 
 and has been for years active in the grand lodge 
 of the state, being at one time chairman of the com- 
 mittee on foreign correspondence. He was selected 
 by that body to prepare a Masonic digest for the 
 state; has served many years as master of his lodge, 
 and has attained to the rank of Knight Templar. 
 
 Prior to the organization of the republican party 
 he was a whig. For a long time he has been one of 
 
THE UNITED STATES HIOGRAPHICAI. DICTION ART 
 
 the leaders of his party in Madison county. He and 
 his wife are members of the Presbyterian church. 
 
 The colonel has a high reputation for integrity, 
 his word being a sure guarantee of performance. By 
 careful and prudent management he has placed him- 
 self in very comfortable circumstances. 
 
 Colonel Cummings is five feet and nine and a half 
 inches tall, and weighs 217 pounds. His hair, which 
 was light when a young man, is almost white; his 
 complexion is fair, and his disposition cheerful and 
 social. He can enjoy a joke,— the best when not on 
 himself 
 
 HON. JOHN Y. STONE, 
 
 GLENW'OOD. 
 
 JOHN YOUNG STONE, speaker of the house 
 J in the seventeenth general assembly, and one of 
 the leading republicans of the younger class in the- 
 State of Iowa, is a native of Sangamon county, Illi- 
 nois, and was born on the 23d of April, 1843. His 
 parents were William L. and Mary Ann (McLemore) 
 Stone, members of nature's nobility, the agricultural 
 class. The branch of the Stone family from which 
 our subject sprang eaily settled in Virginia and 
 spread into Kentucky and Illinois. In 1856 Will- 
 iam L. Stone moved into the southwestern part of 
 Iowa, settling on a farm in Mills county, where the 
 son not only gained a thorough knowledge of agri- 
 culture, but of the condition, rights and wants of 
 the agriculturist — knowledge which has since led 
 him to heartily sympathize with this class of the 
 community, and to advocate their claims in public 
 life with an earnestness as eloquent as it was sin- 
 cere, as effective as it was timely. A writer in the 
 "Iowa State Register" of the 22d of January, 1878, 
 thus spoke of speaker Stone on this point: 
 
 No man, old or young, knows better the whole Iowa peo- 
 ple, their real character, worth and virtues, than John Y. 
 Stone. For he has sprung from their own ranks, and is 
 prouder of his origin than ever royal heir was of family 
 pedigree or inherited title. He thus gained in early life 
 that complete acquaintance with the people and their true 
 interests, which is of more value to a public man and 
 statesman than the graces of college or the polish of the 
 arts. It is this nearness to the masses, and the true heart 
 and ready hand he has ever borne in their interest, which 
 have made him so strong in their defense, and so popular 
 as a leader in their cause. It was a good tutelage, his life 
 on the farm. It cultivated his breadth and liberality of 
 character, his strength of will, his honesty and intrepidity 
 of purpose. 
 
 Six months after the civil war broke out, in Octo- 
 ber, 1861, young Stone enlisted as a private in com- 
 pany F, isth Iowa Infantry; was promoted to sec- 
 ond lieutenant near the close of the next year, and 
 was in all the battles in which General Crocker's 
 famous Iowa brigade participated, and was with it 
 in Sherman's great march to the sea. Those who 
 
 served with him and knew him best give him credit 
 for great courage on the battle-field. On the 21st 
 and 22d of July, 1864, in the great battles before 
 Atlanta, Georgia, when a staff officer, he had three 
 horses killed under him. He was in the hottest of 
 the strife, near General McPherson when that gal- 
 lant and heroic commander fell mortally wounded. 
 The war developed the manly traits of Lieutenant 
 Stone's character, and fitted him in part for eminent 
 usefulness in the less exciting sphere of civil life. 
 
 In October, 1865, after studying law, he was ad- 
 mitted to the practice of that profession, making 
 Glenwood his home. He rose rapidly at the bar, 
 soon taking a leading rank, which he still holds. 
 After his admission he attracted the notice of the 
 people, who were quick to discover his adaptation 
 for legislative work, and in the autumn of 1867, at 
 the age of twenty-four, he was elected to the lower 
 house of the general assembly. He labored so 
 faithfully for the interests of his constituents, and 
 made in all respects so creditable a record, that at 
 the end of his term he was returned to the same 
 branch of the legislature. At the end of his second 
 term he was elected to the upper house, and when 
 this term of four years was ended his constituents 
 sent him a third time to the lower house. In that 
 session, the sixteenth of the general assembly, he 
 was made a candidate for speaker, and was beaten 
 by Hon. John H. Gear, now governor of the state. 
 During that session he was chairman of the judici- 
 ary committee, and the unquestioned leader of the 
 house. In 1877 the constituents of Mr. Stone 
 elected him a fifth time to the legislature; and when 
 his term shall have expired, on the 31st of Decem- 
 ber, 1879, it will make twelve consecutive years that 
 he has been a member. Long before the seven- 
 teenth general assembly now in session had met, it 
 was evident that the leader of the house in the six- 
 teenth, and the powerful competitor of Governor 
 
8 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Gear for the speaker's chair, would reach it this 
 time without opposition ; and when the legislators 
 convened, and the republican caucus was held, Mr. 
 Stone was nominated by acclamation, and when the 
 final voting came, only two or three members of 
 any party in the house failed to vote for him, a de- 
 gree of unanimity in electing a speaker rarely wit- 
 nessed in any legislative body. The wisdom of this 
 choice is seen in the promptness, accuracy and facil- 
 ity with which speaker Stone discharges his duties. 
 
 He has been actively and notably connected with 
 the discussion of almost all the important questions 
 in the legislature for the last ten years, and has ta- 
 ken a prominent and influential part in moulding 
 the legislation of the state during that time. In 
 1872, while in the senate, he was chairman of the 
 committee on congressional districts, and drafted 
 the present law dividing the state into such districts. 
 
 He has always been a consistent, unwavering re- 
 publican, and in 1876 was a delegate-at-large to the 
 national republican convention which met in Cin- 
 cinnati and nominated Rutherford B. Hayes. He 
 was selected by that convention as the Iowa member 
 of the national republican committee, which position 
 he now holds. 
 
 The wife of speaker Stone was Miss Harriet Sol- 
 omon, of Glenwood, Iowa; married on the 8th of 
 January, 1868. They have one child, Clarence. In 
 the latter part of August, 1876, Mr. Stone and his 
 little boy Clarence, then five years old, were violent- 
 ly thrown from a carriage in the streets of Glen- 
 wood. Unable to save both, the father, with a 
 promptness inspired by affection, disregarding his 
 own safety, held the child up with both hands, and 
 received the whole shock himself In thus attempt- 
 
 ing to- save the life of his child, at the risk of his 
 own, his left limb was broken just below the knee; 
 but he had the great happiness of seeing his darling 
 escape unhurt. This was done at the opening of 
 the political campaign of that year; and so neces- 
 sary was it deemed that Mr. Stone should be on the 
 stump, that long before the splints were taken off, 
 and contrary to the orders of his surgeon, he was 
 seen in different parts of his district making speeches 
 sitting on the side of a table or bench ; and here it 
 may be added that he is one of the most effective 
 canvassers in the state. His last contest for elec- 
 tion was one of the most exciting and hard fought 
 ever made in a county canvass. It attracted atten- 
 tion throughout the state. Concerning this notable 
 engagement, a political writer of the time remarked : 
 
 His lasl triumph, in a series of victories, that of succeed- 
 ing over a most unholy combination of elements in his own 
 county to defeat his reelection to the house, was notable 
 and brilliant. He had to meet the meanest, and the most 
 determined, and the best organized fight ever made against 
 a candidate in a county contest in this state. With the 
 mettle and the genius of leadership, he met the combined 
 opposition and routed them completely. 
 
 Speaker Stone has bluish-gray eyes, brown hair, a 
 florid complexion, a nervous-bilious yet rather even 
 temperament; is five feet and nine inches tall, and 
 weighs one hundred and seventy-five pounds. His 
 build is very solid, and his general appearance that 
 of health in the efflorescence of early summer-time. 
 
 Socially, his qualities are of the finest order. He 
 has great magnetism, and was made for a leader; 
 he has intellectual powers of a high order, with re- 
 served forces yet to be developed, and ambition 
 enough to draw them out whenever occasion calls 
 for it. The favorite of his party, with prudence on 
 his part he may yet have higher steps to take. 
 
 HON. JOSHUA 
 
 MOUNT PL 
 
 TOSHUA G. NEWBOLD, at the time of writing 
 J (October, 1877,) in the executive chair of the 
 state, is a native of Pennsylvania, and his ancestors 
 in this country were among the very early settlers in 
 New Jersey. They were Quakers, and consequently 
 none of them figured in the struggle for the inde- 
 pendence of the colonies. Governor Newbold is the 
 son of Barzilla and Catherine Houseman Newbold ; 
 was born in Fayette county, on the 12th of May, 
 1830, and reared as a farmer. When he was eight 
 
 G. NEWBOLD, 
 
 EASANT. 
 
 years of age the family moved to Westmoreland coun- 
 ty, where he was educated in the common school, 
 and also in a select school or academy, the latter 
 taught by Dr. John Lewis, now of Grinnell, Iowa. 
 At sixteen he returned with the family to Fayette 
 county, where he remained eight years, assisting his 
 father in running a flouring mill, when not teaching. 
 When about nineteen he commenced the study of 
 medicine, reading a year or more while teaching, and 
 then abandoning the notion of being a physician. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 In the month of March, 1854, Mr. Newbold re- 
 moved to Iowa, locating on a farm, now partly in 
 the corporation of Mount Pleasant, Henry county. 
 At the end of one year he removed to Cedar town- 
 ship. Van Buren county, there merchandising and 
 farming till about i860, when he removed to Hills- 
 boro, Henry county, and pursued the same callings. 
 
 In 1862, when the call was made for six hundred 
 thousand men to finish the work of crushing the re- 
 bellion, Mr. Newbold left his farm in the hands of 
 his family, and his store in the charge of his partner, 
 and went into the army as captain of company C, 
 25th regiment, Iowa Infantry. He served nearly 
 three years, resigning just before the war closed, on 
 account of disability. During the last two or three 
 months at the south he served as judge advocate, 
 with headquarters at Woodville, Alabama. 
 
 On returning to Iowa he continued in the mer- 
 cantile trade at Hillsboro for three or four years, 
 and then sold out, giving thereafter his whole atten- 
 tion to agriculture, stock raising and stock dealing, 
 making the stock department an important factor in 
 his business for several years. 
 
 Mr. Newbold was a member of the thirteenth, four- 
 teenth and fifteenth general assemblies, from Henry 
 county, and was chairman of the school committee in 
 
 the fourteenth, and of the committee on appropria- 
 tions in the fifteenth general assembly. In the fif- 
 teenth he was temporary speaker (1874) during the 
 dead-lock in organizing the house. In 1875 he was 
 elected lieutenant-governor, serving as president of 
 the senate in the session of 1876. Governor Kirk- 
 wood being elected United States senator during 
 that session, Mr. Newbold became governor, taking 
 the chair on the istof February, 1877. He will va- 
 cate it in January, 1878, Hon. John H. Gear having 
 been elected. The home of Governor Newbold is 
 at Mount Pleasant. 
 
 He has always affiliated with the republican party, 
 and holds to its great cardinal doctrines having once 
 embraced them, with the same sincerity and honesty 
 that he cherishes his religious sentiments. He has 
 been a member of the christian church for something 
 like twenty-five years, his connection be'ing with the 
 Free Baptists. 
 
 Governor Newbold found his wife, Miss Rachel 
 Farquhar, in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, their 
 union taking place on the 2d of May, 1850. They 
 have had five children, and lost two. Mary Allene, 
 the eldest daughter living, is the wife of Benjamin 
 F. Isaman, of Aurora, Hamilton county, Nebraska. 
 Emma Irene and George G. are single. 
 
 GOVERNOR JOHN H. GEAR, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 JOHN H. GEAR was born in Ithaca, New York, 
 J on the 7th of April, 1825. His father was Rev. 
 E. G. Gear, a clergyman of the Protestant Episco- 
 pal church, who was born in New London, Connec- 
 ticut, in 1792. At early age his family removed to 
 Pittsfield, Berkshire county, Massachusetts; ini8i6, 
 after being ordained, he immigrated to New York 
 and settled at Onondaga Hill, near what is known 
 now as the thriving city of Syracuse. Soon after 
 his locating there he was married to Miss Miranda 
 E. Cook, and was engaged in the ministry in various 
 places in western New York until 1836, when he re- 
 moved to Galena, Illinois, where he remained un- 
 til 1838, when he was appointed chaplain in the 
 United States army at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and 
 died in 1874, at the age of eighty-two years. 
 
 John H., his only son, in 1843 came to Burling- 
 ton, where he has since continued to reside. On 
 his arrival he commenced his mercantile career 
 
 by engaging as clerk with the firm of Bridgeman 
 and Bros. After being with this firm for a little 
 over a year he entered the employment of W. F. 
 Coolbaugh, (late president of the Union National 
 Bank, of Chicago,) who was even at that early date 
 the leading merchant of eastern Iowa; he was clerk 
 for Mr. Coolbaugh for about five years, when he was 
 taken into partnership. The firm (W. F. Coolbaugh 
 and Co.) continued in business for nearly five years, 
 at which time he succeeded to the business by pur- 
 chase and has ever since carried it on, being now 
 the oldest wholesale grocer in the state. 
 
 Mr. Gear has been honored by his fellow-citizens 
 with many positions of trust. In 1852 he was elected 
 alderman; in 1863 was elected mayor over A. W. 
 Carpenter, being the first republican up to that time 
 who had been elected in Burlington on a party issue. 
 In 1867 the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minne- 
 sota Railroad Company was organized, and he was 
 
lO 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 chosen as its president. His efforts highly contrib- 
 uted to the success of the enterprise, which has done 
 much for the city. He was also active in promoting 
 the Burlington and Southwestern railway as well 
 as the Burlington and Northwestern narrow-gauge 
 road. He has taken great interest in this new system 
 of railroads, and has written a pamphlet entitled 
 " Five Reasons why the people of Iowa should en- 
 courage the Building of Narrow-gauge Railroads." 
 It was ably written and had a large circulation in 
 the west, and has done much toward stimulating the 
 building of this new system. 
 
 He has always acted with the republican party, 
 and in 187 1 was nominated and elected a member 
 of the house of representatives of the fourteenth 
 general assembly. In 1873 he was elected to the 
 fifteenth assembly. The republican caucus of the 
 house nominated him for speaker by acclamation, 
 and after a contest of two weeks he was chosen over 
 his opponent, J. W. D'ixon. He filled the position 
 of speaker very acceptably, and at the close of the 
 session all the members of the house (independent 
 of party) joined in signing their names to a resolu- 
 tion of thanks, which was engraved and presented 
 to him. In 1875 he was the third time nominated to 
 
 the assembly by the republican party, and while his 
 county gave a large democratic vote he was again 
 elected and again nominated by the republican cau- 
 cus for speaker, and elected by a handsome majority 
 over his competitor, Hon. John Y. Stone. He is the 
 only man in the state who ever had the honor of 
 being chosen to this high position the second time. 
 He enjoys the reputation of being an able parliamen- 
 tarian, his rulings never having been appealed from. 
 At the close of the session he again received the 
 unanimous thanks of the house for his courtesy and 
 impartiality. He has been at all times a diligent 
 and worthy representative, and has secured a high 
 reputation for his fidelity to his constituents, for his 
 liberality, for his unchanging firmness in the advo- 
 cacy of his principles, and for the undiscriminating 
 courtesy he extends to all who approach him. He 
 was elected governor in October, 1877, and now oc- 
 cupies the executive chair of the state. 
 
 He was married in 1852 to Harriett 8. Foot, for- 
 merly of Middlebury, Vermont, by whom he has had 
 four children, two of whom are living. 
 
 Mr. Gear is now in the fifty-second year of his 
 age, and is in the full vigor of both his n-'ental and 
 physical faculties. 
 
 HON. CHESTER C. COLE, 
 
 DES MOINES. 
 
 CHESTER CICERO COLE, late chief justice 
 of the supreme court of Iowa, and a man with 
 few peers in the legal profession in the state, sprang 
 from a very early New England family. Its progeni- 
 tor in this country was one of the little company of 
 men who accompanied Roger Williams when he was 
 banished from the colony of Massachusetts Bay, and 
 founded a colony at Providence, Rhode Island. 
 From that point the family has spread over most 
 of the states in the Union. 
 
 Chester C. was the son of Samuel Cole, a farmer, 
 and Alice (Pullman) Cole, and was born in Oxford, 
 Chenango county, New York, on the 4th of June, 
 1824. He fitted for college at the Oxford Academy, 
 and at eighteen was prepared to enter the junior 
 class of Union College; but protracted ill health 
 prevented, and at twenty-two he entered the law 
 school of Harvard University, where he received a 
 thorough training under the best legal instructors in 
 the country, and graduated in about two years. 
 
 Mr. Cole went immediately to Frankfort, Ken- 
 tucky, and took charge for a short time of the legis- 
 lative department of the " Commonwealth," a daily 
 paper of that place; he then located at Marion, Crit- 
 tenden county, Kentucky, where he was admitted to 
 the bai", and commenced what has proved to be a 
 very brilliant career in the legal profession. It was 
 brilliant from the start. Success marked his first 
 case at the bar and gave him such a notoriety that 
 at the ensuing term of the circuit court he was en- 
 gaged in more than thirty cases, and at the following 
 term of the court he was retained in every case. 
 
 Mr. Cole remained in Marion nine years, and the 
 success which attended him was almost marvelous. 
 We have it from perfectly reliable authority that 
 during these years he was engaged in every impor- 
 tant contested trial ; that in criminal practice he 
 cleared every client whom he defended, and that he 
 prosecuted but two men, one of whom was hung for 
 murder, and the other sent to the penitentiary for 
 
/^!^_^ o^lot-^f^ (r^^^L-^^-.__, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 13 
 
 passing counterfeit money. His uniform success was 
 all the more remarkable from the fact that he had to 
 contend at the bar with the ablest lawyers in Ken- 
 tucky ; in those days among them were L. W. Pow- 
 ell, Archibald Dixon, Samuel A. Kingman, Robert A. 
 Patterson, George W. Barber and H. C. Burnett, all 
 of whom have since held high positions in the states 
 or the federal congress. During the same period his 
 practice extended into other states, where he had 
 the best and ablest legal talent to contend against. 
 
 In May, 1857, Mr. Cole settled in Des Moines, 
 which has since been his home, and where his suc- 
 cess as an attorney has been second to that of none 
 at the capital of the state or probably in Iowa. 
 
 In 1859 he was the democratic candidate for Judge 
 of the supreme court, and was defeated. In i860 he 
 ran for congress on the same ticket against General 
 Curtiss, making a brilliant canvass, but the district 
 was republican and he was again defeated. 
 
 When, in the spring of 1861, the American flag 
 was stricken down at Fort Sumter, he was among 
 the first to protest against the infamous deed, and 
 to raise his voice for the marshaling of Union troops. 
 With an eloquence rarely surpassed he appealed to 
 his democratic brethren at sundry times to support 
 the federal government in its efforts to crush the re- 
 bellion, but failing to secure their cooperation as a 
 party organization, in his disgust and mortification 
 he shook the democratic dust off his feet, and in 
 1862 came out boldly for the great Union party. 
 Since that date his affiliations have been uniformly 
 with the republicans. At one time in 1863, a most 
 critical period in our history, he dropped his press- 
 ing legal business, and almost incessantly for thirty 
 days and thirty nights delivered able speeches to 
 rouse the people for home defense, raids from the 
 Missouri border being threatened. His frantic ap- 
 peals were attended with striking success. 
 
 In February, 1864, Mr. Cole was appointed one of 
 the judges of the supreme court; the next autumn 
 he was elected to the same office by the unprec- 
 edented majority of forty thousand votes, and re- 
 elected in 1870 by an equally flattering vote. He 
 was one of the foremost men in organizing the sol- 
 diers' Orphans' Home ; was made a trustee of the 
 same, and subsequently its president. In 1865 he 
 was associated with Judge G. G. Wright in organiz- 
 ing a law school at Des Moines, since made a part 
 of the State University at Iowa city. 
 
 In 1869 Judge Cole became chief justice, and 
 served in that capacity until the expiration of that 
 
 term. He was reelected chief justice, but resigned 
 the office on the ist of January, 1876, and returned 
 to the practice of his profession. 
 
 For an account of his career on the bench, and 
 his qualifications as a jurist, we cannot do better 
 than copy a paragraph or two from a sketch of him 
 which we find in " Andrews' Historical Atlas," pub- 
 lished two years ago. It was written by a gentle- 
 man who had the most favorable opportunities for 
 judging of his character. 
 
 Associated during his judicial experience with the ablest 
 minds which the state has produced — with Wright and 
 Dillon and Lowe; with Beck and Miller and Day; called 
 to the consideration of legal questions, a large part of which 
 were without precedent in the reports of the state, partic- 
 ularly those relating to the taxing power, and to the rela- 
 tion of corporations to the whole body corporate, Judge 
 Cole has been the peer of the ablest of his judicial associ- 
 ates. With respect to the subjects to which we have ad- 
 verted, and which, during this period, have been matters of 
 absorbing public interest, the decisions of the court have 
 been plainly and indelibly impressed with the stamp of his 
 conviction. The positions which he assumed in the early 
 history of this time, particularly with reference to corporate 
 rights, have come to be the settled faith of the public mind. 
 
 His judicial work has been distinguished for a display of 
 the highest qualities which are demanded by the bench. 
 Of remarkable quickness and correctness of apprehension, 
 he always deals directly with the point at issue; of great 
 discrimination in the selection of analogies, he illustrates 
 his opinions with few but apt citations of authorities; for- 
 tunate in his early legal training, and still more fortunate 
 in the possession of an untiring industry, which has never 
 given him respite from study, he has infused into his de- 
 cisions, and thus into the local monuments of the state, the 
 spirit with which he has been imbued from a life-long in- 
 tercourse with the highest sources of the law. To these 
 qualities he has brought a singleness of intellectual purpose, 
 which has always kept him from discursive argument and 
 reasoning, and a courage of conviction by which he has an- 
 nounced the law boldly and fearlessly, regardless of per- 
 sonal consequences or present approval. 
 
 As a judicial writer, he has eloquence, clearness and 
 force. Some of his opinions, while always reaching to the 
 very point in issue, have the characteristics of scholarly es- 
 says upon legal topics. At the same time, while his ele- 
 gance of diction and readiness of expression might expose 
 him to the danger of intellectual display, his opinions al- 
 ways bear the evident purpose of casting upon the mind of 
 the reader the same light which is shining in his own. This 
 paramount and single object is always in view, to illustrate 
 clearly and logically his own earnest and honest convictions. 
 
 To one other characteristic, his reputation stands not a 
 little indebted ; while always a lawyer and jurist, his inspira- 
 tion has not been drawn alone from the study of authorities, 
 or guided by the formula of the books, df large sympa- 
 thies and a thorough practical knowledge, he has never lost 
 sight of the human and ethical side of the law in his devo- 
 tion to the maxims of the past. With him a decision must 
 always, indeed, have been grounded in the law; but that 
 could not be law which did violence to equity, or resulted in 
 inconvenience or wrong to great masses of the community. 
 
 Judge Cole has been for several years the editor 
 of the " Western Jurist," a periodical published at 
 Des Moines, and conducted with marked ability. 
 He is also the editor of the new edition of the " Iowa 
 Law Reports," which he has liberally annotated, and 
 
H 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 which exhibit his great legal acumen and exhaustive 
 research. 
 
 The wife of Judge Cole was Miss Amanda M. 
 Bennett, an associate of his youth. They were mar- 
 ried on the 24th of June, 1848, and have had seven 
 
 children, four sons and three daughters, five of December, 1874 
 
 whom are still living, two sons dying in childhood. 
 His eldest son, William W., graduated at the law 
 department of the Iowa State University, and is 
 now engaged in his profession in Des Moines. His 
 eldest daughter was married to A. C. Atherton, in 
 
 HON. SAMUEL MERRILL, 
 
 DES MOINES. 
 
 A MONG the men in the west who have been called 
 1\. from private life to places of trust on account 
 of their peculiar fitness for office, is Colonel Samuel 
 Merrill, ex-governor of Iowa. He was born in the 
 town of Turner, Oxford county, Maine, on the 7th 
 of August, 1822. He is of English ancestry, being 
 a descendant, on his mother's side, of Peter Hill, 
 who came from the west of England and settled in 
 Saco, Maine (now known as Biddeford), in 1653. 
 From this ancestry have sprung the most of the 
 Hills of America. On his father's side he is a de- 
 scendant of Nathaniel Merrill, who, with his brother 
 John, came from Salisbury, England, and settled in 
 Newburg, Massachusetts, in 1636. 
 
 Abel Merrill married Abigail Hill, on the 25th of 
 June, 1809, in Buxton, Maine. They soon moved 
 to Turner, where they became the parents of eight 
 children; Samuel, the subject of this sketch, being 
 next to the youngest, the fourth and youngest son 
 in the family, and in the eighth generation from his 
 pilgrim fathers. 
 
 Samuel was married to Catherine Thoms, who 
 died in 1847, but fourteen months after their mar- 
 riage. In January, 1851, he was again married, his 
 second wife being a Miss Hill, of Buxton, Maine. To 
 this union there has been four children, three of 
 whom died young, the eldest living only to be two 
 and a half years old. Little Hattie is now seven 
 years of age, full of life, and buoyant with the hope 
 of coming usefulness in the approaching years of 
 womanhood. 
 
 At the age of sixteen he moved with his parents 
 to Buxton, where his time was mostly engaged in 
 turns at teaching and in attending school until he 
 attained his majority. Having determined to make 
 teaching a profession, he set out for that purpose 
 toward the sunny south, but, as he says, he was 
 " born too far north " for his political comfort. Sus- 
 picion having been raised as to his abolitionist pro- 
 
 clivities, and finding the elements not altogether con- 
 genial, he soon abandoned the land of the palm and 
 palmetto for the old Granite State, where he en- 
 gaged for several years- in farming. 
 
 In 1847 he moved to Tamworth, New Hampshire, 
 where he embarked in the mercantile business in 
 company with a brother. In this, as in all his in- 
 dustrial enterprises, he was quite successful. Not 
 being satisfied with the limited resources of north- 
 ern New England, he determined to try his good 
 fortune on the broad prairies of the new and more 
 fertile west. Accordingly, in 1856, he turned his 
 face toward the setting sun. He made a final set- 
 tlement at McGregor, Iowa, where he established a 
 branch house of the old firm. 
 
 During all these years of business Mr. Merrill 
 took an active but not a noisy part in politics. In 
 1854 he was elected as an abolitionist to the New 
 Hampshire legislature, at the same time General N. 
 B. Baker, ex-adjutant-general of Iowa, was governor 
 of the state. In 1855 he was returned a second 
 term to the legislature. 
 
 In Iowa he was equally fortunate in securing the 
 good-will of those who knew him. His neighbors, 
 and those who had dealings with him, found a man, 
 honest in business, fair in his dealings, social in his 
 relations, and benevolent in his disposition. He 
 took an active interest in the prosperity of the town 
 and ever held an open hand to all needed charities. 
 These traits of character had drawn around him, 
 but not realized or intended by himself, a host of 
 personal admirers. This good-will resulted in his 
 being nominated for a seat in the state legislature, 
 and the only one elected on his ticket. 
 
 The legislature met in extra session in 1861 to 
 
 provide for the exigencies of the rebellion, in which 
 
 Governor Merrill rendered effective and unselfish 
 
 " service in providing for the defense and perpetuity 
 
 of our nation against the hand of treason. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 ^5 
 
 He continued in business at McGregor until the 
 summer of 1862, when he was commissioned as col- 
 onel of the 21st Iowa Volunteer Infantry, proceed- 
 ing immediately to Missouri, where active service 
 awaited him. Marmaduke was menacing the Union 
 forces in central Missouri, which called for prompt 
 action on the part of Union generals. Colonel Mer- 
 rill was placed in command of a detachment of the 
 2ist Iowa, a detachment of the 99th Illinois, a por- 
 tion of the 3d Iowa Cavalry and two pieces of artil- 
 lery, with orders to make a forced march to Spring- 
 field, he being at Houston, eighty miles distant. On 
 the morning of the nth of January, 1863, they hav- 
 ing come across a body of rebels, found them ad- 
 vancing in heavy force. Colonel Merrill immedi- 
 ately made disposition for battle, and brisk firing 
 was kept up for an hour, when the enemy fell back. 
 Colonel Merrill now moved in the direction of Harts- 
 ville, where he found the rebels in force under Mar- 
 maduke, and from six to eight thousand strong, with 
 six pieces of artillery, while Colonel Merrill had but 
 eight hundred men and two pieces of artillery. This 
 was the first time the 21st had been under fire, and 
 considering the number engaged was one of the 
 most remarkable engagements of the war. Says 
 Lieutenant Colonel Dunlap in his report, " I make 
 mention of no one as having distinguished himself 
 above another. Every man was brave, cool, active 
 and a hero. Too much praise cannot be accorded 
 them." In this engagement the rebels lost several 
 officers and not less than three hundred men in 
 killed and wounded. The Union loss was seven 
 killed and sixty-four wounded, five captured and 
 two missing. The conduct of the officers and men 
 engaged elicited the highest praise of General War- 
 ren. The regiment performed severe marches and 
 suffered much in sickness during the winter. At the 
 proper time it moved to take part in the campaign 
 of Vicksburg. It is sufficient here to say that it was 
 assigned to the thirteenth corps. General John A. 
 McClernand; that it fought gallantly at the battle 
 of Port Gibson ; that while the impetuous charge of 
 Black River Bridge was being made Colonel Merrill 
 was severely, and reported fatally, wounded. The. 
 battle of Black River Bridge, the last of the series 
 of engagements during the campaign of Vicksburg 
 in which the rebels fought without their fortifica- 
 tions, was a short but bloody combat of the 17th of 
 May. The rebels were posted in a strong position. 
 The west bank of the river here consists of bluffs 
 rising abruptly from the water's edge. On the east 
 
 side there is an open bottom surrounded by a deep 
 bayou. Following the bayou was a strong line of 
 defenses, consisting of a series of works for artillery 
 and breastworks. The bayou served admirably as a 
 ditch. In rear of the principal line of works was 
 another line, shorter but strong, and both extend- 
 ed in something like semi-circular shape from the 
 river above the bridge, which gives the battle its 
 name, to the river below. The works were well de- 
 fended by artillery and infantry. McClernand was or- 
 dered to take them. Lawler's brigade, in which was 
 Colonel Merrill's regiment, was ordered to make the 
 charge. It did so with the greatest gallantry. The 
 rebels were driven from their works in a very short 
 time, leaving eighteen guns, fifteen hundred prison- 
 ers, and many of their dead in the Union hands. 
 The charge had hardly occupied more time than it 
 takes to tell of it. But along its track the ground 
 was covered with the dead and the dying. The 
 victims on the Union side, most of whom belonged 
 to the 2ist and 23d Iowa regiments. Colonel Kins- 
 man of the latter command being slain, numbered 
 three hundred and seventy-three. While Colonel 
 Merrill was leading his regiment in this deadly 
 charge he received an almost fatal wound through 
 the hips. This brought his military career to a close. 
 Suffering from his wounds, he resigned his commis- 
 sion and returned to McGregor, but was unable to 
 attend to his private affairs for many months, and is 
 still, at times, a sufferer from his " tokens of remem- 
 brance," received on the battlefields of freedom. 
 
 During the gubernatorial career of Governor Mer- 
 rill, extending through two terms, from January, 
 1868, to January, 1872, he was actively engaged in 
 the discharge of his official duties, and probably no 
 incumbent of that office ever devoted himself more 
 earnestly to the public good. 
 
 The thirteenth general assembly had provided for 
 the building of a new state house, to cost one mill- 
 ion five hundred thousand dollars, and made an ap- 
 propriation therefor of one hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand dollars; with this sum the work was begun, and 
 on the 23d of November, 187 1, the corner stone was 
 laid in the presence of citizens from all parts of the 
 state. On this occasion the governor delivered the 
 address. It was a historical review of the incidents 
 culminating in the labors of the day. It was re- 
 plete with historical facts ; showed patient research ; 
 was logical and argumentative, and at times elo- 
 quent. It is a paper worthy the occasion, and does 
 justice to the head and heart that conceived it. 
 
i6 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Thus briefly has been reviewed the leading fea- 
 tures in the record of a busy life, and there can be 
 no more fitting conclusion than the closing words of 
 his last public message, on the eve of surrendering 
 the robes of office to his chosen successor. He says : 
 
 I cannot close this my last message without expressing 
 to the people of Iowa my grateful acknowledgment for the 
 geiiei-ous confidence they have reposed in me. During the 
 four years of my service to the state I have received from 
 them a support, a sympathy and an encouragement which 
 have greatly aided me in the discharge of my official duties. 
 
 While administering the office of chief magistrate I have 
 been filled with increasing respect for the institutions of the 
 state. No one, so well as he who upon this post of obser- 
 vation has been called to keep constant watch of the whole 
 field, can grasp in thought and feeling the history and 
 growth of our commonwealth. While discharging my 
 
 duty, to be diligent in aiding the development of our state, 
 to labor for the success of our schools and charities, and to 
 temper mercy with justice, it has been my privilege to real- 
 ize the intelligence, justice and humanity of our people. 
 
 In severing my connection with the state government I 
 cannot close this communication without bearing my will- 
 ing testimony to the fidelity, zeal and industry of the vari- 
 ous officers of the state, and those associated with me in the 
 different agencies of the government during my adminis- 
 tration of its affairs. I shall ever carry with me in my re- 
 tirement a grateful remembrance of the friendship and court- 
 esy which have always marked our official relations. 
 
 To have served the state at this time of its greatest pros- 
 perity, and to have been permitted to aid in an official sta- 
 tion in laying the foundations of her future greatness, may 
 justly be regarded as an honor. But there is an honor, too, 
 in being a private citizen of such a state; and as I pass 
 from the one station to the other, permit me to unite with 
 you in dedicating ourselves, our commonwealth and our 
 country anew to freedom and to God. 
 
 GENERAL JAMES B. WEAVER, 
 
 BLOOMFIELD. 
 
 ONE of the most prominent lawyers and politi- 
 cians in southern Iowa, one of the purest- 
 minded men, and best type of a statesman in the 
 state, is James Baird Weaver, a native of Dayton, 
 Ohio. He dates his birth on the 12th of June, 
 1833, his parents being Abram and Susan Imley 
 Weaver. His father, also a native of Ohio, was for 
 ten years clerk of the court in Davis county, Iowa, 
 and for fourteen years clerk of the court in Atchi- 
 son county, Kansas, where he now resides, he being 
 in his seventy-fifth year. 
 
 The Weavers were originally from England ; set- 
 tled in New York, and scattered thence over the 
 country. William Weaver, the grandfather of James 
 B., removed to Ohio when it was a wilderness, and 
 was a judge of one of the courts at an early day. 
 At one time, during the Indian wars, he had com- 
 mand of a fort at the foot of Main street, where the 
 city of Cincinnati now stands. He also participated 
 in the second struggle with England, and had good 
 revolutionary blood in his veins. The mother of 
 James B. belonged to an old and prominent New 
 Jersey family. 
 
 Abram Weaver removed with his family to Cass 
 county, Michigan, in 1835, remaining on a farm there 
 until 1842, when he crossed the Mississippi river, 
 and, after a little delay, settled in Davis county, on 
 the ist of May, 1843, that being the day on which the 
 whites were allowed on the reservation purchased of 
 the Sac and Fox Indians. 
 
 The subject of this memoir farmed until fifteen 
 
 years old ; then moved into town and reaped what 
 educational advantages he could in the rude school- 
 houses of that early day, spending part of his time 
 at this period in carrying at first the weekly and 
 then semi-weekly mail between Bloomfield and Fair- 
 field, his father having the contract on this route. 
 Caleb Baldwin, since a chief justice of Iowa, was 
 then postmaster at Fairfield. 
 
 About 1850 young Weaver concluded he would 
 fit himself for the practice of the law; commenced 
 reading in the office of Hon. Samuel G. McAchran, 
 of Bloomfield, afterward state senator; in a short 
 time entered the store of C. W. Phelps as a sales- 
 man, continuing his legal studies during the leisure 
 time which he could command; in 1853 drove an 
 ox team to California across the plains for a rela- 
 tive ; returned by water in the autumn of the same 
 year ; the following winter clerked for Edwin Man- 
 ning, of Bonaparte, Iowa, Mr. Manning urging him 
 to remain with a promise of increased wages and a 
 future partnership ; but increased love for his con- 
 templated profession induced Mr. Weaver to leave 
 'the store and resume his studies. He connected 
 himself with the Cincinnati Law School in the au- 
 tumn of 1854, and graduated in the April following 
 with the title of LL.B. The next month he opened 
 an office in Bloomfield, and has since been in steady 
 practice, except while in the military service. 
 
 In April, 1861, at the first call of the President for 
 troops, Mr. Weaver enlisted as a private in company 
 G, 2d Iowa Infantry, intending to go into the first 
 
tHE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 17 
 
 regiment, but the company was a little too late in 
 filling. He was immediately elected first lieutenant 
 of the company; served in that position until Oc- 
 tober, 1862, having passed through the battles of 
 Donelson, Shiloh, and the siege of Corinth. The 
 night before the battle of Corinth he received his 
 commission as major of the regiment, an honor un- 
 solicited by him. He entered that sanguinary battle 
 the next morning ; during that day Colonel James 
 Baker was mortally wounded ; the next morning 
 Lieut. -Colonel Mills was mortally wounded, and 
 Major Weaver was left in command of the regiment 
 throughout the engagement. Seven days afterward 
 he was unanimously elected colonel, and was duly 
 commissioned by Governor Kirkwood — a striking 
 example of rapid elevation, rising from lieutenant 
 of a company to colonel of a regiment in one short 
 week. He led the gallant 2d until the expiration of 
 the term of service, on the 27th of May, 1864, when 
 he was mustered out. He never missed a march, a 
 skirmish or a battle, and came the nearest to being 
 hit at Fort Donelson, when a ball passed through 
 the top of his cap, and plowed a furrow through his 
 hair. At the battle of Resaca, Georgia, he led the 
 brigade that crossed the Oostanala, found the ene- 
 my's position there, laid the pontoon bridges under 
 fire, and after crossing the brigade, jumped into the 
 rifle-pits and drove the enemy before him. 
 
 On the 22d of May, 1866, Colonel Weaver was 
 breveted brigadier general " for gallant and merito- 
 rious services,'' the brevet to date from the 13th of 
 March, 1865, the United States senate confirming 
 the well-merited honor. While in the army he never 
 shrank from the most perilous position, and seems 
 to have been always sanguine of success. His power 
 of command, voice, presence and magnetism, made 
 him a very fine officer. 
 
 At a soldiers' reunion, held at Des Moines a few 
 years ago, the members of the glorious old 2d regi- 
 ment met their gallant commander and gave him an 
 enthusiastic greeting. 
 
 In 1 866 General Weaver was elected district at- 
 torney of the second judicial district, and served 
 the full term of four years. In 1867 he was ap- 
 pointed assessor of internal revenue for the first 
 congressional district, and held the office until it was 
 abolished by law. 
 
 In the spring of i86g the Hon. Silas A. Hudson, 
 cousin of General Grant, and then newly appointed 
 minister to Guatemala, Vice-General FitzHenry 
 Warren, undertook to control the patronage of the 
 
 first district of Iowa by reason of his relationship to 
 the President. Mr. Hudson resides at Burlington, 
 Iowa. General Weaver had from nine to twelve as- 
 sistants under him, for whose official conduct he was 
 responsible. They were appointed by the secretary 
 of the treasury on his recommendation. The as- 
 sumption of Mr. Hudson met with a most stunning 
 rebuke, as the following correspondence will show. 
 The correspondence had the widest possible range 
 of publication, being copied into all the leading 
 journals of the country. Upon the matter being 
 made public, Mr. Hudson took his departure for 
 South America, and made no reply. A copy of the 
 correspondence was forwarded by General Weaver 
 to the President through commissioner Delano. Be- 
 low are the letters : 
 
 Hon. T. B. Weaver ; Burlington, Iowa, May lo, 1869. 
 
 My Dear Sir, — On the first day of my arrival in Wash- 
 ington I secured your and Belnap's retention, and the 
 right to supervise such changes of officers as in my best 
 judgment would prove beneficial to the service. I let Mc- 
 Crary know this, and turned over to him that duty for all 
 the counties in this district but Des Moines. I have only 
 ordered one change here so far, wishing to take time to 
 make the others advisedly. You will therefore not make 
 any change here without first consulting myself, and if you 
 have sent forward any name recall it until you see or hear 
 from me. It is ^■ery natural that General Grant should trust 
 this duty to me, and look to me for its proper discharge. 
 Please answer immediately. I am suffering too severely 
 with neuralgia and rheumatism to be able to write more at 
 this time. Very truly yours, Silas A. Hudson. 
 
 Hon. Silas A. Hudson: Bloomfield, June 8, 1869. 
 
 Sir: — Your letter of the 2,i;th ultimo is received. The 
 appointment you ask will not be made. Your insolent and 
 dictatorial letter of the loth has been laid before the Presi- 
 dent and the commission. I consider it a gross insult to 
 myself and a libel upon General Grant, whom you affect to 
 be able to control because of your consanguinity. I scorn 
 your pretended influence, and regard your attempt to con- 
 trol my office 'as an effort to involve me in dishonor. 
 
 ^ ^''"' ^'''' J- B. Weaver, Assessor. 
 
 General Weaver, as a lawyer, is strongest on con- 
 stitutional questions or those involving great results. 
 He has the power of grasping the main issues in a 
 case and concentrating his whole power upon them. 
 His clear distinctions of right and wrong, and his 
 deep sympathy for the injured or suffering, make 
 him especially powerful with both courts and juries 
 in pleading causes where he believes his client is be- 
 ing oppressed or his liberty unjustly assailed. A 
 question involving mere dollars and cents fails to 
 arouse him like one involving human rights. Dur- 
 ing his term as district attorney he prosecuted sev- 
 eral of the most important criminal cases ever tried 
 in the district, and his speeches in those cases are 
 remembered by all who heard them as brilliant and 
 
i8 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 overpowering. His antagonists always feared when 
 he spoke last to the jury. His power of repartee is 
 extraordinary, and it is dangerous to insolently in- 
 terrupt him. The audience never thins out while 
 he is speaking, but those who come within the sound 
 of his magnetic voice usually listen to him till the 
 close. 
 
 General Weaver was a democrat until 1856 ; sub- 
 sequently was a republican for twenty-one years, and 
 is now a member of the national party. He is an 
 eloquent man on the stump as well as at the bar, 
 and a brilliant canvasser. 
 
 He was a candidate for governor, against his 
 wishes, in 1875, and distanced all the candidates in 
 the convention until a combination was formed on 
 Governor Kirkwood, a candidate suddenly sprung 
 upon the convention. A year earlier his name was 
 before the convention for congressional honors, and 
 he came within one vote of being nominated, his 
 defeat being caused by the delegates of one county 
 
 changing their votes against instruction, and in or- 
 der to support a man of their own county. 
 
 General Weaver is a Knight Templar in the Ma- 
 sonic fraternity, also an Odd-Fellow, a valiant worker 
 in the temperance cause, and an official member of 
 the Methodist Episcopal church. He was a lay 
 delegate to the general conference which met in 
 Baltimore in 1876, and is recognized by everybody 
 who knows him as a conscientious man and a sin- 
 cere and devoted christian. 
 
 General Weaver has a wife and seven children, 
 five girls and two boys, his wife being formerly Miss 
 Clara Vinson, of Keosauqua, Iowa. They were mar- 
 ried on the i2th of July, 1858. They lost their 
 third child. Their eldest daughter is an accom- 
 plished young lady, and their eldest son is a promis- 
 ing lad of sixteen. Mrs. Weaver is a woman of 
 more than ordinary talent and culture, and one of 
 the leaders of the state in the woman's foreign mis- 
 sionary work. 
 
 CHARLES ALDRICH, 
 
 WEBSTER CITY. 
 
 THE subject of this notice was born on the 2d 
 of October, 1828, in the town of Ellington, 
 Chautauqua county, New York. He was the eldest 
 son of Stephen and Eliza Aldrich, who settled in 
 Chautauqua county in 1826. The ancestors of Ste- 
 phen Aldrich lived for many years in Smithfield, 
 Rhode Island, and afterward in Yates county, New 
 York, where his (Stephen's) father and mother died. 
 Charles received only such an education as could 
 be obtained before he was sixteen years of age in 
 the district school, and one year at the Jamestown 
 Academy. While pursuing his academical studies, 
 he met with an accident, a slight wound in the knee, 
 which brought on an illness so dangerous as to 
 threaten his life, and so prolonged as to compel him 
 to abandon his studies. From the effects of this 
 difficulty he never fully recovered. 
 
 While at the common school, the branches of edu- 
 cation, pursued by him were those usually taught 
 there, and while at the academy he studied algebra, 
 geometry, chemistry, philosophy, and gave a brief 
 time to the Latin. 
 
 He commenced the study of the law with Hon. 
 William Pitt Angel, of Ellicottsville, Cattaraugus 
 county, but the study of this profession he was com- 
 
 pelled to abandon, after a few months, on account 
 of impaired health. In June, 1846, he engaged with 
 Messrs. Clement and Faxon, of Buffalo, Nev^ York, 
 in the office of the "Western Literary Messenger," 
 to learn the trade of a printer, and having gained a 
 good knowledge of this vocation; worked at it in the 
 villages of Attica and Warsaw, New York, and War- 
 ren, Pennsylvania. In June, 1850, he established a 
 weekly paper, entitled the "Cattaraugus Sachem," at 
 Randolph, New York, and continued its publication 
 one year. Thence he removed to Olean, in the same 
 county, and established the " Olean Journal," and 
 conducted it between four and five years, when he 
 retired to his farm in Little Valley. 
 
 In May, T857, he removed to Webster City, Hamil- 
 ton county, Iowa, and started a weekly republican 
 journal under the title of the " Hamilton Freeman," 
 now one of the oldest newspapers in the state. The 
 village in which he commenced this enterprise con- 
 tained only about three hundred persons, the county 
 but fifteen hundred, and the whole state north and 
 west of that point was even more sparsely populated. 
 It was a venture calculated to discourage ordinary 
 editors and publishers, but Mr. Aldrich had volun- 
 tarily sought this field, with a full knowledge of the 
 
^''9^ijmB.S^lltS^„jrSS^=-UjSz2^, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 21 
 
 privations and hard work incident to a frontier life, 
 and his energy rose with all the demands which were 
 made upon it. This field of labor afforded a good 
 chance for any one disposed to "grow up with the 
 country," though it could hardly have presented 
 much of a prospect for immediate newspaper patron- 
 age. The county was only just organized, and the 
 official patronage was very meagre, while the mer- 
 chants and other advertisers in town were few in 
 number and possessed of but small means. During 
 the first year of the publication of his paper he had 
 no other assistance than that of an apprentice; but 
 his journal was always "on time" on publication 
 day, and soon attracted the attention of leading pol- 
 iticians all over the state. It was recognized as a 
 newsy, sprightly, able republican advocate. Its edi- 
 tor rapidly worked his way up among the leaders of 
 radical republicanism in northwestern Iowa. The 
 " Freeman '' was never dull ; it bristled all over with 
 sharp paragraphs, keen, incisive hits, and pungent 
 items. In those times Fort Dodge, a neighboring 
 town, was the headquarters of democracy for north- 
 western Iowa. Among its citizens were some of the 
 ablest politicians in the state, as, for instance, John 
 F. Duncombe, John M. Stockdale, A. S. White (the 
 latter " a born journalist," who sank into an early 
 grave several years ago), and Major William Will- 
 iams, all of whose names will go into the history of 
 those early days. These gentlemen controlled the 
 United States land office, wielded the federal patron- 
 age, and conducted the Fort Dodge "Sentinel," the 
 democratic organ for that section of the state. Some 
 of the fiercest political contests ever fought in Iowa 
 were waged by these strong men to sustain the wan- 
 ing fortunes of the democratic party in the north- 
 west from the vigorous assaults that were led against 
 it by C. C. Carpenter, long afterward elected gov- 
 ernor, Charles Aldrich and C. B. Richards, the re- 
 publican leaders in that section. In these political 
 conflicts the republican cause was so ably main- 
 tained by the eloquence of Carpenter on the stump, 
 by Aldrich with his wide-awake and vigilant " Free- 
 man," and Richards, as organizer and counsel, that 
 the trio soon became famous throughout the state. 
 It is within the bounds of moderation to say that no 
 paper was quoted more frequently by the state press 
 and leading politicians than the "Hamilton Free- 
 man" while conducted by Mr. Aldrich. He called 
 the first republican convention ever held in Hamilton 
 county, and was chairman of the republican county 
 committee for two yeg.rs. 
 
 During the first candidacy of Governor Grimes 
 for the United States senate, in the summer of 1857, 
 a powerful effort was made to defeat him by urgent 
 appeals to the jealousy of the north half of the state. 
 The claims of northern Iowa for recognition were 
 never so persistently dwelt upon, and it was sought 
 by the opponents of Governor Grimes to unite the 
 press north of the center of the state in a solid array 
 against him. In this campaign " The Freeman " 
 warmly supported Mr. Grimes, on account of his al- 
 ready distinguished services in the cause of human 
 freedom, as well as his recognized position as one of 
 the ablest men in the west. This course brought 
 down upon the new frontier paper the animadver- 
 sions of quite a number of northern journalists, but 
 Mr. Aldrich has always been proud of the company 
 he found himself in during his first year in Iowa. 
 
 He published his paper until September, 1862, 
 when he locked up his office and entered the mili- 
 tary service as adjutant of the 32d Iowa Infantry. 
 Serving in this capacity about a year and a half, he 
 resigned and returned to Iowa, and was soon after 
 preparing to reenter the service as major of the loth 
 Cavalry, when orders came discontinuing the organ- 
 ization of that regiment. Subsequently he was ten- 
 dered an appointment on the staff of General M. M. 
 Crocker, when that officer was about to proceed to 
 Arizona, but was compelled to decline on account of 
 private business affairs. In 1865 he was for a short 
 time editor of the " Dubuque Daily Times," and in 
 1866 purchased and for about three years conducted 
 the " Marshall County Times." During his ownership 
 of that journal, no weekly newspaper in the state 
 excelled it in rapid increase of circulation, influence 
 or prosperity, and he only retired from it' on account 
 of impaired health, the result of severe labor. He 
 resided in Marshalltown till 1871, and in the au- 
 tumn of that year removed to his farm on the banks 
 of Boone river, one and a half miles from Webster 
 City, where he now resides. Since leaving the 
 " Marshall Times " he has been connected for brief 
 periods with the " Waterloo Courier," " Council 
 Bluffs Nonpareil," and "Chicago Inter-Ocean." 
 
 During the periods herein specified, in addition to 
 the editorial and military services rendered by him, 
 he was chosen to and discharged the duties of several 
 important civil trusts. In i860 he was elected chief 
 clerk of the Iowa house of representatives, and re- 
 elected in 1862, 1866 and 1870, thus having held 
 that position eight years, as well as the next highest 
 clerkship of the same body one year, chosen except 
 
22 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 on a single occasion by acclamation — a manifesta- 
 tion of party confidence rarely accorded in the his- 
 tory of the Iowa legislature. It is a fact well known 
 to scores of legislators that during those years no 
 member of the general assembly originated so many 
 salutary, progressive and humane acts now on our 
 statute books as the ever-active and vigilant worker 
 who presided at the clerk's desk. 
 
 In January, 1872, he was appointed by Governor 
 Carpenter a member of a commission, under au- 
 thority of an act of the state legislature, to investi- 
 gate and report upon the land titles of sundry set- 
 tlers in the Des Moines valley, who were being 
 driven from their homes by reason of adverse de- 
 cisions of the supreme court of the United States. 
 The governor was also empowered to send these 
 commissioners to Washington, instructed to make an 
 effort to secure as far as possible indemnity to the 
 settlers for their losses. Mr. Aldrich was continued 
 in the office at Washington, and in Iowa a portion of 
 the time, until March, 1875. The other commis- 
 sioners, Messrs. John A. Hull and Norman H. Hart, 
 acted with him constantly, during the work at home, 
 and also for a time at Washington. The labors of 
 the commissioners resulted in the passage of a law 
 by congress under which the President appointed a 
 new commission to report the status of these titles 
 as connected strictly with the action of the federal 
 government. Mr. Aldrich was appointed by the 
 President as a member of that commission. Their 
 recommendation for the relief of settlers, in the 
 form of a bill, passed the house of representatives 
 in 1874, but was lost in the senate in 1875. During 
 the latter year he was a member of the United 
 States geological and geographical survey of the ter- 
 ritories under charge of Professor F. V. Hayden, the 
 expedition for that season proceeding to southwest- 
 ern Colorado, and adjacent portions of Utah, New 
 ■ Mexico and Arizona. His published letters descrip- 
 tive of the country through which he passed, and 
 particularly a visit to the cliff builders' houses in 
 the canon of the Rio Mancos and other ruins of an 
 extinct race, formed very important contributions to 
 current scientific literature. 
 
 While Mr. Aldrich was connected with the Iowa 
 press he commenced the agitation of the practica- 
 bility of substituting the supervisor system of town- 
 ship and county government for that of the county 
 judge system, as the latter then existed throughout 
 the state. By his pen, and by his persona! persuasion 
 with legislators, he was instrumental, far more than 
 
 any other influence in the state, in the passage of a 
 law in i860 for the proposed change. Subsequently 
 the law was modified so as to provide for a dimin- 
 ished number of supervisors in each county, but the 
 principle of the system is substantially now as it was 
 established under Mr. A.'s leadership, and has proved 
 an incalculable improvement over the one-man plan 
 of local government, with its almost inevitable accom- 
 paniments of unjust favoritisms and jobberies, and 
 often of peculation. 
 
 Mr. Aldrich, as an editor, also rendered most in- 
 valuable service to his brethren of the Iowa press in 
 the passage of laws calculated to encourage and 
 build up rural newspaper establishments, without 
 detriment to, but in aid of, the rights of all the peo- 
 ple. He was also an early advocate of the idea of 
 giving systematic school instruction to the convicts 
 in our penitentiaries, contributing many elaborate 
 arguments in this behalf to the press of the state, 
 by which the misfortune and to some extent the 
 vice of ignorance might be eliminated from this 
 class of unfortunates. Our present statute for the 
 protection of the harmless classes of birds (section 
 4063 of the code) was drafted and urged by him 
 upon the legislature with such power of entreaty as 
 to secure enactment. This humane measure has at- 
 tracted the attention of naturalists as well as legis- 
 lators in several of the European states as well as 
 our own country. 
 
 One of his most recent labors, and one to which 
 he and his friends recur with especial pride, is his 
 successful effort in behalf of his friend, ex-Surgeon- 
 General William A. Hammond, whose quarrel with 
 Secretary Stanton resulted in his trial by court-mar- 
 tial and dishonorable dismissal from the army in 
 1864. During an acquaintance of several years 
 Mr. Aldrich became thoroughly convinced that Dr. 
 Hammond had been grievously wronged, and that 
 this most severe " continuing sentence " should be 
 annulled and wiped out. But the personal hostility 
 of a few men still in power prevented any special 
 effort until the past winter (1877-8). It was then 
 deemed best to appeal directly to congress for the 
 necessary authority to allow the President to review 
 the case and in his discretion to set aside the find- 
 ings and sentence of the court-martial. At this 
 stage of the proceedings General Hammond selected 
 Mr. Aldrich as his representative and manager in 
 securing the necessary legislation. He therefore went 
 to Washington in December, 1877, where he-remained 
 until the middle of March following, during which 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 23 
 
 time he had the satisfaction of seeing the bill pass 
 both houses of congress, with only one dissenting 
 vote, and duly approved by the President. As these 
 pages are going through the press a board of general 
 officers of the army are reviewing the case, for the 
 more full and complete information of the President, 
 and within a few weeks at farthest Dr. Hammond — 
 who has risen to the very first rank in modern times 
 as a medical author and practitioner, scientist and 
 philanthropist — will without question be relieved 
 from the odium of a most unjust sentence, under 
 which he has patiently bided his time for fourteen 
 years. The measure at first evoked some hostility 
 in the minds of the more devoted friends of the late 
 Secretary Stanton ; others feared to establish a pre- 
 cedent of the kind ; while others still believed that 
 courts-martial' (though generally organized for an 
 express purpose — either to convict or acquit) were 
 infallible and could not err; but as time wore on, 
 and the merits of the case became more fully under- 
 stood, the opposition gradually weakened and finally 
 melted out of sight. 
 
 During the summer and autumn of last year (1877) 
 Mr. Aldrich undertook to bring to the attention of 
 the people and the coming legislature the justice and 
 necessity of the repeal or essential modification of 
 tlie cast-iron railroad law of Iowa, passed in 1874. 
 He believed that the law of Massachusetts, which 
 has been in most successful operation several years, 
 presented the best example for imitation, and he 
 therefore visited that state for the purpose of more 
 fully acquainting himself with its operation. Return- 
 ing, he succeeded in awakening public attention to 
 the subject, so that it underwent general discussion 
 and ventilation, and a law akin in its general features 
 to that of the old Bay State was passed by the legis- 
 lature and is now in operation. 
 
 In later years he has been a frequent and welcome 
 contributor to the columns of some of the most noted 
 metropolitan journals, on the topics of politics, biog- 
 raphy, history and the natural sciences, and in the 
 treatment of them has exhibited varied and compre- 
 hensive intelligence possessed by few men in the 
 country. From an early period in his experience as 
 an editor he commenced the accumulation of a pri- 
 vate library, and has steadily added to it until he 
 possesses a collection of carefully selected volumes 
 rarely found except in public libraries. His love of 
 natural history and other kindred sciences has caused 
 him to seek the retirement of rural life, where com- 
 munion with nature is closer, though his interest in 
 3 
 
 the outside world is by no means abated. As a 
 writer he has wonderful facility and perspicuity in 
 composition. An old journalist, in speaking of Iowa 
 editors, said of him years ago, that he "has first- 
 class capabilities as a western editor. . . . He seems 
 to know intuitively what to say at the right time, 
 and the precise manner of saying it also, in order to 
 accomplish a specific purpose. In this field of jour- 
 nalistic sagacity, so admirable in itself, and so neces- 
 sary to professional success, he is blessed beyond a 
 vast majority, if not all, of his cotemporaries." 
 
 In religious belief, he is liberal. 
 
 Politically, he started out as a free-soil democrat, 
 but since the organization of the republican party 
 he has always acted with it, though in 1872, as a 
 matter of personal choice, he voted for Horace 
 Greeley, while supporting the remainder of the par- 
 ty ticket. 
 
 He was married on the 29th of July, 185 1, at 
 Knowlesville, Orleans county. New York, to Miss 
 Matilda Williams, daughter of Mr. Aaron Williams, 
 a lady whose graces of mind and person, and whose 
 active benevolence and kindly sympathies, have en- 
 deared her to all who enjoy her acquaintance. 
 
 An eminent public man of this state, one of her 
 favored sons, who has known Mr. Aldrich intimately 
 and well for over twenty years, furnishes the writer 
 with sundry memoranda concerning his friend, from 
 which the following sentences are selected, at the 
 risk of a little repetition : 
 
 Although the greater portion of Mr. Aldrich's active 
 business life has been devoted to politics, yet it is doubtful 
 whether, if circumstances had favored the natural bent of 
 his mind, he would not have followed other and more con- 
 genial pursuits. In every element of his character he is a 
 perfect child of nature. His love of the works of Thoreau, 
 and admiration for the character of their author, is an index 
 to the bent of his genius. He, however, possessed an active 
 mind and an ardent temperament, and circumstances of 
 early life throwing him into the newspaper profession, he 
 became a rapid, strong, sagacious writer and successful 
 newspaper manager. That, in this profession, a man with 
 a temperament which, in the exactions of busy hfe, would 
 lead him to write articles for the press and personally be- 
 siege legislators in behalf of a law to protect "our feathered 
 friends," the birds, and in advocacy of night schools and 
 libraries for the inmates of penitentiaries, should become 
 an anti-slavery man and republican was natural and inevi- 
 table. And it was just as natural for such a temperament 
 to do its best work in the heated excitement of the anti- 
 slavery agitation, when the Kansas imbroglio, the early 
 years of the war, and the discussions preceding reconstruc- 
 tion, presented political issues that touched the moral sensi- 
 bilities and moved the sympathies of the heart. When this 
 struggle was ended and political questions became largely 
 material, or simply issues respecting administrative pre- 
 rogatives, nothing was more natural than that a man of 
 Mr. Aldrich's peculiar characteristics should turn to' pur- 
 suits more in accord with the bent of his mind. Having 
 a strong taste for agricultui-al pursuits, he moved to his 
 
24 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 farm near Webster City, where he has since lived. For a 
 few months in 1875 he was enabled to gratify his taste for 
 investigation in the natural sciences by becoming connected 
 with the Ilayden expedition. During his connection with 
 these explorations his letters to the " Chicago Inter-Ocean " 
 and other journals were a mine of practical thought respect- 
 ing the resources of the country he traversed, its inhabi- 
 tants of bygone ages, as well as the roaming tribes that 
 now incumber it, and its animal, vegetable and mineral 
 productions. These letters, with the exhibition of his tastes 
 in his home life on his farm, show that if his early educa- 
 tion had thrown him in the line of natural history he would 
 have excelled in it as discoverer and author, and that he 
 would have stood among leading scientists in his chosen 
 specialty. 
 
 As a writer, his style is smooth, clear and vigorous. He 
 never travels out of his way for ornamentation, and yet he 
 never offends the taste by a harsh or awkward sentence. 
 He is especially happy and graphic in his descriptions of 
 scenery, and in his estimates of men, and he expresses 
 himself with clearness and force upon scientific principles. 
 When editing a country newspaper, its local Colunms were 
 noted for their raciness, and the interest and instruction of 
 every item. 
 
 Socially, Mr. Aldrich is one of the most agreeable and 
 interesting men the writer ever met. His kindly manners 
 and sympathetic voice, in connection with a vast fund of 
 information always at his command, tend to make him a 
 most pleasing conversationist. His knowledge of books, his 
 observations in the line of natural history, his acquaintance 
 
 with men, and especially those of scientific and literary 
 tastes in accord with his own, all afford him topics of inter- 
 esting conversation which he possesses the power to use in 
 a most agreeable manner. 
 
 As a business man, he is prompt, accurate and responsible. 
 Whilst in business he exacts an equivalent for what he gives, 
 no man was ever more careful to give a full equivalent for 
 what he receives. With all his employes, whether appren- 
 tices and compositors, or laborers on the farm, he is not only 
 just but generous. No worthy boy ever worked for Mr. 
 Aldrich who has not been followed in all his subsequent life 
 by the active interest and generous sympathy of his old em- 
 ployer. More than one young man owes the results of 
 successful life to the advice and instruction of Mr. Aldrich 
 while in his employment. 
 
 He is one of the most versatile men the writer ever knew. 
 A majority of men can do one thing well if they apply them- 
 selves to a single purpose; but few men, however, can turn 
 their hands and minds in quick succession to different and 
 widely diversified employments, and succeed in all of them. 
 Mr. Aldrich was a very successful newspaper man. He has 
 never been excelled in his duties as clerk of the house of 
 representatives. When appointed commissioner to represent 
 to congress the condition and hardships of. the river land 
 settlers, although the position required a knowledge of the 
 principles of law and the power to analyze and unravel a 
 vast confusion of facts, he soon mastered the situation. .\nd 
 later, as an agriculturist, he evinces a practical grasp of the 
 subject which will no doubt bring him that reasonable 
 measure of success to which he aspires. 
 
 HON. JOHN F. McJUNKIN, 
 
 WASHINGTON. 
 
 TOHN FERGUSON McJUNKIN, attorney gen- 
 j eral of Iowa, was born in Washington county, 
 Pennsylvania, on the 23d of September, 1830. His 
 parents were John Mcjunkin and Catherine nee Sny- 
 der, the former a native of the north of Ireland and 
 the latter of German origin. His father came from 
 Ireland in his infancy with his parents, who settled 
 in eastern Pennsylvania, where he was brought up 
 to agricultural pursuits, and in 1835 removed with 
 his family to Richland county, Ohio, where he opened 
 a farm in the woods and spent the remainder of his 
 life. He died in 1856 in the seventieth year of his 
 age. He was a quiet, plodding, unostentatious man, 
 rather positive in his character, decided in his con- 
 victions and resolute in carrying them out. He was 
 an old-line abolitionist, an Old School Presbyterian, 
 a man of probity and the sternest integrity. He 
 never had but one lawsuit in his life, and that was 
 quite an event in his history. 
 
 His mother was a meek, mild, gentle and amiable 
 woman, who loved to dwell at home, and who had 
 not a thought with reference to this world that was 
 not centered in her husband and children. Her life 
 was purely unselfish and devoted to others. She 
 
 died in early life, when our subject was but fifteen 
 years of age. 
 
 John F. Mcjunkin was the youngest of a family 
 of eight children, all of whom lived to maturity, and 
 but two of whom, besides our subject, sisters, sur- 
 vive. His eldest brother, Daniel, was a man of some 
 note in Richland county, Ohio, where he held a 
 magistrate's commission for over twenty years. His 
 brother William was a prominent business man in 
 Wyandot county, Ohio, being for many years con- 
 nected with the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago 
 Railroad Company. He died at his home in Nevada, 
 Ohio, in the spring of 1874, leaving surviving him 
 one son, E. W. Mcjunkin, Esq., a prominent mem- 
 ber of the bar of Iowa, now practicing at Sigourney. 
 John F. was raised like the generality of country 
 boys of that day, attending the log school-house a 
 few weeks during winter months and working on 
 the farm in summer. He was a bright, ambitious 
 youth, fond of books and study, and early resolved 
 to obtain an education if within the bounds of his 
 power. In the winter of 1850-51 he taught a com- 
 mon school at twelve dollars a month, and " boarded 
 'round " with the pupils. With the money earned in 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 25 
 
 this way he defrayed the expenses of a five months' 
 tuition at the Hayesville Academy, Ashland county, 
 Ohio. During the winter following, 185 1-2, he taught 
 again, at the rate of sixteen dollars per month, and 
 spent the following summer at the Martinsburg Acad- 
 emy, Knox county, Ohio. The next winter he taught 
 the grammar school in Bucyrus, Ohio, and spent the 
 following summer again at Martinsburg. The winter 
 following he taught a public school in Martinsburg, 
 and recited Latin with a class in the academy, under 
 the direction of the president, Dr. Hervey. He con- 
 tinued in this way until 1856, teaching public schools 
 in winter and attending the academy in summer. In 
 the last named year he was appointed to the chair of 
 mathematics in the institution, which unexpectedly 
 became vacant, and for six months taught a class of 
 seventy-five students in algebra and the higher mathe- 
 matics. In the spring following he returned to Rich- 
 land county, Ohio, and commenced the study of law, 
 receiving books and also some directions from the 
 late Hon. William Johnston, of Mansfield, Ohio. He 
 spent the following winter at the Martinsburg Acad- 
 emy, partly as student and partly as teacher. This 
 ended his academic studies, and in the summer of 
 1858 he entered, as student, the law office of Hon. 
 R. C. Hurd, of Mount Vernon, Ohio, and was ad- 
 mitted to the bar in August of the same year. In 
 the winter of 1859 he removed to Washington, Iowa, 
 where he has since resided and practiced his profes- 
 sion. He soon took a leading position in his western 
 home, and had abundant patronage from the very 
 outset. 
 
 In 1863 he was elected to represent his county in 
 the senate of the state legislature, and served through 
 the tenth and eleventh general assemblies, being 
 chairman of the committee on constitutional amend- 
 ments and of the committee on corporations and 
 elections, and serving on the committee on federal 
 relations, and others, and was one of the most active 
 and useful members of that body. 
 
 Early in the tenth assembly Mr. Mcjunkin had 
 the honor and privilege of introducing the following 
 preamble and resolutions, which deserve to be held 
 in everlasting remembrance, and which should trans- 
 mit his name to posterity in the brightest characters : 
 
 Whereas, The constitution of the United States does not 
 confer on congress the power to abolish and prohibit slavery 
 in the States of the Union ; and 
 
 Whereas, Slavery is incompatible with a republican 
 government, and while it exists in any portion of our coun- 
 try it must endanger her peace and prosperity and retard 
 her progress ; therefore, be it 
 
 Resolved, By the general assembly of the State of Iowa, 
 
 that our representatives in congress be requested, and our 
 senators instructed, to use their utmost endeavors to pro- 
 cure the adoption bj congress of the initiatory measures 
 whereby the constitution of the United States may be so 
 amended as to forever prohibit slavery in the United States, 
 or any portion of the same, and so as to authorize congress, 
 by appropriate legislation, to carry into effect the provisions 
 of such amendments. 
 
 In commenting upon the completed work, of 
 which this wa? the initiatory step, the Washington 
 (Iowa) " Press," in its issue of the 17th of January, 
 1866, employs the following language: 
 
 It will be remembered that our senator, J. F. Mcjunkin, 
 during. the last session of the general assembly, introduced 
 a joint resolution requesting our representatives and in- 
 structing our senators in congress to use their influence for 
 the passage of an amendment to the federal constitution for 
 the entire abolition of slavery. Our general assembly was 
 the first legislative body in the Union which passed such a 
 resolution. . . . Although until now Iowa has had no op- 
 portunity to record its indorsement of this great measure 
 of national justice, the people of the state may pride them- 
 selves in no small degree that their legislature was the first 
 to move in the matter; and the people of Washington 
 county may also feel proud that it was their senator who 
 first proposed this great measure which has made the na- 
 tion free. 
 
 With the close of the eleventh general assembly 
 the legislative services of our subject terminated, 
 he refusing to be again a candidate, to the no small 
 disappointment of his constituents. He did not, 
 however, relinquish his interest in politics and in 
 political questions, as he has stumped the county, 
 and sometimes the surrounding counties, in every 
 political campaign since. 
 
 In 1868 he was tendered in convention the nomi- 
 nation of the judgeship of the sixth judicial district 
 of Iowa, but declined. 
 
 In 1876 he was nominated by the state repub- 
 lican convention for the position of attorney-gen- 
 eral of the state, to which he was elected in the 
 autumn of the same year by a majority of sixty 
 thousand votes. He is now the incumbent of that 
 office. 
 
 For the past sixteen years he has held the posi- 
 tion of attorney for the Rock Island and Pacific 
 Railroad Company, at Washington. He was also 
 the first attorney of the old Mississippi and Mis- 
 souri Railroad Company, which in 1863 was merged 
 into the Rock Island road. 
 
 He is a Mason and an Odd-Fellow, a distin- 
 guished and prominent member of the Old School 
 Presbyterian church, and has been a republican 
 and an abolitionist all his lifetime. 
 
 Mr. Mcjunkin is a gentleman of very fine liter- 
 ary attainments, a superior classical scholar and an 
 elegant and effective public speaker, with pleasant 
 
26 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 and agreeable manners and address, very genial and 
 friendly, and a general favorite among the people 
 of his county and state. In the practice of his 
 profession he is very zealous, as, indeed, he is in 
 everything which he undertakes. As a jury lawyer, 
 he has few, if any, equals in the county or district 
 in which he resides ; while, as a common-law prac- , 
 titioner, he is second to none in the 'state. In short, 
 he has made the law his sole study for the last 
 twenty years, and in criminal practice, being gen- 
 erally employed on the defense, he is without a 
 superior in the valley of the Mississippi, his prac- 
 tice in this department extending not only over his 
 own state, but into several of the states west of Iowa. 
 
 The secret of his success with juries is to be 
 found in the courteous and gentlemanly manner 
 in which he treats the opposing party and the wit- 
 nesses, and impartiality with which he presents his 
 case. 
 
 During his brief experience as attorney-general 
 he has given the utmost satisfaction to the author- 
 ities of the state, bringing to bear upon the ques- 
 tions submitted for his opinion or decision a ripe 
 
 acquaintance with the law and equity governing 
 the same, as well as a close familiarity with prece- 
 dents drawn from former court decisions in analo- 
 gous cases. 
 
 In his business transactions he is peculiarly trans- 
 parent and honorable, and hence has the unlimited 
 confidence of every one with whom he has any in- 
 tercourse. For the last twelve years he has been 
 associated in the practice of law with J. F. Hen- 
 derson, Esq., and during that period there has never 
 been the slightest disagreement or misunderstand- 
 ing between them; and it is the testimony of Mr. 
 Henderson that in all his acquaintance through life 
 he has never met a man possessing more of the true 
 instincts and characteristics of the gentleman than 
 John F. Mcjunker. 
 
 He was married on the 25th of May, 1864, to 
 Miss Eliza Jane, daughter of James M. Boland, Esq., 
 of Martinsburg, Ohio, a lady of refined tastes and 
 domestic habits, whose life is devoted to making 
 home happy and attractive. They have three chil- 
 dren living, Sarah, John Howard and Mary, all being 
 trained for lives of honor and usefulness. 
 
 HON. JOSEPH C. KNAPP, 
 
 KEOSA U^UA. 
 
 AMONG the older lawyers and eminent jurists 
 l\. of Iowa is Joseph Curtis Knapp, who settled 
 here three years before the territory became a state. 
 Through nearly all its history as a commonwealth 
 he has been conspicuous in its politics, as well as its 
 Jurisprudence. His name is thoroughly woven into 
 its annals, in all cases in a highly creditable manner. 
 
 Judge Knapp, a native of the Green Mountain 
 State, and a son of Ebenezer and Irene (Curtis) 
 Knapp, was born on the 27th of June, 1813, in Berlin, 
 Washington county. The Knapps were early settlers 
 in Massachusetts; the Curtises, in Hanover, New 
 Hampshire. Ebenezer Knapp was a farmer, a hard 
 working man himself, and reared his children in 
 habits of industry. 
 
 Joseph received a good academic education in 
 Montpelier; left his native state in 1833; came as 
 far west as Racine, Wisconsin, then a part of Michi- 
 gan territory ; read law at first with Hon. Marshall 
 M. Strong, and afterward with Hon. E. G. Ryan, 
 late chief justice of Wisconsin ; practiced a few years 
 in Racine, and in 1843 pushed westward across the 
 
 Mississippi river, locating permanently at Keosau- 
 qua. Van Buren county, in the southeastern part of 
 the state. He was for nearly a dozen years in the 
 noted firm of Wright, Knapp and Coldwell, his part- 
 ners being George G. Wright, late of the United 
 States senate, and H. C. Coldwell, now judge of the 
 United States district court, of Arkansas. Senator 
 AVright is an uncle, by marriage, of Judge Knapp, 
 and Judge Coldwell is a brother-in-law. It is not 
 often that the three members of a law firm rise to 
 such distinction ; a more conspicuous example, how- 
 ever, was found in Buffalo, New York, many years 
 ago in the firm of Eillmore, Hall and Haven. Mr. 
 Fillmore became President of the United States, Mr. 
 Hall was his postmaster-general, and Mr. Haven 
 went to congress. 
 
 Judge Knapp was appointed prosecuting attorney 
 by Governor Clark, in 1846, and judge of the third 
 judicial district by Governor Hempstead, in 1850. 
 He was appointed by President Pierce United States 
 attorney for the district of Iowa in 1853 ; reappointed 
 by President Buchanan, and held the office eight con- 
 
; y^yyi--€iyh^^^ 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 29 
 
 secutive years. To the office of judge of the second 
 judicial district, which he now holds, he was elected 
 in the autumn of 1874, taking the bench on the ist of 
 January, 1875, the term extending four years. The 
 judge has had long experience ; is very learned in 
 the law ; has a naturally legal mind ; is independent 
 as a jurist, and with his innate knowledge of what the 
 law is or ought to be, his rulings are usually correct 
 and perfectly just. At an early day he was a circuit 
 lawyer in extensive practice, attending the courts in 
 Wapello, Jefferson, Keokuk, Mahaska, Marion, Mon- 
 roe, Davis, Appanoose and other counties. But as 
 his home business increased he gradually abandoned 
 his circuit practice, except in special cases. He made 
 criminal practice, to some extent, a specialty, and in 
 that had great success. His arguments to jurors in 
 defense of persons charged with crime were always 
 eloquent and frequently of tremendous force, but 
 deep pathos more than anything else made his ap- 
 peals to the jury remarkably effective. 
 
 Judge Knapp has always affiliated with the demo- 
 cratic party. He lives in a republican district as 
 well as state, and owes his present position to his 
 superior qualifications as a jurist. He has figured 
 very extensively in the politics of the state, and was 
 the democratic candidate for supreme judge in i86g, 
 and for governor in 187 1, and received the votes of 
 the democratic members of the general asseinbly for 
 United States senator at the session of 1872. 
 
 The judge is a Chapter Mason. He has been 
 a member of the Congregational church for many 
 years, and has never soiled either his good christian 
 name or the ermine. Two years ago the very dis- 
 tinguished honor was conferred upon him of ap- 
 pointing him a member of the commission of five 
 persons, whose duty it is to investigate the charges 
 brought against Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. The 
 committee met in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New 
 York, on the 20th of July, 1876, organized, ascer- 
 tained that no charges had then been brought, and 
 adjourned to meet at the call of the president of 
 the commission. The names of the members are : 
 Nathaniel Shipman, judge of the United States dis- 
 trict court, Connecticut; Judge S. B. Gookin, Indi- 
 ana ; Judge Joseph C. Knapp, Iowa ; Jonathan E. 
 Sargent, New Hampshire, and Hon. A. Finch, Wis- 
 consin. 
 
 On the loth of December, 1849, Miss Sarah A. 
 Benton, of Keosauqua, became the wife of Judge 
 Knapp, and they have three daughters. Keo is the 
 wife of Hobart A. Stoddard, of Little Rock, Arkan- 
 sas ; lo is the wife of Fred. H. Hill, of Attica, Michi- 
 gan, and Hannah Benton is a student in Iowa Col- 
 lege, Grinnell. Mrs. Knapp is an active christian, 
 benevolent in feeling and in deeds ; a woman of es- 
 thetic tastes, and a great admirer and extensive cul- 
 tivator of flowers. Her summer house is a Centen- 
 nial "Floral Hall " in miniature. 
 
 HON. JAMES HARLAN, 
 
 MOUNT PLEASANT. 
 
 JAMES HARLAN, for seventeen years a mem- 
 ber of the United States senate, and one of the 
 oldest statesmen that Iowa has ever sent to that 
 distinguished body, is a native of Clark county, Illi- 
 nois, and was born on the 26th of August, 1820. 
 His parents, Silas and Mary Conley Harlan, were 
 members of the agricultural class. The progenitor 
 of the Harlan family in this country came from Eng- 
 land, and settled in South Carolina, moving thence 
 to Pennsylvania. The maternal grandfather of Sen- 
 ator Harlan was a soldier in the great struggle for 
 American independence. 
 
 Silas Harlan moved with his family to Park coun- 
 ty, Indiana, when the subject of this memoir was 
 three years old, and there the son was reared on a 
 farm and made his home until his twenty-fifth year. 
 
 He received his education at Asbury University, 
 Green Castle, Indiana, then under the presidency 
 of Bishop Simpson, graduating in 1845. He taught 
 more or less during this period, and did other kinds 
 of work to defray expenses. Mr. Harlan came to 
 Iowa and located at Iowa City, where he read law 
 and was admitted to the bar in 1847 or 1848. He 
 practiced there until 1853, when he was elected the 
 first president of the Iowa Wesleyan University, lo- 
 cated at Mount Pleasant. Two years later, in Janu- 
 ary, 1855, he was elected to the United States senate, 
 and consequently resigned the presidency of that in- 
 stitution, his term commencing on the 4th of March 
 1855- 
 
 Mr. Harlan's first speech in the senate was on the 
 admission of Kansas, made on the 27th of March, 
 
30 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 1856. He had prepared it with great care, and it 
 deeply impressed the older members of the senate. 
 He was set down at once as an orator and a power- 
 ful logician. On the 12th of January, 1857, the sen- 
 ate, by a party vote, resolved " that James Harlan 
 is not entitled to his seat as a senator from Iowa." 
 This vote was based on the following facts : The 
 senate and house of representatives of Iowa agreed 
 to go into joint session to elect a senator. After 
 the joint session had met and adjourned from day 
 to day for some time, it was discovered that the 
 whigs were about to be successful, and the demo- 
 cratic senators absented themselves for the purpose 
 of preventing an election. A quorum of the joint 
 session met, however, and a clear majority of both 
 houses elected Mr. Harlan. Two years after, the 
 matter was brought up on the protest of the demo- 
 cratic members of the state senate, and Mr. Harlan 
 ousted. But he repaired immediately to Iowa City, 
 where the legislature was in session. He arrived 
 one day, was reelected the next. He returned to 
 Washington, was resworn, and resumed his seat on 
 the 29th of the month, a triumph worth all it cost. 
 
 Mr. Harlan was reelected to the United States 
 senate in 1861, and resigned on the 15th of May, 
 1865, to take the office of secretary of the interior. 
 Mr. Lincoln had appointed him to this office in 
 March, about a month before the President was as- 
 sassinated, but Mr. Harlan delayed taking his seat 
 in the cabinet until a month after the awful tragedy. 
 There was striking fitness in placing Mr. Harlan at 
 the head of the interior department. His previous 
 position on the committees on public lands, Indian 
 affairs, the agricultural bureau, and the Pacific rail- 
 road, having familiarized him with much of the de- 
 tails of his labor in the cabinet. 
 
 Mr. Harlan was elected to the senate for a third 
 term in January, 1866, and on the rst of September 
 following resigned the portfolio of the interior de- 
 partment. On the 4th of March, 1867, he took his 
 seat in the senate, and faithfully served his constit- 
 uents another full term. 
 
 When Mr. Harlan first went into the senate the 
 democrats had control of the committees, and he 
 held minor positions, being at first on the committee 
 on public lands, and at its bottom. A little later, 
 when the republicans had control, he became chair- 
 man of that committee. Subsequently he was chair- 
 man of the committees on Indian affairs and on the 
 District of Columbia. Of the former committee and 
 the committee on the Pacific railroad he was a mem- 
 
 ber more than three fourths of the time while in 
 congress. 
 
 After he became chairman of the committee on 
 public lands he exerted a powerful, we may say con- 
 trolling, influence in shaping the policy of the gov- 
 ernment in disposing of the public domain in such 
 a manner as to advance the public interests, the 
 interests of frontier settlers, and especially the cause 
 of education. His moulding hand had much to do 
 with modifying the homestead bill, making it a be- 
 neficent measure for the poor settler, without mate- 
 rially injuring the public treasury. 
 
 He did a noble work on the committee on agricul- 
 ture, strongly advocating every measure calculated 
 to develop and advance grand national interests. A 
 report which he prepared on this subject was marked 
 by great painstaking and solid scientific research. 
 Whoever wishes to see the breadth of Mr. Harlan's 
 views, and the range of his knowledge, muBt look 
 over the columns of the - " Congressional Globe ■' 
 while he was in the senate, and notice his inaugu- 
 ration of the proposition for the construction of a 
 ship canal from the northern lakes to the waters 
 of the Mississippi ; his opposition to legislation on 
 the Sabbath ; his introduction of resolutions on 
 fasting and prayer; his propositions for reform in 
 the chaplain service of the army and navy ; in aid 
 of foreign emigration ; the reconstruction of the in- 
 surrectionary states ; the improvement of navigation 
 of lakes and rivers ; the application of meteorolog- 
 ical observations in aid of agriculture to land as 
 well as sea; for the support of scientific explorations 
 and kindred measures; for reform in criminal jus- 
 tice in the District of Columbia and in the territories ; 
 and his remarks on such subjects as the bankrupt 
 bill ; the bill to reorganize the court of claims ; on 
 the bill to indemnify the President ; on the con- 
 scription bill ; on the conditions of release of state 
 prisoners ; on the disqualification of color in carrying 
 the mails ; on the organization of territories ; on 
 amendment to the constitution ; on bill to establish 
 freedmen's bureau ; on inter-continental telegraph ; 
 on the construction of railroads, and on education 
 in the District of Columbia for white and colored 
 children. 
 
 Mr. Harlan was originally a whig, and as such 
 was elected state superintendent of public instruc- 
 tion in April, 1847. The term was for three years, 
 but by some political legerdemain the election was 
 at length declared void, and he was ruled out at the 
 end of one year. He was reelected in 1848, but 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 31 
 
 was counted out because some votes were cast for 
 James Harland, others for James Harlin, and the- 
 democratic secretary of state made out the returns 
 with such a variety of candidates that James Harlan 
 had not a majority over the democratic candidate. 
 
 Mr. Harlan was nominated for governor in 1849, 
 but was not of the age required by the constitution, 
 and the name of James L. Thompson, of Johnson 
 county, was substituted by the whig central com- 
 mittee. 
 
 Mr. Harlan was a member of the so-called peace 
 congress of 1861, being appointed by Governor 
 Kirkwood. 
 
 The wife of Senator Harlan was Miss Ann Eliza 
 Peck, of Maysville, Kentucky. They were married 
 in October, 1845, and of four children whom they 
 have had, only one, Mary E., the wife of Robert T. 
 Lincoln, of Chicago, son of President Lincoln, is 
 living. Two died in early childhood, and William 
 A. at twenty-three years of age. 
 
 JOSEPH KECK, 
 
 WASHINGTON. 
 
 JOSEPH KECK, banker, was born in Hunting- 
 ton county, Pennsylvania, on the 29th of Novem- 
 ber, 1819, and is the son of Andrew Keck and 
 Rebecca nee Rottruck. His grandfather was a na- 
 tive of Bavaria, and migrated to Lehigh county, 
 Pennsylvania, about the year 1737, where he died, 
 and where a considerable settlement of his descend- 
 ants still reside. 
 
 Andrew Keck was a farmer, and removed to Ju- 
 niata county when our subject was but seven years 
 of age, where he lived for many years, and died near 
 Monticello, Indiana, in 1859. His wife, the mother 
 of our subject, was a native of Pennsylvania, of Ger- 
 man ancestry. 
 
 Joseph attended the common subscription schools, 
 taught a few months of each winter by the unlet- 
 tered pedagogue who " boarded 'round " with the 
 pupils, till the age of sixteen, though he can hardly 
 be said to have got beyond the three " R's," but he 
 was a man of wonderful natural gifts, and by the 
 constant study of men and things has attained a fair 
 general information. 
 
 At the age of nineteen years he removed to Dela- 
 ware county, Ohio, where he learned the cabinet- 
 making trade, at which he afterward worked for 
 twelve years, and was one of the best mechanics of 
 the period. In youth and early manhood his one 
 and controlling desire was to be a farmer, to own a 
 good farm, well stocked and thoroughly managed, 
 and with a view to the gratifying of this desire he 
 removed to Washington, Iowa, in 1842, then a town 
 of about two hundred inhabitants. Here he worked 
 at his trade for six months as a journeyman, after 
 which he opened a shop and continued the business 
 for eight years with very considerable success. In 
 
 1849 he purchased an unimproved farm near town, 
 intending to give his attention to the pursuit which 
 had been the dream of his early life, but other and 
 more promising fields of enterprise soon opened to 
 his vision. He had also become the owner of some 
 city lots, which soon increased in value ; several 
 tracts of unimproved land in other parts of the 
 county fell into his possession in trade, and he soon 
 found himself successfully engaged in real-estate 
 transactions which proved remunerative. He con- 
 tinued this business till 1857, but two years pre- 
 viously he had commenced to dispose of his prop- 
 erty and to contract his operations. In the last- 
 named year, previous to the '"panic," by which 1857 
 is painfully remembered by many citizens of our 
 country, he had disposed of his superfluous property 
 and made his collections, a circumstance of the ut- 
 most moment to him financially. In 1859 he be- 
 came the owner of some stock in a branch of the 
 State Bank, then being organized in Washington, 
 and was subsequently elected a director of the same, 
 and some eighteen months afterward, several of the 
 original stockholders withdrawing, Mr. Keck was 
 elected president of the bank, to which position he 
 was reelected each year successively till 1877, when 
 he sold out and retired. Meantime (in 1863) the 
 bank accepted a charter from the national govern- 
 meiit and became the First National Bank of Wash- 
 ington, and has since been one of the best managed 
 and most reliable moneyed institutions in the state. 
 In 1 87 1 he organized the First National Bank of 
 Sigourney, with a capital stock of fifty thousand dol- 
 lars, of which he has since been president. 
 
 He has never been an office-seeker, nor has he 
 had any taste for public positions, but in deference 
 
32 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 to the wishes of his fellow-citizens he has accepted 
 some local offices of trust and responsibility, the 
 duties of which he discharged with scrupulous ex- 
 actness and to the best interest of all concerned. 
 His political views have always been republican, and 
 his time, means and influence were cheerfully given 
 for the benefit of his country in the late rebellion. 
 
 In religious opinion, he prefers the Methodist 
 church, of which he is a regular attendant and a 
 generous supporter, though in this, as in most of his 
 charities, he is his own almoner, always dispensing 
 his bounty with his own hands and seeing it bear 
 fruit under his own eyes. In the same way he in- 
 tends to dispose of his large accumulations during 
 his lifetime. 
 
 Mr. Keck is a most cautious and safe financier. 
 His great success is the result of prudent foresight 
 and painstaking discrimination, together with a life- 
 long habit of spending less than he earned and 
 never going in debt. He is a man of remarkable 
 prescience, and hence all his investments and trans- 
 actions have been profitable. He has never "ground 
 the face of the poor,'' nor taken advantage of the 
 circumstances of those overtaken by disaster to drive 
 
 a close bargain, or obtain any advantage in trade. 
 ■Every enterprise with which he has ever been con- 
 nected has been conducted in an honorable, trans- 
 parent and straightforward manner. 
 
 As a citizen, his neighbors call him "a No. i 
 man." He is temperate, amiable, courteous and 
 gentlemanly in all his ways. As an executive offi- 
 cer, he possesses the highest talents, and would do 
 honor to almost any position in the gift of the peo- 
 ple of his state. In social life, he is mild, unassum- 
 ing and agreeable ; he is a man of eminent good 
 sense, and this characteristic will be found to per- 
 vade his whole mind, character and actions. 
 
 On the 26th of March, 1844, he married Miss 
 Elizabeth Jackson, a native of Pennsylvania, of 
 Scotch origin, a lady in every way the counterpart 
 of her husband. They have five children, all living : 
 Irving Alonzo, Mary Caroline, Viola Isadore, Luella 
 Celicia, and Charles H. Irving A. is cashier of his 
 father's' bank at Sigourney; Mary C. is the wife of 
 W. G. Simmons, of Washington ; Viola I. is the wife 
 of Albert Phelps, of Washington ; Luella C. is the 
 wife of E. F. Crandall, Esq., of Spring Hill; the 
 youngest is still attending school. 
 
 GEORGE L. DAVENPORT, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 WHEN one visits the city of Davenport to-day, 
 and stands a unit in the midst of thronging 
 hundreds, and beholds its wealth and influence, it 
 is difficult for him to realize that all before and 
 around him, including two cities in the vicinity, is 
 the growth of half a century. Intimately associated 
 with the early history and struggles of this enter- 
 prising city, which bears the name of his father, is 
 the one which heads this sketch. 
 
 George L. Davenport, pioneer, merchant, banker 
 and real-estate owner, was born on Rock Island, on 
 the isth of November, 1817, and is eldest son of 
 Colonel George Davenport, being the first white 
 child born in this section of the country. He^was 
 nursed by an Indian maid and his playmates were 
 Indian boys; he therefore learned to talk their 
 language about as soon as he did English. His 
 early education was gained at the school of an in- 
 valid soldier at Fort Armstrong, and at the age of 
 ten he was sent to attend school at Cincinnati, Ohio, 
 where he remained two years, and then returned 
 
 to the island, and was placed in the store of the 
 American Fur Company, of which his father was a 
 member, remaining until this trading-post was given 
 up upon the removal of the Indians, in 1837, to the 
 Des Moines river. During this time he was away to 
 school, part of the time at the Illinois College, at 
 Jacksonville, at the Catholic University at St. Louis, 
 and at the Winchester Academy at Winchester, Vir- 
 ginia. He was at an early age adopted into the Fox 
 tribe, and was called " Mosquake," and was always 
 a great favorite with them. In the fall of 1837 he 
 accompanied by request the Sac and Fox delega- 
 tions of chiefs to Washington, and visited other 
 large cities. They made a treaty with the govern- 
 ment, selling a large tract of land. He also attended 
 the several trea,ties with the Indians with Governor 
 Dodge, then U. S. Commissioner. 
 
 In 1832 he made the first "claim" west of the 
 Mississippi, and built the first frame house in the 
 territory. In the winter of 1837 and 1838 he was 
 actively engaged in trying to secure the location of 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 IZ 
 
 the county seat at Davenport, in which he was suc- 
 cessful. In 1838 he went into the store of Daven- 
 port and Le Claire. In 1839 he married and com- 
 menced business for himself, and continued till 1853, 
 during this time taking an active interest in all 
 public improvements, and contributed largely to ad- 
 vance the growth of the town and county, laying out 
 roads, building bridges, school-houses and churches, 
 and surveying for the improvement of the water- 
 power on the rapids of the Mississippi river for 
 manufacturing purposes. In the fall of 1848 he 
 leased a steam flouring mill with two other mer- 
 chants, for the purpose of breaking the system of 
 bartering grain, they paying cash to the farmers for 
 their wheat. In the spring of 1850, in company 
 with Mr. A. Le Claire, built the first foundry and 
 machine shops, and constructed the first steam- 
 engine, and made the first castings in the city. He 
 sold out in 1855. In 1854 the first gas company in 
 the state was organized, and he was elected presi- 
 dent, and has occupied that position twenty-two 
 years. In the fall of 1857 a branch of the State 
 Bank of Iowa was organized, and he was elected 
 
 president, and continued in that position ten years, 
 and when it was merged into the Davenport Na- 
 tional Bank he was elected president of that institu- 
 tion, remaining for eight years, until the spring of 
 1875, when he resigned, and retired from active 
 business. To the good management of Mr. Daven- 
 port the Davenport National owes much of its suc- 
 cess, which makes it one of the solid institutions of 
 the country. In 187 1 he was elected a director of 
 the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad, and 
 still continues in that position, and has held many 
 other appointments of honor and trust. Mr. Daven- 
 port has done much for the improvement of the city, 
 has built several fine blocks, and is liberal in his en- 
 couragement of enterprise. In every position which in 
 his eventful life he has been called to fill, Mr. Daven- 
 port has been successful in the highest sense. As 
 a business man, he has been upright, reliable and 
 honorable, and in all places and under all circum- 
 stances he is loyal to truth, honor and right, justly 
 valuing his own self-respect and the deserved esteem 
 of his fellow men, as infinitely better than wealth, 
 fame or position. 
 
 HON. ASAHEL W. HUBBARD, 
 SIOUX ciTr. 
 
 THE early settlers in Sioux City, Iowa, were 
 men of foresight as well as energy. The map 
 indicated that this was a very important point, and 
 that here must some day be a city, the size of which 
 would be determined in part by the number of en- 
 terprises centering here. Among these early settlers 
 was Judge Hubbard, a man of great force of char- 
 acter and that kind of industrious nature which, if 
 wisely applied, rarely fails. He located here- when 
 the village of Sioux City was but two years old, and 
 when it had, perhaps, five hundred actual white set- 
 tlers. He has lived to see the number exceed five 
 thousand. He has lived to see six railroads enter 
 the town, and was the chief promoter of these vari- 
 ous enterprises. 
 
 Asahel Wheeler Hubbard was born on the i8th 
 of January, 1819, at Haddam, Middlesex county, 
 Connecticut. His parents were Simeon and Esther 
 Wheeler Hubbard, both of Puritan stock. His fa- 
 ther was a farmer, and the son remained at home 
 until sixteen, working in the summers and attend- 
 ing school during the winters. The first summer 
 + 
 
 he drove a team, hauling stone to the Connecticut 
 river, following it with another winter terra of school 
 in his father's district. The next summer he worked 
 in a stone-quarry seven months at ten dollars jfer 
 month, devoting the money thus earned to attending 
 a select school in Middletown, Connecticut. The 
 summer following he cut stone at sixteen dollars per 
 month, and then, following the same business a few 
 months longer, he received thirty dollars per month 
 and boarded himself 
 
 At nineteen we see him wending his way to Indi- 
 ana as a book agent, locating before the end of the 
 year at Rushville, in that state, teaching school six 
 months, and then entering a law office. 
 
 He was admitted to the bar of the district court 
 of Rush county in January, 1841 ; practiced there 
 for sixteen years and then moved to Sioux City. 
 Here his talents soon made themselves apparent, 
 and his fitness for certain positions made it almost 
 impossible, whatever his own taste and inclination 
 might be, to remain in private life. 
 
 While in Indiana, as early as 1847, Mr. Hubbard 
 
34 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 was elected to the state senate from Rush county, 
 and served three years, declining to be a candidate 
 for reelection. He had been in Iowa only one year 
 before he was elected judge of the fourth judicial 
 district, at that time embracing at least thirty coun- 
 ties in the northwestern portion of the state. He 
 served four years, and was then, in 1862, elected to 
 congress, continuing there for six years. Among 
 the committees on which he served were those on 
 foreign affairs, public expenditures, and Indian af- 
 fairs. Representing a frontier district, living in 
 proximity to the red men, and conversant with their 
 habits and the methods of dealing with them, the 
 placing of him on the last named committee was 
 eminently fitting, and on it he did especially good 
 service. He was very attentive to his duties while 
 in congress, and served his constituents and the 
 state with unqualified satisfaction. Whatever re- 
 sponsibilities he has ever assumed, either as a gov- 
 ernment official or private citizen, he has discharged 
 
 with the utmost faithfulness. He was a whig until 
 the party ceased to exist, and has since been a 
 republican. 
 
 Judge Hubbard attends the Presbyterian church, 
 but is not a communicant. 
 
 On the loth of October, 1849, he married Miss 
 Leah Pugh, of Rushville, Indiana, a near relative of 
 the late Senator Pugh, of Ohio. She had four chil- 
 dren, only one of them, a son, now jiving. He is 
 practicing law in Sioux City. His first wife died in 
 1854. In January, 1862, Judge Hubbard married 
 Miss Leah Swift, of Rushville, the result of the lat- 
 ter marriage being five children, all living but one. 
 
 Judge Hubbard aided in organizing the First Na- 
 tional Bank of Sioux City six years ago, and has 
 been its president since it went into operation. He 
 is still interested in railroads, and in every enter- 
 prise which will increase the prosperity of Sioux 
 City and develop the wealth of the upper Missouri 
 valley. 
 
 HON. DENNIS N. COOLEY, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 AMONG the successful men of Iowa may fairly 
 JTx. be placed the name of Hon. Dennis N. Cooley. 
 The essentials of success, courage, patience, perse- 
 verance, and the prudent use of good common 
 sense, rarely fail in their legitimate result, and suc- 
 cess brings honor in every honest occupation. 
 
 He was born at Lisbon, Grafton county. New 
 Hampshire, on the 7th of November, 1825, and is a 
 descendant from a long-lived family." His grandfa- 
 ther on the paternal side, Aaron Cooley, was a major 
 in the revolutionary war and served with much dis- 
 tinction. He died at the advanced age of ninety-one 
 years. His grandfather Taylor, on his mother's side, 
 was employed in the same war when fourteen years 
 old as wagon boy. He lived in Lisbon, New Hamp- 
 shire, to the age of ninety-seven years. He was one 
 of the few men who voted for Washington and Lin- 
 coln as presidents of the United States. He repre- 
 sented his native town in the legislature for more 
 than twenty years. The death of his father, Hon. 
 Benjamin Cooley, left his mother but a small estate 
 to support and educate a family of eight children, 
 he at that time being two years old. During boy- 
 hood he worked on the farm and attended the com- 
 mon schools during the winters. When fifteen years 
 
 of age he left home, filled with an ambition for a 
 career of honor and usefulness -and relying on his 
 own efforts for a support. 
 
 He entered the Newbury Seminary in Vermont, 
 and by teaching school during recess was enabled 
 to remain and fit himself for college. This he ac- 
 complished, but owing to his limited means he post- 
 poned entering, and taught select schools and in the 
 academy at Londonderry, Vermont, for some time. 
 He did not graduate, but from his literary tastes 
 and professional studies he received the degree of 
 A.M. Reared in boyhood on a farm, he became 
 inured to labor, and, possessed of a rugged constitu- 
 tion, he has enjoyed perfect health and been able to 
 accomplish his successful course. From early boy- 
 hood he had determined to become a lawyer, and 
 to this end all his energies were bent, though in the 
 meantime, from 1847 to 1849, he was partner in a 
 large mercantile house in Vermont, and being very 
 successful acquired the means to pay the expense of 
 his legal education. In 1850 he entered the office 
 of Hon. H. E. Stoughton, and .afterward was one 
 year with Hon. A. Stoddart, and for a year and a 
 half read with the well-known firm of Tracy, Con- 
 verse and Barrett, of Woodstock. While a student 
 
-tEg ^ L-y- R Ji-uasnSOJ-y "J 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHrCAI. DICTIONA-RY. 
 
 37 
 
 with the latter firm he was elected one of the clerks 
 of the house of representatives of the Vermont legis- 
 lature. In 1854 he was admitted by the Hon. Jacob 
 Callamore to practice in the courts of Vermont. In 
 the autumn of the same year he removed to the 
 great west, and located at Dubuque, Iowa. Pre- 
 viously to this he had twice visited Iowa and pur- 
 chased several thousand acres of land, which was 
 the foundation of his now ample fortune. 
 
 Endowed by nature with a strong and acute in- 
 tellect, trained under legal teachers distinguished 
 for ability and enthusiasm, and inspired from his 
 early years with strong ambition, he devoted him- 
 self to his practice as soon as he had completed his 
 professional studies. He has pursued his chosen 
 coifrse with untiring zeal and with a success which 
 has already earned him no inferior rank among the 
 leading lawyers of the land. He practiced success- 
 ively in the firms of Samuels and Cooley ; Samuels, 
 Cooleyand Allison; and Cooley, Blatchley and 
 Adams, until 1864, when he was appointed by Pres- 
 ident Lincoln as commissioner to South Carolina. 
 Here he, with his associates, took possession and 
 sold to the Union soldiers and freedmen the islands 
 and so much of the country as was in our lines, 
 putting over half a million dollars into the treasury 
 of the United States. He acted at the same time as 
 special commissioner to settle titles and the right to 
 possession of the city of Charleston. In July, 1865, 
 he was appointed by President Johnson as commis- 
 sioner of Indian affairs, which office he held until 
 September, 1866, and for political reasons resigned 
 (he not accepting the changing " my policy " of 
 Johnson), it not taking effect until the following 
 November, when he was succeeded by the now 
 Senator Bogy, of Missouri. It must be said, to the 
 credit of Mr. Cooky's administration of Indian 
 affairs, that no word of adverse criticism was ever 
 published against it, and though others were severe- 
 ly criticised by the press, his management was re- 
 ceived with marked approval. In 1864 he was sec- 
 retary of the national republican committee for 
 Lincoln's second campaign, and took entire charge 
 of the " document department " of the campaign, 
 scattering over six millions of documents to the 
 army and country generally on the " war-a-failure " 
 issue. On his resignation of the office of commis- 
 sioner of Indian affairs he gave his undivided atten- 
 tion for four or five years to the practice of law in 
 Washington. While serving as commissioner of 
 South Carolina he gained the confidence of the 
 
 people of that state, and in the litigation of claims 
 which followed he had a large share, and did a very 
 remunerative practice before the court of claims 
 and the United States supreme courts, never, how- 
 ever, taking any case before the departments or 
 congress. In 1862 and 1866 he was a member of 
 the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
 church at Brooklyn and Baltimore, and at the for- 
 mer was one of the secretaries of the conference, 
 and distinguished himself in the active part he took 
 in the affairs of the Book Concern, and was chairman 
 on a committee (of eighty-one) on that subject. 
 
 He was elected president of the First National 
 Bank of Dubuque, and it is due to him perhaps 
 more than to any one else that it is one of the solid 
 institutions of the west. In 1873 he was nominated 
 by the republican party as state senator ; and though 
 the county has an average democratic majority of 
 from fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred, he was 
 elected by four hundred and ninety-nine majoritv, 
 and nineteen hundred and sixty ahead of Governor 
 Carpenter on the state ticket, in his county. This 
 was the only time since his residence of twenty-two 
 years in Dubuque he ever allowed his name to go 
 before the people for any office, and never mingles 
 in local politics. However, in 1874 he was prom- 
 inently spoken of for congress by his party, and re- 
 ceived the highest vote in the convention of any 
 candidate for seventy-five ballots, when Hon. Mr. 
 Granger was nominated and was defeated in the 
 election by Hon. L. L. Ainsworth, the democratic 
 candidate. Mr. Cooley has never been prominent 
 in politics, finding enough in his profession to exert 
 all of his energies and take up all his time. In 1873 
 he was appointed commissioner to the Vienna Ex- 
 position, and spent several months traveling' over 
 the continent, visiting points of interest. He has 
 been a strong advocate of education in the state, 
 and was president of the board of Cornell College, 
 Iowa, for several years, making it a munificent gift 
 of ten thousand dollars and endowing a chair in the 
 institution. He has given more for the encourage- 
 ment of education than any other man in the state. 
 
 Mr. Cooley has high and rare literary attainments, 
 and is one of the most generous of men. He is 
 called upon as often as any man in the state to de- 
 liver addresses, lectures, etc., for benevolent pur- 
 poses. Though the receipts at times are very large, 
 he never would accept any compensation for his 
 labors, and often added generously to the object of 
 the lecture. 
 
38 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTION AR 
 
 He was married in September, 1850, to Miss Clara 
 Aldrich, a lady of high attainments. 
 
 Mr. Cooley takes great interest in the forward- 
 ing of agricultural pursuits, and has a large, well- 
 stocked farm a little distance from Dubuque. He 
 was elected president of the Northwestern Agricul- 
 
 tural and Mechanical Association, which office he 
 still holds. He has, by industry and perseverance, 
 built up a large business, has become wealthy, and 
 is distinguished throughout the country. He is in 
 the prime of life, is a pleasant and genial gentleman, 
 and has a host of friends. 
 
 HON. JAMES GRANT, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 JAMES GRANT was born on a plantation near 
 the village of Enfield, Halifax county, North 
 Carolina, on the 12th of December, 1812. His 
 father, James Grant, was the son of James Grant, 
 descended from the Highland clan of Grants, who 
 fought for the Pretender, at Culloden, and was trans- 
 ported for the good of King George II, with fifteen 
 hundred others of like rebellious proclivities, to the 
 colony of North Carolina. His mother, Elizabeth 
 Whitaker (Grant), was the daughter of Mat. C. Whit- 
 aker, Esq., of Halifax county. North Carolina, who 
 immigrated from Warwick county, Virginia, and was 
 a lineal descendant of the Rev. Alexander Whitaker, 
 who was one of the first Virginia colonists and who 
 baptized Pocahontas. The Whitaker family, now 
 very numerous in North Carolina, numbers among 
 its members the Hon. Mat. Whitaker Ransom, 
 United States senator from that state, and a cousin 
 pf our subject. 
 
 His father was a man of large body, six feet high, 
 bony and muscular. He was born to affluence, but 
 was left an orphan in his infancy. Like most south- 
 ern young men, he was not inured to labor, and 
 without parents to guide, and possessed of abun- 
 dance, he studied no profession, followed the busi- 
 ness of a planter and lost his estate in unfortunate 
 speculations before our subject was twelve years 
 old. The latter years of his life were devoted to the 
 public service, and at the time of his death he was 
 comptroller of the State of North Carolina. 
 
 Judge Grant was the second of a family of eight 
 children ; was raised on the patrimonial plantation ; 
 commenced going to school at the age of eight 
 years, having been previously taught the alphabet 
 by his mother. He was precocious; in ten months 
 he could spell every word in Walker's dictionary. 
 It was no trouble to him to learn, no matter what 
 the study. He would occupy no place in his class 
 but the first, and when his lessons were learned no 
 
 boy was more ready for play. He was never truant 
 from school or from any duty, but always wanted 
 his own way. 
 
 At thiiteen he was prepared for college, but in 
 deference to the advice of the venerable president 
 of the institution, who had taught his father, his 
 entrance was postponed for two years. In 1828 he 
 entered the sophomore class of Chapel-Hill Univer- 
 sity, having for class-mates, among others, J. D. 
 Hooper, Thomas Owen, Allen and Calvin Jones, 
 Jacob Thompson, secretary of the interior under 
 President Buchanan, and James M. Williamson, 
 now of Memphis, Tennessee. Grant was taken sick 
 in his senior year, but graduated with a class of thir- 
 teen others in 1831, while still lender eighteen years. 
 ' After leaving college he taught school three years 
 at Raleigh, and emigrated to the west at the age of 
 twenty-one, being governed in this move partly by 
 his aversion to the institution of slavery. 
 
 He read law with William H. Haywood, of 
 Raleigh, North Carolina, who was at one time a 
 senator from that state. In 1834 he removed to 
 Chicago, Illinois, then a village of five hundred 
 inhabitants, where he commenced the practice of , 
 his chosen profession. Shortly after his debiit at 
 the bar, a iist-fight about his first client brought him 
 into notice, and he soon acquired reputation as an 
 advocate. In the same year Governor Joseph Dun- 
 can appointed him prosecuting attorney for the sixth 
 district of Illinois, comprising all the northern part 
 of the state from Chicago to Galena, to Rock Island, 
 Peoria, Hennepin, La Salle and Iroquois. He trav- 
 eled this circuit on horseback, and rode about three 
 thousand miles a year. In June, 1836, he resigned 
 this office, finding that it interfered with his home 
 business. He remained in Chicago till 1838, when 
 it became apparent that the lake winds were detri- 
 mental to his health, and he removed to the then 
 territory of Wisconsin, selecting Davenport, in Scott 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 39 
 
 county, as his future home. In the same year con- 
 gress created the territory of Iowa. For some time 
 after his removal to the west side of the great river 
 he lived on a farm near Davenport, and felt disposed 
 to give up his practice. In 1841 he was elected a 
 member of the house of representatives of the fourth 
 territorial assembly of Iowa, to represent the dis- 
 trict composed of Scott and Clinton counties, his 
 colleague being Joseph M. Robertson. In 1844 the 
 people of Scott county "elected him to represent them 
 in the first constitutional convention, his colleagues 
 being Andrew W. Campbell and Ebenezer Cook ; 
 and in 1846 he was again sent by the people of 
 Scott county as their sole representative to the sec- 
 ond constitutional convention, and in both sessions 
 he drew up the bill of rights. Although a democrat 
 in politics, he was nominated by the territorial gov- 
 ernor Chambers, a whig, as prosecuting attorney in 
 his district, and was confirmed by the council. 
 
 After the adoption of the constitution framed in 
 1847, under which Iowa was admitted to the Union, 
 our subject was elected judge of the district com- 
 posed of the counties of Allamakee, Blackhawk, 
 Bremer, Butler, Buchanan, Cedar, Clayton, Dela- 
 ware, Dubuque, Fayette, Grundy, Jackson, Musca- 
 tine, Scott and Winnesheik, and held the office 
 during the term of five years, declining reelection. 
 In 185 1 Judge Grant gave life and vigor to the pro- 
 ject of the Chicago and Rock Island railroad; was 
 its first president and made a contract with Messrs. 
 Sheffield and Farnham to build it. In 1852 he was 
 again a member of the legislature from Scott county, 
 and was elected speaker of the house. Since that 
 time he has kept aloof from office. During the in- 
 tervening period he has been the head of one of the 
 largest and most successful law firms of the north- 
 west. From a statement recently made by Hon. John 
 F. Dillon, judge of the United States circuit court, 
 regarding Judge Grant's judicial and professional 
 career in Iowa, we make the following extracts : 
 
 Judge Grant's life has been given essentially to the law. 
 All outside of this has been merely accidental. His polit- 
 ical career and his public services, except those upon the 
 bench, are mere episodes in his life. Although he has kept 
 alive his classical attainments in a degree quite unusual 
 among men who have become eminent in the law, his main 
 energies and his chief studies have been in the line of his 
 profession. Early in life he discovered the advantages to 
 be derived from the possession of law books, which are the 
 most effective implements in a lawyer's vocation, and he is 
 the owner of perhaps the most complete and valuable pri- 
 vate law library in the west, if not in the United States. 
 It is supposed to exceed in value the sum of $30,000. . . . 
 To every lawyer and to every judge his library doors stand 
 always wide open. In illustration of his public sjlirit it is 
 but proper to refer here to a fact well known in Iowa. 
 
 When the legislature required a term of the supreme court 
 of the stale to be held semi annually in Davenport, it was 
 made a condition that it should be without cost to the state, 
 a species of economy, by the way, which has nothing to 
 recommend it; the better to accommodate the court and 
 the bar, Judge Grant fitted up a room for the use of the 
 court above his library and set it apart for them for several 
 vears, neither receiving nor expecting compensation. He 
 combines the essential qualities of a successful lawyer, first 
 among which I place integrity, without which no man can 
 be a great lawyer, nor for any considerable length of time 
 a successful one. He is incapable of conscientiously mis- 
 stating to a court a fact or the effect of a decision, or # con- 
 cealing an adverse decision. He has the zeal and courage 
 necessary to great success at the bar. In addition to this, 
 nature has gifted him with most felicitous powers of ex- 
 pression. In the use of strong, vigorous, pure English, it 
 is rare, indeed, to find one who equals him. I have heard 
 him make a law argument, of an hour's length, without hesi- 
 tating for a word, or without employing a superfluous word. 
 Every sentence was short, clearly cut and finely chiseled — 
 in its way a work of art that I have often admired. 
 
 He i.s a man of strong and tender emotions, and occasion- 
 ally when the subject is of such a nature as to elicit his 
 feelings, he is eloquent in the highest sense of the term. 
 This characteristic was especially manifest in his impromptu 
 eulogy on the lamented Stockton, pronounced at a meeting 
 of the bar of Scott county, and in his remarks on the death 
 of the late chief justice of the United States, in the circuit 
 court, at Des Moines, which will never be forgotten b3' any 
 who heard t*iem. 
 
 He has a practical sagacity, so marked as justly to entitle 
 it to the name of genius. It was this quality which enabled 
 him so early to discern that the tide of municipal railway- 
 aidbond litigation taken at the flood would lead on to for- 
 tune and to fame. He fought that battle for years. Every 
 inch of ground was hotly contested. The state courts were 
 against his views. The lower federal courts were likewise 
 against him, but in general he was sustained by the supreme 
 court of the United States; but he had to carry his points, 
 one by one, and the contest ext?nded through manv years. 
 Whatever may be thought of the legal merits of the con- 
 troversy in its varied phases, all agree that forjudge Grant 
 it was a splendid professional victory, one which has justly 
 given him great distinction, and a satisfaction which is not 
 diminished by the more substantial rewards with which it 
 has been attended. 
 
 Added to the accomplishments thus enumerated. 
 Judge Grant is a fine classical scholar, possessing a 
 memory which enables him to retain, not only his 
 early, but his later studies, and to utilize his learn- 
 ing with the best effect. 
 
 Few men have a better practical knowledge of 
 mechanics and agriculture, or acquaintance with the 
 wonderful achievements of modern science than he. 
 If his professional life had been cast in sorne of the 
 older states or larger cities his tastes would probably 
 have led him to make the laws of patents a special 
 study, and he would have become eminent to a 
 remarkable degree in that department. 
 
 The judge has been three times married. On the 
 8th of July, 1839, he married his first wife, Sarah E. 
 Hubbard, who was born within sound of the waves 
 of Plymouth Rock, of Puritan ancestry. She gave 
 birth to a daughter, who died in 1841 ; the mother 
 followed her to the grave in June, 1842. In Janu- 
 
40 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAR. 
 
 ary, 1844, he was married to Ada C. Hubbard, who 
 had immigrated from Windsor, Vermont, to Scott 
 county, Iowa; she died in June, 1846, leaving an 
 infant daughter, who survived her mother one year. 
 On the loth of June, 1848, he was married to his 
 present wife, Elizabeth Brown Leonard, who was 
 born on the 21st of December, 1825, in the town of 
 Griswold, New London county, Connecticut. Her 
 parAts were James and Betsy K. (Brown) Leonard, 
 who immigrated to Iowa in the autumn of 1 838, being 
 eight weeks in making the journey, and crossing the 
 " father of waters " on a bridge of ice on the 12th of 
 December. Her father was subsequently a member 
 of the Iowa legislature, and died suddenly in 1845, 
 while serving in that capacity. Mrs. Grant is a lady 
 of rare personal beauty and of high intellectual 
 attainments. Judge Grant and his wife are childless, 
 but they have for many years devoted much of their 
 time and fortune to the care and education of chil- 
 dren of their relatives, having had as many as seven- 
 teen under their control and management, and are 
 prouder of them than many parents. They have 
 thus made to society good returns for the large 
 estate which their industry and prudence have 
 accumulated during a life of activity and usefulness. 
 On the loth of June, 1873, the judge and Mrs. 
 Grant celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of 
 their marriage, their "silver wedding." The occa- 
 sion was made memorable by one of the most sump- 
 tuous entertainments and most gorgeous display of 
 wealth and fashion which the city of Davenport had 
 previously witnessed. Not only were the 61ite of .the 
 locality present, including the Scott county bar and 
 the judges of the United States courts, but the 
 
 " aristocracy " from the surrounding county and 
 adjacent states, and also a large contingent from the 
 judge's native state, including several of his college 
 classmates. A prominent feature of the ceremonies, 
 which consisted largely of speeches and congratula- 
 tions, was an address from the Scott county bar, 
 accompanied by a massive silver set. The follow- 
 ing is the address : 
 
 Davenport, June lo, 1873. 
 Hon. James Grant, — Dear Sir: Your brethren of the 
 Scott county bar, uniting with your many other friends in 
 the congratulations appropriate to this occasion, avail them- 
 selves of the opportunity it affords to ask your abceptance 
 of a slight testimonial of their warm regard and esteem for 
 you, and of their appreciation of the many kindnesses and 
 courtesies which you, so many years their senior at the bar, 
 have constantly extended to your junior brethren. They 
 can hope for nothing more than that this little tribute, 
 viewed as a sincere expression of the kind feelings of your 
 brothers in the profession, may afford you the same pleas- 
 ure in its reception as they feel in offering it. 
 
 That you and your amiable and excellent wife may enjoy 
 together many, more years of happiness, is the sincere wish 
 of your friends and brothers. 
 
 C. E. Putnam, H. R. Claussen, 
 
 Jno. N. Rogers, Wm. T. Dittoe, 
 
 Abner Davison, IP""* *-"■ ^'^^s, 
 
 Geo. E. Hubbell, D. H. Twomey, 
 
 S. E. Brown, James T. Lane, ■ 
 
 John Acklev, J. D. Campbell, 
 
 John W. Thompson, J. W. Stewart, 
 J. H. Murphy, J. W. Green, 
 
 E. E. Cook, John N. Crawford, 
 
 J. Scott Richman, Joseph A. Crawford, 
 Herman Block, Wm.'K. White, 
 
 Ernest Claussen, Ludwig Bruning, 
 
 H. M. Martin, J. Howard Henry, 
 
 J. H. Melville, Foster & Gabbert. 
 
 In politics, the judge has always favored the demo- 
 cratic party. 
 
 He is not a member of any church, though assent- 
 ing to the Christian religion. 
 
 His habits are most exemplary. His influence 
 has always been on the side of law and order,' 
 morality and industry. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM G. HAMMOND, 
 
 IOWA CITY. 
 
 AMONG the leading educators of the United 
 States, in the department of the law, stands 
 William Gardiner Hammond, LL.D., chancellor of 
 the law department of the Iowa State University. 
 He was born at Newport, Rhode Island, on the 3d 
 of May, 1829. His parents were William G. and 
 Sarah Tillinghast (Bull) Hammond, the former a 
 lawyer and a graduate of Brown University in 1821, 
 and of a family settled in Narragansett since the end 
 of the seventeenth century, who practiced in New- 
 port, and was surveyor of customs there from 1829 
 
 to 1847; died in 1858. The latter a daughter of 
 Henry Bull, of Newport, Rhode Island, of a family 
 settled there since the purchase of the island from 
 the Indians in 1638. The founder of the family in 
 that state was the Quaker governor of Rhode Island 
 mentioned by Bancroft in connection with the rising 
 against the tyranny of Andros. Both father and 
 mother were descended on the maternal side from 
 the Huguenot family of Tillinghasts founded by the 
 Calvinist minister. Pardon Tillinghast. His mother 
 also descended from the noted Baptist preacher. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 41 
 
 Obadiah Holmes ; and on both sides his ancestors 
 are identified with the history of Rhode Island and 
 freedom of religious opinions. William prepared 
 for college under the private instructions of his 
 father and of Rev. Thacher Thayer, D.D., a Con- 
 gregational minister. He graduated at Amherst in 
 the class of 1849, taking Latin salutatory, to which 
 an English oration was added as a special compli- 
 ment. President Julius H. Seelye, M.C., was a 
 member, of the class. Seelye, Hammond, Henry 
 Lobdell, missionary to Mosul, and William J. Rolfe, 
 the editor of Shakspeare, were intimate friends, and 
 formed, with a very few others, a club for mutual 
 criticism and study, which was kept up through the 
 college course, and had a very decided influence on 
 the character, habits of thought and studies of all 
 its members. He was also one of the editors of the 
 college magazine, " The Indicator." He studied 
 law in Brooklyn, New York, from 1849 to 1851, with 
 Hon. S. E. Johnson, and went into partnership with 
 him as soon as admitted to the bar in May, 1851. 
 He practiced law in Brooklyn and New York city 
 until 1856; was republican candidate for county 
 judge of Kings county in 1855. 
 
 In 1856 he went to Europe for the purpose of 
 travel and study, and also with a view to improving 
 the health of his wife, who was threatened with dis- 
 ease of the lungs. He traveled through England, 
 Ireland, France, Germany and Italy, spending a 
 winter in the latter country and nearly a year at 
 Heidelberg in Germany, pursuing the study of civil 
 law and comparative jurisprudence. He returned 
 from Europe in the fall of 1858 to find all that he 
 had accumulated by years of successful practice 
 swept away by the crisis of 1857-8. 
 
 After spending some months in his native place 
 he removed to Iowa in December, 1859. He 
 reached Iowa a perfect stranger to all its people, 
 with less than three dollars in his pocket, and went 
 to work in an engineering party on- the small branch 
 of railroad now known as the Dubuque Southwest- 
 ern, beginning with a position as rear chainman at 
 one dollar per day, and working his way up through 
 all positions as a railroad engineer, till in about fif- 
 teen months he became chief engineer of a new 
 railroad enterprise, for which he had just made the 
 preliminary surveys when the further building of 
 railroads was stopped by the war. He then acted 
 for a year as professor of languages in Bowen Colle- 
 giate Institute, at Hopkinton, and spent one winter 
 as principal of the Anamosa city schools. 
 
 In 1863 he resumed the practice of law at An- 
 amosa, and in 1866 removed to Des Moines, where 
 he practiced till 1868. While at Des Moines he 
 became associated with Judges G. G. Wright and 
 C. C. Cole, of the Iowa supreme court, in the con- 
 duct of the Iowa Law School, a private enterprise 
 started by the two judges in 1866. In 1868 this 
 school was transferred to Iowa City and became the 
 law department of the State University. The same 
 faculty was retained, but Mr. Hammond removed 
 to Iowa City and took chief charge of the school. 
 From that time its growth was rapid and steady, and 
 its reputation has been constantly extending. At 
 first he was th-e only resident professor, the two 
 judges lecturing for eight weeks each during the 
 year. There are now two resident professors, who 
 give all their time to the school, three other profess- 
 ors attending a portion of each year, and four regu- 
 lar lecturers. The average attendance is about one 
 hundred yearly, and the annual number of gradu- ■ 
 ates sixty to seventy. The course still consists of a 
 single year, but an (optional) second year has al- 
 ready been added, and it is the purpose of the re- 
 gents to make the course one of two full years. 
 The entire course of study is directed by Mr. Ham- 
 mond, who teaches himself from fifteen to eighteen 
 hours weekly, and devotes his entire time to the 
 supervision of the law department, of which he is 
 chancellor. 
 
 While practicing at Anamosa in 1865 and 1866 
 he prepared and published a " Digest of Iowa Re- 
 ports," being a continuation of the work begun by 
 Judge John F. Dillon in i86o. The two volumes of 
 " Dillon and Hammond's Digest " were long in high 
 favor with the profession, but are now superseded 
 by the later work of Messrs. Withrow and Stiles. 
 In 1867 he originated the "Western Jurist," a well- 
 known legal periodical published at Des Moines, 
 and was its editor-in-chief until the summer of 1870. 
 Since that time his contributions to other legal peri- 
 odicals have been numerous. He has also pub- 
 lished several synopses of his lectures in the law 
 schools for the use of his students. For some years 
 he has been a vice-president and an active member 
 of the American Social Science Association, and 
 read papers on legal education at the meetings of 
 that body in Detroit, May, 1875, and in Saratoga, 
 September, 1876. Other publications, articles from 
 his pen, appeared in " Putnam's " and " Harper's " 
 magazines in 1855 and 1856; in the "Continental 
 Magazine" and "Round Table," 1863 and 1864; 
 
42 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 introduction to American edition of " Sander's 
 Justinian," Chicago, 1875. There have also been 
 published a number of lectures and addresses, sep- 
 arately printed for private distribution. 
 
 In 1871 Mr. Hammond was appointed one of the 
 three commissioners to revise and codify the la,ws 
 of Iowa under an act passed by the legislature of 
 1870, his associates being Hon. W. H. Seevers, the 
 present chief-justice of lo'wa, and Hon. W. J. 
 Knight, late mayor of Dubuque. The result of 
 their labor may be found in the present code of 
 Iowa, adopted by the legislature at the session of 
 1873. He received the degree of LL.D. from Iowa 
 College, at Grinnell, in 1870, and from Amherst Col- 
 lege, Massachusetts, in 1877. 
 
 In religious views, he is an Episcopalian, and be- 
 longs .to the " broad church." 
 
 Mr. Hammond was educated in the democratic 
 school of politics, but left that party in 1854 and 
 took an active part in the formation of the repub- 
 lican party, and with it he has since acted, though 
 of late taking no active part in partisan matters. 
 
 He was twice married: '\ri 1852 to Lydia B. Tor- 
 
 rey, daughter of Hon. Joseph W. Torrey, formerly a 
 distinguished lawyer of Detroit, Michigan; in 1865 
 to Juliet M. Roberts, daughter of the late Rev. 
 William L. Roberts, D.D., of Hopkinton, Iowa. 
 They have one child living, a daughter (Juliet) 
 seven years old. 
 
 Mr. Hammond is gifted with a strong constitu- 
 tion, which alone could have borne him through the 
 labors of his past life and sustained him through 
 trials that would have discouraged a less energetic 
 man. In personal appearance, he is above the me- 
 dium height ; in manner, grave and dignified ; a 
 man of sterling worth, generous and genial, liberal 
 in his sentiments and social in his nature. As an 
 instructor, he is characterized by independent 
 thought and logical reasoning, and in the position 
 he fills has the happy faculty of inspiring his stu- 
 dents and infusing into them his own enthusiasm, 
 and by his manly and dignified demeanor does not 
 fail to command their esteem. He is very favorably 
 known throughout the country, and bids fair to 
 stand in high places among the foremost of the legal 
 profession. 
 
 HON. AUSTIN ADAMS, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 OF all the professions none affords greater op- 
 portunity for the development of native 
 ability than the law; for here one is led into the 
 investigation of subjects most vital to the interests 
 of his fellows, and may, if he will, become versed in 
 the grandest questions of his country and state. A 
 fair proof of this statement is seen in the successful 
 career of Austin Adams. He was born at Andover, 
 Windsor county, Vermont, on the 24th of May, 1826, 
 and is the son of Jerry Adams and Dorcas nee Austin, 
 both natives of New England. He commenced life 
 as a farmer boy, being trained to habits of economy 
 and industry, qualities which have been invaluable 
 to him in all his subsequent life. 
 
 After closing his studies in the common schools, 
 he, in his fourteenth year, entered Black River 
 Academy, to complete his preparatory studies, and 
 in his nineteenth year entered the sophomore class 
 of Dartmouth College, at Hanover, New Hampshire, 
 from which he graduated in due course. Of a 
 studious disposition, he had, from boyhood, inclined 
 to the legal profession, and his desire for it was 
 
 increased by frequently attending the courts and 
 listening to the arguments of the advocates. After 
 leaving college he accepted the situation of principal 
 of the academy at West Randolph, Vermont, era- 
 ploying his leisure in studying law. Afterward he 
 for a short time attended the Harvard Law School, 
 and was admitted to practice at Windsor, Vermont, 
 in January, 1854, being examined by the Hon. Jacob 
 Collamer, since United States senator, and before 
 that time postmaster-general in Taylor's cabinet. 
 
 After his admission to the bar he formed a part- 
 nership with ex-Governor Coolidge, which, however, 
 continued but a short time. The State of Iowa 
 being fast settled up, he, in the fall of 1854, joined 
 the western tide of emigration and settled in Du- 
 buque, and being pleased with the location and 
 prospects of the place, determined to make it his 
 future home. Engaging at once in his profession, 
 he Soon built up a remunerative practice, and in- 
 spired in his fellow-citizens confidence in his ability, 
 wisdom and honor, and was strongly urged by them 
 to enter political life ; and notwithstanding his mod- 
 
^fCcJ{^cI^ ty^^yt-a^c.^ 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 45 
 
 est preference to avoid the perplexities of public life 
 and live in retirement, he was, in October, 1875, 
 elected judge of the supreme court of Iowa for a 
 term of six years. 
 
 Politically, he has always been identified with the 
 republican party, but has taken no active interest, 
 more than to perform his duties as a citizen. He 
 has been for some years a regent of the State Uni- 
 versity of Iowa, and in his own city was for a time 
 president of the board of education. 
 
 He was formerly a member of the Congregational 
 
 church, but with thought and study became more 
 liberal in his views, and is now a Unitarian. 
 
 He was married in 1857, to Miss Mary Newbury, 
 a daughter of Rev. Samuel Newbury, a Presbyterian 
 clergyman. As a judge, he has gained a wide popu- 
 larity, being known as a man who enters with his 
 whole soul into whatever he engages, and to this 
 may be attributed his success. Personally, Judge 
 Adams has many rare qualities, and by his upright 
 course of life, his manly independence of character, 
 has made for himself an enviable reputation. 
 
 JOHN McD. BURROWS, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 PROMINENT among the citizens who have 
 passed the ordeal of a pioneer life in the west, 
 and whose early struggles well deserve a place in 
 these memorials, is the subject of this sketch, John 
 McDowell Burrows, who was born in the city of 
 New York, on the 8th of May, 1814. His parents 
 were David and Anna (Mulford) Burrows, natives 
 of Elizabethtown, New Jersey. The ancestors of 
 the family on both sides came from England four 
 generations ago and settled in New Jersey, where 
 many of their descendants still remain. 
 
 In the course of events it fell to the lot of the 
 mother of our subject to educate and support a 
 family of eight children. She was a woman noted 
 among her friends for her piety, remarkable energy 
 and devotion to her children. Her life was fragrant 
 of good deeds and holy living, and her memory is 
 a treasured keepsake with her family and all who 
 knew her. 
 
 At the age of fourteen John removed with the 
 family to Cincinnati, Ohio. After the usual primary 
 education it was resolved by his pious mother and 
 an uncle, Stephen Burrows, that he should be- 
 come a minister of the gospel, and with this end in 
 view he was sent, at the age of seventeen years, to 
 Lane Seminary, Ohio. However, after remaining in 
 that institution about two years, he became con- 
 vinced that he lacked several essential elements of 
 success in that profession, and accordingly aban- 
 doned his purpose. This closed his educational 
 career, and his mother sent him to learn the trade 
 of wood turner, at which he continued till the fall of 
 of 1838. He made and sold furniture to western 
 merchants along the Mississippi river, and consigned 
 5 
 
 on commission to others. In the spring of 1837 he 
 made a trip to St. Louis and the upper Mississippi, 
 to look after his business interests. His ardent and 
 energetic mind was soon awakened on beholding 
 the beauty and magnitude of the Mississippi valley; 
 he seemed to comprehend at once the prospects for 
 the future of this promising land, and decided on 
 removing hither. There were others in Cincinnati 
 at that time turning their attention in the same direc- 
 tion, and accordingly, in the spring of 1839, in com- 
 pany with John Owens, Wm. S. Collins and Mr. 
 Ganet, he removed to Davenport. Three of the 
 gentlemen who then accompanied him are still liv- 
 ing, honored citizens of Davenport, — the first named, 
 John Owens, died at Davenport on the 27th of Sep- 
 tember, 1876. Mr. Owens and our subject made 
 the trip together in a one-horse buggy, and occupied 
 ten and a half days in the journey. Davenport was 
 at that time in the territory of Wisconsin. They 
 purchased a claim of eighty acres, long known as 
 the Owens and Burrows tract, a part of which is 
 still owned by our subject, and upon it his beautiful 
 dwelling now stands, amid grounds tastefully laid 
 out, covered with vineyards, shrubbery and the 
 choicest fruits, planted by his own hands. They 
 also, as was the custom in those days, took each of 
 them a " claim " of three hundred and twenty acres 
 of prairie land. This claim was the entire section, 
 seventeen, lying back of West Davenport on Duck 
 Creek. They drew lots for choice of halves, divid- 
 ing the section north and south. Mr. Burrows drew 
 the east half, nearest, the town. In order to secure 
 the claim against being "jumped," they employed a 
 man to plow five furrows around the entire tract, at 
 
46. 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 a cost of fifteen dollars. Some two years after this, 
 when the land was brought into market and offered 
 for sale, these two speculators held a consultation 
 as to the entry of the land at government price, — 
 whether the prospects would warrant such an in- 
 vestment. Upon mature deliberation Mr. Owens 
 abandoned his at once ; while Mr. Burrows gave his 
 half to a Dr. Hall, on his refunding the fifteen dol- 
 lars paid for the breaking. Alas for the shortness 
 of human vision ! The same land soon after sold 
 for one hundred dollars per acre. 
 
 During the first year Mr. Burrows cultivated seven 
 acres of his forty-acre homestead, and also rented a 
 small tract that had been broken on the Dubuque 
 road, near Duck Creek. Here he labored faithfully 
 the first season, and succeeded in raising a crop, 
 walking to and from his work with his little tin 
 dinner-pail, eating his lonely meal on the banks of 
 the creek. At that time tlie "herd law" was un- 
 known in Iowa, and a little before harvest the cattle 
 of " the town " broke in and destroyed his entire 
 crop. With winter approaching the prospect looked 
 dreary enough, but his energies and ambition were 
 ever adequate to the emergency. With fresh thought 
 and new courage he began building a storehouse in 
 the town, and in the spring of 1840, in partnership 
 with R. M. Prettyman, a former clerk, began busi- 
 ness as a merchant in a little frame house on Front 
 street, under the firm name of Burrows and Pretty- 
 man. ' They began on a small scale, selling goods 
 on commission for Cincinnati houses; and in the 
 fall of 1840, there being for the first time a surplus 
 of wheat in the county, they purchased and shipped 
 wheat to the east, Mr. Burrows buying and shipping 
 the first bushel that ever left the county. This was 
 the beginning of the produce business in Davenport, 
 a business into which, in later years, he entered very 
 largely. Nearly all produce at that day was shipped 
 up the river, for the supply of military posts and the 
 Indian trade. He also bought and packed the first 
 pork that was ever sold in Davenport. This he took, 
 in 1841, with the hams and shoulders, to Prairie 
 du Chien, and sold to Rice and Dawsman, Indian 
 traders, receiving his pay in the only currency then 
 known — -silver dollars and half-dollars, with a little 
 gold coin. The amount formed a large and heavy 
 package, and as he had neither trunk nor valise — 
 such conveniences not being in general use in those 
 days — it proved both burdensome and annoying. 
 His business concluded, he found that there was no 
 boat for Davenport for several days, but by travel- 
 
 ing some twelve miles across the country and cross- 
 ing the Wisconsin river he would reach a place where 
 the stage passed. Burdened with several packages, 
 into which, for convenience, he had divided his coin, 
 he set out on his^ homeward journey, and after ex- 
 periencing much difficulty in crossing, in an Indian 
 canoe, the Wisconsin river, which was much swollen, 
 he arrived at the stage station to find that it had 
 left. Nothing daunted at this disappointment, he 
 at once determined to pursue his way on foot to 
 Dubuque. It was late in the afternoon and the 
 country was very sparsely settled, but when nearly 
 dark he came to a small farm house. His load had 
 become very heavy and his weary limbs sought rest, 
 but where to deposit his treasure for the night was 
 his greatest trouble. He feared robbery but wanted 
 shelter, which was cheerfully accorded him, such as 
 it was, by the proprietor of the hut. At supper three 
 dark-visaged, unshaven men appeared at the table, 
 whose presence much excited the already anxious 
 and burdened mind of our subject. He had removed 
 a portion of his coin from his pocket to his hat, which 
 he kept close by his side. The dim light of the 
 cabin but partially revealed the outlines of the com- 
 pany with whom he was destined to spend the night, 
 and robbery and murder were uppermost in his 
 thoughts. All were seated, and the divine blessing 
 in the name of Jesus Christ was invoked upon the 
 frugal meal, when a heavy weight rolled from his 
 heart, greater than that he had carried through the 
 day, — he was beneath the roof of a disciple of Christ. 
 His supper was eaten with a keen relish, and his 
 sleep was sweet and refreshing. In the morning at 
 an early hour he pursued his way, and reached Du- 
 buque at ten o'clock the night following, traveling 
 the whole distance of seventy-five miles, on foot, in 
 twenty-eight hours. Such were the difficulties and 
 dangers incident to a pioneer merchant and trader 
 of that not very distant day. Thus he progressed 
 steadily, and from 1845 till i860 the firm of Burrows 
 and Prettyman, of which he was the senior member, 
 was second to but few in the west in the extent of 
 its operations and in the character and standing of 
 its credit. 
 
 In 1847 the firm began the manufacture of flour, 
 which was an undertaking of no ordinary kind in 
 that day, and was entered upon with many fears, but 
 with stout hearts. They erected the largest and 
 most perfect mill of its kind in the west, and for ten 
 years manufactured five hundred barrels of flour 
 daily. In the year 1855 they made eighty thousand 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 47 
 
 barrels of flour, grinding four hundred thousand 
 bushels of wheat. In this year their transactions 
 amounted to over seven hundred thousand dollars. 
 They also conducted a large pork-packing establish- 
 ment, and during the above-named period bought 
 and packed more hogs than any other establish- 
 ment north of St. Louis. In the year 1854 they 
 slaughtered nineteen thousand hogs. During that 
 time they also bought, sold and shipped more grain 
 than any other firm in the state. In the financial 
 panic of 1857-9, however, their losses were very 
 great. In the disastrous failure of Cook and Sar- 
 geant they lost heavily, and were obliged to close 
 business, compromise with their creditors and dis- 
 solve partnership. In the following year Mr. Bur- 
 rows commenced anew, with a fair prospect of suc- 
 cess, and for three years did a reasonable and mod- 
 erately paying business; but in 1863 he met with 
 another serious misfortune, the entire destruction of 
 his mill by fire. This swept from him everything 
 he had accumulated, for he had no insurance, and 
 he was once more penniless. His credit, however, 
 was good, and by the aid of friends he built a new 
 mill, which he operated successfully for three years 
 more, during which time he paid the entire cost of 
 
 its construction, when suddenly and mysteriously it 
 also caught fire and was burned to ashes, and he 
 was again reduced to where he began. But Mr. 
 Burrows has a will and an energy that are irrepress- 
 ible ; he is again engaged in business as a produce 
 and commission merchant, with a fair prospect of 
 regaining his lost fortune. > 
 
 On the ist of December, 1836, he married Miss 
 Sarah Meeker Gamage, of Cincinnati, Ohio, a most 
 excellent woman, who shared in meekness and thank- 
 fulness his prosperity, and, without murmur or com- 
 plaint, his adversity. She was ever noted for her 
 undissembled piety and hearty benevolence. She 
 died in January, 1876, mourned by all who knew 
 her. Of the eleven children who were born to them 
 only one, Elisha, is now living. He is engaged in 
 business with his father. 
 
 Mr. Burrows was raised a Presbyterian ; has al- 
 ways been a consistent member of that church, and 
 expects to die in that faith. 
 
 He has never taken an active part in politics ; was 
 a " Henry Clay whig,'' and, after the death of that 
 party, opposed the extension of slavery, and is now 
 keenly sensitive to the shortcomings and partisan 
 trickery from which no party seems to be free. 
 
 HON. RUSH CLARK, 
 
 IOWA CITT. 
 
 THE life of Rush Clark presents one of those 
 numerous examples to be found in the United 
 States of rapid personal progress from humble be- 
 ginnings to a substantial and honored position. It 
 is conceded also that of all the different professions 
 none affords greater opportunity for the develop- 
 ment of native ability than that of law. A fair 
 proof of this is evidenced in the successful career 
 of the subject of our sketch. He was born at 
 Schellsburg, Bedford county, Pennsylvania, on the 
 1st of October, 1834, and is one of a family of nine 
 children of John and Mary (Smith) Clark. He was 
 educated at the Ligonier Academy, and later at Jef- 
 ferson College, taking a classical course and gradu- 
 ating in 1853, at eighteen years of age. His tastes 
 early turned to the medical profession, and before 
 graduating he studied medicine in the office of Dr. 
 Ealy in his native town. In the spring of 1853 he 
 removed to Iowa, studying law with his brother, 
 George W. Clark, Esq., and was admitted to the 
 
 bar at Iowa City. Before commencing his practice 
 he temporarily took editorial charge of the "Iowa 
 City Republican," then the whig organ, and being 
 published at the then state capital wielded a large 
 influence. While in charge of this paper, in 1854, 
 the republican party was organized, which, in con- 
 vention, nominated Hon. James W. Grimes for gov- 
 ernor (afterward United States senator), and in the 
 campaign which followed he, through the columns 
 of his paper, took an active part in the issue which 
 changed the politics of the state. After the can- 
 vass he confined his energies to building up of a 
 law practice, in which he was eminently successful, 
 and has enjoyed a large and lucrative business built 
 up by patient energetic work, and has gained for 
 himself no inferior rank among the leading members 
 of the Iowa bar. In the summer of i86i he was 
 appointed on Governor Kirkwood's staff, with rank 
 of lieutenant-colonel, and was active in mustering 
 troops and rendezvousing them preparatory to tak- 
 
48 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 ing the field. In 1859 was elected to the general 
 assembly on the republican ticket, though his county- 
 was considered democratic, and by reelection served 
 two terms. In 1862 he was elected speaker of the 
 house and received the highest encomiums of both 
 parties for his impartial decisions, from which there 
 "tfever was an appeal. At the expiration of his term 
 of office he returned to his practice, and gave it 
 his entire attention until 1875, when he was again 
 elected to the general assembly. In June, 1876, he 
 was nominated for congress, and afterward elected 
 in his district. He was educated in the Presbyterian 
 faith, and is still an attendant upon that church. 
 
 He joined the republican party at its organization, 
 and has always been an active partisan and an able 
 advocate of its principles. 
 
 He was married in 1863, to Miss Eugenia Orr, of 
 Iowa City, who died in 1867. She was a ladyof 
 high attainments, and distinguished for a marked 
 excellence of womanly and christian virtues. Mr. 
 Clark was again married in 1868, to Mrs. Sidney 
 Robinson, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 
 
 While a self-made man, atid generally engaged in 
 the activity of a professional life, yet he has found 
 time to devote to general literature, and is well read 
 in the current events of the age. As a public speaker 
 he is eloquent, earnest and convincing; as an official, 
 is courteous, kind and obliging, and has the entire 
 confidence of his constituents. He is known as a 
 man of sterling integrity, decided character and un- 
 tiring energy, and has every promise of a prosperous 
 and honorable career. 
 
 HON. G. C. R. MITCHELL, 
 
 DAVENPORT. 
 
 HON. G. C. R. MITCHELL, late judge of 
 the fourteenth judicial district of Iowa, was 
 born on the 6th of December, 1803, at Dandridge, 
 Jefferson county, East Tennessee. His parents we^e 
 Nathaniel and Anna (Rea) Mitchell, the former born 
 in Virginia, in 1777, and the latter in the same state, 
 in 1787, of Scotch ancestry. Nathaniel served in 
 the war of 181 2, and was a colonel in militia. After 
 the war he settled in Knoxville, Tennessee, where 
 he carried on merchandising for a few years. Large 
 colonies of the family still reside in Alabama, Ten- 
 nessee, Indiana and Missouri. 
 
 Judge Mitchell was educated at East Tennessee 
 College (now East Tennessee University), in Knox- 
 ville, Tennessee, and was a member of its first gradu- 
 ating class in 1822. His parents having removed 
 to Lawrence county, Alabama, he proceeded thither 
 after leaving college, and commenced the study of 
 law under the direction of A. F. Hopkins, Esq., of 
 Mobile, and was admitted to the bar in 1825. He 
 practiced successfully in Alabama until 1834, and 
 was several years clerk of the circuit court, and was 
 at one time candidate for circuit judge, but was de- 
 feated ; afterward he spent one winter in a tour 
 among the eastern cities. In the spring of 1835 he 
 removed west, and after visiting St. Louis, Chicago, 
 Galena and Dubuque, he decided to settle in Daven- 
 port. Liking the climate and anticipating the result 
 of its admirable location, he purchased a " squatter's " 
 
 right — the tract of land upon which he afterward 
 built a beautiful residence in which he passed the 
 greater part of his life. At that period what now 
 constitutes Iowa was a part of Michigan, and until 
 Wisconsin was formed there was neither law nor 
 offices of any kind west of the Mississippi river. For 
 several years after, the principal professional busi- 
 ness of lawyers in the territory was connected with 
 litigation regarding " squatters' " claims. Judge 
 Mitchell added considerably to this species of prac- 
 tice in the courts of Rock Island county, which were 
 at that time organized. In 1843 he was elected to 
 the house of representatives of the Iowa territorial 
 legislature. He was nominated as congressional rep- 
 resentative from the state in 1846, but was defeated. 
 He was elected mayor of Davenport in 1856, and 
 served in that capacity one year. In 1857 he was 
 nominated by a meeting of the bar, and elected 
 judge of the fourteenth judicial district, composed 
 of the counties of Scott, Clinton and Jackson. He 
 was elected to this office by a handsome majority, 
 although a strong party candidate was run in opposi- 
 tion to him, and although every other nominee of 
 the opposite party was elected by overwhelming ma- 
 jorities. He held the office, however, but a short 
 time, being compelled by ill health to resign it a 
 year later, intending to return to the south. This 
 purpose, nevertheless, he did not carry out, rest and 
 relaxation bringing for a time the needed relief. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 49 
 
 In politics, the judge had been always a whig 
 until that party dissolved, or became allied to free- 
 soilism and other principles which characterized the 
 later years of its existence. Subsequent to that 
 period he acted with the democratic party, having 
 full faith in the nationality of its principles. 
 
 In religion, he had been raised in the nominal 
 pale of the Presbyterian church, but later in life 
 influences were brought to bear upon him that drew 
 him into the Roman Catholic church, in the com- 
 munion of which he died. 
 
 In April, 1852, he married Miss Rose A. Clarke, 
 of Brown county, Ohio, daughter of a native Irish- 
 man. They had six children, two sons and four 
 daughters, only one son and one daughter of whom 
 survive. 
 
 Judge Mitchell died on the 6th December, 1865. 
 
 As a jurist, he took a high position ; he was pro- 
 foundly discriminating, a keen, careful analyst, whose 
 deductions were always reliable. His mental pro- 
 cesses were seemingly slow, but in reality rapid, for 
 while others would dash to a conclusion — often the 
 wrong one — with an imperfect view of a few con- 
 tiguous facts, he traversed the whole ground, omit- 
 ting nothing, however seemingly trivial ; and although 
 he may have occupied rnore time than others in 
 evolving a question, yet he performed a much greater 
 amount of labor, and his conclusions were in that 
 proportion worthy of credence. If he was possessed 
 of one trait more prominently than another, it was his 
 
 thorough comprehensiveness, — his ability to include 
 everything in the examination of a subject, and to 
 add to this a nice instinctive and cultivated percep- 
 tion of the character and weight of a fact, and one 
 may see why he rarely went wrong or fell into an 
 error in conclusions. 
 
 In regard to his everyday life — that portion of a 
 man's being which all are interested in knowing — 
 he was wealthy, with cultivated literary taste, a choice 
 and ample library, a large social circle of sincere and 
 pleasant friends, an amiable wife and dutiful children. 
 He enjoyed life as only one surrounded by such cir- 
 cumstances could. Fresh, instructive and engaging 
 in his conversation, he took a very high rank as a 
 social companion, and as one who could be instruct- 
 ive, amusing and brilliant without effort. 
 
 His only surviving son, Nathaniel S., was edu- 
 cated at the University of Notre Dame, St. Joseph 
 county, Indiana; read law under the direction of 
 the Hon. John W. Thomson, of Davenport, and was 
 admitted to the bar in February, 1876. He is a 
 gentleman of great urbanity and amiability of man- 
 ners, brilliant intellect and fine personal appearance. 
 He promises to follow closely in the footsteps of his 
 father. He was married on the 2gth of April, 1874, 
 to Miss Charlotte E. McManomy, of New York city, 
 of Scotch-Irish lineage. They have one child, a 
 daughter, Helena. 
 
 The surviving daughter of Judge Mitchell is Miss 
 Josephine, a young lady of rare beauty and culture. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM B. ALLISON, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 WILLIAM BOYD ALLISON, a native of 
 Ohio, was born in Perry, Wayne county, on 
 the 2d of March, 1829, his parents being John and 
 Margaret (Williams) Allison. His youth was spent 
 in aiding his father to cutivate a farm, and in attend- 
 ing a common school a few months each year. His 
 early manhood was devoted to studies in Allegheny 
 College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, and Western Re- 
 serve College, Hudson, Ohio. He commenced study- 
 ing law in Wooster, in the latter state, in 1850, and 
 was admitted at the Wayne county bar two years 
 later. He practiced awhile in Ashland, Ohio, and 
 in 1857 moved to Dubuque, Iowa, which has since 
 been his home. Mr. Allison applied himself closely 
 to his profession, and built up a large practice in a 
 
 very short time. He immediately identified himself 
 with every local enterprise tending to further the 
 interest of Dubuque and the state, and became, 
 almost from the start, a leader in more than one im- 
 portant movement. 
 
 When the rebellion broke out in 1861 Mr. Allison 
 was appointed on the staff of Governor Kirkwood as 
 one of his aids, and acted with great efficiency until 
 1862, when he was elected to congress. Thrice he 
 was reelected, serving in all eight years, in the lower 
 house. He entered congress in the darkest hours of 
 our political history since independence was gained ; 
 vigorously supported every measure for suppressing 
 the rebellion, and took advanced ground on the 
 methods for accomplishing that end. He was one 
 
5° 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARV. 
 
 of the hopeful members of that body, and believed 
 the rebellion would be crushed as soon as the gov- 
 ernment guaranteed '"all the privileges of religion, 
 of family, of property and of liberty." During the 
 first two years that he was a member of congress he 
 introduced a bill for the improvement of the naviga- 
 tion of the Mississippi river, and had the happiness 
 of seeing the measure succeed, he being one of its 
 ablest and most earnest supporters. It was through 
 his influence that the land grant was secured for the 
 railroad leading westward from McGregor, Iowa. 
 While in congress he voted for all the constitutional 
 amendments, and earnestly supported every repub- 
 lican measure, such as the Civil Rights bill and the 
 Freedman's Bureau bill. During the last six years 
 that he was in the lower house he was on the com- 
 mittee of ways and means, and showed, by his effi- 
 ciency the wisdom of the selection. He did himself 
 much credit and rose higher and higher at the close 
 of each session. His speeches were prepared with 
 much care, have great logical strength, and some of 
 them have been much sought for and widely circu- 
 lated. 
 
 On leaving Washington in March, 187 1, Mr. Alli- 
 son returned- to his home in Iowa, and aided in 
 pushing on several enterprises of great local impor- 
 
 tance. But the people of Iowa were not done with 
 his services. In January, 1872, he was elected to 
 the United States senate, succeeding Hon. James 
 Harlan. His term of office runs until March, 1879. 
 In the upper house he has proved himself an inde- 
 fatigable worker on the committees on appropria- 
 tions, pensions, Indian affairs and library. In the 
 summer of 1875 he was appointed one of the com- 
 missioners to negotiate with the Sioux Indians for 
 the sale of the Black Hills, but the attempts at nego- 
 tiation were a failure. 
 
 Mr. Allison has always acted with the republican 
 party, and in Iowa has been one of its leaders. 
 
 He attends the Presbyterian church. 
 
 On the 5th of June, 1873, he married Miss Mary 
 Nealley, of Burlington, Iowa. 
 
 Mr. Allison is a candid and persuasive speaker, 
 and at the time of writing (November, 1876) has just 
 concluded an extensive political canvass, he having 
 spoken about fifty times in Iowa alone. In his 
 oratorical efforts he appeals to the judgment and 
 reasoning powers, rather than the passions, and 
 leaves an excellent impression on the mind. His 
 bearing is such that he commands the high respect 
 of political opponents. His social qualities are ad- 
 mirable, and his moral character is irreproachable. 
 
 ASA HORR, M.D. 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 yVSA HORR, a native of Ohio, was born at Wor- 
 Xi. thington, on the 2d of September, 1817. His 
 parents were Isaac Horr and Nancy Smith Horr, 
 both of New England stock. Originally the family 
 name was Hoar, of the same pedigree as the distin- 
 guished family of that name in Massachusetts, and 
 was changed to Horr by an act of the legislature. 
 The father of Asa was an early settler in the Black 
 river country in New York, and opened a farm there 
 prior to immigrating to Ohio. In the latter state he 
 engaged in the mercantile business, but losing his 
 property by fire he returned to New York in 1827, 
 and died in Watertown, Jefferson county, soon after- 
 ward. The widow was left with nine children, and 
 very little means for their support. Up to the time 
 when his father died the subject of this brief memoir 
 was kept at school most of the time, and had full 
 scope for his love of books ; but now came a hard 
 struggle in that direction. He was put on a farm, 
 
 and for several years attended schools during the 
 winters only. His hours of leisure, when he had 
 any, were given to books rather than play, and, 
 much to his delight, he sometimes gained time for 
 study by working by tasks. When nearly grown to 
 manhood he became a house-builder, operating a 
 short time, with an elde? brother, at Dundas and 
 other places in Ontario, Canada. 
 
 At the age of twenty he returned to his native 
 town in Ohio, and read medicine with a cousin. He 
 attended lectures at two colleges in that State, and 
 graduated from both. After leaving the Cleveland 
 college he practiced six years in Ohio and one in 
 Illinois, and in 1847 made a permanent settlement 
 in Dubuque, Iowa. 
 
 Not content with a mastery of the science of 
 medicine, in which profession he has gained high 
 distinction, he has given no inconsiderable attention 
 to the investigation of sciences collateral to_ medi- 
 
r 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 53 
 
 cine. Quite early in life he studied botany with a 
 good degree of success, and for more than twenty 
 years was one of the leading observers for the 
 Smithsonian Institution. He was influential in origi- 
 nating, and prominent in building up, the Iowa In- 
 stitute of Science and Arts in Dubuque, and has 
 been its president for the last eight or nine years. 
 He is a man of decidedly scientific tastes and re- 
 spectable attainments. Dr. Horr is a member of 
 the Iowa State Medical Society, of the American 
 Medical Association, of the American Association 
 for the Advancement of Science, of the American 
 Public Health Association, and of several scientific 
 societies in the Upper Mississippi valley. He is 
 identified with many important interests in Du- 
 buque. Its town clock was procured largely through 
 his exertions, and the true longitude of the city was 
 established through him ten or twelve years ago, by 
 the aid of his fine astronomical transit. 
 
 Dr. Horr is one of the leading surgeons in north- 
 ern Iowa, and neither his practice nor his reputation 
 in this line is limited to any one state. He was 
 post surgeon at Dubuque in the early part of the 
 late war, and examining surgeon for recruits in the 
 regular army. 
 
 He has been a member of the Masonic Order 
 since 1856. In politics he was a whig until the 
 extinction of that party, since which time he has 
 been a republican. 
 
 Till middle life his religious views were orthodox ; 
 they are now liberal. 
 
 He married Miss Eliza Sherman in 1841, and the 
 widow Emma F. Webber in 1868. He has three 
 children, all by his first wife. His eldest child, 
 Augusta S., is the wife of Henry Hackbusch, a civil 
 engineer and surveyor, at Leavenworth, Kansas; 
 Edward W. is a leading merchant at Blandville, Ken- 
 tucky, and the youngest child. May, lives at home. 
 
 ELIAS C. CHAPIN, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 ELIAS CORNELIUS CHAPIN, proprietor of 
 the Davenport " Gazette," was born near 
 Cleveland, Ohio, on the 21st of August, 1836. His 
 father was Dr. Descom Chapin, an eminent physi- 
 cian, who for years practiced at Rockport and Cleve- 
 land, Ohio. He died when our subject was but 
 eighteen months old, leaving a family of five chil- 
 dren, of whom Elias was the youngest, to the care 
 of his widow. His mother was Susan (Giddings) 
 Chapin, daughter of Daniel Giddings, a scion of the 
 distinguished New England family of that name, 
 the late Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio, being 
 her full cousin. 
 
 The Chapin family of New England is descended 
 in direct line from Samuel Chapin, who took the 
 freeman's oath in Boston, June 2, 1641, and who is 
 supposed to have emigrated from Wales in that year 
 or a short time previously. He was afterward a 
 deacon of the Congregational Church in Dorchester, 
 and " was a man highly esteemed and employed in 
 public business," as the records of the period testify. 
 He subsequently removed to Springfield, Massachu- 
 setts, and on the loth of October, 1652, was ap- 
 pointed one of the magistrates of that city, and in 
 1654 his commission was extended indefinitely. 
 Most of those who bear the name in this country 
 
 trace their lineage to this source. The family has 
 been distinguished for several generations by the 
 number of clergymen, deacons, scholars, educators 
 and literary and scientific characters it has pro- 
 duced. Among those who illustrate the patronymic 
 in the present day may be named the Rev. Edwin 
 H. Chapin, D.D., of New York ; Rev. A. L. Chapin, 
 D.D. LL.D., president of Beloit College; Chester W. 
 Chapin, Esq., of Springfield, Massachusetts, a prom- 
 inent railroad chief, and M. and E. S. Chapin, of 
 Massasoit House fame, who have been prominently 
 identified with the growth of Springfield, Massachu- 
 setts. Our subject is the lineal descendant in the 
 seventh generation of the above named deacon 
 Samuel Chapin, and is a worthy scion of a worthy 
 sire. The intervening links in the descent are: 
 Decomb Chapin, born on the 12th of December, 
 1794; Ezra, born on the 12th of February, 1758; 
 Timothy, born on the 8th of March, 1733 ; Jonathan, 
 born on the 20th of April, 1688, and Japhet, son of 
 the original Samuel, born 1642. 
 
 After the death of Dr. Descom Chapin, the mother, 
 with her children, moved to the old New England 
 home in Chicopee, Massachusetts, where our sub- 
 ject was educated, graduating at the high school of 
 that place at the age of thirteen years. After leav- 
 
54 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 ing school he commenced life as a clerk in a store. 
 At seventeen he entered the large dry-goods jobbing 
 house of Austin, Sumner and Co., Boston, Massa- 
 chusetts, and made himself so useful, and by his 
 exemplary conduct so gained the confidence and 
 esteem of the firm, that at the age of twenty years 
 he was admitted to a partnership which continued 
 to the entire satisfaction of the members until the 
 year i860, when he formed a more advantageous 
 alliance with Mr. Joseph Dix, — brother to Miss 
 Dorothy Dix, the distinguished philanthropist, — in 
 the same line in the same city. The new firm con- 
 tinued in successful operation until the spring of 
 1865, when failing health caused by the climatic 
 vicissitudes of the east admonished him to seek a 
 more genial clime. He accordingly set his face 
 westward, and after examining several localities 
 pitched his tent at Charles City, Iowa. Here he 
 led an active, out-door life for a period of eight 
 years, carrying on an extensive farming establish- 
 ment, and being also a partner in the large banking 
 house of Chapin, Fairfield and Co., afterward E. C. 
 Chapin and Co. His health being by this means 
 fully restored and his constitution re-established, 
 and agricultural pursuits not being adapted to his 
 tastes and early habits, he embraced an opportu- 
 nity which then offered and became a partner in 
 the Gazette Printing Company, of Davenport ; and 
 transferring his residence to that city he has since 
 been the able manager of the business interests of 
 that paper. The "' Gazette " is now the leading 
 daily and the largest establishment of its kind in 
 the state. The three years of Mr. Chapin's man- 
 agement has increased the circulation nearly one 
 
 half- and given it a metropolitan character, it now 
 being the recognized medium for news for the triad 
 of cities, Davenport, Rock Island and Moline, — to 
 each of which it is delivered by carriers every morn- 
 ing before the breakfast hour. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Chapin has always been a staunch 
 republican, and, like his puritan ancestors, an uncom- 
 promising enemy of the institution of liuman slavery, 
 and during the late rebellion gave his influence in 
 support of the integrity of his country ; and though 
 prevented by feeble health from participating active- 
 ly in the military service, yet he rendered efficient 
 aid as a recruiting officer, in which capacity he op- 
 erated for over a year in Massachusetts. 
 
 In religion, he follows in the line of Plymouth 
 Rock, and intends to " fight it out on that line." He 
 has been identified with Sunday-school work since 
 his early youth, and in the state of his adoption has 
 been a prominent laborer in the same field. He 
 has served efficiently for six years as a member of 
 the State Sunday-School Association, two years of 
 which he has been its president. 
 
 In 1863, for the benefit of his then failing health, 
 he made a trip to Europe, visiting the principal 
 cities of that quarter of the globe. 
 
 On the 2 2d of September, 1857, he married Miss 
 Fannie M. Breed, of Lynn, Massachusetts, a scion 
 of an old and long established family, which has 
 embraced in its membership many names of marked 
 ability, Mr. Isatiah- Breed, her grandfather, having 
 been for thirty years president of the Lynn Mechan- 
 ics' Bank, and serving two terms in the state senate. 
 They have two children, namely, Elmore Descom 
 and Mabel Bartlette. 
 
 HON. SYLVESTER BAGG, 
 
 WATERLOO. 
 
 THE subject of this brief sketch, a native of 
 MassachusettSjWasbornin Lanesborough, Berk- 
 shire county, on the 6th of August, 1823, the son of 
 Calvin and Martha (Wheeler) Bagg. At an early 
 age he attended a private school in his native town, 
 and afterward pursued a three years' course of study 
 at Lenox Academy, in the same county. At the age 
 of nineteen he entered the law office of William T. 
 Filly, Esq., of Lanesborough; and, on being ad- 
 mitted to the bar, removed, in May, 1845, to Elyria, 
 Lorain county, Ohio. There he practiced law 
 
 twelve years, and built up a good business; but 
 desiring a wider field of action, he resolved to 
 remove to the west, and accordingly crossed the 
 Mississippi river, and in March, 1857, settled at 
 Waterloo, then recently made the county seat of 
 Blackhawk county. Here he has since resided, and 
 established a fine reputation as an honorable man 
 and skillful attorney. During his first ten years in 
 Iowa he practiced in partnership with Hon. Henry 
 B. Allen, and the docket of the district court showed 
 a growing and very lucrative business. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 55 
 
 On the 23d of November, 1862, Mr. Bagg was 
 appointed assistant quartermaster in the army, with 
 the rank of captain, and afterward was breveted 
 major for efficient service. He served till Decem- 
 ber, 1865. 
 
 In November, 1868, he was elected the first circuit 
 judge of the ninth district; he was reelected in 1872, 
 and at the time of this writing is again a candidate 
 on the republican ticket for the same office. His 
 affiliations have always been with the party of which 
 
 he is now so popular a favorite, and no jurist in 
 northern Iowa is more deserving of public confi- 
 dence and esteem. 
 
 Judge Bagg is a member of the Masonic fraternity. 
 In religious sentiment, he is a Baptist, and has been 
 a member of the Waterloo church for eighteen years. 
 
 On the 15th of May, 1845, he was married to 
 Miss Mary M. McKnaught, of Lebanon Springs, 
 New York, a very accomplished lady, by whom he 
 has one child, a daughter. 
 
 JOHN WE ARE, 
 
 CEDAR RAPIDS. 
 
 THE oldest continuous banker in the State of 
 Iowa, and one of the builders of the first flour- 
 ing mill in the valley of the Cedar, is John Weare, 
 for more than thirty years a resident of Cedar 
 Rapids. His parents were John and Cynthia Ash- 
 ley Weare, his father being a farmer, lumber dealer 
 and general business man. The great-great-grand- 
 father of the subject of this sketch was the first 
 governor of New Hampshire, and the first bank 
 resident in that state. The Weares were a patriotic 
 family, several of them participating in the struggle 
 for independence, and the father of our subject los- 
 ing a leg in the war of 1812. 
 
 John Weare, junior, was born on the 8th of Octo- 
 ber, 1816, in Stanstead, Canada, then Lower Canada, 
 and in his infancy his parents moved across the line 
 into Orleans county, Vermont. There he spent his 
 childhood and early youth, reared in industry and 
 always ready for work. From ten to fourteen years 
 of age he often picked potatoes for neighbors at ten 
 cents a day; that sum, in those days, looking as large 
 to him, no doubt, as a thousand cents to-day. To 
 secure pocket money for the holidays he' and his 
 playmates used to climb hemlock trees for young 
 crows and get the bounty money. 
 
 When John was fifteen years old, the whole family, 
 father, mother, four boys and four girls, moved to 
 Allegan, Michigan. There they cleared up a large 
 heavily-timbered farm, the father engaging also, in 
 a short time, largely in the lumber business. Young 
 John remained with his father until he was past 
 twenty-one years of age, always ready for any task, 
 however rough and hard. 
 
 After the panic of 1837 Mr. Weare came to Iowa, 
 and spent some years in prospecting and in various 
 6 
 
 kinds of employment in different places, settling 
 finally in Cedar Rapids in the spring of 1845. The 
 previous winter he spent in Dubuque, procuring sub- 
 scribers and making collections for the " Miners' 
 Express," doing a remunerative writer's work. 
 
 On reaching Cedar Rapids, in connection with 
 others, he immediately made preparations for util- 
 izing the water-power, building a dam, digging a 
 race, etc. Shovel in hand, he worked side by side 
 with the Irishmen and other laborers in the race, 
 standing in the water sometimes ten or twelve hours 
 a day; and went twenty miles up the Cedar for 
 timber for the first flouring-mill and saw-mill built 
 in Cedar Rapids. He floated the logs down the 
 stream, having the oversight of the whole work. 
 Night after night he camped out with the choppers, 
 having a force of twenty men under his charge. 
 The completion of the flouring-mill — still standing, 
 and one of the landmarks of the city — marked an 
 epoch in the history of the place. Frontier settlers 
 came a hundred miles for flour, doing more or less 
 shopping, and making Cedar Rapids an important 
 trading point. 
 
 With the mill in operation Mr. Weare soon began 
 to open farms, one after another, until he had five 
 under good cultivation, adding sto<;k and improving 
 its breed from time to time. All these farms he 
 owns to-day, and all, with their neat houses and 
 industrious tenants, are within the sound of the 
 church bells and steam whistles of Cedar Rapids. 
 
 As the country began to . develop, Mr. Weare 
 opened an agency office for the transaction of mis- 
 cellaneous business, it eventually growing into a 
 bank. He used to take emigrants up and down the 
 Cedar valley and out into the open prairie ; select 
 
56 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 lands and make entries for them, and give them 
 liberal time in which to make payments, usually 
 from two to five years. These settlers were almost 
 invariably persons of very moderate means, yet they 
 were honest and industrious, coming here to make 
 homes and rear families ; and, strange to say, out of 
 something like three millions of dollars invested for 
 these poor farmers, he never had to take a farm 
 back, never resorted to the law to secure his full 
 pay, and never lost a dollar ! Years ago they ex- 
 changed their log cabins for one and a half and two- 
 story frame and brick houses, and are among the 
 most independent class of people in Linn and its 
 adjoining counties. The thrift of these early settlers 
 Mr. Weare has often cited to people at the east, on 
 his visits there, and has thus induced multitudes in 
 later years to settle in the Cedar valley and other 
 parts of Iowa. Directly and indirectly he has ex- 
 erted a mighty influence in filling up the " Empire 
 State " of the west. 
 
 As the country has increased in population and 
 wealth, his banking operations, commenced twenty- 
 five years ago, have expanded in proportion, until 
 he is not only the oldest continuous banker in the 
 state, but one of the most extensive, as well as the 
 most reputable financier. He is president of the 
 First National Bank of Cedar Rapids. 
 
 Mr. Weare has always taken a deep interest in the 
 railroad enterprises centering here, and was one of 
 the foremost men in bringing most of them into town. 
 No interest likely to enhance the growth of Cedar 
 
 Rapids, or in any way to benefit the people, has 
 failed to receive his hearty cooperation. He is very 
 active in every good cause. 
 
 Mr. Weare belongs to the Masonic fraternity. 
 
 He is a liberal contributor to the Protestant 
 churches of Cedar Rapids, and promptly responds 
 to charitable objects generally. 
 
 In middle life he voted the whig ticket ; latterly, 
 the republican. 
 
 In March, 1840, he married Miss . Martha Park- 
 hurst, of Allegan, Michigan, and raised five of her 
 children in Cedar Rapids. Most of them are settled 
 in Iowa, and within a few hours' ride of the paternal 
 home. His-first wife died in 1858. In December, 
 1862, he married Miss Martha Rogers, of Clinton, 
 Iowa, formerly of Buffalo, New York. She has two 
 children, both at school in this city. All of Mr. 
 Weare's children have been educated in Iowa. He 
 is a warm friend of education, and believes in 
 patronizing home institutions. 
 
 Mr. Weare has seen his sixty autumns, yet is as 
 fresh-looking and as sprightly as most men in middle 
 life. Not one man in ten thousand has a finer 
 physique, or shows better preservation. His health 
 is perfect, the result, in part at least, of strictly tem- 
 perate habits, and great prudence, coupled with 
 great activity. , In a business point his life has been 
 a grand success, and the lesson of his indomitable 
 industry and pluck and his unflinching rectitude is 
 now before the young men of the state and country. 
 Let them study it. 
 
 HON. LEMUEL DWELLE, 
 
 NORTHWOOD. 
 
 NORTHWOOD, Iowa, was fortunate in having 
 men of solid merits for its founders and its 
 early settlers. . They gave a good reputation to the 
 town, and that reputation abides. Among the first 
 families to settle here, the pioneers, in fact, were the 
 Dwelle brothers, Lemuel, Albert J., and Horace V. 
 Dwelle, all men of excellent character and full of 
 public spirit. 
 
 Lemuel Dwelle, a native of New York, was born 
 at Greenwich, Washington county, on the i6th of 
 August, 1824. His parents were Alphonso and 
 Elizabeth Tefft Dwelle. The grandfather of Lemuel 
 was a captain in the revolutionary army, and several 
 of his uncles were in the war of 1812, Lemuel 
 
 spent the first twenty-two years of his life on his 
 father's farm, receiving, meanwhile, a common school 
 education. For ten years he was a contractor and 
 builder, doing a large business. 
 
 In 1856 Mr. Dwelle started for the west, locating 
 early in the following year where the beautiful vil- 
 lage of Northwood now stands, and where then stood 
 a solitary log house. He and his brother, Albert J., 
 built a flouring mill on the Shelbrook river, and ran 
 it until 187s, when they sold out. At present 
 Lemuel is engaged in farming and the real-estate 
 business, buying and selling large quantities of land, 
 and still in partnership with Albert. 
 
 Mr. Dwelle was county surveyor the first five or 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 57 
 
 six years that he was in Northwood, and was a 
 county supervisor fourteen or fifteen years. In 1866 
 he was elected to the lower house of the general 
 assembly, and in 1875 to the upper house, doing in 
 both branches good service in the committees on 
 manufactures, agriculture, and horticulture, being 
 chairman of the first two. He was very diligent in 
 the legislature, and a faithful servant of the people. 
 His senatorial term does not expire until 1879. 
 
 The Dwelles were the local prime movers in 
 securing the Central Railroad of Iowa, which has 
 its northern terminus at Northwood, and are leaders 
 in all useful enterprises. 
 
 Mr. Dwelle has been a Mason for twelve years 
 and has taken three degrees. He has been a mem- 
 ber of the Baptist church for thirty years. 
 
 On the 30th of December, 1875, he was married 
 to Miss Hattie A. Edwards, of East Troy, New York. 
 
 Lemuel Dwelle is a thoroughly truthful, kind- 
 hearted man, seeking other's good as well as his 
 own. He has helped himself by helping others, has 
 encouraged worthy people to settle in Northwood, 
 actually making sacrifices in their behalf, but has 
 thereby increased the population and improved the 
 society of the place. In character, as well as in 
 purse, he is one of the solid men of Worth county. 
 
 HON. CHARLES T. GRANGER, 
 
 ' WA UKON. 
 
 CHARLES TRUMBULL GRANGER, judge 
 of the tenth judicial circuit, is a native of New 
 York, and was born in Monroe county, on the 9th of 
 October, 1835. His father, a man of great physical 
 strength and intellectual powers of a high order, an 
 uneducated farmer, was fond of debate, especially on 
 religious and political questions. His mother, be- 
 fore her marriage, was Sally Dibble, an excellent 
 woman, who died when Charles was only a few 
 years old. While he was a mere lad his father 
 moved to Kirtland, Ohio, then the Jerusalem of the 
 Mormons, Young as he was, he must have been a 
 good observer of the Saints, for his recollections of 
 their leading men are extensive and full of interest. 
 After his mother's death Charles lived for some 
 time with a brothei'-in-law in Huron county, Ohio. 
 Here he was impatient of restraint and often re- 
 belled against what he regarded as unjust authority. 
 At length, when thirteen years of age, to avoid chas- 
 tisement, he ran away from his brother-in-law's and 
 never returned. He came to the west. Up to this 
 date his educational advantages had been limited 
 and not well improved. He now awoke to a new 
 life and a new ambition, attended an academy a few 
 months at Waukegan, Illinois, studying only the 
 common English branches; in November, 1854, 
 moved to Allamakee county, Iowa, and taught a 
 district school the next winter on Yellow river; re- 
 turned to Illinois in August, 1855, and afterward 
 attended school at the academy before mentioned 
 for a few months. Subsequently, while working on 
 a farm near Waukegan about a year, he improved 
 
 his leisure hours studying law books borrowed from 
 lawyers in town. In March, i860, he returned to 
 Allamakee county, Iowa, read law with Hatch and 
 Wilber, of Waukon, and was admitted to the bar 
 near the close of the same year. It was in this 
 office, as he states, that he received that substantial 
 encouragement and aid which mark the time as an 
 epoch in his life, and his preceptors as true bene- 
 factors and friends. Before commencing practice 
 he went to Mitchell, Mitchell county, and com- 
 menced teaching ; was elected county superintend- 
 ent of schools in 1861, and in August of the next 
 year resigned that office to go into the Union army. 
 He entered as captain of company K, 27 th regiment 
 Iowa infantry; as a soldier, was very popular; ex- 
 celled in his knowledge of the duties of any position 
 he was called to fill ; often acted as judge advocate 
 in cases of court-martial and as assistant adjutant- 
 general, and served until the close of the war. 
 
 Returning from the south, Mr. Granger commenced 
 practice as a partner of L. O. Hatch, Esq., at Wau- 
 kon, on the ist of January, 1866. Three years later, 
 on the I St of January, he was appointed district attor- 
 ney of the tenth judicial district to fill a vacancy 
 made by the resignation of Mr. Hatch; at the gen- 
 eral election in 1869 was elected to fill out the un- 
 expired term, and at the general election the follow- 
 ing year was elected for a full term of four years. 
 When this term had half expired, being now well 
 known throughout the district, he was elected judge 
 of the tenth circuit. 
 
 In 1874, much against his tastes and inclinations. 
 
58 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 Judge Granger was nominated by the republicans 
 of the third district as their candidate for congress, 
 but for the want of personal effort on his part he 
 was defeated by the Hon. L. L. Ainsworth, the 
 latter receiving a majority of sixty-three votes. 
 Two years later he was reinstated on the bench of 
 the tenth circuit without party opposition, and still 
 wears the ermine. 
 
 Judge Granger has been twice married : the first 
 time, at the age of twenty, to Miss Sarah H. War- 
 ner, of Antioch, Lake county, Illinois. She died 
 without issue on the 2d of June, 1862, two months 
 before he went into the array. His present-wife was 
 Anna J. Maxwell, of Waukon, an estimable lady, 
 with whom he was united on the 15th of April, 1868. 
 They have two small children, a daughter and a son. 
 
 The career of Judge Granger, considering the 
 discouragements of its humble beginning, has been 
 remarkable. When he was first appointed district 
 attorney his experience as a lawyer had been con- 
 fined to office work. He had never tried more than 
 one case in a court of record, and that a case of 
 trifling importance. His success, therefore, as dis- 
 trict attorney, was a surprise alike to himself and 
 his friends. From the beginning his familiarity with 
 
 legal principles, his common sense in their applica- 
 tion to the case in hand, his skill in drawing the 
 truth from witnesses, and his clear, fair and convinc- 
 ing style of argument, attracted at once the atten- 
 tion of the bar and the people ; and, notwithstand- 
 ing his want of experience, he was soon marked as 
 most suitable material for the bench. The judgment 
 of the people in this respect was correct. As a 
 judge, he merits and receives great praise. His 
 court is a model of dignity and propriety. On the 
 bench he neither talks too much nor too little. He 
 treats all members of the bar with uniform kind- 
 ness and courtesy, and at the same time insists on 
 the respect due to his position. Nothing escapes 
 his attention in the court-room. Every word of 
 evidence that goes to the jury is heard and weighed 
 by him. His judicial decisions and opinions are 
 generally correct, often able, are always unquestion- 
 ably in harmony with a keen sense of justice. But 
 to say that he is an able and just judge does him 
 but partial justice. That singular magnanimity 
 which has distinguished every step of his public 
 career, military or civil, is most prominent and 
 beautiful in his private life, as a citizen, neighbor, 
 husband, father and friend. 
 
 WILLIAM RENWICK, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 AMONG the prominent men who have taken a 
 ^ high and leading part in the manufacturing 
 interests of Iowa, none deserves more honorable 
 mention than William Renwick, prominent lumber 
 manufacturer. He was born in Liverpool, England, 
 on the 24th of June, 1829, and is the son of James 
 Renwick and Elizabeth nee Lockerby, both natives 
 of Scotland and descendants of the old Covenanters. 
 He received his early education in England; and 
 later, after the removal of his father's family to Iowa 
 in 1846, attended the Iowa College. In 1850 he 
 engaged in the grain and commission business with 
 his father, under the firm name of Renwick and 
 Son. He was the first agent of the American, and also 
 the United States, Express Companies in Daven- 
 port. In 1852, in connection with their other busi- 
 ness, the firm began dealing in and manufacturing 
 lumber, and in 1855, selling their interest in other 
 business, they devoted their time and capital exclu- 
 sively to the lumber trade. His father retiring in 
 
 1859, he conducted the business on his own account 
 until 1875, when the firm of Renwick, Shaw and 
 Crassett was formed, of which he is senior member. 
 Mr. Renwick has been very successful in his busi- 
 ness, and much of his success may be attributed to 
 his perseverance and energy even under adverse 
 circumstances. He is much interested in all enter- 
 prises intended to develop the resources of the city 
 and country. 
 
 In religious views, he is a Presbyterian, and has 
 been trustee of that church for a number of years. 
 
 He was raised in the democratic school of poHtics, 
 and adhered to the principles of that party until 
 1866, when his views became more liberal, and he 
 now supports for office the man whom he thinks 
 best fitted for the position, irrespective of party 
 lines. 
 
 He was president of the Board of Trade three 
 years, and is an owner in and director of the Daven- 
 port City Street Railway Company. He is also a 
 
^/t-^:^^^ &-. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARV. 
 
 6l 
 
 director in the Scott County Agricultural Society, in 
 whichhe is much interested, having been a member 
 for twenty-two years. 
 
 He has traveled extensively over the continent of 
 Europe, and being an observing man, has gained a 
 large fund of valuable- information. He possesses 
 much taste for the fine arts, and has recently added 
 some fine paintings from the masters to his choice 
 collections. 
 
 He was married on the 21st of March, 1855, to 
 Miss Cynthia Seymour, of Davenport, Iowa. 
 
 Personally, Mr. Renwick has rare qualities, and by 
 his upright course of life, his manly deportment and 
 independence of character, has made for himself an 
 honorable reputation. Few men have more devoted 
 friends than he ; none excel him in unselfish devo- 
 tion and unswerving fidelity to the worthy recipi- 
 ents of his confidence and friendship. 
 
 HON. J. K. GRAVES, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 WHILE the lives of self-made men seldom 
 abound in incidents of a sensational char- 
 acter, there is an energy and a perseverance of char- 
 acter that lends to them a charm, an attractiveness 
 and worth that merit admiration and careful thought. 
 The subject of this sketch is an illustrious example 
 of that class of men who, by the employment of 
 brain and energy, have risen from obscurity to wealth 
 and high social position. 
 
 Mr. Graves, beginning life a poor boy, has, by his 
 own efforts, attained to an honorable position both 
 socially and in business. 
 
 He was born in Keene, New Hampshire, on the 
 29th of September, 1837, and is son of Caleb S. and 
 Eliza Graves, nSe Kingman, and on his father's side 
 of Welsh descent. His ancestors were early settlers 
 of this country and participated in the battles of the 
 revolution. His earlier education was gained at the 
 common schools of his native town. He early had 
 to care for and support himself 
 
 At seventeen he left home and commenced life 
 for himself, and securing a situation in a bank, as 
 clerk and correspondent, he gave the day to his 
 duties, and attended evening schools, and by dili- 
 gent study made rapid progress. In 1855 he came 
 west and settled at Dubuque, accepting the position 
 of cashier in the banking house of M. Mabley and 
 Co., which in 1858 was succeeded by the firm 
 of J. K. Graves and Co., which did a very suc- 
 cessful business until it was merged into a branch 
 of the State Bank of Iowa, of which he was vice- 
 president and general manager; he was also a mem- 
 ber of the board of control of the State Bank of 
 Iowa. The National State Bank succeeding this 
 branch, he was one of the principal organizers of it, 
 and for a time its vice-president. He was also 
 
 prominent in organizing the Commercial National 
 Bank, of which he was a large stockholder and 
 director. He has been identified with the Key City 
 Gas Works since 1859, and in i866 he built the 
 works which supply the city with light, and of which 
 he is president, director and a large stockholder. 
 In i868_ Mr. Graves took an active part in the 
 organization and construction of the Dubuque 
 Street Railway, of which he has been president the 
 greater portion of the time. 
 
 During the early days of the rebellion he was 
 appointed by Governor Kirkwood, of Iowa, post 
 quartermaster at Camp Franklin, Dubuque, with 
 rank of colonel, having at one time nearly six thou- 
 sand men in camp. In 1866 he was elected, on the- 
 republican ticket, mayor of Dubuque, by a large 
 majority over his democratic opponent, which, con- 
 sidering that the city was strongly democratic, speaks 
 well for his popularity. In 1876 Mr. Graves was 
 elected representative to the state legislature ; was in 
 1870 induced to turn his attention to the construc- 
 tion of a new railroad outlet from Dubuque to Chi- 
 cago, which road is now in successful operation sixty 
 miles down the river to Clinton. He is president of 
 the Chicago, Clinton and Dubuque Railway Com- 
 pany, the Chicago, Dubuque and Minnesota Rail- 
 way Company, and the Iowa Pacific, and has been 
 earnest and active in every enterprise tending to 
 develop the interests of Dubuque and vicinity. 
 
 He was appointed special commissioner by the 
 Interior Department, and twice visited New Mexico 
 on the duties of his mission. Has twice visited 
 Europe and traveled extensively over the continent 
 visiting points of interest. 
 
 In politics, he is a republican, and an able advo- 
 cate of its principles. 
 
62 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity 
 for a number of years. 
 
 He was married on the 12th of September, i860, 
 to Miss Lucy C. Robinson, of Salem, Massachusetts. 
 
 From boyhood Mr. Graves' life has been marked 
 by strict integrity, independent action and close 
 
 attention to business. Conscientious, benevolent, 
 and warm hearted in his affections, he has endeared 
 himself to a large circle of friends and acquaint- 
 ances. Beginning as he did, and relying wholly on 
 his own exertions, he has attained a success of 
 which he justly may be proud. 
 
 HON. GEORGE B. BURGH, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 TO a self-made man who has battled his way to 
 success, and through his own unaided ability 
 gained an honored and responsible position in so- 
 ciety, much should be accredited. George B. Burch 
 is the architect of his own fortune. Aside from 
 a fair education gained by his own effort, his rise in 
 the world must be attributed solely to his business 
 tact and persevering energy. He came to the west 
 a young man with a determined will and hopeful 
 heart, and to-day is an esteemed citizen with a large 
 and prosperous business. He was born at Lyons, 
 Wayne county. New York, on the 22d of March, 1836. 
 His parents were James H. Burch and Ruhama nh 
 Dunn, both natives of New York. His early educa- 
 tion was gained at the common schools, and his 
 father being in moderate circumstances could not 
 lend him assistance, and at the age of fourteen he 
 commenced life for himself by entering as a clerk in 
 a drug store. Later he served in several clerical 
 positions, and in February, 1855, removed to the 
 west and settled at Portage, Wisconsin, where, in 
 1859, he formed a partnership in the drug business 
 under the firm name of Burch and Lewis. This 
 partnership had continued but a short time when he 
 sold his interest, and removing to the lumber dis- 
 trict, was employed for nearly a year as a book- 
 
 keeper. In 1861 he purchased a mill at Necedah, 
 Wisconsin, and engaged in the manufacture of lum- 
 ber. He removed to Dubuque in August, 1869, 
 where he resumed the lumber business in connec- 
 tion with his mill in Wisconsin, in which he has been 
 eminently successful, having built up an extensive 
 and constantly growing trade. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Burch is liberal, and supports for 
 office the best man in his judgment, irrespective of 
 party. Since his residence in Dubuque he has taken 
 a lively interest in the development of its various 
 enterprises, and in the spring of 1876 was, by the 
 unanimous vote of both parties, elected mayor of the 
 city. He is a director of the First National Bank, 
 also of the Northwestern Fair Association and of 
 the Art Association. In 1859 he joined the Masonic 
 fraternity, of which he is now a prominent member 
 and a Knight Templar. He is not a member of any 
 church organization, but attends the Congregational 
 service, his wife being a member of that body. 
 
 He was married on the 27th of February, i860, to 
 Miss Ellen H. Merrill, daughter of Hon. Samuel D. 
 Merrill, of Vermont. Personally, Mr. Burch has 
 rare qualities, and by his upright course of life, his 
 manly deportment and independence of character, 
 has made for himself an honorable reputation. 
 
 HON. JOHN M. BRAYTON, 
 
 DELHI. 
 
 JOHN MARTIN BRAYTON was born in New- 
 J port, Herkimer county. New York, on the isth 
 of September, 1831; and is the son of Smith Bray- 
 ton, a farmer by occupation, and Candace n^e Mar- 
 tin. He received the ordinary common-school privi- 
 leges until fourteen years of age, at which time he 
 went to Whitestown Seminary, Oneida county. At 
 
 the age of eighteen he entered the sophomore class, 
 of Hamilton College, from which he graduated in 
 1853- While pursuing his college course he began 
 the study of law under Professor T. W. Dwight, then 
 of Hamilton, now of Columbia College. 
 
 In 1854 he was admitted to the bar of the supreme 
 court of New York, and in that same year moved 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 63 
 
 to Delhi, Delaware county, Iowa. During the next 
 year he formed a law partnership with A. E. House, 
 which continued three years, when George Watson 
 was admitted to the firm. From 1861 to 1864 the 
 firm was Brayton and Watson. All of these firms 
 did a lucrative business, few lawyers in the judicial 
 district having more cases at the several terms of 
 court. Since 1864 Judge Brayton has been alone 
 in the profession, and no lawyer in the county has 
 been more successful or risen to greater eminence 
 at the bar. 
 
 In 1863 he was elected to the state senate for a 
 term of four years. During this term he served on 
 some of the most important committees, and proved 
 himself a valuable member. But having a much 
 greater liking for the law than for politics, he was 
 glad to retire at the end of the four years. In 1870 
 he was elected judge of the ninth judicial district, 
 serving until July, 1872; he then resigned. He wore 
 
 the ermine with credit, and his withdrawal caused 
 regret on the part of the legal fraternity. Of late 
 years he has been largely engaged in railroad liti- 
 gation, and is prominent in the enforcement of 
 mechanic's liens, and by reason of his skill is well 
 known in all parts of the state. By his honest, up- 
 right course he has accumulated a liberal fortune. 
 
 Judge Brayton is a member of no church, but by 
 preference attends the Congregational. 
 
 In politics, he has always been a republican. 
 
 On the 4th of May, 1859, he married Helen M. 
 Martin, a resident of Schoharie county, New York, 
 and by her has had two children, one still living. 
 
 Judge Brayton is small in stature but large in 
 intellect, he has a fair complexion and nervous tem- 
 perament, mild, keen eyes, and a decidedly bookish 
 air. He loves the law with his whole heart, but a 
 stranger would seat him in a clerical or college chair, 
 rather than on the bench or in a law office. 
 
 HON. EZEKIEL E. COOLEY, 
 
 DECORAH. 
 
 AMONG the early representatives of the legal 
 profession in Winneshiek county, Iowa, is 
 Ezekiel E. Cooley, a native of New York. He was 
 born in Victory, Cayuga county, on the 12 th of Jan- 
 uary, 1827, and has consequently reached his fiftieth 
 year. His parents were Ira A. Cooley and Lydia 
 Chittenden Cooley. His father was a clergyman of 
 the Baptist denomination, who held pastorates, 
 after the son was born, at Hermon, St. Lawrence 
 county, Denmark, Lewis county, and Brownsville, 
 Jefferson county. He died at the last named place 
 in June, 1846. At sixteen years of age the son en- 
 tered the Black River Literary and Religious Insti- 
 tute, Watertown, and at his father's demise was 
 about to enter Hamilton College, but this bereave- 
 ment thwarted all his plans. Two years prior to 
 this date, while fitting for college, he commenced 
 teaching, and in the summer of 1847 went to Cyn- 
 thiana, Kentucky, to pursue this calling, arriving there 
 with seven dollars in his pocket. Up to this date he 
 had had a hard struggle in procuring the knowl- 
 edge which he then possessed, and which struggle 
 was not ended ; but he continued to persevere, hav- 
 ing the legal profession in view, and continued 
 teaching with a view to supply himself with funds. 
 Soon after reaching Kentucky he commenced study- 
 
 ing law with Judge Trimble ; was admitted to the 
 bar in 1849, and in August of the same year re- 
 turned to New York and took charge of a public 
 school in Ogdensburg. Not satisfied with his legal 
 attainments, simultaneously with his commencing to 
 teach, he read law with Hon. A. B. James, now a 
 member of the New York congressional delegation, 
 and was admitted to the bar of that state on the 2d 
 of September, 1850. He commenced practice at 
 Hermon ; two years later he removed to Ogdens- 
 burg, forming a partnership with George Morris 
 under the firm name of Morris and Cooley, and 
 continued this connection until October, 1854, when 
 he immigrated to Decorah, the seat of justice of 
 Winneshiek county. At that date there were less 
 than thirty families in the place, but Mr. Cooley 
 had the wisdom to see that it was a town of much 
 promise and a good opening for an ambitious young 
 attorney, with a broad foundation of legal knowl- 
 edge on which to build. 
 
 In 185s Mr. Cooley formed a partnership with W. 
 L. Easton and L. Standring for the purpose of car- 
 rying on the business of banking and real estate. 
 This banking-house proved eventually to be the 
 seed-corn of the First National Bank of Decorah. 
 
 No movement calculated to benefit Decorah or 
 
64 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 the county has failed to receive the hearty support 
 of Mr. Cooley. As early as 1856 he was one of the 
 prominent men in organizing a railroad company 
 called the Northwestern, of which he was made the 
 attorney. The financial depression delayed this 
 enterprise, "but after repeated trials the road, under 
 another name, reached Decorah in September, 1869. 
 Upon the celebration of its completion Mr. Cooley 
 was very appropriately made the orator for the oc- 
 casion. Two years after he settled in Decorah an 
 effort was made to remove the county seat to Free- 
 port, three miles eastward, and but for the adroit 
 efforts of Mr. Cooley and a few other persons the 
 project would probably have succeeded. 
 
 Mr. Cooley came to Decorah to practice law and 
 to make it his business for life. He has carried 
 out his intentions almost to the letter, and has at- 
 tained eminence in his profession. The few offices 
 which he has held were urged upon him by the par- 
 tiality of friends. In the spring of 1855 he was 
 elected prosecuting attorney for the county, serving 
 two years. When, in 1857, Decorah was incorpo- 
 rated he was chosen president of its board of trus- 
 tees ; and in October of the same year he was 
 elected to the lower branch of the general assem- 
 bly, the seventh, which was the first under the new 
 constitution. Young as he was, and wholly inexpe- 
 rienced in legislative matters, he was placed at the 
 head of the committee on federal relations. He 
 was "also on other important committees, such as 
 the judiciary and township and county organiza- 
 tions, doing valuable work on all of them, as well as 
 on several select committees. 
 
 In 186 1 Mr. Cooley was appointed postmaster of 
 Decorah, but resigned at the end of two years. In 
 September, 1864, President Lincoln appointed him 
 commissary of subsistence in the volunteer service, 
 with the rank of captain of cavalry. He held this 
 position until October, 1865, when he was breveted 
 major for meritorious services, and received his dis- 
 charge the following month. 
 
 Twice his republican friends in Winneshiek county 
 have presented his name before district conventions 
 for congressional nomination, but in both instances 
 competing candidates bore off the palm, and he 
 magnanimously took the stump and aided in their 
 election. 
 
 Mr. Cooley has profound respect for the bible ; is 
 familiar with its teachings, and has aimed to live a 
 blameless life. He has no church connection. 
 
 On the i8th of March, 1856, he was united in 
 marriage with Miss Jane M. Rhodes, of Dubuque, a 
 lady of very fine talent as an amateur artist in oil 
 colors. They have two sons, both students in the 
 literary department of Michigan University. Both, 
 it is understood, have the law profession in view. 
 
 Mr. Cooley, like his sons, is a student, — such, at 
 least, he regards himself. He loves the practice of 
 law much better than politics, and still pursues its 
 study with the relish and eagerness of youthful man- 
 hood. Though standing high at the bar, he has a 
 loftier altitude simply as an attorney, to which he 
 honorably aspires. Office has lost its charms for 
 him, if it ever had any. Through his success at the 
 bar he has obtained a competency, and has one of 
 the most elegant and costly residences in Decorah. 
 
 HON. GEORGE W. BEMIS, 
 
 INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON BEMIS, a native 
 of Massachusetts, was born in Spencer, Wor- 
 cester county, on the 13th of October, 1826, and is 
 the son of Eleazer and Susan (Hartwell) Bemis. 
 His great-grandfather, Edmund Bemis, commanded 
 a company in the expedition against Crown Point, 
 in 1755-56. His father moved with his family to 
 Alabama, Genesee county, New York, in 1837, and 
 there resumed his occupation of farming; George, 
 an only son, remaining at home until he was of age. 
 After closing his studies in the common school, he at- 
 tended about four terms at the Carysville Collegiate 
 
 Seminary, in Oakfield, near Alabama. He after- 
 ward taught school in the latter town and in Wis- 
 consin four winters, employing the summers of that 
 time on the farm. 
 
 In 1854 he removed to Independence, Iowa, where 
 he has since resided. The first three or four years 
 after his arrival he devoted mainly to surveying and 
 to real-estate operations, and during most of the time 
 for seventeen years he has acted in some capacity, 
 either as a county, legislative or government officer. 
 
 The year after settling in Independence he was 
 appointed surveyor of Buchanan county, and served 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 65 
 
 in that capacity for two years. He was a member 
 of the eighth general assembly in 1859-60, and of 
 the extra war session of 1861. He acted in the 
 capacity of postal clerk on the Dubuque and Sioux 
 City railroad about seven years, and from 1871 to 
 1875 was a member of the state -senate. He was a 
 commissioner, and secretary and treasurer of the 
 commissioners, of the Hospital for the Insane, at 
 Independence, when elected senator, and resigned 
 to fill the latter office. In April, 1872, he was reap- 
 pointed a commissioner, and at present (1877) holds 
 that position. Being the only resident commissioner, 
 his responsibilities are very great, but he has never 
 failed to discharge them with the utmost fidelity. 
 In the summer of 1876 he was nominated on the 
 
 republican ticket for treasurer of state. He has 
 always voted with that party. 
 
 In every position which Mr. Bemis has occupied 
 he has discharged his duties faithfully and satis- 
 factorily. As a legislator, he was a constant worker 
 and wise counselor. He was chairman of more than 
 one important committee, and at the close of every 
 session stood higher in the esteem of the people, 
 whose confidence in him is shown in their placing 
 the treasury of the state in his hands. Every nomi- 
 nation which he has received has been unsought. 
 
 On the nth of April, 1855, he was married to 
 Miss Narcissa T. Roszell, of Independence, a lady of 
 fine accomplishments and of most excellent family 
 They have three children. 
 
 GENERAL DAVID B. HILLIS, M.D., 
 
 KEOKUK. 
 
 GENERAL DAVID BURK HILLIS, second 
 colonel 17th Iowa Infantry, is a native of Jef- 
 ferson county, Indiana, and was born on the 24th of 
 July, 1825. He is a son of David Hillis, who was 
 quite a distinguished whig politician, and at one 
 time lieutenant-governor of Indiana. His ancestors 
 were from the north of Ireland, and of the Protest- 
 ant faith. His grandfather Hillis was a soldier in 
 the revolutionary wa.r. 
 
 General Hillis was educated at the University of 
 South Hanover, Indiana, and studied medicine at 
 Madison, Indiana, with the then distinguished Dr. 
 William Davidson, a graduate of Edinburgh, Scot- 
 land. He graduated at St. Louis, Missouri, and at 
 the age of twenty-one commenced the practice of 
 his profession in Jackson county, Indiana. For 
 eleven years he gave to his profession his undivided 
 attention, and at the end of that time had attained 
 a high standing among the members of his fraterni- 
 ty. In 1858 he abandoned his profession to engage 
 in mercantile pursuits. Moving west, he located in 
 Bloomfield, Davis county, Iowa, where he continued 
 in business till the summer of i860, when he re- 
 moved to Keokuk, Iowa, and there, in partnership 
 with his brother-in-law, Oscar Kiser, established 
 himself in the dry-goods trade. In August, 1861, 
 he was appointed an aid-de-camp to Governor Kirk- 
 Wood. This position he held till the 14th of March, 
 1862, when he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel 
 of the 17th Infantry. Hon. John W. Rankin, a 
 7 
 
 distinguished lawyer, was the colonel. In August, 
 1862, Colonel Rankin tendered his resignation, and 
 on its acceptance Lieutenant-Colonel Hillis was pro- 
 moted to the colonelcy of his regiment. Having, 
 with his regiment, been, engaged in many skirmishes 
 and severely contested battles under General Grant, 
 in the campaign -against Vicksburg, through central 
 Mississippi, the Yazoo Pass, and afterward down 
 the Mississippi river to the " flanking " of Vicksburg, 
 and having particularly distinguished himself at the 
 battles of Champion's Hill, Jackson, and the siege 
 of Vicksburg, he was at last, by reason of business 
 requirements, impelled to resign, leaving the service 
 with much credit, carrying with him the love and 
 regrets of his men, and for his gallantry a brevet- 
 brigadier-general's commission, and an expensive 
 and handsome sword, suitably inscribed, a testimo- 
 nial from the officers of his regiment, with whom he 
 had participated in so many pleasures and dangers. 
 In June, 1863, General M. M. Crocker, writing to 
 President Lincoln, says : " I had the honor to com- 
 mand Colonel Hillis in the late campaign of General 
 Grant in Mississippi, from Port Gibson until after 
 the battle of Champion Hills. In the march and 
 on the battle field he exhibited all the highest qual- 
 ities of a soldier, and an unusual capacity for com- 
 mand. At Jackson his regiment held the position 
 most exposed, and with undaunted courage drove 
 everything before them. At Champion Hills, where 
 the fight was most desperate and the situation of 
 
66 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 our left most critical, the 17 th Iowa, led by Colonel 
 Hillis, charged, through a storm of bullets, the ene- 
 my's line, driving the rebels before them, capturing 
 the regimental flag of the 31st Alabama and a four- 
 gun battery." 
 
 General Quimby, writing about the same date, 
 says : " It gives me great pleasure to state that Col- 
 onel Hillis was under my command for nearly six 
 months preceding his resignation, and that under 
 all the various and trying circumstances under 
 which he was placed, he proved himself a most 
 zealous and efficient officer, and exhibited the true 
 qualities of a commander." 
 
 Later, General Crocker writes : " From my per- 
 sonal knowledge and observation in the laborious 
 and brilliant campaign in the rear of Vicksburg, he 
 won and demands a hero's laurels." 
 
 In May, 1848, he married Miss Laura Kiser, 
 eldest daughter of Dr. Wm. P. Kiser, in Rockford, 
 Indiana. To this good and amiable woman he at- 
 tributes much of whatever success has attended him, 
 such has been her admirable counsels and example. 
 
 In religion. General Hillis is an associate Presby- 
 terian. 
 
 In politics, he was a whig until the demise of that 
 party. Having always been anti-slavery, in 1856 he 
 became an active republican, and took an earnest 
 part in the Fremont campaign. In i860 and in 
 1864 he engaged earnestly on the " stump " in favor 
 of Mr. Lincoln's first and second election to the 
 Presidency. 
 
 In 1868 he resumed the practice of his profession 
 in Keokuk, Iowa, where he still continues. Occu- 
 pying high rank among the first physicians of his 
 state, having been honored for four years with the 
 position of president of the board of health of Keo- 
 kuk, and once as representative of the Iowa State 
 Medical Association to the annual meeting of the 
 American Medical Association, of which he is now 
 a member. A writer in the " Iowa Colonels and 
 Regiments " thus describes him : " In personal ap- 
 pearance, Colonel Hillis is attractive. He is not a 
 large man, but is strongly and compactly built, and 
 steps promptly and firmly. His complexion and 
 hair are dark; eyes blue, full and lustrous. On 
 first acquaintance one would think him a little 
 haughty and aristocratic, but his sociableness and 
 congeniality soon remove this impression." 
 
 HON. ENOCH W. EASTMAN, 
 
 ELDORA. 
 
 MORE than three-fourths of the men who have 
 risen to distinction in Iowa were the sons of 
 farmers, and acquired their habits of industry by 
 cultivating the soil. Among this class is the subject 
 of this sketch. His father owned a farm and a saw- 
 mill, and in both the son had an opportunity early 
 to develop his muscle, and those steady habits and 
 sturdy virtues which have helped him on to emi- 
 nence in the legal profession and in the state. 
 
 Enoch Worthen Eastman was born in Deerfield, 
 New Hampshire, on the isth of April, 1810; his 
 parents were John and Mary James Eastman. His 
 father was a lieutenant in the war of 1812, and his 
 grandfather was on his way to Boston with gun on 
 his shoulder when the battle of Bunker Hill occurred. 
 For some unknown reason he did not participate in 
 the struggle for independence. 
 
 Enoch worked in the saw-mill and in farming for 
 his father and the neighbors until he was of age, 
 attending the district school usually a few of the 
 colder weeks each year. One season he worked for 
 
 a farmer seven months at ten dollars a month, and 
 at the end of the time handed his father sixty-seven 
 dollars of the earnings. Ten dollars a month, among 
 New England farmers, was regarded as good wages 
 forty and fifty years ago. 
 
 Mr. Eastman was educated at Pembroke, New 
 Hampton and Pittsfield academies, all flourishing 
 institutions from 1830 to 1840, and some of them 
 still showing no signs of decay. While pursuing his 
 academic studies he supported himself by teaching 
 district and singing schools, and working in a saw- 
 mill in Massachusetts. At the age of twenty-eight 
 he began to read law with Hon. Moses Norris, of 
 Pittsfield, New Hampshire, afterward member of 
 congress, and was admitted to the bar by the su- 
 preme court of New Hampshire, after reading five 
 years, — the customary time then allotted for reading 
 to law students. 
 
 Mr. Eastman practiced in Pittsfield until 1844, 
 when he immigrated to the territory of Iowa and 
 settled in Burlington, practicing three years there ; 
 
■^^JjyRIhiaeiismf "^ ^ 
 
 6. CJT^ ^Cc^^::cZZ^..^^:i^^.^^ 
 
THB UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 69 
 
 then removing to Oskaloosa, Mahaska county, and 
 practicing steadily for ten years. In 1857 we find 
 him in Eldora, Hardin county, his present home. 
 He has a wide practice, extending into a dozen 
 counties. 
 
 In 1863 Mr. Eastman was elected lieutenant- 
 governor of the state for two years, receiving the 
 largest majority which, up to that time, had ever 
 been given to a candidate for any state office. He 
 made an able presiding officer. He took the gavel 
 in hand while the rebellion was progressing, when the 
 patriotism of the Union men of the north was at its 
 heat ; and some idea of the boldness of the n?an and 
 of the spirit of the times may be formed by short 
 extracts from his speech made on taking the chair, 
 and which we find on page sixty-five of the journal 
 of the senate, January 15, 1844. He referred to 
 the " perilous times " in which the people were then 
 living, to the fact that there were disloyal men in 
 Iowa, and of the possibility of there being some 
 member of the state senate whose devotion to the 
 Union had ceased to exist, and then added : 
 
 If, unfortunately, such a one is here, my heart's desire 
 and prayer to God is that his tongue may be paralyzed and 
 cleave to the roof of his mouth whenever he attempts to 
 utter the intent of his heart. For the honor of the state I 
 do hope that the patriotic men of Iowa, who have taken 
 their lives in their hands and gone to the tented field, will 
 not receive a shot in the rear from any member of this 
 honorable senate. 
 
 In the same speech Mr. Eastman took advanced 
 ground on the question of the right of speech. He 
 declared that " no man has the legal, moral or polit- 
 ical right to begin to do that which the law will 
 punish him for consummating." He added : 
 
 Believing, therefore, as I do, that the ax should be laid 
 at the root of the tree, I hold it unparliamentary for any one 
 to talk treason, or advocate the cause of secession or any 
 dismemberment of our Union, or in any way give aid and 
 comfort to the rebellion, by pleading the cause of traitors, 
 or denouncing or disparaging the government in this senate 
 while I preside over it. The right of free speech in a leg- 
 islative assembly does not extend beyond the bounds of 
 loyalty. 
 
 Mr. Eastman was a Presidential elector on the 
 
 republican ticket in 1868, and made more than fifty 
 speeches during the canvass. He is an effective 
 platform orator, mixing with solid argument just 
 enough of Yankee shrewdness and drollery to make 
 his speeches spicy. 
 
 Mr. Eastman was a democrat until 1857, since 
 whi'ch time he has been a strong republican. He 
 has long aspired to be a statesman rather than a 
 politician, and studies political economy more that 
 politics. 
 
 Mr. Eastman joined the Masons in 1850. He has 
 been a Master Mason and Royal Arch Mason ; has 
 taken the council degrees ; was Grand High Priest 
 of the General Chapter of Royal Arch Masons two 
 and a half years ; has been president of the Order 
 of High Priesthood, and is ex-officio member of the 
 General Grand Chapter of the United States. 
 
 In religious sentiment, he is a Unitarian, but 
 worships with the Congregationalists, there being no 
 church of his faith in Eldora. 
 
 On the 8th of January, 1845, he married Miss 
 Sarah C. Greenough, of Canterbury, New Hamp- 
 shire ; she had seven children, only four now living. 
 She died on the 17th of June, 1861. In 1865 he 
 married Miss Amanda Hall, a highly educated lady, 
 of Eldora, and by her has one son. 
 
 Governor Eastman is probably the best specimen 
 of a "downeaster" that Iowa can exhibit. After a 
 thirty years' residence among western people he 
 retains, in some measure, the Yankee dialect, and in 
 a large measure the Yankee tone ; can look as grave 
 as an orthodox deacon of the last century ; can sing 
 psalms like David Gamut ; is quick witted and can 
 get up, in a political mass meeting, a laugh which, 
 at a little distance, sounds like an infant earthquake; 
 is tall, lank and thin, so that prairie winds can pass 
 him easily ; is honesty personified ; is as guileless as 
 a child, and has the agility of thirty-five. He has 
 always taken good care of himself, and may yet 
 attend the funeral escort of the nineteenth century. 
 
 HON. EDMUND JAEGER, 
 
 KEOKUK. 
 
 EDMUND JAEGER, banker, was born at Mau- 
 dach, Rhenish Bavaria, on the 2 2d of Septem- 
 ber, 1833. His early education was received from 
 private tutors and the common schools till the age 
 of fifteen, when he entered Speier College. Here he 
 
 remained but a year, for the revolution coming on, 
 and he having joined the students for the common 
 cause, and fearing to share their fate — a suspension 
 from the college — did not return. In his sixteenth 
 year he engaged to learn the mercantile business, 
 
70 
 
 THE VNITEt) STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 remaining in it for three years, but being ambitious 
 and anxious to build up his own fortune, he emi- 
 grated to the United States in 1853, settling at 
 Cincinnati, Ohio. He taught school at Lawrence- 
 burg, Indiana, a short time, and there made the 
 acquaintance of Hon. James Brown, a noted lawyer 
 and celebrated jurist, and commenced the study of 
 law under his instructions. During his studies he 
 was appointed deputy recorder, and on the death of 
 the recorder took his position. He attended the 
 law college in the State University at Bloomington, 
 Indiana, and received his diploma, and at the same 
 time he pursued such classical studies as would be 
 of use to him in his profession. He was admitted 
 to the bar at Lawrenceburg, Judge Holmon, since 
 member of congress, being the presiding officer of 
 the board. In 1857 he commenced the practice of 
 his profession in Keokuk, Iowa. He was clerk of 
 the house of the Iowa legislature in 1861, and was 
 appointed by the governor as commissioner to 
 receive the votes of the soldiers. By special act of 
 the legislature he was also made translator of the 
 law for German publication. In 1864 he was 
 elected vice-president of the school board, and was 
 
 unanimously elected alderman on an independent 
 ticket. In the fall of 1864 he was elected and 
 served two terms as county judge of Lee county; 
 and on that office being abolished, he held the po- 
 sition of county auditor, to which he was reelected. 
 During this time he lived at Fort Madison, but in 
 1872 he removed to Keokuk and organized the 
 Commercial Bank, of which he is cashier and direct- 
 or. In 1872 he was nominated for congress on the 
 democratic ticket, but was defeated. He has been 
 tendered the nomination of superintendent of pubhc 
 instruction for the state, but declined. Was elected 
 mayor of Keokuk in 1874, which office he yet (1876) 
 liolds. 
 
 He was married on the 15th of November, 1866, to ■ 
 Miss Addie G. Ayres. Through his industry and 
 economy he has acquired an ample competency; and 
 when we consider that on his arrival in this country 
 he was not only without means but utterly ignorant 
 of the English language, his success is truly remark- 
 able. His character for integrity and uprightness 
 is unimpeachable, and he occupies in the community 
 in which he lives a position that commands respect 
 and confidence of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 HON. JOHN N. ROGERS, 
 
 DA V EN PORT. 
 
 FOREMOST among the many eminent names 
 that adorn the bar of Iowa stands that of John 
 Newton Rogers, the subject of this sketch, who was 
 born in the city of New York, on the 7th of Novem- 
 ber, 1830, his parents being Edmund J. and Rebecca 
 (Piatt) Rogers. His father was a native of South- 
 ampton, Long Island, and an active and successful 
 merchant in New York city till his death, which oc- 
 curred suddenly in the year 1835, at the age of forty- 
 seven years. His mother was a daughter of Judge 
 Ebenezer Piatt, long a prominent citizen of Hunt- 
 ington, Long Island. Mrs. Rogers survived her 
 husband some eighteen years, and died in 1853 at 
 Northampton, Massachusetts, where her home had 
 been during the latter part of her life. She was a 
 woman of rare symmetry and beauty of character, 
 and to her influence and example much of what is 
 excellent in the character of our subject is due. She 
 had nine children, four of whom died in infancy, 
 and five of whom survive. The eldest son. Rev. 
 E. P. Rogers, D.D., is a prominent and successful 
 
 clergyman of the Reformed church in New York 
 city. Our subject is the only other son. 
 
 The ancestors of the family were among the early 
 colonists of New England, arriving about the year 
 1640, and claiming descent from Rev. John Rogers, 
 who suffered martyrdom in England during the 
 reign of " Bloody Mary." 
 
 : The preparatory studies of our subject were pur- 
 sued at Fairfield, Connecticut, and afterward at 
 Northampton, Massachusetts. In 1844 he entered 
 the university of the city of New York, from which 
 he was graduated in 1848 with the first honors of 
 his class. Soon after leaving college he went to 
 Augusta, Georgia, where his elder brother then re- 
 sided, and spent a year in teaching. Returning to 
 the north in 1849 he commenced the study of law 
 at Northampton, then the family home, in the office 
 of the Hon. Osmyn Baker and Hon. Chas. Delano, 
 then prominent members of the bar of Hampshire 
 county, and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar 
 in the month of February, 1852. He removedto 
 
THE UNtT&D STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 71 
 
 New York city soon after, and in the autumn of 
 1853 accepted an invitation to become professor of 
 pleading, practice and evidence in the State and 
 National Law School, then located at Poughkeepsie, 
 New York. He continued to occupy this chair for 
 two years, after which he returned to New York city 
 and commenced the practice of his profession. 
 
 In the autumn of 1856 he made a trip to the west 
 and visited Davenport, Iowa, being induced to do 
 so chiefly by the circumstance that his friend and 
 former fellow-student, the late W. H. F. Gurley, 
 who, during the administration of President Lincoln, 
 was United States district attorney for Iowa, resided 
 there. The result was that in the following Febru- 
 ary (1857) he removed to Davenport, where he has 
 ever since resided. He formed a law partnership 
 with his friend Gurley which lasted three years and 
 was then dissolved, and in i860 he formed his pres- 
 ent partnership with Chas. E. Putnam, Esq., former- 
 ly of Saratoga Springs, New York, under the firm 
 name of Putnam and Rogers, which has long since 
 taken a leading place at the bar of Iowa, having 
 been connected with some of the heaviest suits and 
 most important questions of law coming before the 
 state and federal courts during the last seventeen 
 years, with the most flattering results. The practice 
 of Mr. Rogers has been confined to no special de- 
 partment of the law, and he is equally powerful in 
 all. He has been instrumental in settling points of 
 underwriting and commercial law, as well as the 
 more delicate and complicated questions of constitu- 
 tional and statutory interpretation. One of the most 
 notable recent instances of his power was exhibited 
 in the case of the United States, on the relation of 
 Hall and Morse against the Union Pacific Railroad 
 Company, begun in the United States circuit court 
 of Iowa and carried thence to the supreme court of 
 the United States, in which Mr. Rogers, as attorney 
 for the citizens of Council Bluffs, Iowa, succeeded 
 in establishing, against very able lawyers and the 
 strenuous opposition of the railroad company, the 
 fact that the eastern terminus of the line was at 
 Council Bluffs, on the eastern side of the Missouri 
 river, instead of at Omaha, and consequently that 
 the bridge between the two cities was a part of the 
 railroad and must be operated as such. The case 
 involved several new and intricate questions, as well 
 as the construction of several acts of congress. 
 Judge Dillon, of the United States circuit court at 
 Des Moines, and finally the supreme court of the 
 United States, sustained Mr. Rogers throughout the 
 
 protracted and exciting struggle. Mr. Rogers has 
 devoted himself almost constantly to his profession, 
 evading all public offices, except one term (1866-7) 
 which he served with great ability in the state legis- 
 lature. In 1875 he was offered by the governor of 
 Iowa the appointment of judge of the seventh ju- 
 dicial district, but declined, it. He has for two years 
 past filled the chair of lecturer on constitutional law 
 in the law department of the Iowa State University, 
 a position on which he has reflected high distinction. 
 His mental qualities are of a keen analytical and 
 logical cast. His language is luminous and finely 
 chosen to express his "exact and clear-cut ideas. 
 His statements are made with extreme accuracy of 
 expression, and although he does not seek the aid of 
 rhetorical embellishment to give charm to his argu- 
 ment, yet he is always listened to by courts with the 
 greatest pleasure, and he carries along his auditors 
 by the resistless sweep of his logical force. He is 
 stronger with the court than with the jury, for the 
 reason that he seems to aim exclusively at strength 
 and certainty, discarding the arts and embellishments 
 of the popular advocate. Hence the trained mind 
 of the jurist follows him with ever increasing inter- 
 est. His arguments in the higher courts are not 
 unfrequently reproduced phrase for phrase in the 
 ruling of the judge delivering the opinion. Yet he 
 has been eminently successful before juries, and his 
 candor with them always commands respect and 
 confidence. 
 
 In addition to his legal attainments he has a fine 
 literary culture, possessing a memory that retains 
 everything once read. He has the power of recall- 
 ing at will large passages from his favorite authors, 
 which in the company of congenial friends he does 
 with great aptness and felicity. 
 
 The natural habitude of his mind is retiring, hence 
 his circle of intimate acquaintances is limited. He 
 has but few of the popular arts, and those who do 
 not know him well misjudge his disposition and 
 think him exclusive when he is only shy. To his 
 friends he is warm-hearted and sincere, and those 
 who know him best esteem him most highly. He is 
 known chiefly as a lawyer, and his reputation in that 
 capacity is the result of earnest and persistent efforts 
 exerted in the interest of his clients, and not to 
 make a display. His tastes and character of mind 
 induce a love of legal study for its own sake. 
 
 In the summer of 1872 he visited Europe and 
 spent four months in travel through that most dis- 
 tinguished quarter of the globe. 
 
72 
 
 TMU UNlTkD STATMS BIOGttAPtilCAL DICTlOlSrARr. 
 
 Mr. Rogers has been for many years a member of 
 the Reformed church, but is not at all sectarian in 
 his views, being in sympathy with all evangelical 
 christians. 
 
 In politics, he was in early life a whig. He has 
 been attached to the republican party since its first 
 organization, and has always supported it, though of 
 late years he has taken no active part in politics. 
 
 Shortly after removing to Iowa, in 1857, he mar- 
 ried Miss Mary Norman, daughter of the Rev. F. H. 
 
 Van Derveer, D.D., of Warwick, New York. This 
 union lasted until 1867, when it was terminated by 
 her death. One child, a son, named Ferdinand V., 
 who survives, is the result of the union. Since then 
 Mr. Rogers has remained a widower. 
 
 In personal appearance, he is of medium height, 
 slender make, a frame rather delicate than robust, a 
 pleasing countenance and well-shaped head sur- 
 mounted with a luxuriant growth of smooth, dark 
 brown hair. 
 
 JOHN E. GOODENOW, 
 
 MA^UOKETA. 
 
 JOHN ELLIOTT GOODENOW, "the father of 
 J Maquoketa," as he is called by the early settlers, 
 is a native of Vermont, and was born in Springfield, 
 Windsor county, on the 23d of March, 1812. His 
 parents, Timothy and' Betsy White Goodenow, were 
 hard working people of the agricultural class, and 
 raised a family of fourteen children. 
 
 The Whites, tradition reports, were descended 
 from Peregrine White, the first child born after the 
 Mayflower landed at Plymouth. It is a numerous 
 family in this country. The great-grandfather of 
 John Elliott had sixteen children, who lived to have 
 families. Timothy Goodenow moved to Warren 
 county, New York, when the subject of this memoir 
 was eight years old, and there the son remained, 
 tilling land with his father until a little past his ma- 
 jority, with no education except what could be had 
 in attendance at a district school a few weeks each 
 winter season. He bought a canal boat and ran it 
 on the Northern canal, between Burlington, Ver- 
 mont, and Albany, New York, until the close of 
 navigation in 1837, and during the winter following 
 started for the west with a four-horse team, driving 
 it more than a thousand miles. He crossed the 
 Mississippi on ice on the loth of March, 1838, and 
 being delayed by high water, did not reach the spot 
 where Maquoketa now stands until the 19th. It 
 was then a wild open prairie, with no improvement 
 or human habitation in sight, though there were a 
 few families in the township. Here Mr. Goodenow 
 " squatted " on a hundred and sixty acres of land, 
 which did not come into market till six years later; 
 and' he was a "sovereign," so far as he was con- 
 scious of any civil power. He put up a log cabin 
 with the greatest possible dispatch, and that spring 
 
 planted three acres of sod corn, realizing a light 
 crop. The next season he fenced his whole quarter 
 section and broke forty or fifty acres of it. This 
 being done, and not being partial to a bachelor's 
 life in the wilderness, he returned to Warren county. 
 New York, and on the 3d of October, 1839, received 
 the hand, having long before had the heart, of Miss 
 Eliza Wright, of Bolton. Before starting on their 
 bridal tour, leading to the land. of rattlesnakes and 
 ague, Mr. Goodenow became ill, and was not able to 
 leave eastern New York until after navigation had 
 closed ; so, instead of bringing his young bride to her 
 new home on the Maquoketa by water, he purchased 
 a span of horses, and started with' both sleigh and 
 wagon, sometimes using one and sometimes the 
 other. They had relatives on the route in western 
 New York, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan ; made sev- 
 eral visits; were nine weeks on the road, and had, 
 on the whole, a pleasant wedding trip. Once they 
 took the wrong track in Carroll county, Illinois, and 
 found themselves on the open prairie eight or ten 
 miles east of the Mississippi river, with no house in 
 sight and the shades of night gathering around 
 them. Their team was fatigued, they were at the 
 end of a road, and, although the weather was decid- 
 edly wintry, they concluded to camp out. They 
 had a plenty of covering ; secured the horses ; made 
 a couch in the wagon box, and, supperless, went to 
 bed. Many years afterward the writer of this sketch 
 heard Mrs. Goodenow remark that when she saw 
 that it was impracticable to try to find a shelter that 
 night, she had a mind " to have a good cry," but 
 cheered up, and she still smiles at the novelty of 
 their bridal bed. Like Mrs. Wilkins Micawber, who 
 resolved that she never would leave her husband. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 72, 
 
 Mrs. Goodenow never did. They reached their 
 home in the Western Clearings in February, and 
 for thirty-eight years have remained on this beauti- 
 ful town site. In addition to farming, Mr. Goode- 
 now soon found that he must accommodate travelers, 
 and opened his log house as an inn, building a frame 
 house in 1846, and a brick house two or three years 
 later. Most of the time, up to a recent date, he has 
 kept a public house, and few landlords in the State 
 of Iowa have been longer or are more generally 
 known, or have more friends. With money or with- 
 out it, no person was ever turned away by Mr. 
 Goodenow on account of the condition of his fi- 
 nances. Kinder hearted or more hospitable people 
 than he and his wife, it would be difficult to find in 
 this state or any other. 
 
 As early as 1844 Mr. Goodenow made up his 
 mind that Maquoketa was a good site for a town, 
 and the way to make a town was to build houses 
 and hold out inducements for settlers to locate here, 
 he donating lots for all public purposes. At that 
 time he commenced building, and nearly every 
 year since that date has witnessed his enterprise in 
 that line. In this respect he has been the foremost 
 man in the place for more than thirty years. In 
 enterprises of every kind likely to advance the in- 
 terests of his home, he has been a leader. He early 
 took an interest in railroads, and has been a director 
 for more than twenty years, — some part of the time 
 
 of roads that were never built. Two are now run- 
 ning into the city. 
 
 Mr. Goodenow was the first postmaster of Ma- 
 quoketa, the office at first being called Springfield, 
 and established in 1843. Prior to that date the 
 nearest office was at Bellevue, twenty miles distant. 
 He was assessor of Jackson county one year; the 
 first mayor of the city, serving at different times 
 three years, and a member of the general assembly 
 in the session of 1849 and 1850. 
 
 He has always been a democrat, but not a bitter 
 partisan. He belongs to the grand lodge of Odd- 
 Fellows. 
 
 Mr. Goodenow is the father of eight children, 
 seven of them still living. The second child, a 
 daughter, Carlotta, died on the 23d of October, 1863, 
 aged twenty years. Osceola, the eldest son, is mar- 
 ried and lives in Maquoketa ; Mary L. is the wife of 
 D. H. Anderson, of Maquoketa; Emma, of George 
 B. Perham, printer, Chicago ; and Helen C, of Fred- 
 eric S. Tinker, of Maquoketa. Alice, George and 
 Winfield Scott, are unmarried and live at home. 
 
 Mr. Goodenow has added to his lands and other 
 property from time to time ; is no less industrious 
 than he was forty years ago, and he has lived to 
 see rise around him one of the most solidly built 
 and thriving little cities in eastern Iowa. It is al- 
 most needless to say that no man has done as much 
 as he to make Maquoketa what it is. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM L. JOY, 
 
 SIOUX CITT. 
 
 WILLIAM LEONARD JOY, the leading court 
 lawyer in northwestern Iowa, is a native of 
 Vermont, and was born in Townshend on the 17th 
 of August, 1831. His parents were William H. and 
 Hettie Leonard Joy. His paternal grandfather was 
 a revolutionary soldier. The father of William L. 
 owned two or three farms and a grist mill, and, at 
 times, had other business on his hands, and the son 
 aided him most of the time until twenty years of 
 age, fitting for college meanwhile, at Leland Semi- 
 nary in his native town. He entered at Amherst 
 in his twenty-first year, and graduated in the class 
 of 1855, teaching school three winters while in his 
 college course. 
 
 Mr. Joy taught a few terms in the Leland Sem- 
 inary while studying law with Judge Roberts ; was 
 
 admitted to the bar early in the spring of 1857, and 
 started immediately for the west, reaching Sioux 
 City, Iowa, his present home, on the 5th of May. 
 Here he formed a partnership with N. C. Hudson, 
 and the firm of Hudson and Joy was continued 
 until 1866. After practicing alone for two years 
 Mr. Joy took a partner, C. L. Wright, and the firm 
 of Joy and Wright is the leading law firm in Wood- 
 bury county. These gentlemen are the local attor- 
 neys for the Illinois Central Railroad Company, and 
 the attorneys for the Sioux City and Pacific, the Da- 
 kota Southwestern, the Covington, Columbus and 
 Black Hills railroads, and for the Iowa Falls and 
 Sioux City Land Company. 
 
 Mr. Joy has always had a heavy law business; 
 has managed his affairs with prudence and success. 
 
74 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 He was a member of the lower house in the 
 eleventh and twelfth sessions of the general assem- 
 bly, and probably did as important work in the 
 service of his constituents as any member of the 
 legislature in 1864 and 1866. He was sent especial- 
 ly to look after the railroad interests of northwestern 
 Iowa, and succeeded in carrying through the meas- 
 ures for which he was sent. 
 
 Mr. Joy was a member of the board of capital 
 comrnissioners two years. 
 
 He has been connected with the Baptist church 
 more than twenty years, and is one of the most 
 prominent laymen in that denomination in the 
 state. 
 
 Mr. Joy was formerly a whig, and is now a repub- 
 
 lican. His political friends have frequently urged 
 him to be a candidate for judge of the district and 
 circuit courts and the supreme court; he has pe- 
 culiar fitness for such a position, but is too modest 
 to encourage such movements. Pecuniarily, he 
 would suffer by going on the bench. 
 
 On the loth of October, 1859, he was united in 
 marriage with Miss Frances A. Stone, of Westmore- 
 land, New Hampshire, and they have two children. 
 
 Mr. Joy is a fair pleader before a jury, and is still 
 improving ; but he is best known as a court lawyer, 
 and as such has but few equals in the state. His 
 opinions on points of law carry great weight. His 
 moral character is solid, and Sioux City was fortu- 
 nate in having such a man among her early settlers. 
 
 HON. JOHN F. BUNCOMBE, 
 
 FORT DODGE. 
 
 THE pioneer lawyer in Webster county, as it 
 now stands ; the first notary public, the first 
 journalist in the county, and the first citizen to be 
 made a Mason, was John Francis Buncombe, now 
 and for a long time one of the leading attorneys in 
 the eleventh judicial district. Mr. Buncombe was 
 born in Erie county, Pennsylvania, on the 22d of 
 October, 1831. His father, Eli Buncombe, and his 
 mother, Selina Champlin Buncombe, are still living. 
 His great-grandfather was a soldier in the revolu- 
 tionary war, and his grandfather in the war of 1812. 
 John F. Buncombe is of the fifth generation from 
 Sir Charles Buncombe, of England, a family long 
 and still connected with the British parliament. 
 
 Eli Buncombe was a farmer, and his son spent 
 the first sixteen years of his life at home, tilling the 
 soil and attending a district school a few months 
 each year. He prepared for college at Meadville, 
 Pennsylvania, and attended Allegheny College, there 
 located, three years. The senior year he went to 
 Center College, Banville, Kentucky ; studied six 
 weeks, stood the full examination in the four years' 
 curriculum and returned the same week to Allegheny 
 College, where he graduated. 
 
 Mr. Buncombe commenced studying law with H. 
 L. Richmond, of Meadville, concluding his studies 
 with James C. Marshall and Hon. J. P. Vincent, of 
 Erie. He was admitted to the bar at Erie when 
 twenty-two years of age. After practicing there one 
 year he became interested in the opening fields of 
 
 the west and removed to Iowa, settling at Fort 
 Bodge, in April, 1855. Here he has practiced law 
 for twenty-two years, securing a larger practice than 
 any other attorney in the upper Bes Moines valley. 
 Meanwhile he has usually been engaged in other 
 branches of business, and which, though unaided, 
 he has prosecuted successfully. Although his legal 
 practice has always been large, yet at one time he 
 was managing seven farms ; at two periods he was 
 conducting a weekly newspaper, one of them, the 
 " Fort Bodge Sentinel," the first paper ever printed 
 iij northwestern Iowa ; and at one time he was the 
 sole local director of the Iowa Falls and Sioux City 
 railroad, now the western part of the Iowa branch 
 of the Illinois Central road. He has been engaged, 
 at different times, in building the Iowa and Minne- 
 sota and Iowa Pacific railways, and has built one 
 or two short railroads to coal mines, in connection 
 with C. B. Richards, Esq., of Fort Bodge, and is at 
 this time operating four mines in which he has a 
 two-thirds interest. He is also attorney for the Illi- 
 nois Central Railroad Company for seventeen coun- 
 ties of the Iowa division. 
 
 When the Indian massacre occurred at Spirit 
 Lake, ninety miles northwest of Fort Bodge, early 
 in the year 1857, Mr. Buncombe commanded one 
 of the two companies organized at Fort Bodge, suf- 
 fering everything but death in that perilous march 
 through three feet of snow. Captain Johnson, of 
 company C, from Webster City, and Private W. Burk- 
 
^.-i^^'t—&^-^ 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 77 
 
 holder, of company B, were frozen to death, all 
 others barely escaping. On their return marchj 
 when in Pocahontas county, they had to halt for 
 forty-eight hours by the side of a body of water, 
 without food or tents, while the water froze stiff 
 enough to bear up loaded wagons. The troops 
 were out eighteen days, returning on the 5 th of 
 April, all of them thoroughly exhausted, and some 
 of them suffering for a long time after. Governor 
 Grimes compliinented these volunteers in the strong- 
 est terms for their bravery and their heroic endur- 
 ance of the hardships of the campaign. 
 
 As early as i860 Mr. Duncombe was a member 
 of the general assembly ; has since been a member 
 of both houses, attending in all six sessions, regular 
 and special. Physically and intellectually, he stood 
 among the tallest members. He was a powerful 
 debater, a wise counselor, and a very earnest worker 
 for the good of the commonwealth. While in the 
 upper house in i860 he drew the bill, and secured 
 its passage, by which the land grant was transferred 
 to the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railway 
 Company, which act enabled that road first to cross 
 the State of Iowa, thereby causing the main line of 
 the Union Pacific railroad to make its eastern point 
 at Council Bluffs. At the last session which he at- 
 tended in the lower house he drew the bill for the 
 Iowa railroad tax law, and carried it through in op- 
 position to a number of the leading men in the gen- 
 eral assembly. 
 
 Mr. Duncombe has been twice a candidate for 
 congress, once for lieutenant-governor, and once for 
 judge of the supreme court; but the democratic 
 
 party, to which he has always belonged, has been in 
 the minority for more than twenty years both in the 
 state and his congressional district: hence, although 
 he has usually run far ahead of the party ticket, he 
 was unable to secure a majority, though he has the 
 ability to fill any position in the state. In 1872 he 
 was chairman of the democratic national conven- 
 tion, and as such cast the vote of the delegation for 
 Horace Greeley for President. . 
 
 Mr. Duncombe is one of the regents of the State 
 University, and takes much interest in educational 
 matters. He has taken the highest orders of the 
 Masonic fraternity. 
 
 Though an attendant on church servicers, Mr. 
 Duncombe is not a member of any religious society. 
 
 He has been twice married : first, on the 29th of 
 December, 1852, to Miss Carrie Perkins, of Erie, 
 Pennsylvania, she dying without issue two years 
 later; and the second time, on the nth of May, 
 1859, to Miss Mary A. Williams, daughter of Major 
 Williams, of Fort Dodge. She has had six children, 
 and five are living. The family home is one of the 
 most stately and elegant mansions in Iowa, situated 
 on a high bluff overlooking a wide stretch of the 
 Des Moines valley. 
 
 At the outset of his settlement at Fort Dodge, Mr. 
 Duncombe made its interests his own, and has al- 
 ways been one of the foremost men in every move- 
 ment calculated to encourage its growth and increase 
 its prosperity. His efforts in this direction have 
 been untiring and successful. He is a man of irre- 
 proachable character, and is held in high esteem by 
 a very wide circle of acquaintance. 
 
 CHARLES C. PARRY, M.D., 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 CHARLES CHRISTOPHER PARRY, M.D., 
 botanist and naturalist, was born in Worcester- 
 shire, England, on the 28th of August, 1823, and is 
 the second son of Joseph and Eliza (Elliott) Parry, 
 who with their family emigrated to America in 1832, 
 landing in New York on the ninth birthday of our 
 subject. They settled soon after in Sandy Hill, 
 Washington county, New York, where the boyhood 
 of young Parry was spent, attending school, at dif- 
 ferent periods, in several neighboring towns, includ- 
 ing, besides his regular place of residence, Benning- 
 ton, Vermont, and Union Village, New York. He 
 8 
 
 entered Union College, Schenectady (then under 
 tlie presidency of the celebrated Eliphalet Nott, 
 D.D.), in 1840, and graduated in 1842. After leav- 
 ing college he commenced the study of medicine, 
 including, for the purpose of recreation, the practi- 
 cal pursuit of botany; attended medical lectures at 
 Albany and New York city, graduating at the Col- 
 lege of Physicians and Surgeons in the latter place 
 in the spring of 1846 ; moved west in the fall of the 
 same year and settled in Davenport, Iowa, where 
 he commenced the practice of his profession. But, 
 although thoroughly educated, skillful and succesb- 
 
78 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 fill as a physician, yet his tastes and enthusiasm ran 
 altogether in the line of botany, for the study of 
 which he had contracted an uncontrollable passion 
 in early life, and since 1847 his labors have been 
 mainly devoted to that science. Accordingly in 
 that year he accompanied, in the capacity of botan- 
 ist, a public land-surveying party, under the direc- 
 tion of Lieutenant J. Morehead, in the interior of 
 Iowa, including the present location of the state 
 capital, Des Moines ; and in the following year he 
 was connected with D. D. Owens' geological survey 
 of the northwest, in Minnesota and Wisconsin, in 
 the same capacity, and prepared a classified list of 
 plants of the region embraced in the survey, includ- 
 ing previous observations in Iowa, published in Dr. 
 Owens' final report. In the spring of 1849 he left 
 for California, by way of the isthmus of Panama, 
 and was connected with the Mexican boundary sur- 
 vey, under command of Major W. H. Emory, as 
 botanist and geologist, the expedition being absent 
 four years. His report on the same is included in 
 the volumes of the " Mexican Boundary Survey," 
 published in 1857-9. After this he continued to 
 reside in Davenport, giving his attention mainly to 
 business matters connected with the improvement of 
 his property in that town, until 1867, making sum- 
 mer botanical excursions as far as the Rocky Mount- 
 ains in the years i86r, 1862 and 1864. In the spring 
 of the year 1867 he accompanied a Pacific railroad 
 surveying party across the continent on the line of 
 the thirty-fifth parallel, returning to Davenport a 
 year later. In t,he spring of 1869 he accepted the 
 appointment of botanist to the United States agri- 
 cultural department in Washington, District of Co- 
 lumbia, remaining in this position till 187 1. During 
 this period he made a short trip to Europe in the 
 spring of 1870, revisiting, after an absence of thirty- 
 eight years, the scenes of his early life, spending 
 most of the time at the world-renowned Kew Gar- 
 dens, then, as now, under the direction of the dis- 
 tinguished botanist and explorer. Dr. J. D. Hooker. 
 In the early part of 187 1 he accompanied the Santo 
 Domingo commission to that island in the interest 
 of the "Agricultural Department," and made a 
 report on the botanical resources of that district, 
 which constitutes one of the public documents of 
 that period. 
 
 In 1873 he accompanied the northwestern Wyo- 
 ming expedition, under command of Captain W. S. 
 Jones, United States engineer corps, to the head of 
 the Yellowstone and the National Park. In 1874 he 
 
 made a private botanical tour into southern Utah 
 and in the years 1875 and 1876 he made an ex 
 tended botanical collecting tour in Utah, Nevad; 
 and California, returning to Davenport in the fall 
 the last-named year. His reports on these severa 
 expeditions have been published in various scien 
 tific journals, the last being contained in volum( 
 one of " Proceedings of the Davenport Academy o 
 Science," of which important institution he was on( 
 of the original founders, and president thereof fron 
 1868 to 1875. 
 
 In politics, the doctor affiliates with the repub. 
 lican party,. though inclining more to its liberal thar 
 its strict party alliance. 
 
 In religious profession, he is an Episcopalian, and 
 in his philosophic views, an evolutionist. 
 
 Dr. Parry, like most eminent scholars and scien- 
 tists, is extremely modest and retiring. So unob- 
 trusive and entirely undemonstrative has been his 
 whole career that it is only the comparatively few 
 in the small circle of the devotees of science thai 
 are able to form any estimate of his worth in the 
 life he has chosen and to which he has devoted his 
 brilliant talents. He is essentially a student; his 
 time and ability are in continuous exercise in the 
 interests of science, and he has enjoyed the con- 
 fidence and esteem of some of the foremost men ir 
 the scientific world. The late lamented Agassis 
 was one of his constant correspondents, among 
 whom are also such well-known names as Professoi 
 Asa Gray, the late Dr. J. Torrey, Professor Eaton 
 of Yale College, Professors Henry and Baird, of the 
 Smithsonian Institution, Washington, District oi 
 Columbia, Dr. Engelmann, of St. Louis, etc., in this 
 country, and Hooker, Bentham and De CandoUe 
 in the old world. 
 
 It is as a botanist that Dr. Parry will be chief!) 
 rem'embered. During his several expeditions to the 
 Rocky Mountains and Pacific-slope territories hii 
 researches have resulted in large and very valuable 
 contributions to the classified flora of the Unitec 
 States. By his numerous reports and articles to th( 
 various scientific periodicals he has rendered servic( 
 of the utmost importance to the interests of sciena 
 throughout the world. 
 
 Dr. Parry is also a gentleman of the very highes 
 literary attainments alid of refined tastes, and hi 
 occasional' deviations from the beaten track of hi 
 pursuits, in the way of public addresses to his fel 
 low-citizens, have been productive of the most bene 
 ficial results ; especially note,worthy among thesi 
 
THR UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DiCTIONARr. 
 
 79 
 
 was his lecture on the history of the Mississippi 
 valley, delivered by request in 1872, and published 
 by the Young Men's Christian Association of Dav- 
 enport. 
 
 Despite his proverbial reticence and retiring hab- 
 its, Dr. Parry is a gentleman of fine social qualities, 
 and when he " unbends " himself is one of the most 
 genial of companions. 
 
 In all the phases of a strong moral character, he 
 
 is beyond reproach, and deservedly enjoys the high- 
 est esteem of all who know him. 
 
 In 1854 he was married in Davenport, Iowa, to 
 Miss Sarah M. Dalzell, who died in 1858, leaving 
 one child (Eliza), who survived her mother seven 
 years. In 1859 he married his present wife, Mrs. 
 Emily R. Preston, of Westford, Connecticut. Being 
 without other family, he is enabled to devote the 
 later years of his life to his congenial pursuits. 
 
 GENERAL JAMES M. TUTTLE, 
 
 DES MOINES. 
 
 T AMES MADISON TUTTLE, a native of Sum- 
 J merfield, Monroe county (now Noble county), 
 Ohio, was born on the 24th of September, 1823, the 
 son of James Tuttle and Esther nSe Crow. He 
 traces his paternal ancestry back to the earliest 
 settlement of Maine, his great-grandfather being 
 Burrell Tuttle and his grandparents being James 
 Tuttle and Martha n^e Moore. His maternal ances- 
 tors were natives of Pennsylvania, his grandfather 
 being Martin Crow. 
 
 Prior to his tenth year our subject attended 
 school in Fayette county, Indiana, and afterward, 
 until he attained his twentieth year, when he began 
 life for himself, his time was employed in assisting 
 his father. 
 
 Removing to the west in the spring of 1846, he 
 settled at Farmington, in Van Buren county, Iowa, 
 and there engaged in the mercantile trade and farm- 
 ing. As a business man, he soon won the confidence 
 of his fellow-citizens and disclosed those qualities 
 which eminently fitted him for official positions. 
 Accordingly, in 1855, he was elected sheriff of the 
 county. 
 
 Two years later he was elected county treasurer, 
 and in 1859 was reelected to the same office. 
 
 At the opening of the civil war his sympathies 
 became deeply engaged in the Union cause, and 
 raising a company of volunteers, he was elected 
 captain of the same. Such, however, was the ra- 
 pidity with which the call for troops was filled, that 
 this company was not called into the service until 
 the 27th of May, 1861, when it was assigned to 
 the 2d regiment Iowa Infantry Volunteers. While 
 quartered at Keokuk, Iowa, Captain Tuttle was 
 elected lieutenant-colonel, and on the 6th of Sep- 
 tember, 1861, succeeded Colonel Curtis to the rank 
 
 of colonel, that officer having been promoted to the 
 rank of brigadier-general. At the battles of Fort 
 Donelson and Shiloh, Colonel Tuttle displayed 
 marked courage and self-possession, and made a 
 record that placed him in the front ranks of Iowa's 
 brave soldiers. 
 
 During the fall and winter of 1862 he held com- 
 mand of the forces at Cairo, but in the spring of 
 1863 was assigned the command of a division of 
 General Sherman's corps. While serving in this 
 capacity he was an active participant in the cam- 
 paign against Vicksburg and in the capture of Jack- 
 son, Mississippi. 
 
 In the fall of 1863 he was the democratic can- 
 didate for governor of Iowa, but that party being 
 greatly in the minority, defeat was inevitable. Re- 
 turning to the army, he rendered efficient service 
 until the fall of 1864, when he was mustered out. 
 
 Settling at Des Moines in the ensuing autumn, he 
 was engaged in farming during the next two years, 
 and since that time has been largely interested in 
 pork packing. He first began the business in part- 
 nership with his brother, Martin Tuttle, under the 
 firm name of Tuttle Brothers. In 1870 he pur- 
 chased his brother's interest, and three years later 
 formed a partnership with Lewis Igo. The firm of 
 Tuttle and Igo continued until the spring of 1875, 
 when Mr. Tuttle purchased his partner's interest in 
 the business, and since that time has conducted it 
 in his own name. 
 
 In 1866 he was a candidate for congress, his op- 
 ponent being General G. M. Dodge, and ran ahead 
 of the party ticket by two thousand votes. In 187 1 
 he was elected a member of the state legislature and 
 served one term. He is now (1877) actively iden- 
 tified with the republican party. 
 
8o 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 As a business man, General Tuttle is prompt and 
 energetic ; upright and honorable in all his dealings, 
 he has secured the esteem of all .with whom he has 
 had to do, and attained to a well merited success. 
 
 He has been twice married : first, on the 22d of 
 September, 1847, to Miss Elizabeth J. Conner, of 
 Fayette county, Indiana, who died on the 21st of 
 September, 185 1; and on the 17th of August, 1853, 
 he was married to Laura M. Meek, daughter of Dr. 
 S. G. Meek, of Farmington, Iowa. 
 
 Of the five children who have been born to them, 
 Laura, born on the i6th of July, 1854, is the wife of 
 Albert L. West, cashier of Capital City Bank, East 
 Des Moines, and has one child, Florence ; George, 
 born on the 26th of January, 1856, died at Vicks- 
 burg on the i6th of October, 1863 ; Mary, born on 
 the 25th of March, i860, died on the 2d of May, 
 1862 ; Mella, born on the 13th of July, 1865, is now 
 attending school ; Joel was born on the 4th of 
 April, 1872. 
 
 HON. JAMES UNDERWOOD, 
 
 ELDORA. 
 
 AT an early day in the history of our country 
 1\. three brothers by the name of Underwood 
 emigrated from England. Of these, one settled in 
 Massachusetts, and was. the ancestor of many of the 
 Underwoods of New England and the west ; a sec- 
 ond settled in Virginia, and from him sprang many 
 of that name in the south and west. The history 
 of the third is not known with any degree of cer- 
 tainty. David Underwood, a major at the battle of 
 Bunker Hill, engaged in farming after the close of 
 the war. He had a son, Jonas, who also was a 
 farmer, and lived to an old age. He, too, had a 
 son Jonas, who married Mary Vorse, and became 
 the father of six sons and five daughters, of whom 
 four sons and one daughter are now living. Of 
 these, Henry Underwood married Almira Conley, 
 and has four children, and is a farmer and stock- 
 dealer near Marengo, Illinois ; Malinda is the wife 
 of Harry Mclntyre, trackmaster of the upper branch 
 of the Des Moines Valley railroad; Dr. Myron Un- 
 derwood, a physician at Eldora, Iowa, is a graduate 
 of Rush Medical Cpllege, Chicago ; he was a sur- 
 geon in the 12th Iowa regiment during the civil 
 war ; he married Sophia Ellis, and has four children 
 living; David Underwood is a farmer and stock- 
 dealer at Steamboat Rock, Hardin county, Iowa; 
 he married Ann Harnard, and has one son. James 
 Underwood, our subject, a native of Montville, 
 Geauga county, Ohio, was born on the 25th of Oc- 
 tober, 1830. His maternal great-grandmother was 
 a relative of John Adams ; his paternal grandmoth- 
 er's name was Boydon. His maternal grandfather, 
 Henry Vorse, a millwright by occupation, was a 
 man of superior intellect ; being too young to enter 
 the army he served as page to an officer during the 
 
 revolutionary war. He had a family of five sons 
 and three daughters, of whom four are now (1B77) 
 living. Henry Vorse, about eighty-three years of 
 age, is a resident of Kalamazoo, Michigan ; one of 
 the daughters is living at Binghamton, New York; 
 the younger brother, William Vorse, a mechanic, 
 lives' near St. Paul, Minnesota. The mother of our 
 subject, now eighty years old, is living with him. 
 His only paternal uncle, Asa B. Underwood, a resi- 
 dent of Grundy county, Iowa, is now over eighty 
 years of age, and a man of unusual activity and in- 
 telligence. 
 
 Mr. Underwood passed his early life amid the 
 scenes of what was then the far west. He endured 
 many hardships, and at the age of twelve years was 
 able to do a man's work chopping. Although he 
 labored under many disadvantages in acquiring an 
 education, he studiously improved his opportunities 
 and gained a fair knowledge of the ordinary Eng- 
 lish branches. 
 
 In the fall of 1845 his father moved, with a herd 
 of cattle, to Riley, McHenry county, Illinois, where 
 he purchased and improved a farm. Here our sub- 
 ject was engaged in such work as is incident to the 
 pioneers of a new country, and received some edu- 
 cational advantages. He was accustomed to drive 
 to Chicago with produce, and it is worthy of note, 
 as showing the difference between prices then and 
 now, that his hotel bill, for supper, lodging and 
 breakfast for himself and hay for his horses, and 
 two drinks of whisky, was fifty cents. He remained 
 on the farm until his nineteenth year, when he com- 
 menced to learn the carpenter and joiner's trade, 
 but only continued at it a few months. He was 
 next engaged in carrying goods and passengers 
 
THE UNtT&D STATES BtOGItAPHICAL JolCTtONAkT. 
 
 8l 
 
 westward from Elgin. During the winter of his 
 twentieth year he taught school, " boarding around " 
 and receiving a compensation of ten dollars per 
 month. Purchasing his time of his father in the 
 following spring, he bought a yoke of oxen, and put 
 in fifty acres of wheat and seven acres of oats. He 
 then entered school and studied until July, and 
 afterward harvested his grain, expending but five 
 dollars for help. During the next winter he taught 
 the same school for sixteen and two-thirds dollars 
 per month, and in the spring, buying two yokes of 
 steers and a yoke of oxen, broke prairie for one dol- 
 lar and fifty cents per acre. He next taught a 
 school at twenty dollars per month, having sixty- 
 four pupils, of whom fifty became teachers. After 
 the close of his school he cut the timber and 
 erected a barn, twenty-six by thirty-six feet and 
 twenty feet high, for his father for fifty dollars, it 
 being the last payment on eighty acres of land 
 which he had purchased of him. He spent ten 
 weeks in school at Mount Morris, Illinois, in the 
 following fall, studying grammar, rhetoric, algebra 
 and geometry, and also taking an active part in de- 
 bating societies. During the following winter he 
 taught at Mount Morris for twenty-six dollars per 
 month. In the spring of 1854, in connection with 
 his brother, he purchased the homestead, making a 
 farm of three hundred and fifty acres. Soon after- 
 ward he sold his interest and bought his brother's 
 farm of one hundred and fifty acres. He con- 
 tinued farming, teaching winters, until 1861, when, 
 through embarrassment caused by becoming surety 
 for a friend, he sold his farm, paid off his indebt- 
 edness and removed to Steamboat Rock, Hardin 
 county, Iowa. Here he engaged in general work 
 and in farming until the nth of August, 1862, when 
 he enlisted as a private in company F, 32d regiment 
 Iowa volunteers. Going to Camp Franklin, Dubuque, 
 he was appointed first duty sergeant in October, and 
 on the 17th of November started for the south. At 
 St. Louis the regiment was divided, his company, 
 with four others, going to Cape Girardeau. In the 
 following July, with a lieutenant's commission, he 
 recruited a company of colored troops. In August, 
 being taken violently ill, he was obliged to remain 
 behind for a time, his, company going south. He 
 afterward recruited some twenty-five more men, and 
 joined the regiment at Helena, Arkansas. It was 
 very sickly, and they buried three hundred and 
 eighty-three of their men between the ist of Sep- 
 tember and the ist of December. 
 
 Mr. Underwood was in very poor health, often 
 having to be brought in from picket duty, but kept 
 up until the following July, when he was stricken 
 down with fever and obtained a leave of absence of 
 nineteen days, and went north to Marengo, Illinois. 
 Returning to his regiment, he was sent to Island No. 
 63, and not improving in health, but continually 
 growing worse, he was sent north on a surgeon's 
 certificate. Finding that there was little prospect 
 of his recovery, he, on the i6th of December, sent 
 in his resignation. 
 
 Being in a poor state of health, he worked at va- 
 rious things during the next few years, and in 1871 
 removed to Grundy county^nd engaged in farming, 
 continuing that occupation until the present time. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Underwood is a thorough repub- 
 lican. He was a strong abolitionist, and cast his 
 first ballot for John P. Hale, being the only man in 
 his town who voted that ticket. At the next elec- 
 tion all but thirteen persons in the town voted with 
 him. In the fall of i860 he was captain of a com- 
 pany of " wideawakes," and in 1868 captain of a 
 company of " tanners." 
 
 From November i, 1851, until 1 861, he was treas- 
 urer of the school fund at Riley, McHenry county, 
 Illinois, and during that time was several times 
 town clerk. In 1872 he was elected town trustee 
 at Melrose, Iowa, and during the past three years 
 has been serving as assessor. In October, 1875, he 
 was elected to the state legislature for a term of two 
 years. 
 
 Mr. Underwood's sympathies have always been 
 with the laboring classes, and he has taken an act- 
 ive part in the grange movement. He has been a' 
 leader in the local organizations, and is now (1877) 
 a member of the executive committee of the state 
 grange. He has for many years been actively con- 
 nected with agricultural societies, and has given 
 much attention to raising fine stock. Himself a 
 man of cultivated mind, he has always advocated 
 that .the farmer should be a man of the highest type 
 of intellectual and moral worth. 
 
 Since June, 1850, he has been an active member 
 of the Methodist church, and during much of that 
 period has been superintendent of the Sabbath- 
 school. He has also been leader, trustee and stew- 
 ard, and in the autumn of 1857 was licensed as a 
 local preacher. In the fall of 1870 he was ordained 
 a deacon. 
 
 Mr. Underwood was married on the 31st of 
 March, 1854, to Miss Melissa Gardner, eldest 
 
82 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 daughter of N. C. Gardner, postmaster at Union, 
 McHenry county, Illinois. He was formerly a 
 farmer, and is an only son of his father, who also 
 was an only son. The family is descended from 
 the family who owned "Gardner's Island." Mrs. 
 Underwood's mother was Susasan Ann n^e Sanders. 
 Of her family two sons and four daughters are now 
 living. 
 
 Mr. Underwood has had six children : Olin 
 Clark, born November 27, 1855, who is now study- 
 ing medicine ; Osman Watson, born December 27, 
 1857, who died May 7, 1861 ; James Myron, born 
 October 22, 1859, now at home; Milton Ferree, 
 born July 22, i866, who died July 11, 1868; Henry 
 Mason, born February 9, 1869, and Luella, born 
 November 7, 187 1. 
 
 JOHN FORREST, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 AMONG the early settlers of Davenport in the 
 fx. year 1837, when on the site of the present 
 large city was but a small village with few inhabit- 
 ants, may be found the name of John Forrest, now 
 one of Davenport's affluent citizens, enjoying the 
 memories of the past, as well as the substantial 
 results of a successful life, after a long period of 
 patient toil, firm perseverance, but restless activity 
 of thought. These, conjoined with prudence and 
 good management, added to quickness of percep- 
 tion and promptitude of action, have produced the 
 usual result — success. There are lives the story of 
 which are more sensational, but no condition of life 
 confers greater benefit on society, and deserves 
 higher encomiums, than that of the successful self- 
 made man. 
 
 John Forrest was born in the town of Russia, 
 Herkimer county. New York, on the 14th of July, 
 1807. His parents were natives of Ireland and 
 were among the first settlers upon what was known 
 as the "royal grant," where they lived to an 
 advanced age, dying within a few months of each 
 other. Young Forrest commenced life as a farm 
 boy, assisting on his father's farm, and being reared 
 to habits of economy and industry, which were of 
 great aid to him in after life. He received a com- 
 mon school education, and after attaining his major- 
 ity accepted a situation as clerk in a store, remain- 
 ing as such two years, then going into the mercan- 
 tile for himself, which he followed successfully until 
 1837, when, being drawn by the current then pre- 
 vailing, he started west. He traveled extensively 
 through the western states and territories from May 
 until September of that year, with a view to the 
 selection of a place preparatory to moving his family 
 to the west as their future home. After diligent 
 search he selected Davenport, then in Wisconsin 
 
 territory, as being preferable to all others, and mak- 
 ing an investment in claims returned east for his 
 family. In October, 1837, he again started for the 
 west, and after six weeks of hard travel via Erie 
 canal. Lake Erie, Ohio canal, Ohio and Mississippi 
 rivers, arrived in Davenport on the 4th of December, 
 1837. On their way up after arriving at Burlington 
 they were unceremoniously put ashore, the owner of 
 the old craft being afraid to venture farther, north, 
 fearing they might get caught in the ice, but on the 
 third day another boat took them to Rock Island 
 and thence home. During the time they were in 
 Burlington the territorial legislature of Wisconsin 
 was in session, and the representatives of this county, 
 without his application or knowledge, had a justice's 
 commission from Henry Dodge, then governor of 
 Wisconsin territory, made out, and sent to him soon 
 after his arrival. Government lands not having 
 been offered for sale, there was much litigation about 
 claims which could only be settled in a justice's 
 court with twelve jurymen. This involved great 
 costs and much excitement. This office he held by 
 appointment and election until June, 1845, when he 
 was appointed postmaster, which office he held four 
 years. Mr. Forrest has filled many offices of trust. 
 He was alderman of his ward, and for one term held 
 the office of mayor in the absence of the mayor 
 elect. General Sargant. 
 
 He was very active in the question of the con- 
 tested county seat, and it was due perhaps more to 
 him than any other man that it was conceded to 
 Davenport. In the election before the last a major- 
 ity of twenty votes was for Rockingham. He and 
 his friends succeeded in getting the supervisors of 
 Dubuque county, to whom the returns were made, 
 to delay the canvass and entry of record until they 
 could satisfy them of the fraud on the part of Rock- 
 

 t- ■ ^"2^z.^^-, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 85 
 
 ingham in conducting the elections. They were 
 given three days in which to come from Dubuque 
 and return there again with the testimony. Mr. 
 Forrest started out through the country, and as he 
 found a party who had voted against them illegally 
 he, as a justice, at once took his deposition and 
 within the time specified succeeded in obtaining the 
 affidavits of a sufficient number to cast the vote in 
 favor of Davenport, and the commissioners so re- 
 corded it. 
 
 Mr. Forrest is an active member of the Methodist 
 church, having joined that faith more than forty 
 years ago. He is also a staunch member of the 
 
 Sons of Temperance, and was one of the originators 
 of the order in Iowa. 
 
 He was educated in the democratic school of 
 politics, to which party he still adheres, and is an 
 earnest advocate for reform. 
 
 He was married on the 28th of March, 1835, t° 
 Miss Annie E. McMasters, of Russia, New York, a 
 lady of high attainments. 
 
 Mr. Forrest is a self-made man. Commencing life 
 in straightened circumstances, he has, by his own 
 indomitable energy and perseverance, made for him- 
 self a fortune, meriting and receiving the confidence 
 and respect of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 HON. AZRO B. F. HILDRETH, 
 
 CHARLES CITT. 
 
 THE Hildreths belong to an early New England 
 family, being descendants of Richard Hildreth, 
 who came to this country with a company of Puri- 
 tans from the north of England about 1640, and 
 settled in the colony of Massachusetts Bay. He be- 
 came a freeman of that colony on the loth of May, 
 1643, his home then being in Woburn, ten or twelve 
 miles northwest of Boston. At first he received 
 grants of land to the amount of a little more than 
 one hundred acres, and in 1664 additional grants 
 of one hundred and fifty acres. He died in 1688, 
 and his remains lie in the old burying-ground in 
 Chelmsford, — the town from which Lowell, Mas- 
 sachusetts, was taken about 1823. The descendants 
 of this Richard Hildreth are scattered over the New 
 England and middle states, and a very few are 
 found in 'the western and southern states. Among 
 them are noted historians and professional men. 
 Richard Hildreth, author of a history of the United 
 States, and Dr. Samuel Prescott Hildreth, the an- 
 tiquarian and historical writer, of Marietta, Ohio, 
 belong to this family. Eminent physicians in Dra- 
 cut, Methuen, Marlborough and other towns in 
 Massachusetts, were of this stock. Many of them 
 have been graduates of Harvard College. A work 
 called " Dragoon Campaigns to the Rocky Moun- 
 tains," published in 1836, was written by James 
 Hildreth. 
 
 Hon. Azro Benjamin Franklin Hildreth, the sub- 
 ject of this memoir, is a descendant from the original 
 Richard Hildreth, buried in Chelmsford nearly two 
 hundred years ago.- He is a son of Daniel Hildreth, 
 
 a Vermont farmer, and somewhat noted wool grower 
 and stock raiser, and Clarissa Tyler, and was born 
 in Chelsea, Orange county, February 29, i8i6. He 
 is the eldest child in a family of twelve children, 
 nine of whom lived to grow up. His maternal grand- 
 father, Jonathan Tyler, was one of the patriotic sons 
 of New Hampshire who aided with musket in gain- 
 ing American independence. 
 
 Young Azro seems to have had a natural and 
 strong love for books; used them freely at a very 
 early age, and took as much care of them as of 
 his younger sisters. His name, Benjamin Franklin, 
 caused him to become a printer and editor. As 
 early as sixteen years of age, though aiding his 
 father on the farm during the busy season, he had 
 fitted himself for a school-teacher, and began that 
 profession at that early age. He taught several 
 winters, farming meanwhile during the summers, 
 and attending some academy, at Bradford or Ran- 
 dolph, during the autumns. 
 
 At nineteen he left his native home and state by 
 his father's consent, crossed the Green Mountains, 
 went to New York city, where he worked one season 
 in a book publishing house, returned the next year 
 to Chelsea, worked one year in the printing office 
 of William Hewes, spent another year as a com- 
 positor in the city of New York, and in 1839 went 
 to Lowell, Massachusetts, and started the " Literary 
 Souvenir," a weekly paper which he conducted about 
 three years, a neat and well edited publication, having 
 a good circulation, and, as the writer well knows, it 
 was quite popular, especially among the operatives 
 
86 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 in the Lowell mills. The writer was a careful reader 
 of this publication. During part of this period Mr. 
 Hildreth also published the " Ladies' Literary Re- 
 pository," and for a while the " Daily Morning News," 
 long enough to lose some money in the venture. In 
 the autumn of 1842 Mr. Hildreth was persuaded to 
 return to Vermont, locating at Bradford. There he 
 published at first the "American Protector," a high- 
 tariff weekly, advocating the election of Henry Clay 
 to the Presidency. Not long afterward' he changed 
 the name to the "Vermont Family Gazette," starting 
 a monthly at the same time^ called the " Green 
 Mountain Gem." Both were high-toned publica- 
 tions, filled with excellent reading for the domestic 
 circle. 
 
 At the end of ten years a returned Californian, 
 with his pockets full of gold, made Mr. Hildreth 
 a tempting offer. He sold out, went to Holyoke, 
 Massachusetts, and spent three years operating at 
 first a book and fancy goods store, and then pub- 
 lishing and editing the " Holyoke Mirror." In 
 November, 1855, he sold out, and the next spring 
 settled in Charles City, Floyd county, Iowa. Here 
 he found a broad field for the development of his 
 energetic, go-ahead character. 
 
 On the 31st of July, 1856, twenty-one years ago, 
 he issued the first number of the "Intelligencer," a 
 seven-column paper, with the names of John C. Fre- 
 mont and William L. Dayton at the head of the 
 editorial page, as candidates for President and Vice- 
 President. It was a novelty to see a large, live 
 newspaper, damp from the press, so far up the Cedar 
 valley, and the first copy printed was put up at auc- 
 tion, and brought twenty dollars. Three thousand 
 copies of the first number were sold. Mr. Hildreth 
 conducted the paper about fourteen years, disposing 
 of it on the ist of October, 1870. During the crash 
 of 1857, and all the hard times following, it. never 
 shrunk a particle in size, never abated an iota its 
 editorial fullness and vigor, was enlarged as the vil- 
 lage (now city) grew, and was and still is noted for 
 its excellent moral tone and its strong support of 
 the republican party. During the rebellion Mr. Hil- 
 dreth did valiant service for the cause of the Union. 
 
 In the spring of 187 1 Mr. Hildreth aided in or- 
 ganizing the First National Bank of Charles City, of 
 which he was and is a stockholder and director. 
 Two years later the Floyd County Savings Bank 
 was incorporated, and he is its president. For some 
 years he has been a member of the city school board, 
 and is president. In that capacity he is doing most 
 
 excellent service, his tastes running to educational 
 matters. This fact was discovered soon after his 
 settlement in Iowa, and as early as 1858 he was 
 elected a member of the state board of education, 
 representing ten counties in the northeastern part of 
 the state. He proved a very active and serviceable 
 member of that body during the four years he was 
 in it, and some portions of the present school laws 
 of Iowa are the production of his pen. It was 
 through his influence that the doors of the State 
 University were thrown open to females as well as 
 males, he introducing a bill for that end and secur- 
 ing its passage amid strong opposition. It was one 
 of the best acts of his life, and he ought to be proud 
 of it, if he is not. For this act the women of Iowa 
 will alwayg owe him a debt of gratitude. 
 
 In 1863 Mr. Hildreth was elected a member of the 
 general assembly, serving one term. There he was 
 chairman of the committee dn schools and state uni- 
 versity, and was also on the committees on banks 
 and banking and printing. Here, likewise, he car- 
 ried through an important measure for his part of 
 the state, a measure tried more than once before and 
 failing. He drew up a memorial to congress for a 
 land grant on or near the forty-third degree of lati- 
 tude, running from McGregor westward through 
 Charles City. Through his skillful and untiring 
 efforts this memorial passed the legislature, was sent 
 to every member of congress, and cars of the land- 
 grant road entered Charles City in 1869, opening 
 northern Iowa to the eastern markets, and giving a 
 grand impetus to the growth of Mr. Hildreth's 
 adopted home. He saw the place when it had less 
 than three hundred inhabitants ; he sees it now with 
 three thousand, and has the satisfaction of knowing 
 that his pen has contributed largely to its prosperity. 
 
 From what has already been written it may be 
 correctly inferred that he was originally a whig in 
 politics, transferring his affections to the republican 
 party. To the latter he still adheres. He was never 
 an office-seeker, and never, as he has been heard to 
 declare, asked for any man's vote. 
 
 Mr. Hildreth was an Odd-Fellow in New England, 
 a member of the Encampment and of the Grand 
 Lodge of Massachusetts at the time of leaving there, 
 when his connection with the order ceased. 
 
 He is a Unitarian in religious sentiment, but there 
 being no church of that order in Charles City he 
 attends the Congregational church, of which his wife 
 is a member; and he is a liberal contributor to 
 christian and benevolent institutions generally. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 87 
 
 His present wife was Miss Liveria A. Knight, 
 daughter of Josiah Knight, of Fryeburg, Maine, they 
 being married on the 21st of October, 1844. They 
 had one child, a bright and promising daughter, who 
 
 died in her seventh year. Mrs. Hildreth is a well 
 educated woman, with sterling good sense and fine 
 business talents ; is an excellent manager of house- 
 hold affairs, and her husband's best counselor. 
 
 CHARLES H. WARD, 
 
 DBS MOINES. 
 
 CHARLES HORATIO WARD, a native of 
 Sheldon, Wyoming county, New York, was 
 born on the 9th of November, 1843, ^lie son of 
 Horatio Gates Ward and Mary nee Ladd. His 
 paternal grandfather, a farmer by occupation, was 
 a native of New York ; and his grandfather Ladd, 
 a native of Ohio. His father, in 1851, had charge 
 of a pastorate at Strykersville, but at that time left 
 that place and removed with his family to Lyndon, 
 Whiteside county, Illinois, where he died in 1852. 
 
 Charles remained at home until he was fifteen 
 years old. He first attended school in his native 
 place, but his mother being in very moderate cir- 
 cumstances, he was early thrown upon his own re- 
 sources and earned his own support after his ninth 
 year. 
 
 From his fifteenth to his seventeenth year he 
 was studying with a view to preparing for college, 
 but, upon the opening of the civil war in 1861, in- 
 stead of entering college, enlisted as a private in 
 company A, 9th regiment Illinois Cavalry. After 
 about five months he was commissioned hospital 
 steward in the regular army and assigned to duty 
 at Columbus, Kentucky, being placed in charge of 
 the medical stores of the army in the medical pur- 
 veyor's department. He was admitted to this posi- 
 tion upon examination and was the youngest person 
 in the regular army holding the same. At the time 
 of General Forest's raid the goods of the purveyor's, 
 commissary's and quartermaster's departments were 
 conveyed to Memphis, Tennessee, and there Mr. 
 Ward made his headquarters until the close of the 
 war. After performing the regular duties of his 
 office about one year, at the request of General 
 Grant he opened a small-pox hospital in the sub- 
 urbs of Memphis, and being unable to obtain other 
 assistance than that of a negro servant, was him- 
 self compelled to remain in charge about one year. 
 He opened the hospital with about one hundred 
 patients, but before it closed the number had in- 
 creased to eighteen hundred. During the whole 
 9 
 
 time he was engaged, daily, preparing prescriptions 
 from six o'clock in the morning till twelve o'clock at 
 night. He was afterward sent back to the city to 
 organize the Washington Hospital, for the accom- 
 modation of the sick and wounded. Prior to this 
 time he went on board the Red River, a hospital 
 steamer, to the siege of Vicksburg. The steamer 
 was lying above the city, and one day going on 
 shore, he was captured by bushwhackers. Fortu- 
 nately he made his escape after being taken about 
 five miles, and returned to the boat with his clothes 
 riddled, and a scar on his forehead, which he re- 
 ceived in the skirmish. In August, 1863, he ob- 
 tained a furlough of thirty days, and returned in 
 September with twelve others, armed with revolvers, 
 on a boat heavily laden with cattle. Just below 
 Madrid Island No. 10, in the Mississippi river, they 
 struck a sand-bar, and while driving the cattle on 
 shore were attacked by about twenty-five guerrillas ; 
 he at once organized his men and completely routed 
 them. While in Washington Hospital the steamer 
 Sultana, chartered by General Canby to return ex- 
 changed prisoners, exploded, ten miles above Mem- 
 phis, with twenty-five hundred men on board. Hurry- 
 ing to the scene, Mr. Ward worked vigorously for 
 forty-eight hours saving lives ; about seventeen hun- 
 dred were lost. These are a few of his experiences 
 during the war, and serve to show something of the 
 services which he rendered. For six months after 
 the close of the war he was engaged examining and 
 correcting stewards' reports, adjusting accounts and 
 turning goods over to the government. 
 
 In the spring of 1866 he returned to his home at 
 Geneseo, Illinois, but soon afterward, with a capital 
 of three hundred dollars, opened a drug and book 
 , store at Altona, Knox county, Illinois. During his 
 five years' residence there he was variously em- 
 ployed: he had all the insurance agencies of the 
 place, was express agent, had charge of the bible 
 depository, was town clerk, librarian of the Sunday 
 school, and president and captain of a base-ball 
 
88 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 nine. Removing to Des Moines, Iowa, in February, 
 1871, he there resumed the drug trade. His busi- 
 ness rapidly increased from the first, and in the 
 summer of 1875 he erected an elegant store build- 
 ing one hundred and fifty by twenty feet with six- 
 teen feet ceiling. His store occupies this building, 
 and is one of the finest drug stores in the state. He 
 still owns his store in Illinois, and also owns one 
 at Carlisle, Iowa. 
 
 As a business man, he has been eminently suc- 
 cessful, his three hundred dollars having in ten 
 years inclreased to forty thousand. His success is 
 the result of peculiar business tact, and a strict 
 adherence to a line of trade for which his abilities 
 and tastes eminently fit him. 
 
 In political sentiment he has always been a 
 thorough republican. He has never desired polit- 
 ical distinction, and has never held an ofifice except 
 that of town clerk, to which he was elected without 
 his knowledge. 
 
 He is a consistent member of the congregational 
 church, of which denomination both his father and 
 father-in-law were ministers. 
 
 Mr. Ward was married in May, 1866, to Miss 
 Isabelle C. Miles, a daughter of Rev. M. M. Miles 
 and Mary n^e Keyes. Of the four children that 
 have been born to them, the first died unnamed; 
 the second, Guy, died at three years of age; the 
 third, Percy, died when one year old ; Minnie, born 
 on the 20th of December, 1873, is now living. 
 
 HON. BYRON RICE, 
 
 DES MOINES. 
 
 THE subject of this brief biography is counted 
 among Des Moines' most honored citizens. A 
 native of Madison county, New York, he was born 
 on the 24th of May, 1826, the son of Dr. John Rice. 
 
 Mr. Rice comes of a very long-lived family. His 
 paternal great-grandfather, a native of Worcester, 
 Massachusetts, was a farmer by occupation, and 
 fought at the battle of Bennington under General 
 Stark, having removed thither long previous to the 
 revolutionary war. His wife's maiden name was 
 Dunbar. They had three sons: Charles and Ste- 
 phen, both of whom were army officers in the war of 
 181 2, and John Rice, the grandfather of our sub- 
 ject, who died in Allegany county. New York, at 
 the age of ninety-three years. His maternal grand- 
 father, Harmanus Van Bleck, was a native of Albany 
 county. New York, and at an early day settled at 
 Fenner, in Madison county. He was a prominent 
 and influential man in his community, and at one 
 time a member of the state legislature. His family 
 were among the early immigrants from Holland. 
 His wife, whose maiden name was Bettis, belonged 
 to a wealthy family who were tories during the revo- 
 lution, and removed to Canada. 
 
 Dr. John Rice, the father of our subject, was born 
 at Lansingburg, New York, in 1794. During his 
 early manhood he was engaged in teaching, but 
 later turned his attention to. the study of medicine, 
 and practiced that profession for many years, and is 
 still living (1877). 
 
 Byron received a good common-school and aca- 
 demical education, and in 1840, being then six- 
 teen years of age, began teaching, devoting the 
 winters to this vocation and the summers to the 
 study of law. Five years later he entered the New 
 York State Normal School at Albany, and graduated 
 from the same in 1847. After closing his literary 
 studies he entered the office of Denison Robinson, 
 district attorney of the county, and there continued 
 his legal studies until August, 1849, when he was 
 admitted to the bar by the supreme court then in 
 session at Ithaca. 
 
 Immediately removing to the west, he settled at 
 Des Moines, Iowa, and forming a partnership with 
 Mr. J. E. Jewett, established himself in the practice 
 of his profession. In August, 1850, he was elected 
 prosecuting attorney, and in the following year was 
 elected county judge, and administered the duties of 
 that office for four years. 
 
 Resigning that position in the spring of 1855, he 
 then, in company with Judge Greene, of the supreme 
 court, and Mr. John Weaver, of Cedar Rapids, 
 turned his attention to banking, and continued in 
 that business until 1859. During that year he was 
 the democratic candidate for the lower house of the 
 legislature, but his party being in a hopeless minor- 
 ity, he was defeated by a small majority. 
 
 Judge Rice next formed a partnership with Hon. 
 D. O. Finch and Mr. George Clark, and again took 
 up the practice of his profession, and continued the 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DlCTIOlSTART. 
 
 89 
 
 same with reasonable success until the fall of 1876, 
 since which time he has not been actively employed 
 in any regular business. 
 
 Although Judge Rice has always acted with the 
 democratic party, he is conservative in his views, 
 and during the civil war zealously supported the 
 Union cause. 
 
 His religious training was under Episcopalian 
 influences, and although he was never a communi- 
 cant he assisted in organizing St. Paul's church in 
 Des Moines, and was one of the original vestry. 
 In 1862 he was received into the Roman Catholic 
 church. 
 
 He was married on the igth of September, 1854, 
 to Miss Cornelia Calder, a daughter of Joseph Cal- 
 
 der, of Cedar Rapids,' Iowa. Of the seven children 
 who have been born to them, four are now living, 
 namely, Spencer M., Elizabeth, John E. and Will- 
 iam B. 
 
 Mr. Rice has had four brothers and two sisters, 
 namely, Rev. Dr. S. M. Rice, of Grace Episcopal 
 Church, Jersey City; Rev. Delancey G. Rice, of 
 Providence, Rhode Island ; Dr. Wm. B. Rice, M.D., 
 of Niagara Falls, and Charles H. Rice, of the same 
 place. His sister, Mrs. Rev. D. A. Bonnar, of St. 
 Clements, ' Rochester, New York, has been twice 
 married, her first husband having been Rev. J. S. 
 Townsend, who is buried in St. Peter's Church, 
 Philadelphia. His other sister, Mrs'. Dr. E. B. 
 Morse, died in Monroe county, Michigan, in 1843. 
 
 THEODORE W. BARHYDT, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 THEODORE WELLS BARHYDT was born 
 on the loth of April, 1835, at Newark, New 
 Jersey, and is the son of Nicholas Barhydt and 
 Phoebe H. n^e Gardner. His paternal ancestors 
 were of Holland-Dutch descent and arnong the first 
 settlers of New York state, having immigrated from 
 Europe about 1679. His grandfather, Jerome Bar- 
 hydt, was a soldier in the revolutionary war and an 
 officer in the war of 1812. During the former, when 
 the tories and Indians under Johnson were commit- 
 ting depre'dations upon the frontier settlers, his 
 grandmother (then a child of thirteen years) gave 
 material aid to the soldiers in. molding bullets used 
 in defense of their homes and lives, being at the 
 time in Schoharie fort, where all the women and 
 children were placed. They were of the old Knick- 
 erbocker families, whose early history was one of 
 devotion to the cause of liberty. Soon after the 
 birth of Theodore his family removed to Schenec- 
 tady, New York (the former home of his father), 
 where he enjoyed the advantages of a good com- 
 mon-school education, and two years at the Schenec- 
 tady Academy. Afterward he assisted his father in 
 his store, but being ambitious and anxious to be in- 
 dependent, he secured a situation in a larger store 
 with a friend of his father, and there continued 
 clerking and partially learned a trade. 
 
 Wishing, however, for a wider field in which to 
 gratify his ambition than that offered in a dull town 
 in central New York, he resolved to try his fortunes 
 
 in the west, and to that end came to Iowa in 1855, 
 being scarcely twenty years of age, and began his act- 
 ive business career. In 1856 he received an appoint- 
 ment as deputy postmaster at Burlington, Iowa, and 
 also engaged in the book and periodical business. 
 The enterprise proved a marked success, and in it he 
 laid the foundation of the competence he enjoys to- 
 day. In 1859 he resigned his position and engaged 
 in the boot and shoe business, establishing the firm 
 of Tizzard and Barhydt, which continued till i860. 
 At that time he took the business in his own hands, 
 and by perseverance and great business energy has 
 pushed it forward until the firm of T. W. Barhydt and 
 Co. have done the largest business in its line of any 
 house in the state. In 1870, in connection with 
 friends, he organized the Merchants' National Bank 
 of Burlington,, of which he was elected president, a 
 position which he still holds. The bank has a capital 
 and surplus of over two" hundred thousand dollars, 
 and has been one of the most successful banks ever 
 organized in the west. Mr. Barhydt was also an incor- 
 porator of the Burlington Mutual Loan Association 
 and Mutual Benefit Loan and Building Society, and 
 director in both, as also director of the Burlington, 
 Cedar Rapids and Minnesota railway. He is con- 
 nected with a number of financial, commercial and 
 local enterprises. 
 
 In politics, he was originally a democrat, and still 
 continues an adherent of that party, though he is 
 not so much of a politician as to support unworthy 
 
90 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 candidates merely for party's sake. He has never 
 taken an active part in politics, and though repeat- 
 edly urged to accept nominations for city and legis- 
 lative offices, his many other duties have forced him 
 to decline. 
 
 He was reared under Presbyterian influences, and 
 although he adheres to the principles of that denom- 
 ination, he is liberal in his views respecting the creed 
 and faith of others. 
 
 He owns some of the best business property in 
 Burlington, the result of his foresight in business ; 
 and his elegant home commands a delightful view 
 up and down the Mississippi river. 
 
 Mr. Barhydt stands prominent among the emineni 
 self-made men of Iowa. He possesses the love and 
 respect of his fellow-citizens, and is well and favor- 
 ably known throughout the country. As a foresee- 
 ing financier, he stands among the first bankers oi 
 the west. 
 
 He married, when quite young. Miss Eleanor C. 
 Christiancy, of Schenectady, New York, and much 
 of his success is due to the good counsels he re- 
 ceived from his wife. With untiring industry and 
 energy, aided by good habits and health, has made 
 him one of the most prominent of the business men 
 of Iowa and the west. 
 
 DANIEL D. CHASE, 
 
 WEBSTER CITY. 
 
 DANIEL DARROW CHASE was born in Gan- 
 ajoharie, New York, on the 4th of July, 1830. 
 His father, Oliver C. Chase, was a farmer. His 
 mother's maiden name was Ruth Darrow. Until 
 he attained the age of seventeen the subject of this 
 notice remained at the old homestead, attending the 
 district school in the winter season and laboring 
 like other lads in rural communities on the farm 
 during the spring, summer and autumn. The four 
 ensuing years he passed at the Ames Academy and 
 the Cazenovia Seminary, where he acquired a good 
 academic education, and taught in the meantime to 
 procure the necessary funds to pursue his studies. 
 After he ceased attending the seminary he became 
 the principal of the public school at Cazenovia, at 
 the same time commencing the study of the law 
 with H. G. Paddock, Esq., of that town. He was 
 afterward called to the charge of the New Wood- 
 stock Academy, successfully discharging the ardu- 
 ous duties of a teacher while pursuing his legal 
 studies. He completed his course of legal instruc- 
 tion with his great-uncle, the distinguished Daniel 
 Cady, who was one of the most eminent lawyers and 
 statesmen of his day, and was admitted to the bar 
 of the State of New York at the general term of the 
 supreme court, in Saratoga county, on the ist of 
 January, 1856. He entered at once upon the prac- 
 tice of his profession as the partner of Hon. William 
 Wait, the well-known author of " Wait's New York 
 Digest" — Mr. Chase opening an office in Broad- 
 albin, Fulton county, and Mr. Wait remaining at 
 Johnstown. 
 
 In August, 1858, Mr. Chase removed to Iowa, 
 settling at Webster City, the shire town of the new 
 county of Hamilton, where he has since continuous- 
 ly resided. Like tens of thousands of other young 
 men who have their own way to make in the world, 
 he came with no capital save that which was stored 
 up in his brain, and an earnest determination to 
 deserve success. Upon his arrival in the then little 
 frontier town which he had selected for his home, 
 and which then contained scarcely four hundred 
 people, and the county not over sixteen hundred, 
 he found the small legal practice in the hands of 
 two older lawyers, who had settled there* some time 
 previously. It was many months before he secured 
 his first retainer, — a discouraging fact to a man of 
 limited means, when the times were hard and grow- 
 ing worse with every ensuing week. But he patient- 
 ly bided his time, and finally the temperance people 
 were forced to employ him in the prosecution of 
 sundry violations of the liquor law, both of his com- 
 petitors, fortunately for him, being engaged on the 
 other side. The fight was a prolonged and bitter 
 one, and it served to bring prominently to the notice 
 of the people the fine legal ability and great force 
 of character of the hitherto reserved and rather reti; 
 cent and neglected young lawyer. This rough and 
 tumble contest completely " westernized " him, and 
 from this time forward he was the favored attorney 
 in all the region around. In the following winter 
 he visited quite a number of the northern counties 
 of the old eleventh judicial district, becoming ac- 
 quainted with the people in that sparsely setded 
 
*^'' :!iy n IVuaonEmfe'P'^ 
 
 xT^^3^~^ ^^ 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 93 
 
 section, and securing quite an appreciable addition 
 to his slender legal practice at home. The spring 
 of 1864 found him with as much and as profitable 
 employment as active young lawyers are able to 
 secure in a new country. And he was now ac- 
 corded the leading position in his profession in that 
 portion of northwestern Iowa. Noted for his purity 
 of character, dealing fairly with his clients, and never 
 encouraging litigation, except in cases where its ne- 
 cessity and justice rendered it imperative, — thus 
 making him always the safest of counselors, — he 
 rapidly won his way to a high place in the popular 
 estimation. This measure of respect and confi- 
 dence has only increased as the years have passed 
 away. 
 
 In the autumn of 1859 his name was prominently 
 mentioned in connection with the position of county 
 judge, a position in those days of great local power, 
 for that officer had control of all disbursements of 
 county funds, audited all accounts and bills against 
 the county, and was within the scope of his duties, 
 very nearly ■' monarch of all he surveyed." When 
 the convention met, every delegate favored his nomi- 
 nation, and the county had a heavy republican ma- 
 jority ; but he declined the proffered honor and re- 
 mained a private citizen. But in the ensuing year, 
 at the republican judicial convention, he was unani- 
 mously tendered the nomination for member of the 
 board of education, to which he was, in October fol- 
 lowing, chosen by a very large majority. Before his 
 term of service expired a supposed vacancy occurred 
 in the office of district attorney for the eleventh ju- 
 dicial district, and while he lay in bed sick with 
 fever his friends brought him out for the office, and 
 he was chosen by more than the party majority. To 
 remove all doubt the legislature at the next session 
 passed an act declari-ng the vacancy to have existed 
 and confirming his election. In 1862 he had no 
 opposition in the republican convention, and very 
 little at the polls, and was reelected for the full term 
 of four years. In the year 1865, a vacancy having 
 occurred in the office of judge of the district court, 
 he was appointed to fill the place by Governor Will- 
 iam M. Stone. He was twice nominated by accla- 
 mation and twice elected to this distinguished posi- 
 tion, and at the close of nine years' continuous 
 service on the bench he declined a third nomination 
 and retired to private life. His district comprised 
 some eight counties, in each of which his last court 
 was distinguished by manifestations of the profound- 
 est respect for the retiring judge. The bar held 
 
 meetings and passed resolutions in the highest de- 
 gree complimentary of the ability and impartiality 
 with which he had discharged the delicate and re- 
 sponsible duties which had devolved upon him for 
 so many years. In the course of such a long career 
 upon the bench, where the judge can, if he chooses, 
 to a large degree, make an autocrat of himself ^ — 
 vvhen counsel, in their eagerness for success, occa- 
 sionally overstep the bounds of prudence and must 
 be kept in their own proper place, asperities often 
 arise which men carry with them through life. But 
 in this instance nothing of the kind appeared. The 
 gentlemen of the bar in each county seemed to vie 
 with each other in their expressions of deep and 
 heartfelt respect. In his own county, among his old 
 rivals at the bar and among whom he was to return 
 as a rival practitioner, only the kindest feeling pre- 
 vailed, as was evidenced by the adoption of the 
 following resolution, penned by Colonel Charles A. 
 Clark, a lawyer of the opposite party, who has risen 
 to a distinguished position in central and north- 
 western Iowa : 
 
 Resolved, That by his ability, efficiency and integrity in 
 the discharge of every official duty, Judge Chase has won, 
 and is worthy of, not only the commendation and plaudits 
 of the bar, but of the entire people who have received the 
 benefits of his labor. 
 
 The bar of the entire district, on the last day of 
 his court, united in presenting him with a magnifi- 
 cent gold watch and chain, to purchase which' they 
 contributed the sum of five hundred dollars. A 
 proud testimonial anywhere and under any circum- 
 stances. 
 
 As we are writing these lines, we are in receipt of 
 a letter from an eminent lawyer, long a practitioner 
 in the eleventh judicial district, who bears the fol- 
 lowing testimony to the distinguished merits of the 
 subject of our sketch : 
 
 Judge Chase, as a jurist, is possessed of many strong 
 qualifications. Patient, yet vigorous in the investigation of 
 causes; clear, forcible and terse in his enunciation of legal 
 principles, he was a model judge. The judicial cast of his 
 mmd IS marked. A thorough knowledge of human nature 
 large perceptive faculties, with judgment and reasoning 
 powers to match, combined with generous culture and 
 patient research, indicate a type of man fitted to adorn the 
 bench of a court of last resort. 
 
 Aside from these" more substantial political honors 
 conferred upon Judge Chase, he was made a dele- 
 gate-at-large to the republican national convention 
 in 1864, when President Lincoln was nominated for 
 his second term, and was chairman of the Iowa 
 delegation in that body. 
 
94 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 A whig in his early days, he has acted with the 
 republican party for the past twenty years. 
 
 Judge Chase is not a member of any church or- 
 ganization, but is a regular attendant upon public 
 worship and a liberal supporter of religious effort. 
 Better than anything the public at large know of 
 him, however, is the fact that his hand and purse 
 are ever open to help the needy and distressed. In 
 all the acquaintance of the writer hereof, there is no 
 man who gives more freely in proportion to his 
 means to objects of deserving charity, and this with- 
 out ostentation or display. 
 
 Judge Chase married his wife, whose maiden 
 name was Hattie E. Bell, at New Woodstock, Madi- 
 
 son county. New York, on the loth of August, 1858. 
 They have only one child, a son of much promise, 
 now a student in the Iowa State University. From 
 the time he located in Webster City Judge Chase 
 has taken a Ijvely interest in the public schools, and 
 in every institution and enterprise tending to elevate 
 and improve the people, and enhance the wealth 
 and character of his adopted home. 
 
 In conclusion, we may say that Judge Chase is a 
 man whose marked ability, rich and varied culture, 
 candor and impartiality on the bench, unquestioned 
 purity of character, praiseworthy aims and great 
 public usefulness, have assigned him a distinguished 
 place among the first men of Iowa. 
 
 HON. PHILIP VIELE, 
 
 FORT MADISON. 
 
 IN collecting the life histories of Iowa's influential, 
 honored and leading men, we should be remiss 
 in our duty should we omit that of him whose name 
 heads this sketch. Fully realizing the difficulty of 
 avoiding on the one hand the not doing justice to 
 our subject, and on the other the presenting of a 
 one-sided sketch, we present his biography impar- 
 tially and with a true regard for the truth, — charac- 
 teristics which alone add grace and dignity to the 
 work of the historian. 
 
 Philip Viele was born at the Valley (now Valley 
 Falls), in the town of Pittstown, Rensselaer county. 
 New York, on the loth of September, 1799. His 
 paternal great-grandfather, Arnaud Cornelius Viele, 
 was a Frenchman by descent and a Hollander by 
 birth-, who immigrated to America in the latter part 
 of the seventeenth century and settled in Schenectady, 
 New York, on the Mohawk river. He is honorably 
 mentioned in the colonial history of New York for 
 important services rendered the government in the 
 negotiations with the Indian nations. The parents 
 of our subject were Abraham L. Viele and Hannah 
 nee Douglass, a daughter of Major Samuel Douglass, 
 of Pittstown, New York. They had nine children: 
 Philip; Lodewic, died in 1840; Patience, widow 
 of Daniel T. Newcomb, of Davenport, Iowa ; Eve 
 Eliza, died in 1848 ; Delia Maria, wife of Hon. David 
 Rover, of Burlington, Iowa; William Douglass, died 
 in 1866; Samuel Douglass, died in 1867; Harriet, 
 widow of the late Dr. George W. Fitch, of Musca- 
 tine, Iowa; Charles Viele, of Evansville, Indiana. 
 
 Philip passed his early life on his father's farm, 
 and at the age of fifteen was sent to an academy in 
 Salem, Washington county. New York, where he 
 remained three years. In 1817 he entered Union 
 College, at Schenectady, and for several years pur- 
 sued his studies with zeal under the celebrated Dr. 
 Nott. Hon. William H. Seward was then a student 
 at Union College, and between him and Mr. Viele 
 there grew up a friendship which continued for 
 many years afterward. 
 
 In October, 1821, Mr. Viele commenced studying 
 for the legal profession in the office of John L. Viele, 
 Esq., at Waterford, Saratoga county. New York, and 
 completed his studies in the office of John Paine, 
 Esq., of Troy, New York, and in 1824 was admitted 
 to the bar by the supreme court. Possessed of a 
 ready wit, quick at repartee, having strong mental 
 perceptions and a ready flow of language, polished 
 by literary attainments and deliberate reflection, and 
 fearless in the advocacy of what he believed to be 
 right, he must necessarily have attained to a high 
 position as a jurist and advocate had he confined 
 himself to the practice of his profession. Here, 
 however, he permitted himself to be allured by 
 the excitement of politics, and leaving his Black- 
 stone and Coke, turned his attention toward po- 
 litical matters, — addressing the populace from the 
 hustings. 
 
 During the Presidential campaign of 1824 four 
 candidates appeared, soliciting the suffrages of the 
 people. William H. Crawford was the democratic 
 
TBB UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 95 
 
 nominee, while John Q. Adams, General Jackson 
 and Henry Clay each presented himself as an inde- 
 pendent candidate for the Presidency. The historic 
 name of Adams, the military reputation of Jackson, 
 and the oratorical abilities and statesmanship of 
 Clay, all combined to create an excited political 
 feeling throughout the country. All these had been 
 distinguished leaders, and each had personal friends 
 and admirers in all sections, who supported their 
 respective favorite with all imaginable zeal. Catch- 
 ing the enthusiasm of the hour, Mr. Viele took the 
 stump in support of " Old Hickory," and from his 
 youth, and fluent speech, soon became widely known 
 as the " Boy Orator." A former citizen of Keokuk, 
 Iowa, who knew him at the time, says of him : " No 
 other speaker, old or young, in eastern New York, 
 could draw together such large crowds and rouse 
 them to the same pitch of excitement as Judge 
 Viele." Such were his services to his party, and so 
 highly was he esteemed, that DeWitt Clinton, then 
 governor of New York, tendered him the office of 
 surrogate of Rensselaer county, New York, a posi- 
 tion which he accepted in 1827 and held until 1831, 
 when he was re-appointed by Governor Throop and 
 held it until 1835. The office was one to be de- 
 sired, since it paid a salary of two thousand dollars 
 a year, which, at that time, was worth three times 
 that amount to-day. His duties during the eight 
 years while he held this office were so exacting that 
 he found no time for legal study, except so far as 
 the same related to probate matters, and saw the 
 mistake which he made in abandoning his profes- 
 sion only when he had retired from business, and 
 looked back over his life career. While a resident 
 of New York Mr. Viele became surety for a relative 
 for a large amount of money, and, the relative fail- 
 ing, in business, he was called upon to meet the 
 obligation ; and feeling the moral force of the claim, 
 yielded up his property, even to his homestead, to 
 liquidate the demands which his generosity had in- 
 curred, and with his wife started westward to begin 
 anew the struggle of life. After a tedious journey 
 of more than a month by stages and steamboats 
 (there were then no railroads west of New York), 
 they, on the 2d of June, 1837, pitched their tent 
 on the present site of the thriving city of Fort 
 Madison, then in the territory of Wisconsin. The 
 then little village comprised about twenty cabins 
 set among the bushes and trees, but it being 
 the county seat of Lee county, Mr. Viele hung 
 out his " shingle " and once more resumed his 
 
 profession. Madison soon became an important 
 business town, and during the next eight years 
 he continued at the bar with a growing prac- 
 tice. But his love for the excitement of the po- 
 litical arena had not left him, but revived again 
 with all the vigor with which it had lured him from 
 his profession in his early manhood. Before leaving 
 New York he had become estranged from the demo- 
 cratic party, by reason of the corruptions which be- 
 came manifest in its workings. There was in the 
 state a clique known as the "Albany Regency," of 
 which Van Buren and Marcy were the leaders, and 
 whose principles Mr. Viele greatly disliked. He 
 belonged to the Clinton wing of the democracy, 
 between which and the " Regency " there was an 
 old feud. Upon the death of Clinton this clique 
 gained possession not only of New York but also of 
 the democratic party throughout the United States. 
 Mr. Viele regarded the " Regency " in much the 
 same light as honest men during recent years have 
 looked upon the " Tammany " and Washington gov- 
 ernment rings, and united his political fortunes with 
 Henry Clay and the whig party. As a matter of 
 fact, the controversy between the honest portion of 
 the whig and democratic parties in those days was 
 more of personal preferences than of principles, at 
 least as between the whigs and the northern democ- 
 racy. Did whigs favor internal improvements by 
 ■the general government, so did the northern demo- 
 crats ; were whigs in favor of a protective tariff, the 
 democracy were willing to have a revenue tariff 
 which -should discriminate so as to give incidental 
 protection ; did whigs repudiate nullification and 
 secession. General Jackson swore " by the Eternal " 
 that the Union should be maintained at all hazards, 
 and the democracy throughout the nation, aside 
 from that of South Carolina, rallied to the support 
 of the old hero ; did whigs insist that safety required 
 that the Presidency be limited to one terra in the 
 same person, the democracy at once proclaimed 
 " rotation in office," but claimed that the exigencies 
 of the times were such that the rule should not 
 apply to President Jackson, but did apply to his 
 successors Van Buren, Polk and Buchanan. The 
 Presidential campaign of r84o, in which General 
 Harrison and Martin Van Buren were candidates, 
 was quite as exciting as that of 1824 between Craw- 
 ford and others. Mr. Viele took the stump in sup- 
 port of Harrison, against his old associate Van 
 Buren. Several speeches which he made in Iowa 
 during that campaign elicited great applause, and 
 
96 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 the whigs of that state, apparently by common con- 
 sent, named him as their candidate for congress, 
 and it is believed by leading men of both parties 
 that had he been allowed to become the whig candi- 
 date-he would have secured an election. But certain 
 persons in his party fearing his influence conspired 
 against him in the convention, and he having no 
 desire to enter into such a conflict, believing that a 
 strict party nomination, in a democratic territory as 
 Iowa then was, would be most hazardous, yielded to 
 the opposition. In 1846 he became identified with 
 a local political movement which again drew him 
 from his profession, and he never again resumed it. 
 A political ring under the guise of a democratic 
 name had got possession of the county offices, and 
 was levying taxes and disbursing the public monies 
 in a most lavish manner ; county orders had depreci- 
 ated to about fifty cents on the dollar. The whigs 
 being unsuccessful in every attempt to remedy the 
 evil complained of, Mr. Viele, with others, conceived 
 the idea of dropping the party name„and calling on 
 the honest men of all parties to unite under the 
 name of the " Union Retrenchment and Reform 
 Party of Lee Cpunty." The masses, irrespective of 
 party, gladly responded to the call, and at a meeting 
 for the nomination of county officers in 1846 the 
 friends of reform, against his will, insisted on putting 
 forward the name of Mr. Viele for the office of 
 judge of probate; and he, fearing that his refusal 
 might weaken the cause he had aided in starting, 
 finally gave his consent. The whole ticket was 
 elected by an overwhelming majority ; as a result 
 of the reform movement, the credit of the county 
 soon revived and county orders became par. Judge 
 Viele was elected judge of probate for three success- 
 ive terms, and gave universal satisfaction. In 1852 
 he permitted his friends to trammel him with a party 
 nomination as whig candidate for congress, from 
 the first congressional district of Iowa. Running 
 thus under a party guise, he lost the support of 
 many personal democratic friends, and, although he 
 received the full vote of his party, was defeated. 
 During the Kansas-Nebraska imbroglio he threw 
 his whole influence on the side of anti-slavery, and 
 was enthusiastically chosen president of the first re- 
 publican convention of Iowa, held at Iowa City in 
 1856. 
 
 In 1 85 9 'he was elected a member of the State 
 Board of Education for one term. The esteem in 
 which he is held by his immediate fellow-citizens 
 is well attested by the fact that, notwithstanding 
 
 Fort Madison has been strongly democratic, he has 
 on four different occasions been elected mayor of 
 the city. 
 
 In local enterprises he has been somewhat active. 
 Upon the organization of the Madison branch of 
 the State Bank of Iowa, in 1859, he was chosen its 
 president, and held that office five years. 
 
 Early in 1870 a meeting of the stockholders and 
 other citizens of Madison was called in the interest 
 of a railroad project, for which they had labored 
 hard but which seemed likely to fail. The speeches 
 of the leaders were desponding, and it was conceded 
 to be a "lost cause," when Judge. Viele, inspired by 
 the necessities of the occasion, arose and addressed 
 the meeting with all the authority of age, mingled 
 with the fire and eloquence of youth, and so roused 
 the pride and energy of the citizens that the enter- 
 prise at once passed from doubt to certainty. He 
 accepted the position of treasurer and financial agent 
 of the railroad, and in less than one year the Fort 
 Madison, Farmington and Western railroad became 
 an accomplished fact, and the cars were running 
 over twenty-five miles of road west from the city. 
 The first stopping place west of Fort Madison was, 
 by the directors of the railroad and without the 
 Judge's knowledge, named in honor of him, "Viele 
 Station." 
 
 In June, 1828, Judge Viele was married to Miss 
 Catherine Gertrude Brinckerhoff, a daughter of Isaac 
 Brinckerhoff, of Troy, New York. Mrs. Viele, a most 
 estimable lady, possessed a sound and discriminat- 
 ing mind, united with sweetness of temper and ele- ' 
 gance of manners ; she was fervid in her religious 
 principles, and her love of the beautiful in nature 
 and art were surpassed only by her veneration of 
 God ; she was admired by all, and her death, which 
 occurred on the 4th of August, 1869, was mourned 
 as a public loss. 
 
 The judge has no children to cheer his declining 
 years, but, since the death of his wife, he has 
 adopted for a niece Miss Maria C. Newton, whose 
 parents, Enos and Lucy Ann Newton, reside in his 
 house. 
 
 On the nth of August, 1872, Judge Viele was 
 stricken with paralysis of the right side of his body, 
 which for a time threatened serious consequences. 
 However, he soon began to improve, and although 
 he has never fully regained his bodily vigor, he is 
 able to walk about and attend to his business, and 
 visit his neighbors, who always greet him with a 
 hearty welcome. Judge Viele has a competency of 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 97 
 
 "worldly estate " and all that is necessary to render 
 his days upon earth happy, except the companion- 
 ship of her who for forty years cheerfully shared his 
 joys and alleviated his sorrows. 
 
 He is a firm believer in Christianity and the im- 
 mortality of the soul, and doubts not that he shall 
 meet her, and others whom he has loved on earth, in 
 a purer and more perfect home. 
 
 REV. ALLAN CURR, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 THE subject of this brief memoir is a native of 
 Scotland, and was born near Dundee, on the 
 zist of February, 1843. His parents were William 
 Curr, a well-known liberal leader, an able speaker, 
 and county magistrate, and Mary Heron Stormont, 
 a granddaughter of the Earl of Stormont, who was 
 proscribed by the English government for taking an 
 active part in the Scottish Rebellion of 1745. The 
 Currs were originally from Denmark, and date their 
 ancestry back to a.d. 1400. The Stormont family 
 is Celtic or Gaelic, and suffered much in behalf of 
 the Stuart dynasty and Scottish Rebellion. 
 
 Allan spent all his younger years in literary insti- 
 tutions: in the high school at Arbroath until fifteen, 
 at Chorlton College, Manchester, England, until 
 nineteen, and graduated at Regent's Park College, 
 London University, his studies being classical, gen- 
 eral and theological. 
 
 He early developed decided artistic tastes; ex- 
 hibited pictures in watei'-color and oil in various 
 Scotch and English galleries, receiving prizes, once 
 a gold medal, for the same ; he played on the vio- 
 lin in early boyhood, is fond of the organ, and has 
 composed 'the music and words of several popular 
 airs, and also some sacred music, which has been 
 printed in Scotch collections. 
 
 Like Bayard Taylor and Henry D. Thoreau, Mr. 
 Curr, in early life, thought the finest views could be 
 had afoot, and while a student took sketching-tours 
 through the best of scenery in northern Europe, 
 thus spending some of his vacations. He has 
 traveled over most of middle and northern Europe, 
 the Dominion of Canada and the United States, 
 and makes good use of the fruits of his extensive 
 observations in enriching his conversation and em- 
 bellishing his lectures and other public efforts. 
 
 Mr. Curr was reared a Presbyterian, but was 
 converted by reading Spurgeon's sermons, and be- 
 coming a Baptist; studied for the ministry of that 
 denomination while at Regent's Park College. He 
 chose the ministerial work because he regards it as 
 
 the noblest in which man can engage. After leav- 
 ing college he became pastor of a Baptist church in 
 London, and while acting in that capacity he served 
 as private secretary of the Lord Mayor of London 
 for three years. Before leaving the old country 
 Mr. Curr lectured in more than five hundred places, 
 and on a great variety of subjects — literary, scien- 
 tific, temperance and sanitary. He was a Reformer 
 in England, and during our civil war warmly es- 
 poused and openly advocated by tongue and pen 
 the cause of the Union through the London " News" 
 and "Star." 
 
 Mr. Curr is a fellow of the Geological Society 
 and of the Royal Society of Literature, London. 
 In England he was a member of the 26th regiment 
 Volunteers. While a minister in London in 1865-67, 
 he was superintendent of custom-house. West India 
 Docks, and prior to that date, while a student, was 
 committee reporter in the House of Commons for 
 several years. He was vice-president of the United 
 Kingdom Alliance for the suppression of the liquor 
 trafific, and president of the East London Temper- 
 ance Association. During one year he was lecturer 
 in the tropical department of the Crystal Palace, 
 London. 
 
 Between four and five years ago Mr. Curr was 
 invited to come to the United States and lecture. 
 He complied with the invitation, and proposes to 
 remain in this country. He has lectured in most of 
 the northern and a few of the southern states, and 
 has everywhere received the warmest commenda- 
 ti6ns of the press. He could easily keep in the 
 lecture field nine months in the year, but he feels 
 that his chief work is in the pastorate, and two 
 years ago he took charge of the Main-street Baptist 
 GJiurch, Dubuque, a body which has rapidly grown 
 under his pastoral care, and which, through his 
 indomitable energy and almost superhuman efforts, 
 has erected one of the finest Protestant houses of 
 worship in the city. It is doubtful if there is 
 another man in the northwest who, similarly situ- 
 
98 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 ated, could have accomplished the work of church 
 building which he has done. In politics he is a 
 republican and free trader. 
 
 The wife of Mr. Curr was Catherine Frances An- 
 drews, of an old Kentish family, and an only child. 
 They were married in 1867, and have three children, 
 all boys. They have a beautiful residence on the 
 Twelfth-street bluff, overlooking the business part 
 of the city and presenting a grand view of the 
 "Father of Waters." It should be called the Poet's 
 Retreat, for Mr. Curr has great skill in versifying, 
 and published two or thi-ee volumes of poems before 
 coming to this country. He is also the author of 
 two novels, one of them, " The Last of the Stor- 
 monts," a historical romance, has had a very large 
 sale. He has published a number of iniscellaneous 
 works, and has been, and is, a liberal contributor to 
 newspapers and periodicals. 
 
 Mr. Curr began to preach when only fifteen or 
 sixteen years old, and was known as the "Scotch 
 boy preacher," beginning such work, like Chalmers, 
 
 before he was converted. As a preacher, since he 
 
 completed his college course, we give the opinion of 
 
 one who knew him in the old country, and who is 
 
 now a member of his church in Dubuque : 
 
 As a preacher, he is less emotional than intellectual. 
 His sermons, as a rule, are logical in arrangement, positive 
 in statement, sententious in style, abound in passages of 
 beauty and eloquence, and are delivered with great force 
 and emphasis, and albeit his voice is not one of the clearest, 
 nor his manner remarkable for its ease, he can hold the 
 attention of his audience from first to last. He has great 
 facility of illustration. Striking scenes, startling incidents, 
 natural and artificial wonders, important events, past and 
 passing, and remarkable anecdotes, are freely used to ex- 
 plain the doctrines and enforce the duties of evangelical 
 religion. In a sentence, his sermons are pointed, pithy and 
 practical. 
 
 Mr. Curr has gray hazel eyes, a sanguine, bilious 
 
 temperament, and a short body which makes very 
 
 quick motions. He has not seen a sick day since 
 
 boyhood. His flesh is very solid. Though only 
 
 five feet and seVen and a half inches tall, he weighs 
 
 one hundred and sixty-five pounds. Rhetorically, 
 
 or with the fist, he can strike a very hard blow, and 
 
 would be classed with the "muscular christians." 
 
 HON. GEORGE GREENE, 
 
 CEDAR RAPIDS. 
 
 ONE of the early settlers in Linn county, Iowa, 
 the man who built the first frame house in 
 Marion, and the first brick house in Cedar Rapids, 
 one of the original proprietors of the latter city, and 
 the man who gave it its name, is George Greene, one 
 of God's noblemen. No town in Iowa, we think it 
 is safe to say, owes more to any one man than Cedar 
 Rapids owes to Judge Greene, and the citizens of 
 the place are fully sensible of their indebtedness to 
 him. He has found prompt, hearty and whole- 
 souled co-workers, and between them all they have 
 built up a city of which they may well be proud. 
 
 George Greene, a native of England, was born at 
 Alton, in Staffordshire, on the 15th of April, 1817. 
 His father, Robert Greene, emigrated to this country 
 in 1819. The mother of George, a Woodward, and 
 also a native of Staffordshire, was a considerate, pious 
 woman, who early instilled into the hearts of her chil- 
 dren the principles of rectitude and truth. The fam- 
 ily settled in western New York, where the father 
 died when the son was about eight years old. The 
 boy had a strong thirst for knowledge, but had to de- 
 pend upon his own resources to procure ah educa- 
 tion. He was willing to do any kind of respectable 
 
 work and forego some of the amusements of youth, if, 
 by so doing, he could defray expenses and continue 
 his studies. He attended school one year at the 
 Carysville Collegiate Seminary, Genesee county; one 
 years at the Aurora Academy, Erie county, and two 
 years at French's Collegiate Institute, Geneva, leav- 
 ing at the end of the sophomore year. During the 
 time he was in the last named institution the means 
 were furnished by his friend and school-mate, Beth 
 Grosvenor Heacock, brother of Rev. Dr. Heacock, 
 of Buff"alo. Years afterward Mr. Heacock studied 
 law with Mr. Greene in Iowa. The latter cherishes 
 very tenderly the memory of his boyhood's helper. 
 Mr. Greene spent some time in the family of Dr. 
 Chapin, of Buffalo, reading medicine without intend- 
 ing to practice it, and collecting the doctor's bills 
 and otherwise assisting him, in order to defray ex- 
 penses. At the same time he began to read law 
 with Hon. George P. Barker, forty years ago one of 
 the most brilliant lawyers at the Erie county bar, 
 but immigrated to Iowa, then a territory, in 1838, 
 before being admitted to the bar. Reaching Daven- 
 port, he made the acquaintance of David J. Owen, 
 an spent six delightful months with him in making 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 lOI 
 
 geological surveys, mainly in the territory. At the 
 close of this scientific research, during which he 
 aided Mr. Owen, made some money and made con- 
 siderable progress in knowledge, he went to Ivanhoe, 
 Linn county, and taught school in the winter. 
 
 Mr. Greene was admitted to the bar of Johnson 
 county in 1840, Judge Williams presiding at the 
 time of his examination. Soon afterward he went 
 to Marion, Linn county, and there practiced law 
 about five years. He had not been there a year be- 
 fore he was sent to the territorial council, and he 
 attended two sessions, the last one held at Burling- 
 ton and the first one at Iowa City, representing 
 Cedar, Linn and Jones counties. Though a very 
 young member, he took quite an active part in the 
 debates, -and especially in the work of committees. 
 
 Soon after settling in Marion Mr. Greene was sent 
 as a special delegate to Washington to secure the 
 removal of the United States Land Office from Du- 
 buque to Marion, that it might be more convenient 
 for parties wishing to enter lands. At the end of 
 one year the office was again located at Dubuque. 
 
 In 1845 Mr. Greene removed to Dubuque, and 
 while in the active practice of his profession took 
 charge of the " Miner's Express," editing and pub- 
 lishing it for two or three years. Meantime he 
 formed a partnership with J. J. Dyer, Esq., and the 
 old and highly reputable law firm of Greene and 
 Dyer is still remembered by the earlier settlers in 
 northern Iowa. Mr. Dyer afterward became judge 
 of the United States district court, and the talents 
 and legal acumen of Mr. Greene were soon discov- 
 ered, fully appreciated and partially honored by his 
 being appointed judge of the supreme court of the 
 state. That office he held a little more than eight 
 years, and rarely has a man of his age so dignified 
 the ermine. Here the industry of Judge Greene 
 began to fully develop itself; while on the bench he 
 reported the opinions of the supreme court and pub- 
 lished them in four volumes, known far and wide as 
 " G. Greene's Reports." 
 
 Judge Greene had long had a partiality for Cedar 
 Rapids, and removed thither in 1851. The town was 
 then small, but he saw its promise, and his expecta- 
 tions in regard to it have been realized. Something 
 like ten years before settling here, in connection 
 with N. B. Brown, Alexander L. Ely, Addison Dan- 
 iels and others, he had purchased claims, perfected 
 titles to lands, and made slight improvements on the 
 site of this town. A portion of it was surveyed and 
 subdivided by some of these parties as early as 1849. 
 
 Very soon after settling here Mr. Greene went 
 into the banking business a short time, in the firm 
 of Weare, Finch and Co., and a long time in the 
 firms of Greene and Weare and Greene, Merritt and 
 Co., and he has operated more or less in this busi- 
 ness up to the present time. He is now president 
 of the Union Bank of Cedar Rapids; he is also 
 president of the Star Wagon Company ; of the Farm- 
 ers' Manufacturing Company, and the Cedar Rapids 
 Oil Works, and has a large interest in all of them. 
 He has been president of the Coe Collegiate Insti- 
 tute since its origin under another name. 
 
 Judge Greene was one of the foremost men in the 
 efforts which resulted in bringing the Chicago and 
 Northwestern and Burlington and Cedar Rapids 
 railroads to this city, and which brought the latter 
 to Plymouth and originated its several divisions. 
 He gave freely of his time, energies and means to 
 secure these roads for Cedar Rapids, fully realizing, 
 as he then did, their great benefit to the city. He 
 and his brother William built the so-called Mc- 
 Gregor Western road to Conover, and the Rockford, 
 Rock Island and St. Louis road. They had some 
 part also in the Central Railroad of Iowa. 
 
 Judge Greene is an Odd-Fellow and has been a 
 Master Mason for several years. He is a communi- 
 cant in the Protestant Episcopal church, and has 
 held the office of warden more than twenty years. 
 
 He was a democrat until 1872, and now votes with 
 the republican party. Since he left the bench he 
 has sedulously refused to accept political office. 
 
 On the 30th of May, 1838, he married Miss Harriet 
 Merritt, daughter of Dr. Jesse Merritt, of Buffalo, 
 New York. She had four children, two surviving; 
 one of them, Edward M. Greene, is an extensive 
 lumber dealer in Cedar Rapids; the other, Susan H., 
 is the wife of Hon. A. S. Belt, a prominent lawyer in 
 Cedar Rapids. Mrs. Greene died in Dubuque, on 
 the 25th of April, 1850. In February, 1855, Judge 
 Greene married Miss Frances R. Graves, daughter of 
 Calvin Graves, Esq., of Cooperstown, New York.. 
 She has seven children living, having lost one. The 
 older ones are being very carefully and thoroughly 
 educated. Judge Greene has been very fortunate and 
 happy in his married relations, both his wives being 
 women largely endowed with the accomplishments 
 and virtues which charm the family circle and have 
 a healthful social influence. 
 
 A sketch of Judge Greene would be imperfect 
 without reference to a scene which occurred on the 
 morning of the Centennial Fourth, when he was too 
 
I02 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 feeble to leave his home. His residence is two 
 miles from town, on a high point of land, overlook- 
 ing from the cupola of his stately mansion no less 
 than seven counties, and on the 4th of July between 
 two and three hundred citizens went out in carriages 
 and on foot to make him a neighborly call and pre- 
 sent him with three sets of silver, worth more than 
 a thousand dollars, as a token of their regard and 
 their appreciation of his services in building up the 
 city. Judge N. M. Hubbard made the presentation 
 speech, and we cannot better conclude this brief 
 account of Judge Greene's life than by giving the 
 address in a slightly condensed form : 
 
 Mr. Greene, — In behalf of the ten thousand good peo- 
 ple of Cedar Rapids, and at the request of their committee, 
 I have the pleasure and the honor to present you this silver 
 service. Like your genius, it is brilliant; like your judg- 
 ment, it is solid ; like the lives and characters of your excel- 
 lent wife and yourself, it is pure; and like the memory in 
 the hearts of all our people of your public deeds and spirit, 
 it is lasting. It is given by our people as a spontaneous 
 heart-offering to testify our respect and esteem for you. 
 
 When the committee made known this plan our people 
 hunted them, eager to share in the honor, and the commit- 
 tee were compelled to limit the amount of their sub.=;crip- 
 tions that more might participate in this gift. 
 
 Praise belongs to the dead, not to the living, and I shall 
 therefore pronounce no eulogy. It is enough to say that 
 the history of the growth and prosperity of the State, and 
 especially of Cedar Rapids, is your history. . . In the 
 building of all our railroads, in the beginning and progress 
 of all our public improvements as a city, upon the founda- 
 tion and superstructiu-e of all our manufactories, are found 
 the impress of your organizing, executive mind, and the up- 
 building of your hands. And now, after the unceasing 
 labor of head and heart and hands for twenty-five years, 
 and you feel that the great strain is loosening the tension of 
 the fibre and of the nerve, — though the spirit flags not, — as 
 you look off from this beautiful mound home, the work of 
 your hands, upon that beautiful city which owes so much 
 to you, perhaps you sometimes wonder whether the busy 
 delvers and dwellers therein realize and appreciate the la- 
 bor, the energy, the unflagging zeal, the unconquerable will 
 and the executive power you have expended for their pros- 
 perity. Let this token assure you. ... Be assured our peo- 
 ple bring this offering, not alone for what you have done 
 for Cedar Rapids, but for your greatness and goodness of 
 heart and brain also; for your good example; for your pub- 
 lic enterprises in behalf of mankind, accomplished and to 
 be accomplished ; for your virtues ; for your manly, noble 
 character, and, finally, for what you are. 
 
 WESLEY REDHEAD, 
 
 DES MOINES. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch, a native of Penrith, 
 county of Northumberland, England, was born 
 on the 22d of July, 1825. When he was four years 
 old his parents immigrated to Montreal, Canada, 
 where his father resumed his occupation of dry- 
 good? merchant. During the cholera epidemic of 
 183T and 1832 the mother was stricken and died four 
 hours after the attack, and in two weeks the father 
 died of brain fever, leaving a family of one daughter 
 and six sons. Wesley, the next to the youngest, 
 being then six years of age, and his next older 
 brother, went to live with an uncle at Cincinnati, 
 Ohio, where he lived until he was fourteen years 
 old, attending school a part of the time, and worked 
 as " printers' devil " the remainder of the time. He 
 was one of the first newsboys, now so common in 
 our large cities, and employed his leisure hours 
 selling papers and magazines on the steamboats. 
 In 1839 his uncle, fearing that he would be con- 
 taminated by the evil influences incident to the 
 character of his work, sent him to live with the eld- 
 est brother, then a cabinet-maker at Fairfield, Ver- 
 mont. He lived with his brother four months, but 
 becoming dissatisfied, ran away, having five cents in 
 his pocket and wearing a common suit of clothes. 
 
 He walked to St. Albans, and thence worked his 
 way to Whitehall, New York, where he hired out to 
 drive horses on the canal, continuing thus employed 
 during that season ; he then hired out to a farmer 
 in Washington county. New York, receiving, as a 
 compensation for his work, his board and clothes 
 and three months schooling during the year. After 
 two years thus spent he went to Saratoga Springs, 
 and was employed during two seasons as "dipper 
 boy " at " Congress Spring." Having saved a little 
 money he now returned to his friends at Cincinnati, 
 who had not heard from him for five years and 
 hardly recognized him. 
 
 He next hired out as cabin-boy on a steamboat 
 bound for the upper Mississippi, but when he arrived 
 at Bloomington (now Muscatine) in September, 1844, 
 he concluded to visit a brother who was living in 
 Iowa City. Accordingly, hiring a hack in company 
 with others, he arrived at his destination in safety 
 late at night and stopped at Swan's Hotel. Before 
 leaving Bloomington, as an accommodation he had 
 changed a three-dollar bill for a stranger, and upon 
 his arrival at Iowa City gave this bill to the driver 
 for his fare, but he had scarcely got to sleep when 
 the driver awoke him with the information that the 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 103 
 
 bill was worthless. It was sad news for him, as he 
 found by counting his money that he had barely 
 enough to pay the driver and settle for his supper 
 and lodging. Not^being able to pay for a breakfast 
 he went without. 
 
 He soon obtained employment at three dollars 
 per week in the office of the " Iowa Capitol Re- 
 porter," conducted by Jesse Williams, Esq., who was 
 then territorial printer. 
 
 The constitution of the state was printed that 
 winter, and Mr. Redhead had the honor of assisting 
 in the work by using the ink-roller in the capacity 
 of devil. 
 
 The next year, 1845, he went to Anamosa, in 
 Jones county, to operate a carding machine, and 
 was getting along well with his work when he was 
 stricken down with bilious fever, from which he re- 
 covered only to be taken with fever and ague, then 
 very prevalent in the new country. Being obliged 
 to give up his situation, he returned to Iowa City, 
 where he had the chills for nine months. 
 
 Not being able to engage in hard work, he learned 
 the tailoring business, serving three years, and after- 
 ward worked as journeyman tailor until the winter 
 of 1851, when he decided to start in business for 
 himself. Going to Fort Des Moines, he continued 
 his business for one year and then discontinued it, 
 obtaining a clerkship in a store, where he worked 
 one year at twenty-five dollars per month. At the 
 expiration of that time he was appointed postmaster 
 by President Fillmore to fill a vacancy caused by 
 the resignation of Hoyt Sherman, Esq. He soon 
 afterward opened a book-store in connection with 
 the office ; it was the fourth book-store started in 
 the state, and the sales averaged about five dollars 
 per week. As showing the growth of this business 
 it may be stated that the present firm of Redhead 
 and Wellslayer conducts a business of about three 
 hundred dollars per day. He held the office of 
 postmaster for nine years and then resigned. Since 
 about 1869 Mr. Redhead has been largely engaged 
 in the Des Moines Coal Company, being principal 
 owner, secretary and superintendent. He is also 
 secretary and treasurer of the Black Diamond Coal 
 Company in Marion county, and besides is treasurer 
 of the Des Moines Scale Company, a director of the 
 State National Bank, and vice-president of the State 
 Printing Company. He also conducts a large farm 
 one mile from the city, giving special attention to 
 raising hogs, and having some of the finest " Berk- 
 shires " in the state. Mr. Redhead is never idle, 
 
 and in all his varied career has never sued any, one 
 or has himself been sued. 
 
 He has been twice married : first, in October, 
 185 1, to Miss Isabel Clark, of Iowa City. Mrs. 
 Redhead was a sister of Hon. Ezekiel Clark and of 
 the wives of ex-Governor Kirkwood, Edward Lucas, 
 J. E. Jewett and^William Rutton, of Iowa City, a 
 noble band of women from Mansfield, Ohio. After 
 seven years of uninterrupted happiness Mrs. Red- 
 head died, leaving no children. 
 
 In i860 he led to the altar Miss Annie Seymour, 
 a native of Kentucky, who removed to Des Moines 
 in 1857, a ward of Judge McHenry. 
 
 Of the seven children who have been born to 
 them, Annie Bell, born on the gth of September, 
 1861, is deceased; David was born on the 3d of 
 October, 1862; George Seymour was born on the 
 nth of June, 1863; Lizzie Kirkwood was born on 
 the 27th of November, 1865; Middy was born on 
 the 30th of January, 1868 ; Charles Wesley was born 
 on the nth of December, 1869, and Robert Stone 
 on the 27th of July, 1872. 
 
 The parents both being orphans have adopted 
 Mrs. Surges for their mother, who lives with them, 
 enjoying all the rights and privileges that a mother 
 could ask. 
 
 Such is a brief outline of Mr. Redhead's career. 
 As showing his personal characteristics we append 
 extracts from a phrenological chart, given by Prof. 
 O. S. Fowler in March, 1867 : 
 
 You, sir, have just one of the very best of heads, and it 
 is supported bj an excellent body, so that your natural 
 talents are a good way above the average. You are, un- 
 mistakably, a man of mind, and also moral worth ; and the 
 two united entitle you to universal respect. You may 
 thank your mother, who you resemble most. Have both a 
 strong mind and elevated"moral tone, as well as good body, 
 and owe it much more to her than your father. You have 
 one weak spot; your vitality is not equal to the drafts made 
 upon it; are a little deficient in nutrition; have good fair 
 lungs; better muscle; a better nervous system and brain; 
 consume vitality faster than you manufacture it. You are 
 inclined to undertake too much, your eagerness and earnest- 
 ness exceeding your strength ; a great natural worker, a 
 real genuine plodder; all the time poring over the one thing 
 in hand; prosecuting every undertaking with the utmost' 
 assiduity, and that fixedness of purpose which challenges 
 opposition and will insure success, break down all obstacles; 
 nothing can stand before your indomitable will; always 
 have been, and always will be, successful, because you plan 
 wisely, execute with great energy and determination, and 
 then hold on to the very last. Have this predominant 
 talent ot head for planning and contriving, for thinking 
 reasoning; adapting ways and means to ends. ' 
 
 . Have a first-class judgment in everything; are sys- 
 tematic; conduct your business so as to accomplish the 
 most with the least; were always good in mathematics; are 
 rather poor in fine colors, dress goods, etc.; are more noted 
 for sound common sense than any other one trait ; are quite 
 agreeable and prepossessing, gentlemanly and courteous- 
 
I04 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 never rude; hence, popular; are just as honest and fair a 
 man as there is; any one could not be any more strictly, 
 rigidly honest and upright, hence, are universally trusted; 
 very careful of your reputation. . . . Have that versatility 
 of talent vi'hich can attend to this, that and the other in 
 rapid succession, but never give up; are quite fond of home; 
 thoroughly fatriotic. Fairly friendly, but a little too busy 
 to express your social feelings much; very fond of children, 
 and willing to sacrifice anj'thing for their sake; ought to be 
 married if you are not. Show a good deal of policy; make 
 everything you touch pay ; there seems to be almost a magic 
 in your business operations, they succeed so splendidly ; the 
 real reason is they are so admirably managed. Are among 
 the toughest men ; may calculate on living to be old ; are 
 not quite clinging enough; are cool, deliberate, but remark- 
 ably active ; never have been and cannot be discouraged ; 
 but hope on, hope ever; hope against hope. Have little 
 faith, and worship much more in nature than in churches. 
 If a christian, will live a good christian life, but believe 
 very little ; stronglj' inclined to liberal views of religion. 
 
 As good-hearted a man as there is in town; have given 
 quite freely, though wisely ; are public-spirited ; seem to be 
 risky, but in fact risk next to nothing; are plain and sub- 
 stantial rather than ornamental; more serious than off- 
 hand; a really great arguer, reasoner and logician. Have 
 fair speaking talents, but it depends more on the excellence 
 of the subject-matter than on language, but if you had been 
 trained would have excelled as a lawyer, more especially in 
 managing a case. In business everything goes like clock- 
 work. Read a man right through at a glance. Trust your 
 first impressions of men, they never mislead you, and 
 should always follow your own conviction as to business, 
 duty, everything, they will be found next to infallible. 
 You have every single prerequisite for a most successful 
 life, especially after forty; calculate on succeeding better 
 and better till seventy. You have just caution enough to 
 save you from failure, along with that tremendous energy 
 which seems to risk where you do not. You know just 
 how and where to take men. Your future will be one of 
 steady improvement on the past. 
 
 SOLMON L. LAWRENCE, 
 
 WILTON. 
 
 SOLMON L. LAWRENCE, son of Elisha Law- 
 rence and Patience nie Clarke, was born at 
 Weybridge, Addison county, Vermont, on the ist of 
 March, 1811. 
 
 This branch of the Lawrence family in America 
 trace their lineage to John Lawrence (son of Henry 
 and Mary Lawrence), born at Wisset, England; 
 baptized on the 8th of October, 1609 ; came to New 
 England about 1630; married and settled in Water- 
 town, Massachusetts, — said John Lawrence being 
 sixteenth in descent from Sir Robert Lawrence, of 
 Ashton Hall, England, who attended his sovereign, 
 Richard Cceur de Lion, to the war of the crusades 
 in the Holy Land, where he so distinguished himself 
 in the siege of Acre that he was knighted, and ob- 
 tained for his arms, ^^ argent, a cross raguled, gules," 
 A.D. 1 191, which is still worn by the descendants of 
 the fatnily in Gloucestershire and Buckinghamshire, 
 England. 
 
 Our subject is sixth in descent from John, of Wis- 
 set, — the intermediate links in the ancestral chain 
 being Elisha Lawrence, born at Cheshire, Connecti- 
 cut, 1764 (moved to Weybridge, Vermont, being the 
 thirtieth family who settled in that township), son 
 of David Lawrence, born at Canaan, Connecticut, 
 who was the son of Jeremiah Lawrence, who was 
 the son of Daniel Lawrence, born on the 7th of 
 March, 1681, who was the son of Enoch Lawrence, 
 born on the 5 th of March, 1648 (at Groton, Massa- 
 chusetts), who was the eighth child of the original 
 John Lawrence. 
 
 The family is now quite numerous in New Eng- 
 land, and has branched off into many of the middle 
 and 'western states. The men of this lineage have 
 been remarkable for large framework, great strength, 
 courage and endurance and extraordinary longevity, 
 a large proportion of them reaching to over four- 
 score and ten years, and but few dying before the 
 age of seventy. They were also men of peculiar 
 probity of character, high standing and great influ- 
 ence in their communities, many of them attaining 
 also to great wealth. They were likewise men of 
 piety, the family furnishing a large number of dea- 
 cons and distinguished ministers to the church. 
 There have also been a large number of scholars 
 and ndted authors in the family, as well -as physi- 
 cians, lawyers, soldiers and statesmen. They were 
 also men of great benevolence and generosity. In 
 short they have always been among the best citizens 
 of the country, both before and since the revolution. 
 
 The following is the epitaph on the tomb of Col- 
 onel WiUiam Lawrence, of Groton, Massachusetts, 
 fourth in descent from the original John, who died 
 A.D. 1764 : 
 
 He was a gentleman who in military life rose from the 
 rank of lieutenant to the command of a regiment. In the 
 year 1739 he was made justice of the peace; afterward quo- 
 rum unus, a special justice of the court of common pleas 
 for the county of Middlesex, and a standing justice ot that 
 county. He for many years represented the town of Gro- 
 ton, with the districts of Pepperell and Shirley, in the gen- 
 eral assembly of this province. In all his public betrust- 
 ments he acquitted himself with fidelity and honor. In 
 private life his behavior was becoming his christian pro- 
 fession. He was remarkably industrious in the improve- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 105 
 
 ment of time, just in his dealings, a good neighbor, a faith- 
 ful friend, patient of injuries and ready to forgive them, 
 grateful to benefactors, very ready in affording assistance to 
 the widovf and fatherless, and merciful to all proper objects 
 of pity. He was a strict otjserver of the Lord's day, a con- 
 stant and serious attender on the public exercises of relig- 
 ion, and a devout worshiper of God in his family. 
 
 " Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." 
 
 Captain Isaac Lawrence, also a great-grandson 
 of the original John, who died on the 2d of Decem- 
 ber, 1793, in the eighty-seventh year of his age, is 
 thus described by a contemporary : 
 
 His stature was about six feet, large frame, not fleshy, 
 erect, pleasant countenance, sociable, intelligent, excellent 
 character and active, correct business habits.. He is said 
 to have erected the first meeting-house in Canaan, Connec- 
 ticut. He accumulated a valuable property, had several 
 large farms, which he kept under cultivation, was the 
 owner at one time of twenty slaves, to whom he gave their 
 freedom before his death. He made provision also for the 
 aged and infirm, and the comfort of those that were needy. 
 
 It is said that when Lord Gordon and the Earl of Morris 
 passed through the colonies to ascertain their resources and 
 ability to bear taxation, thej' put up at Captain Isaac's 
 house. His Lordship expressed surprise at the apparently 
 good condition of his slaves, and asked them if they always 
 fared so well. Their spokesman was London, who said: 
 " Yes, massa, we have vittle enough, clo' enough, and woi-k 
 enough." 
 
 He held various town offices, was a representative to the 
 general assembly of Connecticut in 1765. 
 
 The frequency with which his name • appears in the 
 records of the business meetings of his church, and in- 
 formation from other sources, afford good reason for believ- 
 ing he was an exemplary christian. 
 
 Captain Thomas Lawrence, fifth in descent from 
 the original John, born at Groton on the 3d of Sep- 
 tember, 1720, is represented as a man of gigantic 
 stature, herculean strength, bold and courageous, 
 experienced in Indian warfare and holding in su- 
 preme contempt the valor of the savages. 
 
 He was commander of a company enlisted for the French 
 war in 1758, from Pepperell and its vicinity ; and while in 
 command of a ranging party of about twenty men, in the 
 same year, at a place called " Half- Way Broke," near Lake 
 George, they were surrounded by Indians, and Captain 
 Lawrence fell mortally wounded. His body when found 
 was in a horribly mangled condition. Bullets taken from 
 the spot and a platter marked "C. T. L," are still in the 
 possession of his descendants. 
 
 Of Deacon Samuel Lawrence, of Groton, also fifth 
 in descent from the original John, who died Novem- 
 ber, 1827, in the seventy-third year of his age, it is 
 recorded : 
 
 He was one of those who rallied at Concord to oppose 
 the progress of the British troops. At the time the news 
 of their approach reached Groton he was in the field, when, 
 mounting his horse, he rode through the adjoining towns, 
 giving tlie alarm and returning in season to join his com- 
 pany at the meeting-house. In the battle of Bunker Hill 
 he received a slight wound, and his hat and coat, pierced 
 with the balls of the enemy, were preserved for many 
 years. At the time of his marriage, and while the cere- 
 mony was in progress, the tolling of the meeting-house 
 bell called out the minute-men, whereupon he parted from 
 his bride as soon as the rite was finished, and marched to 
 
 Rhode Island, but shortly returned on furlough for a few 
 days, after which she did not see him again till the birth of 
 their first-born. He continued in the service till the close 
 of the war, was promoted to the rank of major, and fought 
 in many of the hardest battles of the revolution. 
 
 He was a religious man, and for many years before his 
 death a deacon in the church. In connection with others 
 he originated and established for the good of the commu- 
 nity the institution now called, with great propriety, the 
 " Lawrence Academy." In this school his sons received 
 their early education, and well have they remembered its 
 origin and the advantages they there enjoyed. 
 
 His widow died in 1845, in the ninetieth year of 
 her age. 
 
 Our subject is a worthy scion of a long list of 
 worthy sires. He was raised on his father's farm 
 and received a fair common-school education, and 
 afterward taught a district school in his native state 
 till the age of twentj'-one years. He was religiously 
 trained and taught to fear God and keep his com- 
 mandments, and he has been governed through life 
 by these principles. 
 
 At the age of twenty he commenced to learn the 
 carpenter trade, to which he served three years at a 
 bounty of sixty-two dollars per year. On the 8th of 
 March, 1833, he removed to Franklin county, New 
 York, and worked at his trade in that and the ad- 
 joining county of St. Lawrence for one year. He 
 then removed to Orleans county. New York, where 
 he remained three years; and in 1836 immigrated 
 to then territory of Michigan, purchased one hun- 
 dred and sixty acres of land in Branch county, where 
 he resided for a number of years; improved the 
 land, married a wife, and attained to considerable 
 influence in the community. Represented his coun- 
 ty in the Michigan legislature in 185 1-2. In 1855 
 he disposed of his interests in Michigan and re- 
 moved to Moscow township, Muscatine county, 
 Iowa, where he purchased an improved farm of two 
 hundred and seventy acres, on which he resided 
 nine years with profit; in 1864 sold out and re- 
 moved to Wilton Junction, same county, where he 
 has since resided. During his sojourn in Michigan 
 he held the office of superintendent of schools of his 
 township for ten years, county supervisor two years, 
 and representative in the legislature two terms. 
 Since his removal to Wilton he has held a magis- 
 trate's commission for eight years, and has been 
 president of the school board of Wilton for three 
 years. 
 
 At seventeen years of age he united with the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church in Weybridge, Addi- 
 son county, Vermont, and has not changed his re- 
 ligious opinions since. He is now a useful and 
 
io6 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 exemplary member of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church of Wilton. 
 
 He voted with the democratic party until the 
 southern branch of that party fired on its own flag 
 at Fort Sumter, and tried to destroy its own-nation 
 by a causeless and bloody rebellion. Since then he 
 has voted with the republican party. 
 
 On the nth of March, 1840, he married Miss 
 Harriet S. Morgan, daughter of Moses Morgan, a 
 native of New Jersey, by whom he has had nine 
 children, five of whom died in infancy and four sur- 
 viving — one son and three daughters: Frances 
 Cornelia, Arline E., Lola Patience and Arthur S. 
 The eldest daughter has been an invalid during 
 her life-time ; Arline E. is the wife of James Mc- 
 Nutt, M.D., of Saline county, Missouri; Lola P. is 
 the wife of Charles Curtis, a citizen of Wilton, and 
 Arthur S. has devoted his attention to mercantile 
 pursuits. 
 
 Like most of his ancestors, Mr. Lawrence is a 
 man of large physique, of great strength of body 
 and robustness of health. He has led a blame- 
 less and exemplary life, never having knowingly 
 committed a wrong or dishonorable action, or per- 
 
 mitted the commission of one where he could pre- 
 vent it. He has been a total abstainer all his life. 
 He is a man of strong moral convictions, and bold 
 and decided in expressing them. Takes a great in- 
 terest in the general as well as the moral and spir- 
 itual interests of the community. Has always been 
 foremost in promoting educational interests, and has 
 battled hard and successfully against the foreign 
 element of the district for schools of a higher grade. 
 He is generous and liberal to the church of which 
 he has been a member for over forty years. Takes 
 a great interest in Sunday-school work, and has 
 taught a bible-class and superintended the Sabbath- 
 school of his denomination for many years, both in 
 Michigan and Wilton, Iowa. Is a man of great 
 benevolence and tenderness to the needy and un- 
 fortunate. Has the confidence and respect of all 
 who know him. By prudent management he has 
 accumulated a competence, and with a conscience 
 void of offense toward God and toward man, and a 
 comfortable assurance of an interest in the atone- 
 ment of his Savior, he is prepared to resign his 
 body to the dust, in sure and certain hope of the 
 resurrection to eternal life. 
 
 SAMPSON C. BEVER, 
 
 CEDAR RAPIDS. 
 
 THE subject of this memoir, a native of Ohio, 
 was born in Columbiana county, on the 31st 
 of July, 1808. His birthplace is a romantic spot 
 on the Ohio river, overlooking the state line divid- 
 ing Pennsylvania and West Virginia. His father, 
 James Sever, owned a small farm, and when Samp- 
 son was born it was about the western boundary of 
 the " settlement.'' Sampson Bever, the grandfather 
 of our subject, a native of Germany, lived for a time 
 in Ireland, and immigrated to this country in 1777. 
 He joined the revolutionary army under Washing- 
 ton, and when the war was over and independence 
 gained, settled first in Fayette and afterward in 
 Washington county, Pennsylvania, and died at the 
 latter place. The maternal grandfather of our sub- 
 ject, James Imbrie, was a native of Scotland, and 
 settled in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1780, 
 where he died. 
 
 In the spring of 1809, when Sampson was in his 
 infancy, his father moved to a wild tract of land 
 which his brother, John Bever, had surveyed for 
 
 the government and selected for him. It was the 
 first entry made on the so-called " New Purchase," 
 now in Holmes county, Ohio. They found their 
 home by following an Indian trail, and using pack 
 horses for transportation, the only means of travel 
 at hand in those early days in Ohio. Their new 
 home was at "Old Town," on Salt Creek, near its 
 junction with the Killbuck river, which had been 
 vacated and burned by the Delaware Indians. The 
 nearest house or cabin was thirteen miles distant, 
 the headquarters of his brother John's surveying 
 party. Subsequently, on the same spot, this brother 
 laid out the now flourishing city of Wooster, Wayne 
 county. The hardships of a frontier life were too 
 severe for James Bever, and on the 2 2d of April, 
 18 II, he died in the little cabin which he had built 
 two years before ; leaving his widow, with two little 
 boys, to continue to experience the hardships of a 
 wilderness life. The next year, when war with Eng- 
 land was declared, the Indians became troublesome, 
 and this family, with others which had settled in 
 
— S C BEVEE 
 
THE UNITED STATES BTOGRApHICAL DICTIOnART. 
 
 109 
 
 that vicinity, spent some time in a block-house, not 
 daring to leave until Indian depredations were over. 
 
 Young Sampson had no opportunities for school 
 education until he was nine years old, at which time 
 he was enabled to attend a subscription school about 
 three months in the year for a few seasons. His 
 mother, however, a woman of thoughtfulness and 
 great energy, had previously taken pains to teach 
 him to read and write. Some years later she mar- 
 ried a man who had a family of several children ; 
 and him Sampson helped to clear up a farm, occa- 
 sionally working as a day laborer to procure clothes 
 and the means to pay for his schooling in the win- 
 ters. He was a faithful lad, of kindly and genial 
 disposition, and very much endeared to the little 
 circle of his acquaintances. But the new family re- 
 lations not proving the most pleasant and satisfac- 
 tory, when about fourteen he spent a few months 
 with his mother's brother in Beaver county, Penn- 
 sylvania; and before he was fifteen, walked one 
 hundred and fifty miles to Brownsville, in the same 
 state, and became a clerk in a store and worked 
 five years at four dollars a month. This may have 
 looked then, as it -certainly looks now, like small 
 wages, but Mr. Bever, has been often heard to re- 
 mark that it was the crowning point in his life. 
 During the five years that he was in that store, he 
 was often called to assume important responsibilities, 
 and always proved competent and trustworthy, and 
 gave unqualified satisfaction to his employer, Henry 
 Sweitzer, whose memory Mr. Bever cherishes very 
 tenderly. 
 
 At the age of twenty he took charge of the Albany 
 Glass Works, near Brownsville, at the mouth of the 
 Little Redstone creek, for Bowman, Sweitzer and 
 Bowman, receiving a compensation of one hundred 
 and fifty dollars a year. They were men of large 
 means, entirely independent, and soon turned over 
 to Mr. Bever the store, goods, glass works, coal 
 bank, — everything they had there; he taking a 
 partner, William Eberhart, an experienced glass 
 blower, and the firm being S. C. Bever and Co. The 
 business prospered, and in two years the firm had 
 paid their indebtedness to the old firm, and had a 
 remunerative surplus left. Upon Mr. Eberhart's re- 
 tirement from the business Geo. B. Woltz joined 
 with Mr. Bever for the term of three years, but died 
 before its close; the business, however, continued 
 under the name of Bever and Woltz to the end of 
 the three years. During this time President Jack- 
 son was making war on the United States Bank, and 
 II 
 
 Mr. Bever, though highly prospered, saw the cloud 
 gathering in the financial heavens and sold out. 
 The parties to whom he disposed of his interest in 
 the glass works lost all they had in the course of 
 two or three years. 
 
 In the autumn of 1836 he formed a partnership 
 with Goodloe H. Bowman, one of his former em- 
 ployers, but at that time cashier of the Mononga- 
 hela Bank at Brownsville. They opened a mercantile 
 house at Coshocton, Ohio, and the firm of Bever and 
 Bowman continued for ten years. Mr. Bever then 
 moved to Millersburg, now in Holmes county, Ohio, 
 and there sold goods for six years. The location 
 was near the old homestead, and the rustic grave- 
 yard where his father was laid to rest more than 
 sixty years ago, whose remains filial love prompted 
 the son to remove to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a few 
 years since. Mr. Bever built himself a beautiful 
 home at Millersburg, but afterward determined to 
 "go west,'' and accordingly sold the elegant hotjie- 
 stead, and, after prospecting in the states on the 
 Mississippi, settled with his family in Cedar Rapids, 
 where he arrived, after a circuitous route by the 
 Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and by private con- 
 veyance, on the 4th of April, 1852. He had pre- 
 viously bought several large tracts of land near the 
 town, designing to make farms for himself and his 
 sons. He began to fence and " break " the prairie, 
 and in a short time had between two and three 
 hundred acres ready for cultivation. In a few 
 months, however, he became dissatisfied with farm- 
 ing, and during the following winter purchased a 
 stock of goods and resumed his old business, and 
 continued it until 1859. During the last five years 
 of mercantile life Mr. Bever became identified with 
 the construction of the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska 
 railroad (now a branch of the Chicago and North- 
 western), the first railroad that crossed Iowa. In 
 1859, the year this road reached Cedar Rapids, Mr. 
 Bever started a private bank with his son, James L. 
 Bever, under the firm name of S. C. Bever and Son. 
 This enterprise proving an abundant success, after 
 the passage of the national banking law by congress, 
 they organized the City National Bank of Cedar 
 Rapids, converting their private bank into the same, 
 with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars. 
 S. C. Bever, president; J. L. Bever, cashier, and two 
 younger sons, Geo. W. and John B. Bever, tellers. 
 
 Having made many important improvements of a 
 private character, and contributed largely to the 
 interests of the flourishing city and home of his 
 
no 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 adoption, Mr. Bever is now enjoying the fruits of a 
 long, active and very useful life. 
 
 At a meeting of the American Banker's Associa- 
 tion, held in Philadelphia, on the 4th of October, 
 1876, he was chosen one of the vice-presidents of 
 the association. 
 
 Though not an active politician, Mr. Bever has 
 always been a warm friend of liberty and equal 
 rights, and contributed liberally of his means for 
 the suppression of the recent rebellion, and sent two 
 sons, George and Henry, to aid in saving the Union. 
 
 Mr. Bever is a member of the Protestant Episco- 
 pal church, has been senior warden for many years. 
 He was one of the delegates and elected secretary 
 of the convention that organized the diocese of 
 Iowa in 1854, has been a standing lay deputy to the 
 annual diocesan convention ever since, and was 
 several times elected a deputy from this diocese to 
 the general convention of the .Protestant Episcopal 
 Church of the United States. 
 
 'On the 8th of August, 1833, he was married to 
 Miss Mary Blythe, daughter of John Blythe, Esq., 
 
 of Fayette county, Pennsylvania. She is a lady of 
 true womanly virtues, and in her he has found a true 
 helpmeet for more than forty years. They have 
 had eight children, six of whom are living. The 
 sons are among the best business men, of a younger 
 class, in Cedar Rapids. They have had a father's 
 excellent training and example in all the best habits 
 in life. One of their daughters is the wife of A. H. 
 Spangler, who is also connected with the City Na- 
 tional Bank, and the other is the wife of Upton C. 
 Blake, Esq., an attorney-at-law in Cedar Rapids. 
 
 Mr. Bever has always had a great aversion to 
 going into debt. Since first embarking, whenever 
 he has made an investment he has had at his com- 
 mand the means of payment. He has lost money 
 by signing for others, but of late years has been more 
 cautious, choosing to relieve necessity rather than 
 become security. The poor have no better friend, 
 no prompter helper, than Sampson C. Bever. He is 
 warm-hearted, and kind to everybody. A neighbor, 
 who has known him since 1852, remarked of him, 
 " Mr. Bever is one of the best men that ever lived." 
 
 JAMES M. ROBERTSON, M.D., 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 j AMES M. ROBERTSON, one of the oldest med- 
 •J ical practitioners in the state, was born in Wash- 
 ington county, Pennsylvania, on the 14th of October, 
 r8o4. His father, Peter Robertson, was a native of 
 Scotland, but emigrated to Pennsylvania in his youth 
 and died when our subject was but six years old. 
 His mother, Jane Moore, was a native of the United 
 States, of English ancestry. The settlement of his 
 father's estate was attended with some embarrass- 
 ment, and the proceeds found to be small, so that 
 but little provision remained for the education or 
 maintenance of the son. The early years of James 
 M. were passed under the careful, devoted christian 
 watchfulness of his excellent mother, who survived 
 her husband some ten years and died ere he had 
 attained his sixteenth year. Thus left orphaned 
 and destitute he was led to realize in a remarkable 
 manner the divine promise: ''When my father and 
 mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." 
 Kind friends were raised up to assist him with 
 means to complete his education. Among others. 
 Dr. William Stephenson, of Cannonsburg, Pennsyl- 
 vania (whose name the only son of our subject per- 
 
 petuates), became his 'generous and unwavering 
 friend and patron, directed his studies and treated 
 him in all regards as a son or brother. He pursued 
 his literary education at Jefferson College, Cannons- 
 burg, Pennsylvania, and received his medical edu- 
 cation at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, 
 from which he was graduated with distinction in 
 1827. Hopeful, ardent and overflowing with grat- 
 itude to the kind friends who had thus far helped 
 him on his way, and whose generosity he hoped to 
 be able soon to repay, he entered upon his life work 
 in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in March, 1827. 
 Here he remained some six years with moderate 
 success. Liduced by the larger possibilities and 
 greater need of professional men in what was then 
 considered " The West," in the spring of 1833 he re- 
 moved to Franklin county, Ohio, where he practiced 
 for some five years. Realizing, however, that Ohio 
 was no longer "The West," and that if he would 
 obey the injunction of the distinguished journalist, 
 he must pitch his tent at least beyond the " Father 
 of Waters," he immigrated with his family, in the 
 spring of 1838, to Burlington, Iowa. Here he 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Ill 
 
 opened a drug store, — one of the first in that city, 
 which he carried on successfully in connection with 
 his practice for several years, which soon became 
 both large and lucrative. He began to accumulate 
 property and to feel satisfied with his surroundirigs, 
 when, in an evil day, he formed a partnership with 
 a designing and covetous man, who found means of 
 robbing him of his hard-earned property and leaving 
 him almost penniless to start anew in the journey 
 of life. He still owned some uncultivated lands in 
 Louisa county, Iowa. These he intended to dispose 
 of and return to Ohio or Pennsylvania, but- fresh 
 disappointments awaited him. In that county he 
 found more land than money, more work than pay, 
 and realized that for the time being at least he had 
 an elephant on his hands. Thus circumscribed he 
 was again obliged to don the toga of professional 
 warfare, and "fight it out on that line." Accord- 
 ingly, resolved to look his disasters fairly in the face, 
 and, if possible, to regain his losses, he resumed his 
 practice in Columbus City, where he remained for 
 twenty-six years, not only repairing all his pecuniary 
 losses, but attaining to an eminence in his profession, 
 which formed the best test of his skill and industry. 
 The removal of his son, Dr. Wra. S. Robertson, 
 elsewhere sketched in this volume, to Muscatine in 
 1869 induced him to follow in 1-870 and locate in 
 the same city, where he continued his professional 
 work till 1874, when he retired from the practice, 
 having been actively engaged as a physician for a 
 period of almost half a century. 
 
 In politics, the doctor was for many years an old- 
 line whig, and being strongly opposed to slavery he 
 was among the first to adopt the principles of the 
 free-soil party, and naturally drifted into the great 
 republican party. During the slaveholders' rebel- 
 lion he was an ardent supporter of the government, 
 and employed all the influence which God had 
 given him in church and state in favor of liber- 
 ty and union. He was also an earnest helper of 
 the sanitary commission, and did everything in his 
 power to aid them and to supply the needs of the 
 families, of the gallant men who risked their lives 
 in their country's defense. In 1865 he was elected 
 state senator from Louisa county, Iowa, for a period 
 of four years. 
 
 He was a member of the Ohio State Medical So- 
 ciety ; also of the medical societies of Louisa and 
 Muscatine counties, Iowa, and of the Iowa State 
 Medical Society, of which he held the office of vice- 
 president and treasurer, each one term. He was 
 
 also a pioneer in the cause of temperance in the 
 west, and lectured extensively in this cause through 
 central Ohio at an early day, and did much to ex- 
 tend the principles of total abstinence there and in 
 Iowa, both by precept and example. 
 
 He united with a branch of the Presbyterian 
 church at the age of fourteen years, and has con- 
 tinued in connection ever since. He has been an 
 elder in the congregation for many years, and among 
 the most generous contributors to religious and be- 
 nevolent institutions of the community. 
 
 On the 15th of March, 1829, he married Miss 
 Maria Armstrong, of Lancaster county, Pennsylva- 
 nia, by whom he has an oijly son. Dr. Wm. S. 
 Robertson. Her habits are domestic, making her 
 house a home of love, purity and good cheer. 
 Benevolent, charitable, a true wife, a fond mother, 
 a most excellent neighbor, she is loved and re- 
 spected by all who know her. 
 
 The doctor, although past the "threescore years 
 and ten " usually allotted to man's existence, still 
 possesses much of the physical elasticity of his ear- 
 lier years, and nearly all the vivacity and vigor of 
 youth. At his prime he was tall, graceful and 
 handsome ; a man of great perseverance and un- 
 tiring energy. In the development of his section 
 of Iowa he was one of the most active, enterprising 
 and influential men of the day. He was shrewd 
 and far-seeing. 
 
 His advice was generally sought by his neighbors 
 on all subjects pertaining to their material interests; 
 and usually adopted. He had a large practice and 
 traveled mainly on horseback, shortening distances 
 by ignoring the prescribed highways and going by 
 direct lines across the prairies. At his home he was 
 noted for his kindness and hospitality, his house was 
 always open to his friends or any one who chanced 
 to avail themselves of his generosity. His hand was 
 ever ready to bestow good gifts to the poor and 
 needy. He was always a man of piety of character 
 and of honesty of purpose. Himself honest and un- 
 suspecting, he was not unfrequently made the victim 
 of avarice and design, and, as intimated above, on 
 one occasion, by trusting to the advice of one whom 
 he supposed to be his friend, he was reduced from 
 easy and comfortable circumstances to almost utter 
 destitution. Yet his confidence in men as a class 
 remained unshaken. He could not consent to the 
 doctrine that " all men are to be treated as knaves 
 till proved to be honest." He acted upon the con- 
 trary principle. 
 
I 12 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAHT. 
 
 A pioneer in the temperance cause, a life-long 
 advocate of total abstinence, he labored therein 
 earnestly and incessantly, yet without ostentation. 
 
 His generous nature revolted at the thought of 
 man's holding property in his fellow-man, and from 
 his earliest manhood was known as an abolitionist, 
 who dared to denounce the wickedness of slavery, 
 and to proclaim the right of universal liberty. 
 
 Socially of a retiring disposition, he cared little 
 for large crowds, but enjoyed the company of a few 
 
 known friends, and was never more happy than 
 when thus surrounded, discussing some topic of re- 
 ligion or reform. 
 
 He has always been a believer in the christian 
 religion, and an unswerving observer of the christian 
 virtues, a great student of the bible, and of all works 
 designed to elucidate its sacred teachings, and now 
 in his declining years he spends the greater portion 
 of his time in the study of subjects pertaining to the 
 eternal world. 
 
 SAMUEL SINNETT, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 SAMUEL SINNETT, farmer and economist, 
 was born in the city of Dublin, Ireland, on 
 the 17th of March, 1817, and is the second son of 
 John T. Sinnett and Mary Susan nee Abbott. His 
 father was for many years a silk manufacturer at 
 No. 8 Merchants' Quay, in the Irish capital, and 
 was descended from an old Huguenot family, driv- 
 en from the neighborhood of Lyons, France, on 
 the revocation of the celebrated edict of Nantes 
 by Louis XIV in 1685. By this barbarous act all 
 the Protestant churches of France were destroyed, 
 their ministers banished, and every individual out- 
 lawed or compelled to renounce his religion. They 
 were hunted like wild beasts and great numbers put 
 to death, and not less than five hundred thousand 
 of the most useful and industrious citizens were 
 driven into exile, and carried the arts and manu- 
 factures of France, in which the Protestants greatly 
 excelled, into the various countries in which they 
 found an asylum. The Sinnetts carried their in- 
 dustry with them to Dublin, where for several gen- 
 erations they were among the most prosperous and 
 useful citizens of that metropolis. 
 
 One of the most serious evils, however, resulting 
 from the legislative union of Ireland with Great 
 Britain was the prostration of the silk interests, 
 the manufacture of which has since entirely ceased 
 in Ireland. This circumstance led to the expatri- 
 ation of our subject. He left Ireland in 1835, in 
 the eighteenth year of his age, in company with his 
 only brother, John T. Sinnett, an artist by profes- 
 sion, and now a resident of Middletown, New York. 
 
 Our subject received a first-class English and 
 classical education in the city of his nativity — one 
 of the most renowned seats of learning in Europe. 
 
 On arriving in the United States he settled down 
 as a pioneer farmer in Park county, Indiana, where 
 he remained some five years, and in 1840 removed 
 to Muscatine county, Iowa, where he purchased a 
 farm of three hundred and twenty acres, on which 
 he has since resided. His home is located some 
 two miles north of Muscatine, and is among the 
 most beautiful and ornate suburban villas in the 
 county, where a hospitality peculiarly Irish is dis- 
 pensed, and a cordial welcome greets every exile 
 hailing from the Emerald Isle. As a farmer, Mr. 
 Sinnett has been eminently successful, and has ac- 
 cumulated a competence. He is also interested in 
 every movement, organization or enterprise for the 
 benefit of his fellow-husbandmen or the community 
 at large. He was one of the original organizers of 
 the "Patrons of Husbandry'' in 1872 — -the only se- 
 cret society with which he was ever connected — 
 and has since continued one of its leading mem- 
 bers. He has also been for many years a steady 
 contributor to the agricultural and political press 
 both in America and the old world. He has been 
 a special correspondent of the " Irish Farmer's Ga- 
 zette," and has rendered important service to the 
 material interests of his adopted country by calling 
 the attention of the Irish pork and beef packers to 
 America as a source of supply, in consequence of 
 which many Irish packers have located in the north- 
 west, and are the most extensive operators in that 
 line in the country. 
 
 He has visited Europe several times during his 
 residence in Muscatine, and has traveled over Ire- 
 land, Great Britain, Belgium, France and other 
 countries, and made himself familiar not only with 
 the manners and customs of these various peo- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 "3 
 
 pies, but also with their industries, and is, perhaps, 
 among the most intellectual and best informed men 
 of the period. 
 
 He was originally a member of the democratic 
 party, but is at present associated with the inde- 
 pendent or greenback party. 
 
 He is an attendant of the Presbyterian church, 
 and a generous supporter of religious and chari- 
 table enterprises generally, and is recognized as 
 one of the most useful and valuable citizens in 
 the community in which he resides. 
 
 He has been twice married : in September, 1840, 
 to Miss Susan L. Higley, daughter of Ozias Higley, 
 of New York. She died on the 14th of July, 1844, 
 leaving one child, Susan A., now the wife of P. C. 
 Donaldson, Esq., a retired merchant of Iowa City. 
 On the 31st of October, 1847, he married Miss 
 Sarah A. Knox, daughter of Factor Knox, of Har- 
 dinsburg, Indiana, who survives. By her he has 
 had seven children, namely, Sarah Jane, Georgiana, 
 Isabella, William Abbott (died in infancy), Samuel 
 Townsend, Charles Eugene, John Harris. Georgi- 
 ana is the wife of Russell B. George, Esq., druggist, 
 at Arlington, Illinois. The girls are all graduates 
 of high literary institutions, and the sons are being 
 educated with a view to professions. 
 
 In personal appearance Mr. Sinnett is rather 
 above the medium height, of strong, m.uscular 
 framework, ruddy complexion, light hair and gray 
 eyes ; a clear and pleasant voice strongly tinctured 
 with the Dublin accent, a large head and distinctly 
 marked features, which at once strike the eye of 
 a stranger as belonging to a man of no ordinary 
 caliber.'" His manners, which partake largely of the 
 western mold, are, perhaps, not as highly polished 
 as those of some, but he has a hearty, whole-souled, 
 breezy way that wins the good-will of strangers at 
 once, and a broad, sunny smile that begets con- 
 fidence without further question. His large and 
 liberal culture make him an entertaining and in- 
 structive conversationalist and public speaker, while 
 his ready wit and genuine Irish humor always ren- 
 der him a welcome guest in society. He could 
 hardly be called an eloquent public speaker, but 
 the stern logic of the bristling array of facts and 
 figures with which he fortifies his positions is hard 
 to overcome. Owing, however, to an occasional 
 hesitancy in his speech, he is less successful as an 
 orator than as a writer. With him, as with Horace 
 Greeley, it is the pen rather than the tongue which 
 is his strongest weapon. Being well posted upon 
 
 the current literature of the day, and devoting 
 much time and thought to the political and social 
 questions which concern society, he is a frequent 
 and valued contributor to many of the leading 
 newspapers and periodicals both of this country 
 and of Great Britain. By nature a democrat, he 
 is always found on the side of the people against 
 their oppressors ; of the weak against the strong ; 
 of labor as against capital and monopolies. Strong 
 in his convictions and fearless in their expression 
 he is often found on the side of the few and against 
 the many, advocating what he believes to be right, 
 not for the sake of popularity but from principle. 
 Of indomitable energy, and perseverance which 
 knows no flagging, he attacks and pursues a wrong 
 or an abuse, no matter at what cost to himself. As 
 illustrating this characteristic, it is related of him 
 that upon one occasion, when a large meeting was 
 held in one of the city halls to consider the pro- 
 priety of voting a five per cent tax in aid of a 
 certain railroad, Mr. Sinnett strenuously opposed 
 the proposition, upon the principle that no one 
 has a right to vote money out of his neighbor's 
 pocket for the benefit of a private company. Al- 
 though nearly every man of the four or five hun- 
 dred who were present was in favor of the project, 
 and almost to a man voted for it, yet Samuel Sin- 
 nett alone voted " no ! " amid the jeers and ridicule 
 of the crowd. He is to-day one of the few men 
 who is proud of his vote on that occasion. As a 
 farmer, he has done much to better the condition 
 of the class to which he belongs, and to obtain 
 for it just treatment and fair play at the hands 
 of corporations. Hence he has been one of the 
 earliest and strongest opponents of railroad mo- 
 nopolies, and through .his speeches and writings 
 contributed very materially toward the public sen- 
 timent which resulted in legislative enactments 
 regulating railroad tariffs in Iowa. He has also 
 devoted much attention to the currency question, 
 and believes it to be the duty of the government 
 to. issue a sufficient volume of paper (greenbacks) 
 to meet all the demands of commerce, and he holds 
 that this paper should be a legal tender for all 
 debts, public and private, and should be received 
 by the government for all dues and taxes of what- 
 ever kind. He also favors the abolition of the 
 national banks, and maintains that the government 
 should do the banking of the country, issuing to 
 its depositors bonds bearing a low rate of interest, 
 and making these bonds convertible into green- 
 
114 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 backs upon presentation. He would likewise have 
 the government loan money to all its citizens at 
 a low rate of interest upon any sufficient security, 
 believing that such a course would render money 
 abundant and would stimulate industry and enter- 
 prise and enhance the value of the prosperity of 
 our country and fully develop its resources. 
 
 The question of labor and capital has occupied 
 his attention largely of late years, and he has often 
 predicted that the grinding process pursued by 
 railroad and other moneyed corporations of Amer- 
 ica upon their employes and the large number of 
 unemployed men, if unmitigated, would some day 
 eventuate in the most desperate collision between 
 the interests named ever witnessed in modern times, 
 and the great railroad strike which is at this junc- 
 
 ture paralyzing business and threatening to sub- 
 vert all law and order, even defying government, 
 seems to lend a large degree of probability to the 
 correctness of his views on this subject. But what- 
 ever view we may take of Mr. Sinnett's opinions 
 upon this or any other subject, we can rest assured 
 of the integrity of his motives and the honesty of 
 his convictions. 
 
 He has never sought nor held an oflice, nor is 
 a candidate for popularity or public fame. He is 
 a plain, unassuming farmer, social and obliging as 
 a neighbor, kind and warm-hearted as a friend, 
 law-abiding as a citizen, hospitable and generous 
 to all': a citizen of whom his adopted country may 
 well be proud. Let us have many more such Irish- 
 
 men. 
 
 EDWARD A. GUILBERT, M.D., 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 THE rapid development of the northwestern 
 states in the last fifty years opens a wider field 
 of enterprise for the learned professions and for 
 the progress of the benevolent orders than was ever 
 before known in the history of our race. Among 
 the orders designed to ameliorate the social, moral 
 and intellectual condition, and advance the inter- 
 ests of humanity, no one is more ancient, honor- 
 able or useful than that of Masonry. It is within 
 a period known as a generation, about thirty years, 
 that the first masonic lodge was organized in what 
 is now Iowa. The state has a population of one 
 million and a half, and there are now over fifteen 
 thousand members of the "Mystic Tie." Among 
 the zealous, earnest and faithful men, from year 
 to year, has been Dr. E. A. Guilbert, distinguished 
 alike in his medical profession, as a correct Mason, 
 an exemplary citizen and a christian gentleman. 
 
 Edward Augustus Guilbert was born in Water- 
 town, Jefferson county. New York, on the 12 th ©f 
 June, 1826. At the age of four or five his educa- 
 tion was commenced in what were called in that 
 day the " infant classes." He subsequently at- 
 tended public schools. In some departments of 
 learning he received, before the age of twelve, the 
 benefit of instruction in the Black River Institute, 
 at Watertown, where boys were prepared to enter 
 college ; but he did not receive a collegiate educa- 
 tion. In 1837 his father's family moved to Chicago. 
 
 Naturally of studious habits and quick perception, 
 and being very industrious, it is said that he made 
 more progress in his studies, often under disadvan- 
 tages, than most other youths of his age did under 
 the most favorable circumstances. He began early 
 the practice of composition, and at the age of eigh- 
 teen he was a ready, rapid and correct writer, even 
 for the press. His professional studies were com- 
 menced in 1843, and after a four years' course he 
 graduated at Rush Medical College, Chicago. For 
 several years he was the confidential student in the 
 office of the late eminent Prbfessor Daniel Brainard. 
 
 In 1847 he married Miss Kathleen Somers, a 
 young lady of education and refinement, having had 
 the benefit of a course of study in the famous acad- 
 emy of Mrs. Emma Willard, of Troy, New York. 
 Nine children have been born to .them, six of whom 
 survive. 
 
 The practice of his profession and other life work, 
 and his labor in the promotion of Masonry, are so 
 blended that, for a part of the time, it is proper to 
 consider the topics in connection. He practiced 
 medicine and surgery first at Ottawa, and after- 
 ward at Waukegan, Illinois. In that time, 1847 to 
 1852, he still pursued medical studies and investi- 
 gations with all the interest of an enthusiastic stu- 
 dent. In 1 85 1, at the age of twenty-five, he be- 
 gan a new line of study and research, by becom- 
 ing a Master Mason in Union Lodge, at Waukegan. 
 
kdAA/(W(l Jft\AUh^ 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 117 
 
 About that time Dr. Guilbert resolved to practice 
 medicine upon a different system — that of Hahne- 
 mann, and since known as homoeopathy. He soon 
 afterward removed to Elgin, Illinois, and com- 
 menced his changed practice, having thoroughly 
 studied the literature and theory of that school of 
 medicine. On removing to Dubuque, Iowa, he was 
 elected master of Dubuque Lodge No. 3, in 1857, 
 and reelected five or six times since. It will be 
 remembered by all who have been Masons twenty 
 years, that much confusion existed in almost every 
 state jurisdiction as to " Work," and that fraternal 
 controversies on the subject were usually conducted 
 with a very kindly spirit, yet it required about five 
 years' consultation to bring about the desired uni- 
 formity and reach the success which now distin- 
 guishes the lodges in Iowa. Being a delegate to 
 the Grand Lodge in 1858, Dr. Guilbert was elected 
 junior grand warden, and reelected in 1859. In 
 those years he was active, faithful and earnest on 
 the question of the "Work," and in the latter year 
 he was made one of the " custodians " on that sub- 
 ject. His associates were Hon. John Scott and 
 William B. Langridge. The reformed " Work " was 
 adopted by the Grand Lodge in i860. In 1861 
 Dr. Guilbert was elected senior grand warden, and 
 in 1862 was appointed deputy grand master. In 
 October in the latter year he became acting grand 
 master on the occasion of his superior officer, Gen- 
 eral Thomas H. Benton, accepting a command in the 
 volunteer army. The honor and the duties which 
 he then received and discharged were increased, 
 and made more obligatory in 1863 by his election 
 as grand master. He was reelected for the' two fol- 
 lowing terms, and thus managed the affairs of the 
 Grand Lodge of Iowa for nearly four years. Refer- 
 ence has been made, so far, to Dr. Guilbert's ma- 
 sonic career under the power of the Grand Lodge 
 of Iowa. But passing the higher branches of that 
 body, he has for more than ten years been exalted 
 to many other important stations. He has served 
 eight years as the high priest of Dubuque Royal 
 Arch Chapter, composed of more than a hundred 
 companions; seven years as eminent commander 
 of Siloam Comraandery, of more than fifty knights 
 templar; also for five years as the "Thrice Illustri- 
 ous " of Dubuque Council No. 3. His connection 
 with the Grand Chapter began some years ago, and 
 he is now its grand high priest. He was the ac- 
 cepted orator before several of the grand bodies 
 named on the annual conventions. 
 
 Dr. Guilbert has been a voluminous writer of 
 masonic literature. His reports on foreign corre- 
 spondence, and other reports and papers, presented 
 to the four grand bodies in Iowa, including his 
 orations, addresses and official reports in the sub- 
 ordinate branches, would comprise about three 
 thousand printed pages of the size used in the 
 annual masonic publications. But his highest liter- 
 ary standing is as a masonic journalist. It seems 
 surprising that he could, in twenty years, accom- 
 plish the work he has done, sometimes under dis- 
 advantages that would have discouraged anyone 
 less ambitious and less persevering, and at the same - 
 time discharge the duties of an arduous profession 
 requiring almost constant attention. Though there 
 were perhaps twenty masonic journals in the United 
 States, the craft in the western states, and especially 
 in Iowa, felt the need, as Dr. Guilbert did, of an 
 additional magazine to advance the interests of the 
 order. He accordingly edited and published the 
 " Evergreen " at Dubuque for three years. It was 
 said to have been better edited than any other 
 masonic journal in the northwest. He sold his in- 
 terest in 1 87 1 to persons in another city. While 
 under the editorship of Dr. Guilbert and published 
 at Dubuque, it was an efficient means of promulgat- 
 ing the theory and practice of true Masonry. Had 
 such a writer as the founder -of the " Evergreen " 
 devoted his exclusive work for the last twenty-five 
 years to any other department of literature, he 
 would have distinguished himself more than he has 
 in the various fields of his masonic work. He has 
 also been professional lecturer in the homoeopathic 
 colleges of Cleveland, St. Louis and Chicago. And 
 yet another field occupied for a time the attention 
 of this energetic and industrious young man. 
 
 In the war of the rebellion he was appointed 
 surgeon of the board of enrollment for the third 
 congressional district of Iowa, and discharged the 
 responsible duties of that position from 1862 to 
 1865. But his patriotic nature and zealous spirit 
 shunned no toil or responsibility, either in fraternal 
 labor for the order he has so loved and adorned, 
 or in the duties of a citizen or an officer to pro- 
 mote the welfare of his country. During the war 
 he gave his influence to encourage enlistments for 
 the volunteer service, and was chosen captain of 
 company A, of the 46th Iowa Infantry. In that 
 capacity he passed five months in the military field- 
 service in western Tennessee. He is thus properly 
 included in that roll of honor which will be em- 
 
iiS 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 balmed in the history of America as a record of 
 our national progress and political preservation. It 
 has been by the utmost industry, the most rigidly 
 correct business and personal habits, and also the 
 constant watchfulness in economizing every hour 
 of time, that he has been able to do such an amount 
 of work. Of course he is not rich, for no man of 
 such benevolent and self-sacrificing nature can ever 
 acquire more than a moderate competence. 
 
 Having been successful in his profession, he suc- 
 ceeded in 1876 in establishing an institution in 
 Dubuque, known as the Northwestern Sanitarium, 
 with a view to afford medical and surgical relief 
 to that class of patients who might not be able to 
 secure proper treatment from local physicians, and 
 to prevent the necessity of long journeys to more 
 distant hospitals. He had cherished this design 
 for years, and the accomplished fact is another evi- 
 dence of his perseverance in relation to any good 
 object. 
 
 Dr. Guilbert's mental activity and enduring phys- 
 ical organization appear to be derived from his 
 nativity, in a happy and fortunate mixture of three 
 nationalities — those of Wales, England and Hol- 
 land. The English evidently predominates, and 
 hence he may with propriety be considered an 
 English-American of the second or third genera- 
 
 tion. His literary tastes he has inherited from his 
 mother, a woman of noble character and of great 
 culture, whose love of letters as a writer would 
 have secured her distinction had she chosen to 
 have entered that field. His father was an emi- 
 nent mason, a devoted christian, and is still living 
 at Waukegan, Illinois. 
 
 With a fine, manly form, in good proportions, 
 and with regular features, a genial manner and at- 
 tractive conversational powers, with the gift of elo- 
 quence, it is not to be wondered at that he is popu- 
 lar with all his masonic brethren, and also his 
 fellow-citizens. Of such a man as Dr. Guilbert, 
 it is not fulsome praise to say that he is an honor 
 to the time in which he lives. He fills no polit- 
 ical office, nor seeks the empty applause of the 
 populace ; but he does his life-duty day by day 
 and from year to year; and may he long be spared 
 to be loved by the members of the order for which 
 he has done so much, to be highly respected in 
 the learned profession in which he has practiced 
 for a quarter of a century, and be esteemed by his 
 fellow-christians and citizens, who may yet become 
 his personal acquaintances. Few men, when they 
 pass from earth, will leave behind them a higher 
 character, a better reputation, or a brighter example 
 of pure life than Dr. Edward Augustus Guilbert. 
 
 LEVI FULLER, M.D., 
 
 WEST UNION. 
 
 DR. LEVI FULLER is the son of Elijah Fuller, 
 a farmer, and was born in- Tioga county, 
 Pennsylvania, on the 14th of August, 1824. He 
 spent his early years in aiding his father in clear- 
 ing and cultivating land, having, meantime, limited 
 means for mental discipline. He had a taste for 
 study, and a partiality for medical books, and at 
 eighteen, with the permission of his father, struck 
 boldly out for himself with more ambition than 
 means. He studied medicine at Newcastle, in his 
 native state, and commenced practice in 1845. He 
 practiced nine or ten years east of the Mississippi, 
 seven of them at Rock Grove, Stephenson county, 
 Illinois, and in April, 1854, removed to West Union, 
 Iowa, where we still find him, but not in the medical 
 practice. After being in the state about two years, 
 the "openings" in other professions or lines of 
 business became so numerous and so tempting that 
 
 he abandoned his profession altogether. He gave 
 his attention to real estate, eventually became a 
 broker, and as a business man has proved eminently 
 successful. He was, for a short time, in the hard- 
 ware traffic, but his most profitable ventures have 
 been made in buying and selling land. A few years 
 ago he went into the business of banking, purchasing 
 the West Union Bank, which he and his son man- 
 aged for two or three years, when they sold it to 
 S. B. Zeigler. It was eventually merged in the 
 Fayette County National Bank. 
 
 Dr. Fuller represented Fayette county in the 
 ninth general assembly, it being the session of 1862, 
 a dark hour in our annals, and Governor Kirkwood 
 found in him not only a true patriot but an efficient 
 worker and wise cooperator. While at the capital. 
 Dr. Fuller received a commission as surgeon of the 
 36tli Infantry, but, before joining the regiment, Pres- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 119 
 
 ident Lincoln sent him a commission as internal 
 revenue collector of the third district of Iowa, a po- 
 sition which he held for three years, and the dutieS 
 of which he discharged with perfect satisfaction. 
 
 In 1874 Dr. Fuller was one of the commissioners 
 appointed by the executive to distribute the fifty 
 thousand' dollars appropriated by the state to relieve 
 the sufferers by the grasshoppers in northwestern 
 Iowa. 
 
 He is much interested in the educational enter- 
 prises of the county, and was for several years presi- 
 dent of the board of trustees of the upper Iowa 
 University, located at Fayette. His heart is in 
 every local movement which will in any way benefit 
 the people. He has laid out three additions to West 
 Union, and is rightly regarded as one of the " nurs- 
 ing fathers " and most active upbuilders of the 
 place. 
 
 Dr. Fuller is a Master Mason. In politics, he was 
 a whig until the republican party came into being, 
 since which time he has acted with the latter. His 
 
 religious connection is with the Methodist Episcopal 
 church, in which he is a prominent layman. 
 
 In May, 1845, he married Miss J. E. Tipton, of 
 Centre county, Pennsylvania, the fruit of this union- 
 being three children, two of them promising daugh- 
 ters, who died in early life. William E. Fuller, the 
 son, to whom we have already referred, is one of the 
 leading young attorneys-at-law in West Union, with 
 a family of his own. He is the present member of 
 the general assembly for Fayette county. It seems 
 to be a family of legislators, Dr. Fuller coming of 
 good stock. His father formerly represented Keene 
 in the New Hampshire legislature, and his maternal 
 grandfather, Hezekiah Newcomb, was a member of 
 the Massachusetts legislature for fifteen consecutive 
 years. 
 
 Dr. Fuller is a prudent and careful financier, full 
 of public spirit, aiding -in all enterprises which ad- 
 vance the interests of the town, county or state, and 
 is benevolent in his feelings, promptly responding 
 to the calls of the needy. 
 
 ALEXANDER BLACK, 
 
 KEOKUK. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch is the eldest son of 
 the late Alexander Black, a native of Camp- 
 beltown, Scotland ; he was born at Millroy, in the 
 vicinity of the famous Giant's Causeway, in county 
 Antrim, Ireland, on the 13th of March, 1843; his 
 father, who died on the 5th of September, 1872, was 
 a commanding officer in Her Britannic Majesty's 
 coast-guard service; his mother, whose maiden name 
 was Sarah Lott, was a native of Devonshire, Eng- 
 land ; two of his"brothers are superintending engi- 
 neers in the British postal-telegraph service, and at 
 present stationed respectively in Glasgow and Edin- 
 burgh, Scotland. 
 
 Mr. Black received a liberal education in various 
 parts of Ireland and England where his father was 
 from time to time stationed, and early showed an 
 aptitude for mechanics, mathematics and drawing; 
 he was first put into a writer's office in Campbel- 
 town, and afterward into a landed estate office in 
 Ireland, but his preferences for mechanics and 
 architecture predominating, he determined to devote 
 himself exclusively to architecture, and accordingly 
 studied his profession in an architectural office in 
 London, England, where he received a theoretical 
 
 as well as practical education. His experience in 
 several parts of Great Britain and Ireland caused 
 him to become dissatisfied with his slow mediocre 
 professional prospects (an extensive influential family 
 connection being essential to professional success, 
 owing to the restraints of a stern professional eti- 
 quette), and being desirous of seeing the new world, 
 he determined to transfer his professional pursuits 
 to America. He accordingly immigrated to Ottawa, 
 Canada, in May, 187 1, but finding there only a lim- 
 ited field of professional operations, shortly after 
 the memorable Chicago fire of October 9, 187 1, he 
 opened an office at the corner of Madison and Clark 
 streets, Chicago, in partnership with another archi- 
 tect, under the firm name of Hansen and Black. 
 The firm had a considerable architectural practice, 
 having designed and superintended the erec.tion of 
 several store, residence and church buildings in 
 Chicago, and also in the suburban towns of Engle- 
 wood. South Englewood, South Evanston, Highland 
 Park, Park Ridge, Vicar Park, etc. He did not sub- 
 mit designs in the Chicago city hall and county 
 court-house architectural competition, wisely Judg- 
 ing that not merit but money would be the crite- 
 
I20 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 rion of successful competition with the city council 
 and county commissioners; the scandalous develop- 
 ments which have since been revealed in connection 
 with that municipal complication has far exceeded 
 his worst anticipations. 
 
 In the fall of 1874, in consequence of the previous 
 commercial panic having seriously impaired build- 
 ing operations in Chicago, he determined to accept 
 the invitation of friends to remove his headquarters 
 to Keokuk, which had then taken a new departure 
 in building. His first design there was for the hand- 
 some new Jewish synagogue now being completed 
 under his superintendence, and, being the first Jew- 
 ish synagogue erected in the State of Iowa, Keokuk 
 naturally takes pride in the enterprise of her He- 
 brew citizens. 
 
 During the building season of 1875 he designed 
 the plans of Catholic churches in Warsaw and Car- 
 thage, Illinois, also for a Presbyterian church at 
 Vinton, Iowa, for Parsons College chapel, the First 
 National Bank building, and several handsome busi- 
 ness houses in Fairfield, for Draper and Zachary's 
 bank building at Prairie City, a county court-house 
 at Columbus Junction, also a handsome design for 
 the proposed new edifice for St. John's Episcopal 
 church, Keokuk, besides many other smaller build- 
 ings. He has also been entrusted with the design- 
 ing of a handsome ashlar building at Centerville, 
 for the Farmers' National Bank in connection with 
 
 a drug store, — a masonic hall is to occupy the en- 
 tire third story of the joint building; he has also 
 bfeen engaged to design several handsome business 
 houses and private residences in Keokuk and Cen- 
 terville, to be erected in the course of the approach- 
 ing building season. His improved scientific meth- 
 ods of construction, based on practical mathematical 
 investigation, instead of on the usual empirical and 
 rule-of-thumb methods of the less cultivated pro- 
 fessors of his art, and his cultured artistic treatment 
 of his designs, coupled with an honorable and reli- 
 able practice of his profession, has gained for him 
 the appreciation and friendship of his patrons, many 
 of whom are among the prominent men in the states 
 of Iowa and Illinois. 
 
 While a resident of Chicago he became a mem- 
 ber of the Illinois St. Andrew's Society. He and his 
 immediate relatives (all of whom reside in Scotland 
 and England, he being the only member of his 
 family in America) are English Episcopalians. 
 
 His political views have been English conserva- 
 tive ; he does not sympathize with American Repub- 
 licanism under the present administration, and still 
 less does he have any democratic proclivities. 
 
 In the winter of 1874-5 he made an extended 
 visit to Rochester, Albany, New York city, Philadel- 
 phia, Baltimore, Washington, etc., with the view of 
 familiarizing himself with all the peculiarities of 
 American architecture in these cities. 
 
 LINDLEY S. BUTLER, 
 
 NORTHWOOD. 
 
 A MONO the rising young men of northern Iowa 
 iV is Lindley Schooley Butler, of Worth county. 
 At twenty-six years of age he received an impor- 
 tant appointment by the state executive, and an 
 indorsement of that appointment at the hands of 
 the people. 
 
 Mr. Butler is an Ohioan, and was born at Salem, 
 Columbiana county, on the 31st of May, 1846. His 
 parents were Moses V. and Emily Schooley Butler, 
 and before Lindley was six months old they moved 
 to Iowa, locating at Springdale, Cedar county, where 
 the son spent his youth at the common school and 
 the Friends' Seminary, following the same with a 
 course of instruction at a commercial college in 
 Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1864. That year he re- 
 turned to Iowa, and in 1868 read law with Hon. 
 
 Rush Clark, of Iowa City, soon afterward connect- 
 ing himself with the law departa»ent of the State 
 University, and graduating in June, 1869. The 
 same month he was admitted to the bar of the 
 supreme court. He moved immediately to North- 
 wood, Worth county, and opened a law office in 
 August. To the practice of law he soon added 
 the business of real estate, and both branches of 
 business grew rapidly upon his hands. In land 
 operations he has usually had a partner, devoting 
 his own time exclusively to the practice of the law, 
 and the firm of Butler, Smith and Pickering pros- 
 ecute an extensive business in loan and collecting 
 as well as real estate. 
 
 In the autumn of 1872 Mr. Butler was appointed, 
 by Governor Carpenter, to fill a vacancy in the 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 2 1 
 
 office of district attorney for the twelfth judicial 
 district, consisting of eight counties, and in No- 
 vember of the same year he was elected by the 
 people to the same office for a term of four years. 
 He has legal qualifications eminently fitting him 
 for such an office, and few men of his age in the 
 state have succeeded better. 
 
 On the 23d of November, 1869, he was married 
 
 to Miss Julia A. Pickering, of Springdale, according 
 to the ceremony of the Friends, to which society 
 both parties belong. They have two children. 
 
 Mr. Butler belongs to the Masonic order; and 
 in politics he has always been a republican. 
 
 He is an industrious and very active man, and 
 very few men of his age in Iowa have lield as high 
 a- position. 
 
 -SAMUEL T. DAVIS, 
 sroux ciTr. 
 
 SAMUEL TAIT DAVIS was born in Meadville, 
 Pennsylvania, on the isth of August, 1828. His 
 parents were George and Eliza Reichard Davis, his 
 father being of Irish and his mother of German 
 descent. The family lived in Meadville until Sam- 
 uel was eleven years of age. During the last year 
 there he attended the academy. At the age men- 
 tioned the family moved to a farm in the woods, in 
 Mercer county, where the son spent nine or ten 
 years, aiding in clearing up and improving the land, 
 attending school and teaching. He had a strong 
 desire for knowledge, was especially fond of mathe- 
 matics, and sometimes worked problems in algebra 
 on the moldboard of the plow, using pencils of soap- 
 stone found on the farm. 
 
 At twenty-one Mr. Davis entered the preparatory 
 department of Allegheny College, Meadville ; took 
 an irregular course, studying such branches as he 
 thought would be most serviceable to him as a 
 business man, and left the institution while in the 
 sophomore class, in the autumn of 1852. He be- 
 came principal of Greenville Academy, then very 
 much run down, and in a short time brought it up 
 to a high standard. But Mr. Davis had the prac- 
 tice of law in view, and before the end of two years 
 left the academy and began to study with Hon. 
 David Derickson, of Meadville. He was admitted 
 to the bar of Mercer county in the autumn of 1855. 
 The entire means for his education, scientific and 
 legal, were obtained by his own exertions. 
 
 Starting westward, he spent a few months in ex- 
 plorations in Wisconsin and Iowa, locating perma- 
 nently in Sioux City, in February, 1856. The archi- 
 tectural features of the village then consisted of eight 
 cabins and two tents, with a land office just opened. 
 To the legal profession Mr. Davis added the real- 
 estate business, and to these two branches he has 
 
 devoted his attention for twenty years, most of the 
 time making real estate a specialty, and being \er\ 
 successful. Meanwhile he has been deeply inter- 
 ested in everything which would build up Sioux 
 City and this part of the country, exhibiting great 
 energy. During the last eight or nine years he has 
 been engaged in bringing railroads into his ad.opted 
 home, spending more time, probably, in this direc- 
 tion, with a single exception, than any other man in 
 the place. He, with other enterprising men, organ- 
 ized the original Sioux City and St. Paul Railway 
 Company; and he originated the scheme of the 
 Pembina railroad, connecting the waters of the Red 
 River of the North and Hudson's Bay with tKe Gulf 
 of Mexico by a road running through Sioux City. 
 He organized the Sioux City and Columbus road, 
 the forerunner of the present Covington, Columbus 
 and Black Hills railway, to form a connecting link 
 with the line of roads from Lake Superior through 
 Sioux City to the Union Pacific. He also aided 
 in projecting and starting the Northern Nebraska 
 railroad, which has since become a portion of the 
 Covington, Columbus and. Black Hills road, and 
 which is completed as far as Ponca. Mr. Davis was 
 instrumental in getting the shops of the Sioux City 
 and St. Paul company located here, and has done 
 much at different times to encourage local manufac- 
 tories. He is at this time the proprietor of one or 
 two such enterprises. In the autumn of 1875 he 
 was appointed general manager of the Sioux City 
 and Pembina road and secretary of the company, 
 as such having charge of the building of the com- 
 pleted portion of the road. A few months ago he 
 opened a broker's office in connection with the law, 
 with the intention of giving his entire time to these 
 two branches of business. 
 
 The year he located in Sioux City A[r, Davis was 
 
122 
 
 THE UN/TED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTlONART. 
 
 elected prosecuting attorney of the county, and 
 served one term. He was register of the land office 
 eighteen months under President Lincoln ; was 
 chosen state senator in 1868, to fill a vacancy; was 
 chosen mayor of the city in 1871, and served one 
 year, and at different times has been city attorney. 
 
 Mr. Davis was a democrat until the fall of Sum- 
 ter; since then he has been a republican. He, with 
 others, started the " Sioux City Journal," a strong 
 republican paper, and he was its editor a short time. 
 He has written largely for the press, mainly in fur- 
 therance of railroads and other important enter- 
 prises. He attends the Presbyterian church. 
 
 On the 9th of February, 1859, Mr. Davis married 
 Miss Jane A. Putnam, of Sioux City. They have 
 had six children, five still living. Their home is on 
 one of the highest points in the city, and has a com- 
 manding and beautiful view of the Missouri river 
 and valley and of the city. 
 
 Mr. Davis has great vital force; gives all his 
 strength to whatever work he undertakes, and pros- 
 ecutes it with a zeal bordering on enthusiasm. He 
 has made his impress on the city of his adoption 
 and the surrounding country, and his name will ever 
 be gratefully remembered in connection with the 
 rise and progress of Sioux City. 
 
 HON. CHARLES J. ROGERS, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 OF all the different professions, none afford 
 . greater opportunity for the development of 
 native ability than that of the law ; for here one is 
 led into investigation of subjects most vital to the 
 interests of his fellows, and may, if he will, become 
 versed in the grandest questions of his country and 
 state. Such thoughts naturally arise as we study 
 the lives of men such as him whose name heads this 
 sketch. 
 
 Charles James Rogers was born at Sandy Hill, 
 Washington county, New York, on the 6th of De- 
 cember, 1830, and is the son of Hon. Charles and 
 Susan A. Rogers, the latter the daughter of Dr. Rus- 
 sell Clark, a prominent physician of Sandy Hill, 
 New York. His father was a noted politician, and 
 served for several terms as member of the general 
 assembly of New York, and represented the Wash- 
 ington and Essex district in congress for a number 
 of years. He was a man of influence and learning 
 and much loved by his constituents. 
 
 The great-grandfather of the subject of our sketch 
 was a colonel in the revolutionary war, and they 
 trace their family lineage from John Rogers, who 
 suffered martyrdom at the stake at Smithfield in 
 1555, during the reign of Mary of England. At 
 the burial-ground of the old homestead at Moreau, 
 Saratoga county. New York, lie entombed his an- 
 cestors for generations. He prepared for college at 
 the Troy Conference Academy, West Poultney, Ver- 
 mont, remaining about three years, and at Glenn 
 Falls, New York, one year, entering Union College 
 in the sophomore year in 1848. He remained here 
 
 three years, and graduated third on the Phi-Beta- 
 Kappa roll in 185 1. He was honored by being one 
 of the marshals of the day at commencement, and 
 delivered the last oration on the programme be- 
 fore the valedictory poem. Among his associates 
 in college were General Daniel Butterfield, Fred- 
 eric D. Seward, Governor John F. Hartranft, and 
 many others who have become distinguished in the 
 various walks of life. While at Union College he 
 took an extra course of civil engineering and sur- 
 veying under Professor Gillespie, author of " Roads 
 and Railroads," and other standard works in that 
 profession ; and upon graduating, in addition to his 
 certificate, he gave him a letter of introduction and 
 recommendation to W. J. McAlpine, engineer and 
 surveyor of the State of New York, who immedi- 
 ately offered him a situation in the state engineer's 
 department, which was accepted. He spent nearly 
 a year in that service at Albany and along the lin^ 
 of the Erie canal. Being ambitious, and inheriting 
 from his father a love for politics, he resigned his 
 situation and began the study of law in the office 
 of U. G. Paris, Esq., in his native town, and shortly 
 afterward entered the Ballston Law School, then 
 under the charge of the learned Professor Fowler, 
 where he remained several months, till its removal 
 to Poughkeepsie, New York. He then returned 
 home, and finished his studies in the office of Hughes 
 and Northrup. He was examined in the general 
 term of the supreme court at Salem, New York, by 
 Judges Cady, Allen, Paige and James, and admitted 
 to practice at that term, May, 1853. Early in 1854 
 
THE UNITED STATES B/OGRAPH/CAL DICTIONART. 
 
 125 
 
 he decided to locate in the west; and having an 
 uncle, the Hon. Thomas Rogers, residing at Du- 
 buque, Iowa, decided to make that state his future 
 home. He arrived at Davenport in 1854, just after 
 the Chicago and Rock Island railway was completed. 
 The district court being in session, by motion of 
 Hon. Jno. P. Cook he was admitted to practice in 
 all the courts of the state. He remained at Daven- 
 port several months, until Mr. Barnard, who resided 
 in Le Clair in the same county (Scott), was elected 
 prosecuting attorney, when he removed to Le Clair 
 and took his business. Here he remained five years, 
 acting as attorney for the Le Clair Marine Railway 
 Company, and engaged in a large and lucrative law 
 business, the proceeds of which he invested in 
 government lands and land warrants, and laid the 
 foundation of his present competence.' At the ur- 
 gent solicitation of his particular friend, Colonel W. 
 H. Merritt, he removed in 1859 to Cedar Rapids, 
 remaining there for more than a year engaged in 
 active practice of his profession. He was married 
 in Philadelphia on the 22d of December, i860, to 
 Miss Julia Augusta Waples, the daughter of Peter 
 Waples, Esq., a wholesale merchant of that city and 
 one of the oldest settlers of Dubuque, having trans- 
 acted business there for many years as a merchant, 
 and built the Waples House, now called the Julien 
 House, of that city. 
 
 Mrs. Rogers is a lady of rare accomplishments, a 
 good French and German scholar, is a natural mu- 
 sician, possessing a magnificent voice, and is con- 
 sidered one of the best and sweetest amateur singers 
 
 in the west. They have one child, Charles Hodgon 
 Rogers, about five years of age. He removed to 
 Dubuque in February, 1861, engaged in the practice 
 of his profession, and has made it his residence 
 since. He was raised in the democratic school of 
 politics and earnestly advocates its principles, and 
 during the war made many stirring speeches in fa- 
 vor of the government and upholding the old flag. 
 He has been an uncompromising democrat, taking 
 an active part in all the prominent conventions of 
 the party since his residence in the state. 
 
 In 1873 he was nominated and triumphantly 
 elected by the democracy of Dubuque as member 
 of the legislature, though nearly all of the entire 
 democratic ticket was defeated. He was one of the 
 prominent leaders of his party in the fifteenth gen- 
 eral assembly, and during the two weeks' balloting 
 for speaker (the vote standing fifty for Gear and 
 fifty for Dixon), he was appointed by his party chair- 
 man of the committee of conference, where he 
 rendered valuable aid which resulted in organizing 
 the house after one hundred and forty-three bal- 
 lots. Personally, he has rare qualities, and by his 
 upright course of life, his manly deportment and in- 
 dependence of chara<;ter, has made for himself an 
 honorable reputation. He is not only considered 
 a fine advocate, but is one of the most eloquent 
 political orators in the northwest. He is a genial 
 gentleman, quick of observation, and prompt in his 
 business as he is generous in his social relations, 
 thoroughly meriting the esteem in which he is held 
 by his fellow-citizens. 
 
 LIBERTY E. FELLOWS, 
 
 LANSING. 
 
 LIBERTY E. FELLOWS, one of the leading 
 w lawyers of Allamakee county, Iowa, was born 
 at Corinth, Orange county, Vermont, on the iiA of 
 August, 1834. His parents, Hubbard and Mary Ann 
 (Eaton) Fellows, were industrious farming people. 
 His father was a prominent man in Corinth, repre- 
 senting the town two or three times in the legisla- 
 ture. Liberty lived at home until he was twenty-two 
 years of age. In 1856 he turned his steps west- 
 ward, going to Wisconsin, and teaching a school 
 near Monroe, Green county. In the autumn of 
 the next year he crossed the Mississippi and lo- 
 cated at Waukon, then the seat of justice of Alla- 
 
 makee county, teaching school the following winter. 
 From 1858 to 186 1 he was an assistant clerk in two 
 county -offices, and removed to Lansing during the 
 latter year. Here he read law, and was, on the 
 26th of May, 1862, admitted to the bar of Alla- 
 makee county, judge E. H. Williams presiding. 
 He has practiced in Lansing fifteen years, and has 
 been quite successful. He loves his profession, 
 and started out with the determination to make 
 it his life-long employment. 
 
 Twice he has yielded to the partiality and urgent 
 request of political friends, and consented to be a 
 candidate for office. In the autumn of 1865 he 
 
126 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 was chosen to represent his county in the lower 
 house of the general assembly, and two years later 
 was sent to the upper house, serving, in all, six 
 years. In the house he was quite active on the 
 school committee, and during all the time he was 
 in the legislative body took great interest in the 
 state educational and benevolent institutions, heart- 
 ily supporting all measures tending to increase their 
 efficiency. In the senate Mr. Fellows was on sev- 
 eral committees, some of them the most important, 
 including the judiciary committee. His talents and 
 services were fully appreciated by his constituents, 
 and they would, no doubt, be glad to use them 
 still more ; but, though a democrat, and living in 
 a county usually democratic, and never failing of 
 an election when a candidate, he prefers the quiet 
 of private life. He is a good speaker and a suc- 
 cessful canvasser, and sometimes goes into the po- 
 litical field, but it is not a kind of warfare most 
 congenial to his tastes. 
 
 He is one of the trustees of the Hospital for 
 the Insane, at Mount Pleasant. 
 
 Mr. Fellows is a member of the Masonic frater- 
 nity. 
 
 He belongs to the Methodist church, and is an 
 office bearer in the same. 
 
 On the 4th of July, i86i, Mr. Fellows was joined 
 in wedlock with Miss Mary S. Reed, of Waukon. 
 She has six children and has lost two. 
 
 In educational and other local interests the heart 
 of Mr. Fellows is warmly enlisted, and he is en- 
 titled to a large share of credit for the building 
 up of the river city of Allamakee county. 
 
 Mr. Fellows appHes himself closely to his books, 
 prepares his cases with great care, and his candor 
 and sincerity 'give his arguments their full weight. 
 He excels, however, as a court lawyer. 
 
 A former member of the Allamakee county bar 
 
 thus writes in regard to Mr. Fellows : 
 
 He must be classed among the best lawyers in this 
 district. He is well read in his profession .and is ready 
 and skillful in the application of knowledge to the vary- 
 ing questions that are constantly arising in practice. He 
 thinks clearly and logically, and speak s forcibly and some- 
 times eloquently. His unquestioned integrity adds to the 
 weight of his words before court and jury. 
 
 HON. HENRY L. HUFF, 
 
 ELDORA. 
 
 HENRY LEWIS HUFF is a native of Penn- 
 sylvania, and was born in Cumberland coun- 
 ty on the 29th of January, 1829. His parents were 
 John and Priscilla Davis Huff. His father died 
 when Henry was in his infancy. His mother moved 
 to Wayne county, Ohio, and married John Mercer. 
 In his youth Henry worked on a farm, and a short 
 time in a tailor's shop, attending a district school 
 part of the time each year. At an early age he had 
 a desire to be a lawyer, and at sixteen, while spend- 
 ing three terms at the Edinburgh Academy, near 
 where he lived, he also devoted some time to the 
 study of legal lore. Three or four years later, hav- 
 ing read diligently all this time at home, he went to 
 Muncie, Indiana, and studied with Judge March, 
 and was admitted to the bar in that place in August, 
 
 1853- 
 
 Mr. Huff renaoved to Iowa in December, 1853, 
 
 and the following spring opened an office at Ma- 
 rengo, Iowa county, in partnership with Hon. J. D. 
 Templin, of Iowa City. At the end of one year. 
 May 20, 185s, he went to Eldora, where he now 
 resides. For the first few years, as a partner in the 
 
 firm of Ankeny, Huff and Co., in the business of 
 real estate and law, he represented the legal branch. 
 In i860 and 1861 he was in partnership with Hon. 
 J. D. Thompson, the firm being Huff and Thomp- 
 son. From 1863 to 1869 Mr. Huif was alone, and 
 since the latter date he has been of the firm of Huff 
 and Reed. Except during the short period during 
 which he was in the service of the state, he has de- 
 voted his entire time to his profession. He has 
 been and still is a close student; is one of the best 
 read lawyers in Hardin county, and among the lead- 
 ing jurists of the eleventh judicial district. 
 
 Some years ago, when Iowa had a prosecuting 
 attorney in every county, he served three years in 
 that capacity (1857, 1858 and 1859), part of the time 
 being ex-officio county judge. 
 
 Mr. Huff was a member of the lower house of 
 the general assembly during the thirteenth session 
 (1869-1870); was on five or six committees, and 
 chairman of two or three. He drew all the bills 
 presented by the committee on commerce; was a 
 leading member, though not chairman, of the judi- 
 ciary committee, and was known as one of the dill- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGBAPHICAL DICTIONARV. 
 
 127 
 
 gent men of thait body. He is a fluent speaker, but 
 his work more than his eloquence left its impress 
 on that assembly. 
 
 Mr. Huff is a Master Mason, and belongs to El- 
 dora Chapter. He was a democrat until the opening 
 of the rebellion, and has since been a republican. 
 
 On the nth of May, 1861, he married Miss Eliza- 
 beth B. Devin, of Abingdon, Illinois, and she has 
 had six children, five now living. 
 
 Mr. Huff was one of the prime movers in the en- 
 
 terprise which brought a railroad from Ackley to 
 Eldora, and was the president of the Eldora and 
 Steamboat Rock Coal Company, which originated 
 the railroad enterprise. In its incipiency and during 
 its progress he gave much time and his great ener- 
 gies to the work. He is a stockholder and director 
 in the Iowa Terra Cotta and Fire Clay Company, 
 recently organized and operating at Eldora. Every 
 public enterprise has had hi^ support, and he is to- 
 day one of the most influential citizens of Eldora. 
 
 CYRUS A. FARWELL, 
 
 WATERLOO. 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL history teaches us that a 
 great many men have lived to whom obstacles 
 seemed to be a help rather than a hindrance. The 
 greater the barriers, the stronger their resolution, 
 and the more earnestly they struggled on to success. 
 Just such men live now, and the lesson of their 
 lives cannot be put too early or too prominently 
 before the world. Unforeseen emergencies have 
 developed their character, tested their pluck, in- 
 ventive resources and endurance. We rejoice that 
 many such men gface the annals of every state. 
 The subject of this sketch is a conspicuous example 
 of this class. Aided by God alone, he has built for 
 himself, — built broadly and nobly. 
 
 Cyrus A. Farwell is the son of a Vermont farmer, 
 George Farwell, and was born in Dorset, Benning- 
 ton county, on the 7 th of September, 1832. His 
 mother's maiden name was Louise C. Baldwin. His 
 parents immigrated to Wyoming county. New York, 
 when he was about five years old, and there he 
 remained until he was eighteen, aiding his father 
 and attending school in the home district, and two 
 terms at the Warsaw Academy. 
 
 In 1850 the whole family removed to Westfield, 
 Chautauqua county. New York, where Cyrus spent 
 two years in the employ of F. Waters and Co., 
 earning his living and saving enough money to take 
 him to California via the isthmus. He sailed from 
 New York in November, 1852, and reached San 
 Francisco on the 17th of the next month. On the 
 way out, and in California, we have a test of his 
 energy and pluck. Not being " flush," he crossed 
 the isthmus on foot. He could not find work in 
 San Francisco, and, determined not to be idle, he 
 started for Sacramento, losing his baggage while on 
 
 the steamer. Next we find him in Sacramento city 
 with eight dollars in money and no change of cloth- 
 ing. Under these discouraging circumstances, he 
 was glad to get work of any respectable kind. The 
 first opening he found was that of waiter in a res- 
 taurant, and he did not hesitate a moment to fill it. 
 A few days later he is found working for a forward- 
 ing house, driving a four-horse team from Sacra- 
 mento city to the mountains, at one hundred and 
 twenty-five dollars a month and board. Five 
 months later he was driving a team of his own, and 
 clearing over one hundred dollars per week. At 
 the end of eight months he had funds enough to 
 enable him to .become a live-stock dealer." Success 
 attended him in this business, but his health failed 
 in a few months, and he resolved to return to his 
 eastern home, leaving quite an investment in real 
 estate on the American river, which he still holds. 
 He reached Westfield in August, 1854. 
 
 In March, 1856, Mr. Farwell went to Iowa. After 
 spending a few weeks in exploring different parts of 
 the state, he returned to the valley of the Cedar 
 river, making Waterloo his permanent home. In 
 the spring of 1857 he purchased two yoke of oxen 
 and a plow, and tried the experiment of breaking 
 prairie land, at which he succeeded admirably. 
 
 The next spring he went to Mitchell county, near 
 the Minnesota line, and made a preemption claim, 
 going with three yoke of oxen. It was in the month 
 of March ; the river was high, and there was not a 
 bridge of any kind on the upper Cedar, Three 
 times he had to swim his oxen across this swollen 
 and angry stream. Each time he fastened the 
 .wagon-body to the running gear that it might not 
 float away, and astride of the near ox of the rear 
 
128 
 
 THE UNFTED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 yoke, that he might reach and guide the leaders 
 with his long whip, he went safely, triumphantly 
 over. Securing the title to his claim, he returned 
 to Waterloo, and engaged in buying and selling 
 cattle, following that occupation until i86i. He 
 then, in partnership with Mr. E. Johnson, put up 
 the first elevator erected in Waterloo. In Decem- 
 ber of the same year he purchased Mr. Johnson's 
 interest in the firm, ajid at one' time owned and 
 operated five elevators, besides carrying on an ex- 
 tensive lumber trade. 
 
 In 1867 Mr. Farwell opened a private banking 
 house, and three years later, in connection with Ed- 
 mund Miller and others, organized the National 
 Savings Bank, he being the first cashier, and still 
 holding that position. In February, 1874, he was 
 elected to the same office of the First National 
 Bank of Waterloo, he being one of its original stock- 
 holders. He owns a large amount of property of 
 
 various kinds in Waterloo, and is a public-spirited, 
 generous man, foremost in all enterprises tending to 
 benefit the people or build up the town. 
 
 On the 20th of October, i860, he was married to 
 Miss Mary P. Evans, daughter of James Evans, of 
 New Orleans, Louisiana, a woman of highly-polished 
 manners and great refinement. 
 
 Such, in brief, is the history of Cyrus A. Farwell, 
 a man who has pushed on to independence with 
 a steady, unfaltering tread in a strictly honorable 
 course. Always ready for work, he never shrank 
 from employment which, while not degrading to his 
 manhood, would prove profitable. When he was 
 driving a team in the mountains of California, or 
 breaking prairie in Iowa, he was laying the founda- 
 tion of his fortune Just as much as Holcroft, the 
 dramatic author, was laying the foundation of his 
 fame while casting up sums on the paling of the 
 stable-yard at Newmarket. 
 
 HON. NORMAN BOARDMAN, 
 
 LrONS. 
 
 NORMAN BOARDMAN is the son of a Ver- 
 mont farmer, Ozias Boardman, and of Lydia 
 Whitney, and was born at Morristown, Lamoille 
 county, on the 30th of April, 1813. His father was 
 from Coniiecticut, his mother from Massachusetts, 
 and he was of genuine Puritan stock. He worked 
 at farming, attending school and teaching until 
 twenty-five years of age, finishing his education at 
 the Johnson Academy, Professor Perry Haskall, 
 principal. 
 
 Mr. Boardman read law with Harlow P. Smith, of 
 Hyde Park, Vermont, now a resident of Chicago; 
 attended Judge Turner's lectures at St. Albans, and 
 was admitted to the bar at that place in September, 
 1839. He commenced practice immediately at Troy, 
 Vermont ; remained there fourteen years, and dur- 
 ing that time was deputy-collector of customs and 
 state's attorney, being elected to the latter office in 
 1850, and holding it two years. 
 
 In 1853 Mr. Boardman moved to Potsdam, New 
 York, and practiced one year with Judge William 
 A. Wallace; and in 1855 settled in Lyons, Iowa, 
 having previously visited the state, purchased land 
 and selected a home. Real estate for twenty-two 
 years has been his leading business, though he oper- 
 ated in the mercantile trade five years at Anamosa, 
 
 Jones county ; and the historian of Iowa gives him 
 credit for aiding to lay out the thriving town of 
 Osage, Mitchell cqunty. For years he had business 
 in several counties in northern and western Iowa, 
 where he has been an extensive dealer in lands. At 
 times he has had an interest in different kinds of 
 manufactories. He is public-spirited, and lends a 
 willing hand to enterprises calculated to advance 
 the general interests of his adopted home. 
 
 Mr. Boardman was a member of the state senate 
 from 1862 to 1866; was chairman of the committee 
 on schools and school lands, and was very active in 
 securing improvement in the law for the collecting 
 of taxes. At that period there were several hundred 
 thousand dollars of state taxes uncollected, and it 
 was proposed in the emergency to use the school 
 fund for general purposes. This plan he strongly 
 opposed, and carried his point. Soon after amend- 
 ing the laws, as he suggested, the state was in a good 
 financial condition. 
 
 In May, 1869, Mr. Boardman was appointed United 
 States collector for the second district of Iowa; held 
 the office six years and then resigned, leaving an 
 unblotted record. He has held a few minor offices 
 in the municipality of Lyons, and has always dis- 
 charged his duties with promptness and fidelity. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 129 
 
 He was a democrat until the Nebraska bill had 
 passed in congress, when he became ashamed ofhis 
 party and abandoned it. He has been one of the 
 leaders of the republican party in Clinton county 
 since the civil outbreak in 1861. In religious senti- 
 ment he is a Universalist. 
 
 Mr. Boardman has been three times married. 
 The first wife was Miss Lydia Ann George, of 
 Orange county, Vermont ; she died in 1844, about 
 three years after their marriage, leaving no chil- 
 dren. His second wife was Miss Lois B. Knight, of 
 St. Lawrence county, New York, chosen in 1846; 
 she died in February, 1857, leaving three boys, 
 all now enterprising young men, and in business 
 
 for themselves. Homer C. and Willie K, are mer- 
 chants in Lyons, and Charles D. graduated from the 
 Chicago Medical College in March, 1877; is prac- 
 ticing at Monticello, Iowa. Mr. Boardman 's th.ird 
 wife was Miss Sarah M Knight, of Jaffrey, New 
 Hampshire, and they were married in February, 
 1858; she is a model step-mother, and in every 
 respect an excellent woman. 
 
 Though not partial to secret societies, Mr. Board- 
 man aided in organizing at Lyons the first Union 
 League in the state, and he assisted in forming many 
 other leagues in eastern Iowa. He is intensely 
 patriotic, and gave much of his time, during the 
 civil war, to promoting the cause of the Union. 
 
 JACOB M. ELDRIDGE, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 IN the records of the world's history there are 
 eras which produce remarkable men ; some- 
 times great poets, at others great warriors. Then, 
 again, we have great writers, great preachers, great 
 statesmen or great inventors, or they may be great 
 in some other way that makes them remarkable. 
 In his time and in his community none are more 
 remarkable than Jacob Mull Eldridge, president of 
 the Iowa Board' of Real-Estate Agents, and one of 
 the largest real-estate dealers in the west. He was 
 born in Haddonfield, New Jersey, on the 20th. of 
 November, 1824, and is the son of Duncan C. and 
 Rachel Eldridge, both natives of New Jersey. His 
 father was one of the pioneer settlers of Davenport, 
 locating there in 1836. He was postmaster for six- 
 teen years, and built the third frame and second 
 brick house in the state. 
 
 The subject of our sketch received his education 
 at the common school, working during the summer 
 and attending school two or three months in the 
 year. In his early youth, owing to the death of his 
 mother, he was placed in charge ofhis grandparents, 
 his father emigrating west. When he was thirteen 
 years old, at the death of his grandfather, he con- 
 cluded to "branch out" for himself, and went to 
 work for six dollars per month, driving team and at 
 times attending school. At seventeen he purchased 
 a team and went into business for himself, and at 
 nineteen sold out and commenced as clerk in a 
 store in Camden, New Jersey. In one year he pur- 
 chased the stock and conducted the business. This 
 13 
 
 he carried on about a year, and disposing of it 
 started for the great west. He stopped in Cincin- 
 nati a short time, as also in Indianapolis. While at 
 the latter place he was in the capitol when the bill 
 passed granting a charter to build a railroad from 
 Indianapolis to Madison, on the Ohio river, which 
 was the first railroad built in Indiana. Taking the 
 stage again, he was told it would be impossible to 
 travel, as the snow on 'the great prairies prevented. 
 Pressing on, he arrived at Rock Island on the 23d 
 of December, 1845, crossing to Davenport the next 
 day, being two months on his journey from Phila- 
 delphia. 
 
 Pleased with the country, he concluded to make 
 Davenport his home, and entered a farm within 
 three miles of Davenport, most of which he still 
 owns. Returning east the next year, he settled his 
 business, and returning to Davenport made it his 
 residence since. From first to last Mr. Eldridge 
 has been eminently successful in his business, rely- 
 ing solely on himself, and by his unaided energy 
 and perseverance has placed himself at the head of 
 real-estate dealers in the west. Within the last year 
 he has sold over one hundred thousand acres of 
 land in Iowa and Nebraska. He is a builder of 
 towns and cities, as well as a dealer in broad acres. 
 He laid out the town of Eldridge, ten miles from 
 Davenport, and on the Davenport and St. Paul rail- 
 road, which bids fair to become one of the finest 
 towns in Scott county. He was elected president of 
 the Iowa Board of Real-Estate Agents in 187 1 ; is 
 
I^O 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 a stockholder in the Davenport and St. Paul railway, 
 and a director in the Davenport Central Street Rail- 
 way Company. 
 
 Mr. Eldridge was raised in the republican school 
 of politics, but is liberal in his views, and votes for 
 the best man in his judgment, irrespective of party. 
 He is an ardent advocate of temperance. 
 
 He was married on the 23d of June, 185 1, to Miss 
 Mary Williams, of Davenport. 
 
 He is a member of the Christian church, having 
 joined in 1845. 
 
 He is a prominent member of the Sons of Tem- 
 
 perance, and the only delegate from Iowa to the 
 national division of the Sons of Temperance at 
 Philadelphia, June, 1876. 
 
 Mr. Eldridge is emphatically a self-made man; 
 commencing life without a penny, he has, by his 
 own unaided energy, industry and perseverance, 
 made for himself a fortune. But few men have a 
 better record, or have achieved more grand results 
 from a small and discouraging beginning. He is 
 known as a man of sterling integrity, decided char- 
 acter and untiring energy, and receives and merits 
 the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 PHINEAS C. WILCOX, 
 
 INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 THE ancestors of him whose history is outlined 
 in this sketch were among the early settlers of 
 New England. His maternal great-grandfather, An- 
 drew Lord, was born in 1697. His grandfather, Mar- 
 tin Lord, was born in ^742, and settled in North Kil- 
 lingworth, Connecticut. A man of great force and 
 dignity of character, patriotic and energetic, he was 
 truly one of "nature's noblemen." He married the 
 daughter of Rev. William Seward, of North Kil- 
 lingworth. They reared a large family of children, 
 of whom Huldah, the fifth, born in 1776, was the 
 mother of our subject. 
 
 His paternal grandfather, Abel Wilcox, was of 
 good Puritan stock, and for thirty-three years held 
 the office of deacon in the Congregational church 
 at Killingworth. Of his eight children the two 
 youngest, born in 1771, were twins. Their history 
 is very remarkable. Their resemblance was so 
 striking that it was with difficulty that their nearest 
 friends could distinguish them. They were of fine 
 personal appearance and dignified' manners. They 
 married sisters ; were merchants by occupation and 
 at one time very wealthy, owning vessels engaged in 
 the West India trade, woolen factories and stores. 
 They were pious men, rigidly orthodox in their be- 
 lief, and reared their large families in strict Puritan 
 style. They were named Moses and Aaron. Moses, 
 the father of our subject, was a fine reader, and in 
 the absence of the minister was called upon to read 
 the sermon. He was once a member of the Con- 
 necticut legislature. Meeting with many reverses 
 of fortune, the twins, in 1824, removed to Summit 
 county, Ohio, where they had taken up a tract of 
 
 four thousand acres of land. Arriving at their des- 
 tination, after a wearisome journey of forty, days by 
 canal and Lake Erie, and thence through the wil- 
 derness by marked trees, they called the place 
 where they settled "Twinsburg." They lived, how- 
 ever, but two years after reaching their new home, 
 both dying upon the same day of the same disease, 
 after a few hours' illness. Each left a widow and 
 large family, with small means but brave hearts, to 
 face the hardships of life in a new country. 
 
 Our subject, the youngest of nine children, was 
 born on the 6th of December, 1820, his mother's 
 forty-fourth birthday. He was the darling of her 
 heart, and remarkable for his filial devotion and 
 love. He was seven years old when his father died. 
 He had very limited educational advantages at the 
 village academy, and when not in school was em- 
 ployed upon the farm, and when old enough en- 
 gaged in teaching during the winter months. His 
 youth was marked by energy and enterprise, and 
 being of an inquisitive mind, fond of investigation, 
 he often perplexed his pious mother with questions 
 upon what she considered sound theology, which 
 she could not answer. She said to his wife in her 
 old age, " I never could coax Phineas to join church, 
 but I do believe he is the best christian in the 
 family." 
 
 Finding farm-life ill suited to his tastes, he, at the 
 age of fifteen, went to Painesville and engaged as 
 clerk for Mr. Henry Williams, his brother-in-law. 
 In 1 841 he became a partner of Mr. Williams, and 
 carried on a successful mercantile trade. In 1845 
 he was married to Miss Augusta C. Smith, of New 
 
THE UNITED STATES BTOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 London, Connecticut. Hearing of the excellent 
 business chances offered in the west, he. became im- 
 bued with a spirit of speculation, and in 1856 re- 
 moved to Independence, Iowa. 
 
 During the financial crisis of 1857 his business 
 was greatly interrupted, but his native energy, his 
 patience, perseverance and financial ability carried 
 him through. He began a mercantile trade entirely 
 upon his credit, saying that the " earnings of his 
 former life were safely invested in mother earth ; 
 that he should live to pay all his debts, and the 
 lands would be left for his children." His prophecy 
 was fulfilled ; he paid his debts, and by strict atten- 
 tion to business accumulated a handsome property. 
 
 His fellow-citizens finding his abilities such as 
 eminently fitted him for official positions, in the fall 
 of 1865 elected him to the general assembly of Iowa, 
 and reelected him in 1867. His ability was soon 
 recognized, and he was made chairman of the com- 
 mittee on ways and means. Acting with Messrs. 
 Donnan and Weart, he was largely instrumental in 
 locating the insane asylum at Independence. 
 
 He was very active in public enterprises, and 
 had just begun carrying out a long-cherished plan 
 of improving the business localities of his adopted 
 city when his life and plans were suddenly cut off. 
 He died of apoplexy on the 6th of December, 1868, 
 and was buried on his forty-eighth birthday. His 
 death was to his family, a wife and four children, a 
 blow, crushing and terrible, and brought sorrow to 
 
 the hearts of hundreds who had known him person- 
 ally and enjoyed his friendship. 
 
 Mr. Wilcox was a man of large stature, strong 
 muscular frame, with dark hair, large dark eyes and 
 a massive head, and weighed over two hundred 
 pounds. He was a man of very few words, but 
 with his immediate friends was exceedingly social 
 and friendly. He was a man of intense likes and 
 dislikes, loving his friends devotedly and never pre- 
 tending to be saintly enough to love his enemies. 
 He hated shams, and utterly despised hypocrisy and 
 deception. A thorough reader of human nature, 
 generous hearted, of sound judgment and invincible 
 courage, he fought life's battles successfully. , Few 
 men have passed through the varied walks of life 
 with less of ostentation or more satisfactory results. 
 
 " His life was a grand success, and at every step reflected 
 the grandeur, the honor and the dignity of labor; through 
 all the intermediate garden of hope and doubt, embarrass- 
 ment and success, he finally gained the prize and the golden 
 wedge lay at his feet. His life was no speculation ; it was a 
 life of trial, a stern and determined battle for desired results. 
 The battle was long and severe, but he more than won — 
 he conquered. In all his intercourse with the world he 
 never violated the laws of truth, and duty and manhood. 
 While others professed with their lips, he practiced in his 
 daily life, the most sacred requirements of the gospel." 
 
 In religion, he chose to make his profession of 
 faith silently before God, and we are content to 
 leave him in silence before the great Creator. 
 
 A noble and true man, his work lives after him, 
 and the influence of his example has left its impress 
 upon the lives of all who knew him. 
 
 HON. SHUBAEL P. ADAMS, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 SHUBAEL PRATT ADAMS, a native of Med- 
 fieid, Norfolk county, Massachusetts, was born 
 on the 5th of February, 1817, the son of Nehemiah 
 Adams and Mary (Clark) Adams. His great-grand- 
 father, John Adams, was born in Crediton, Devon- 
 shire, England, in 1685, and while a lad was seized 
 by a press-gang, and forced to serve as cabin-boy 
 on board a ship of war. When the ship came into 
 Salem, Massachusetts, he deserted; was afterward 
 captured for a reward, and while on his way back 
 to the ship escaped and fled to what is now Frank- 
 lin, in Norfolk county, Massachusetts, becoming one 
 of its first settlers. He subsequently purchased a 
 farm, which he occupied during his life and left to 
 one of his descendants, who still lives upon it. Two 
 
 of his grandchildren were revolutionary soldiers, and 
 one of them, Nathaniel Adams, fought at Bunker 
 Hill. 
 
 Peter Adams, the grandfather of the subject of 
 this sketch, succeeded to the ancestral estate, shared 
 in the public duties of the town, represented it on 
 one occasion in the legislature, and died at the age 
 of eighty years. AVhen but two years old Shubael 
 P. removed with his parents to a farm in Union, 
 Lincoln county, Maine, where his mother died two 
 years later. In accordance with her dying request, 
 the boy went the next year to live with a relative 
 in Winthrop, Kennebeck county, where he remained 
 ten years. In 1835, when eighteen years old, he 
 went to Waltham, Massachusetts, to learn the ma- 
 
134 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 chinists' trade, at which he worked, with the excep- 
 tion of about two years spent at school and in the 
 study of medicine, until 1842, when he went to Low- 
 ell, Massachusetts. There he worked at his trade 
 and studied medicine alternately, and later attended 
 medical lectures in Boston, Brunswick, Maine, and 
 Pittsfield, Massachusetts, receiving at the last-named 
 place, in 1845, the degree of M.D. Having turned 
 his attention from the medical profession, he began 
 the study of law in Lowell, and was admitted to the 
 bar in Middlesex county in 1849, 
 
 Mr. Adams represented Lowell in the legislature 
 in 1845 ; was a member of the constitutional con- 
 vention of 1853, and of the legislature in 1857. In 
 the early part of that year he resigned the office of 
 representative, and removing to the west, settled at 
 Dubuque, Iowa, and continued the practice of the 
 law until he was appointed provost-marshal for the 
 third congressional district of the state, with the 
 rank of captain of cavalry. He held this position 
 till the close of the war, discharging its duties with 
 marked promptness and fidelity. In t866 he was 
 
 appointed on a commission to lay out a reservation 
 for a band of Chippewa Indians, two hundred and 
 fifteen miles north of St. Paul, Minnesota, and spent 
 the summer, autumn and early part of the winter of 
 that year in that country. Since that time he has 
 been engaged in his profession in Dubuque with the 
 usual assiduity, during the last six years as attorney 
 of the Chicago, Dubuque and Minnesota and Chi- 
 cago, Clinton and Dubuque railroads. 
 
 Mr. Adams has been a member of the Congrega- 
 tional church sixteen years. 
 
 Until recently he was a republican in politics, but 
 at present is not fully identified with any political 
 party. He was very active in the free-soil move- 
 ment in Massachusetts in 1848, and during that 
 year was an influential canvasser, speaking in most 
 of the large towns in eastern Massachusetts. At 
 times he has done good service for his party on the 
 stump in Iowa and other western states. 
 
 He has been twice married: in 1844 to Miss L. 
 E. Stetson, of Scituate, Massachusetts, and in 1853 
 to Miss D. R. Taylor, of Lowell, Massachusetts. 
 
 BENJAMIN W. THOMPSON, M.D., 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 BENJAMIN WOODRUFF THOMPSON, son 
 of Robert Thompson and Susan nee Johnston, 
 was born at Goshen, Orange county. New York, on 
 the 26th of April, 1820. 
 
 This branch of the Thompson family is descended 
 from William Thompson, a native of Edgeworths- 
 town. County Longford, Ireland, of Scotch lineage, 
 who was born about the year 1695, married Ann 
 Jenkins in the year 1717, emigrated to America and 
 settled in Goshen, Orange county, New York, in the 
 year 1737. The following is a copy of their certifi- 
 cate from the church of which they were members 
 when in Ireland, the original of which is still pre- 
 served in the family archives : 
 
 William Thompson and his wife Ann have lived many 
 years in this neighborhood, and all along have behaved as 
 it becometh Christians; have been orderly members of the 
 Protestant dissenting congregation, and may be received 
 into Christian communion wherever Providence may cast 
 their lot; and their children have behaved soberly and 
 inoftensively. 
 
 Certified at Cork Bay, County Longford, Ireland, May 
 12, 1737. James Bond. 
 
 William Thompson was the father of George 
 Thompson, born in Ireland in the year 17 19, emi- 
 
 grated to America with his parents, and settled 
 in Orange county. New York, where, in the year 
 1753, he married Elizabeth Wells, and raised a 
 family of four sons and one daughter. He died 
 in the year 1782, in the sixty-third year of his age. 
 William Thompson (grandfather of our subject), 
 eldest son of George and Elizabeth Thompson, was 
 born in Goshen, New York, on the 29th of July, 
 1756; married Mitty Hudson (daughter of John 
 Hudson and Hannah Coleman) on the 20th of 
 March, 1783, and had four sons and two daugh- 
 ters. He died on the 29th of February, 1836, in 
 the eightieth year of his age. Robert Thompson, 
 second son of William and Mitty, and father of 
 our subject, was born on the 24th of March, 1787. 
 Married Susan H. Johnston, of Blooming Grove, 
 Orange county. New York, on the 2d of June, 1810; 
 had two sons and four daughters, of whom Benjamin 
 W. is the eldest son. He died in November, 1872, 
 in the eighty-sixth year of his age. His widow 
 (mother of our subject) is living in Middletown, 
 New York, in the eighty-eighth year of her age, and 
 can see to darn stockings without the aid of glasses. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 135 
 
 The family, which is still largely represented in 
 that celebrated pastoral region (Orange county, 
 New York), have been all tillers of the soil in time 
 past, — men of substance and high character. The 
 grandfather of our subject (William Thompson) was 
 a captain of light dragoons under General Wash- 
 ington during the revolutionary war. His sword 
 and suit of captain's uniform, together with a grape 
 shot fired from the enemy at the battle of Fort 
 Montgomery, which plowed up the ground under 
 the captain's feet, are now heirlooms- in the family 
 of our subject. Robert (the father of the doctor) 
 was a soldier in the war of 1812, and a member 
 of Captain Denton's company. He was a plain, 
 plodding farmer, dealt largely in stock, was a good, 
 honest business man, very highly esteemed in the 
 community, but of a retiring disposition, and rarely 
 went into company. His wife was a most energetic 
 and industrious woman, who in her early days was 
 accustomed to manufacture fabrics from flax and 
 wool, and afterward make them up into garments 
 for her family, first spinning the flax and wool into 
 yarn, then weaving it into cloth, and afterward 
 manufacturing it into garments — all with her own 
 hands. She was, moreover, a most exemplary chris- 
 tian woman, and lives in the love and veneration of 
 her children and a large circle of devoted friends. 
 
 Benjamin W. Thompson was raised on his father's 
 farm and received his preliminary education at the 
 Farmer's Hall Academy, Orange county, then under 
 the charge of Nathaniel Webb and James McMas- 
 ter, the latter being now editor of the " Freeman's 
 Journal," New York. Here he studied the usual 
 English branches, the higher mathematics, and the 
 Latin language. 
 
 At an early age he conceived a desire to become 
 a physician, but his father demurred, preferring that 
 his son should follow in his steps. Finding, how- 
 ever, that the youth was bent on a profession, on 
 the latter's agreeing to defray the expenses of his 
 education he yielded his consent. Accordingly, at 
 the age of twenty years, he entered the office of 
 Dr. James Horton (now of Muscatine), at Goshen, 
 as a student, where he remained till 1844. Mean- 
 time he attended the usual courses of lectures at 
 the medical department of the University of New 
 York, being under the special direction of Dr. John 
 H. Whitaker, then demonstrator of anatomy in the 
 University, being himself a graduate of the Edin- 
 burgh, Scotland, Medical College. The other mem- 
 bers of the faculty at that time were Dr. Valentine 
 
 Mott, professor of surgery and clinical surgery; John 
 H. Revere, professor of theory and practice of med- 
 icine and clinical medicine ; Granville S. Patterson 
 (also a graduate of Edinburgh Medical College), 
 professor of anatomy; Martin Pain, professor of ma- 
 teria medica and institutes of medicine ; G. S. Bed- 
 ford, professor of obstetrics, etc.; John W. Draper, 
 professor of chemistry, etc. From this institution 
 our subject was graduated in 1844, and immediately 
 commenced the practice of his profession in his 
 own home, being then some twelve hundred dollars 
 in debt for his education. He soon after purchased 
 the office and practice of his preceptor, Dr. Horton, 
 retaining the latter in partnership for one year, at 
 the end of which time Dr. Horton removed to Mus- 
 catine, Iowa. Dr. Thompson at once took charge 
 of the large practice of his predecessor, which ex- 
 tended over a radius of twelve miles from the vil- 
 lage, employing four horses in the discharge of his 
 duties. This he continued for ten years without 
 intermission. In 1854 he sold out his practice to 
 his cousin, Dr. John H. Thompson, who had studied 
 in his office, and followed his old friend. Dr. Horton, 
 to Muscatine, Iowa, where he has since resided, be- 
 ing now one of the oldest practicing physicians in 
 the city. His contemporaries in the practice some 
 twenty-three years ago were Drs. Reeder, Schok, 
 Waters and Johnson — the two former since de- 
 ceased — Dr. Horton having relinquished the prac- 
 tice on moving to the west. 
 
 Dr. Thompson soon built up a large and lucrative 
 practice, established himself in the confidence and 
 esteem of the people, and was always prompt in 
 responding to the-calls of duty, whether the patient 
 was able to pay for professional services or not, 
 being anxious only to relieve suffering; hence he 
 was called "the poor man's doctor," a title that 
 speaks more in his behalf than pages of fulsome 
 adulation could do. 
 
 His specialty, if he has any, in the practice is 
 surgery, at which from the incipiency he developed 
 a remarkable talent, his preceptor. Dr. Horton, be- 
 ing accustomed to hand him the knife and look 
 on while his pupil performed some of the most 
 critical operations with a dexterity rarely surpassed 
 by the most experienced surgeons. 
 
 In politics, the doctor has always adhered to the 
 Jefferson school, but has meddled little in political 
 affairs, nor held office, except that of Alderman of 
 the city of Muscatine. During the years 1856, 
 1857 and 1858 he held the position of surgeon to 
 
136 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 the Orange county poor-house, small-pox, cholera 
 and fever hospitals, and lunatic asylum. 
 
 He was raised in the communion of the Pres- 
 byterian church, and attended Sunday school till 
 the age of twenty, but never united with the church. 
 
 On the 29th of October, 1846, he married Miss 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Hon. Stephen St. John, of 
 Port Jervis, New York, one of the best and noblest 
 of her sex, an exemplary member of the Episcopal 
 church, and a promoter of every good and excel- 
 lent work within the sphere of her influence. She 
 died quite unexpectedly on the 12th of September, 
 1877, in the fifty-fourth year of her age. 
 
 They have had two children, sons. The eldest, 
 Stephen St. John, is captain of a river steamboat, 
 and the youngest, Robert Edwin, has adopted the 
 profession of his father, and is a graduate of the 
 College of Physicians and Surgeons, of New York 
 city, and is a gentleman of considerable promise, 
 especially in the line of surgery, in which he rivals 
 his father. 
 
 They have had no daughters, but raised an or- 
 phan girl named Annie Mautche, whose parents 
 died of cholera in the year 1857, and educated her 
 as their own daughter. She is now the wife of 
 Clarke Sheckelford, Esq., of Des Moines, Iowa. 
 
 JOHN D. WALKER, 
 
 WILTON. 
 
 JOHN DOUGAN WALKER, attorney and coun- 
 J selor-at-law, was born in Wayne county, near 
 Richmond, Indiana, on the 14th of October, 1818, 
 and is the son of Samuel Walker and Rebecca nde 
 Dougan. His ancestors on both sides were of Scotch 
 origin, of Covenanter faith, and were driven out of 
 their native country to the north of Ireland by the 
 persecution of the Stuart dynasty in the sixteenth 
 century, from whence the great-grandfather of our 
 subject immigrated to the colony of Virginia pre- 
 vious to the revolution. Both his grandfathers 
 fought through the revolutionary war, and after- 
 ward settled in Kentucky. In the year 1795 his 
 grandfather Walker made a trip with General Clark, 
 in pursuit of the Pottawatomie IruJians, as far north 
 as Lafayette, Indiana. His report of the country 
 explored in this expedition induced his son — the 
 father of our subject — to immigrate from Kentucky 
 to Wayne county, Indiana, in the year 1808. The 
 country was then an unbroken wilderness, inhabited 
 only by the aborigines and a few straggling, advent- 
 urous pioneers. He served through the war of 181 1 
 and 1812 on the immediate frontier, and afterward 
 settled down to the occupation of farming. 
 
 J. D. Walker received but a limited education in 
 the primitive schools of his native place, which were 
 then in the most crude condition and barely toler- 
 ated by the Virginia and Kentucky settlers, who 
 carried with them the strong prejudices against 
 popular education which to a great extent still con- 
 trol the masses of the southern people. But young 
 Walker was ambitious, obtained books where he 
 
 could find them, and was a diligent student at home. 
 At the age of fourteen he removed with his parents 
 to Fountain county, Indiana, on the Wabash river, 
 where the family remained about five years, and 
 from thence removed to Hendricks county, twenty 
 miles west of Indianapolis, where they remained 
 five years more; and in the autumn of 1842 the 
 parents removed to Cedar county, Iowa, where they 
 commenced farming, but our subject remained in 
 Indiana, intending to teach school and study law. 
 But in the following year (1843) the father died and 
 left the family in straightened circumstances, and J. 
 D., being the eldest son, was obliged to join the 
 mother and younger children in Iowa, and render 
 what aid he could in providing for their mainte- 
 nance. Accordingly, in the autumn of 1844, he set- 
 tled down to farming in Cedar county, where he 
 remained until 1855, reading at intervals such ele- 
 mentary law-books as he was able to procure. In 
 the spring of the latter year he quitted the farm, the 
 younger children being now able to carry it on, and 
 removed to Rochester in the'same county, where he 
 was engaged in business. In the fall of 1856 he 
 removed to Wilton, then only laid out on the Mis- 
 sissippi and Missouri railroad, now the Chicago, 
 Rock Island and Pacific railroad, and, in com- 
 pany with Mr. Adam Bair, erected the two-story 
 building now occupied by the post-office, and 
 opened a country store, which was conducted with 
 varying success until the financial crisis of 1857, 
 when they were obliged to discontinue business. 
 This ended the mercantile career of Mr. Walker. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 m 
 
 For the next two years he devoted himself industri- 
 ously to the study of law on his own responsibility. 
 
 In the autumn of i860 he opened an office in 
 Wilton, and obtaining the appointment of notary 
 public — a position which, with the exception of a 
 short intermission, he has held ever since — com- 
 menced the practice of law. In 1862 he was ap- 
 pointed postmaster of Wilton under President Lin- 
 coln's administration, which he held until 1866, 
 when he was discontinued by Andrew Johnson. In 
 the autumn of 1868 he was elected clerk of the dis- 
 trict and circuit courts of Muscatine county, and 
 was reelected in the autumn of 1870, and in Janu- 
 ary, 1873, resumed the practice of his profession, to 
 which he has since mainly devoted his attention, 
 with/very flattering success.' 
 
 He was one of the original incorporators of the 
 Wilton Seminary in 1866, a high-class academic in- 
 stitution, which has since been in successful oper- 
 ation, and was a member of the first board of trus- 
 tees, and superintended for a time the erection of 
 the seminary buildings. He was a member of the 
 board of school directors in 1875, when the present 
 magnificent public school building was erected in 
 Wilton, and gave his influence to the enterprise. 
 
 He became a member of the Independent Order 
 of Odd Fellows in 1849, and has remained in con- 
 nection ever since. He has passed all the chairs 
 and held all the offices in the order up to represen- 
 tative in the grand lodge of the state. He has also 
 been a prominent member of the Sons of Temper- 
 ance, of the Temple of Honor, of the Good Tem- 
 plars, and has given his influence to every enterprise 
 and organization of his day tending to promote the 
 best interests of the community. 
 
 His religious views are orthodox, though he is not 
 in communion with any church organization. 
 
 In politics, he was originally an old-line whig, his 
 first vote being cast for William Henry Harrison for 
 President in 1840. On the dissolution of the whig 
 party he united with the republican, with which he 
 has been identified ever since. 
 
 He was married on the 25th of May, 1865, to 
 Miss Eliza Hartman, daughter of George Hartman, 
 of Pennsylvania. They have three children, George, 
 Frank and Fannie, all bright and promising, and 
 being educated for useful and honorable stations in 
 life. 
 
 Mr. Walker is a man of sterling integrity, indus- 
 trious, persevering and, withal, modest. He is not 
 what in this age of spice and wit would be called a 
 brilliant man, but he is prudent, cautious and strong 
 in judgment; slow in arriving at positive conclu- 
 sions, but when once reached he holds them with 
 great tenacity. As a professional man, he is rather 
 inclined to counsel peace, moderation and compro- 
 mise than litigation and courts of law; in short, he 
 is said to be too much of a peacemaker for a suc- 
 cessful lawyer, a fact which will tell more in his 
 favor hereafter than the most brilliant triumphs of 
 the forum. His standing before the community is 
 that of a first-class moral, benevolent and charitable 
 gentleman. He holds the respect and confidence 
 of all who know him, and the love and veneration 
 of the poor and unfortunate. He is greatly attached 
 to his family, and enjoys all the comforts and moral 
 associations of a happy home. He has never been 
 known to betray a friend or a trust, and if he has 
 any enemies they have never made themselves 
 known to him. 
 
 HON. ALFRED F. BROWN, 
 
 CEDAR FALLS. 
 
 ALFRED FRANCIS BROWN, a native of Ohio, 
 ^ was born near Zanesville, Muskingum county, 
 on the 8th of December, 1828, and is the son of 
 Parley and Rachel (Evans) Brown. His grand- 
 father, James Brown, participated in the revolution- 
 ary war. His father was a farmer. Alfred disliked 
 agricultural pursuits, and at fourteen years of age 
 went on foot to Columbus, a distance of sixty miles, 
 to learn the printer's trade. At the end of about 
 six months his parents persuaded him to return and 
 
 attend a select school at Chandlersville. There 
 and at the Mclntyre Academy, in Zanesville, he 
 spent about two years. From the latter place he 
 went to Granville College (now Denison University), 
 and spent eighteen months in the preparatory de- 
 partment, and afterward engaged in teaching and 
 in studying law. He read in the offices of Hon. 
 Richard Stillwell and Judge Searle, of Zanesville, 
 and was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1848. 
 Mr. Brown practiced in Newcomerstown, Tus- 
 
138 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 carawas county, until 1850, when he immigrated to 
 Iowa. He spent about four years in Scott and Ce- 
 dar counties, teaching school, practicing law and 
 conducting a newspaper. He edited the "News- 
 letter," at Rochester, Cedar county, when that town 
 was contesting with Tipton for the honors of the 
 county seat, and failed in its ambitious aims; the 
 press was removed to Cedar Falls, and, at the solic- 
 itation of the publisher, Mr. Brown followed it in 
 June, 1854. During the first six months after his 
 arrival, he devoted a part of his time to editing the 
 "Cedar Falls Banner." This was the first paper 
 west of Dubuque on this line of railroad. Discon- 
 tinuing journalism, Mr. Brown thenceforward gave 
 his whole time, except when holding office, to the 
 legal profession. 
 
 He was elected prosecuting attorney of Black 
 Hawk county in 1855, and served one year. In 
 1859 he was elected to the state senate, and served 
 four years. . During the first session he was chair- 
 
 man of the committee on public lands, and in the 
 second held the same position on the committee on 
 federal relations, taking the place of Hon. J. F. 
 Wilson, who was elected to Congress. He was also 
 an active member of the eighth and ninth general 
 assemblies, and in the famous debate in 1862, on the 
 resumption of the railroad land grants, he took a 
 prominent part ; and a speech of liis on this question 
 was published in full, and had a wide circulation. 
 
 In i860 Mr. Brown was a delegate to the repub- 
 lican national convention which nominated Abra- 
 ham Lincoln. Though still a republican, he does 
 not allow politics to interfere with the regular duties 
 of his profession, which has become prosperous, ex- 
 tending beyond Black Hawk into adjoining counties. 
 
 Though not a member of any church organiza- 
 tion, he attends the Baptist service. 
 
 In September, 1867, he was. married to Miss 
 Jennie McCall, daughter of Dr. McCall, of Canton, 
 Ohio. 
 
 HON. JEREMIAH T. ATKINS, 
 
 DECORAH. 
 
 OF the early settlers in Winneshiek county no 
 one has been the recipient of more honors, 
 or is more worthy of them, than Jeremiah T. At- 
 kins. He was born at Phillipson, Worcester county, 
 Massachusetts, on the 4th of April, 181 1. His 
 father, Thomas Atkins, was a farmer, stone cutter, 
 and contractor, and came of a Cape Cod seafaring 
 race. Some of them were masters of vessels. Anna 
 Kendall Atkins was his mother's name. He was 
 reared on a farm until he was nineteen years of 
 age, after which period, for a few years, he was 
 engaged in running line boats and packets, as com- 
 mander, on the Northern and Erie canals. 
 
 In December, 1835, Mr. Atkins visited Chicago, 
 spending, however, only two or three weeks there. 
 He went to Michigan City, Indiana; was for a short 
 time agent for stage companies, and for about two 
 years dealt in government lands. Subsequently he 
 was engaged in locating farms in La Porte county, 
 being, altogether, a resident of that county about 
 sixteen years, during the latter part of which he 
 studied and practiced law. 
 
 In October, 185 1, Mr. Atkins came to Iowa, lo- 
 cating in the eastern part of Winneshiek county, 
 near Frankville, and twelve miles from Decorah. 
 
 One of these towns was at that time not much 
 known except in name, and Frankville had not 
 even risen to that dignity. There was no frame 
 house at the present county seat, and not more 
 than two or three hundred voters in the county. 
 Indians were as numerous as white men. 
 
 For several years after his settlement in Iowa 
 Mr. Atkins was engaged in improving lands and 
 practicing law. He spent considerable time at De- 
 corah, and at other county seats, in attendance at 
 the courts. He abandoned the practice of law 
 about twenty years ago, devoting his time largely 
 to buying and selling land, in which business he has 
 been quite successful. In 1873 he moved to. Deco- 
 rah, and is living a life of comparative ease, enjoying 
 the results of a busy and truly honorable career. 
 
 The first postoffice in- Winneshiek county was at 
 Jamestown, on Washington prairie; James B. Cutler 
 was postmaster and Mr. Atkins deputy — the first 
 deputy postmaster in the county. In these early 
 days the duties of the office were not laborious, 
 there being only one mail a week, but in the ab- 
 sence of the postmaster a deputy was requisite. 
 
 A year or two after settling in Iowa Mr. Atkins 
 was appointed prosecuting attorney for the county, 
 
Itlik UNITED STATES BIOGRApHICAl DICTIONART. 
 
 139 
 
 and served one term. At an early day he was 
 elected county judge, but by some informality in 
 the returns some of the votes were thrown out, and 
 the then incumbent of the office held over. 
 
 In 1856 Mr. Atkins was elected State senator, 
 representing eleven counties in the northeastern 
 part of the State. He was among the leading mem- 
 bers of that body, and conspicuous for his industry 
 and his knowledge of parliamentary practice. The 
 year after he was elected the new constitution came 
 before the people for their adoption, and Mr. Atkins 
 canvassed his senatorial district in its support, ren- 
 dering good service in that direction. 
 
 In 1867 he was returned to the lower house of 
 the general assembly, and proved an earnest and 
 successful worker in the interests of his constituents. 
 He aided essentially in getting the railroad through 
 Winneshiek county and to Decorah, and his services 
 in this respect are to-day highly appreciated. Mr. 
 Atkins has been identified with most of the im- 
 portant improvements in his locality. 
 
 Mr. Atkins is of whig antecedents, and on the 
 dissolution of that party promptly joined the re- 
 publican, to which he is indebted for his political 
 honors. On the outbreak of the rebellion he was 
 interested in the salvation of the Union, and though 
 too old himself to enlist, he did a great deal to 
 encourage others. In 1861 he was the first in the 
 county to receive an enrolling commission, which 
 Governor Kirkwood sent him early in that summer. 
 
 Mr. Atkins was married to Miss Harriett Matti- 
 son, of Washington county, New York, in October, 
 1838; to Miss Amanda Heaton, of La Porte county, 
 Indiana, about 1843, and to Miss Carrie Dawson, of 
 Allamakee county, in July, 1872, all since deceased. 
 He has no issue except by his second wife, who had 
 eight children, of whom five are living. The only 
 son. Jay, is married, and lives on the old home- 
 stead in the eastern part of the county; the eldest 
 daughter, Hattie, is the wife of Wendell B. Stevens, 
 of Charles City, Iowa, and the other three daughters, 
 Amelia, Almira and Lulu, are living at home. 
 
 HON. LUCIAN L. AINSWORTH, 
 
 WEST UNION. 
 
 LUCIAN LESTER AINSWORTH has always 
 -« been esteemed as the best read and ablest 
 lawyer in Fayette county, Iowa. He has thought 
 less of accumulating a fortune than of building up 
 a reputation in his profession ; hence he has made 
 the profession of law his life-study. 
 
 Mr. Ainsworth was born at New Woodstock, Mad- 
 ison county, New York, on the 31st of June, 1831. 
 His parents were Parmenas and Kezia (Webber) 
 Ainsworth, and belonged to a farming community. 
 His great-grandfather on the maternal side lost his 
 life in the struggle for independence. Mr. Ains- 
 worth's mother was a woman of strong mind, kind 
 and affectionate in the treatment of her children, 
 and extremely anxious that they should be success- 
 ful in life ; and to her careful training, wholesome 
 advice and early teaching, the subject of our sketch 
 is largely indebted for his success in after-life. 
 
 At the age of eighteen, after receiving what edu- 
 cation a common school could afford, supplemented 
 with the aid of his mother at the fireside, he went 
 to the Oneida Conference Seminary at Cazenovia, 
 attending there about four years, teaching during the 
 winters and working on the farm during vacations. 
 
 Leaving the seminary in 1853, he commenced 
 studying law with Messrs. Miner and Sloan, of De- 
 Ruyter, Madison county. A. Scott Sloan is now the 
 attorney-general of Wisconsin. Mr. Ainsworth was 
 admitted to the bar at the general term of the su- 
 preme court for that county in September, r854. 
 The next year he bent his course westward, halting 
 during the summer at Belvidere, Illinois, and prac- 
 ticing with J. R. Beckwith, Esq., now United States 
 district attorney in Louisiana. In the autumn follow- 
 ing he pushed farther westward, crossed the Missis- 
 sippi, and selected West Union for his future home. 
 He was young and full of ambition — ambition to 
 excel in the legal profession ; clung to law-books be- 
 cause he loved them, and few men in the tenth judi- 
 cial district are more familiar with their contents. 
 
 In 1859 Mr. Ainsworth was elected to represent 
 Fayette and Bremer counties in the upper house of 
 the general assembly, and in 1871 to represent his 
 own county in the lower house. During the session 
 of i860 the laws of the state were codified, and 
 again in 1872 and 1873. In both houses Mr. Ains- 
 worth was on the judiciary committee, and his legal 
 attainments were eminently serviceable. 
 
140 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 In 1862 he enlisted in the 6th Iowa Cavalry; was 
 elected captain of company C, and served' three 
 years. At one period during this time he was in 
 command of Fort Randall, Dakota Territory, about 
 six months. 
 
 In 1874 he was elected by a combination of 
 democrats and anti-monopolists to represent the 
 third district in congress, the only anti-republican 
 elected to that body from Iowa since 1854. 
 
 Politically, he may be called the luckiest man in 
 the state; for, although a life-long democrat, he has 
 been elected to the general assembly twice in a re- 
 publican district. His manners are quite pleasing ; 
 is cordial, frank and honest ; a prompt helper of 
 the needy ; has a great many warm personal friends, 
 and always secures more than the party vote. 
 
 Mr. Ainsworth is a Knight Templar in the Ma- 
 sonic order. 
 
 On the 8th of December, 1859, he married Miss 
 Margaret E. McCool, of Freeport, Illinois. She has 
 had six children, five of whom are living. He was 
 very fortunate in the selection of his wife. She is 
 an intelligent and refined lady, very domestic in her 
 nature, and much attached to her family — a model 
 christian wife and mother. 
 
 Mr. Ainsworth has been admitted to practice in 
 the supreme court of the United States. He has 
 great weight in every department of his profession, 
 and especial power before a jury. He is a good 
 illustration of what an industrious man can accom- 
 plish by giving his time mainly to one study and by 
 bending his energies in a single direction. 
 
 HON. JOSIAH T. YOUNG, 
 
 DES MOINES. 
 
 JOSIAH T. YOUNG, a native of Union town- 
 ship, Johnson county, Indiana, was born on the 
 25th of February, 1831, the son of John Young and 
 Rachael nee Titus. 
 
 His paternal great-grandparents, Jacob and Pe- 
 nelope (Watts) Young, were of Scotch, Irish and 
 English ancestry, and natives of Jones Falls, twenty 
 miles from Baltimore, Maryland, whence they re- 
 moved immediately after the revolutionary war to 
 Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, where John Young, 
 the father of the subject of this sketch, was born, on 
 the 20th of November, 1806. They were farmers, 
 as were also his grandparents, Jesse and Margaret 
 (Wiley) Young, and also his parents. His maternar 
 grandparents, Peter, Titus and Rachael nie Moore, 
 were farmers, and natives of Maryland. Both his 
 grandparents moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio 
 about 1816, and in 1826 settled in Johnson county, 
 Indiana. His ancestors were all Presbyterians, and 
 at an early date went to Maryland to enjoy religious 
 liberty. Lord Baltimore having given access to all 
 denominations. There is now in the family a keep- 
 sake, an old-fashioned skillet, at least one hundred 
 and fifty years old, which passed through the Indian 
 wars'of 1756-7. 
 
 His grandfather. Young, was a man of very su- 
 perior intellect, and for forty-three years an elder in 
 the Presbyterian church. He lived to the advanced 
 age of seventy-five years. His mother was born be- 
 
 fore the revolution, and lived to be over one hundred 
 years old. Josiah was early influenced by the study 
 of his grandfather's character, he inspiring him with 
 ambition and an incentive to work for noble ends. 
 He first attended school in- the winter of 1843-4, 
 for twenty-five days,' in Warren county, Illinois, 
 going two and a half miles to a log cabin, and study- 
 ing reading, writing, arithmetic and spelling. During 
 three months of the following winter he attended 
 school at Swan Creek. In 1846 his father moved to 
 what was then called Kishkekosh county, territory 
 of Iowa, the same being named in honor of Kishke- 
 kosh, chief of one of the tribes of the Sacs and Fox 
 Indians. The name, however, was changed that 
 same year, and the county has since been known 
 as Monroe county. I 
 
 Here the family lived in a log cabin, bravely en- 
 during the hardships of frontier life, and opened a 
 farm. Josiah attended school three months, in a 
 log cabin adjoining his home, under the instruction 
 of Mr. W. H. Potts, who afterward became his 
 brother-in-law. This completed his education in 
 the school-room ; but, being fond of study, he bor- 
 rowed whatever books his neighbors could supply 
 him, and by extensive reading became well versed 
 in many branches of study. 
 
 He remained upon his father's farm until nearly 
 twenty-one years old. On the 14th of November, 
 1851, he was married to Christina B. Potts, daughter 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 143 
 
 of Jacob Potts and Elizabeth n^e Wiley. Mrs. Young 
 was born in Jackson county, West Virginia, on the 
 1 6th of October, 1831. 
 
 After marrying, Mr. Young entered a claim, and 
 worked it two years, teaching the township school 
 during each winter. Going then to Albia, he spent 
 about a year clerking in a store; and in 1856 pur- 
 chased an interest in a carding machine, to which 
 he added improvements, until he had a fine establish- 
 ment. In the early part of 1857 he admitted his 
 brother to the business as a partner, and was meet- 
 ing with good success, when, in 1861, the establish- 
 ment burned, without insurance, leaving him about 
 three thousand dollars in debt. In i860, in com- 
 pany with T. B. Gray, Esq., he purchased the office 
 of the "Albia Weekly Republican," and started a 
 paper which he called the " Monroe County Sen- 
 tinel," and advocated the election of Stephen A. 
 Douglas to the presidency. Near the close of that 
 year he purchased his partner's interest; and in 
 February, 1861, by reason of illness, suspended pub- 
 lication. 
 
 In August, 1862, he enlisted in company K, 36th 
 regiment Iowa Infantry, and in November went to 
 Benton barracks, St. Louis, where he was sick three 
 weeks, his disease developing into diphtheria, and 
 his life being despaired of He, however, recovered, 
 and when able to walk, went with his regiment to 
 Columbus, Kentucky, and Memphis, and camped 
 on the bluff overlooking the river, and just above 
 where General Jackson built intrenchments in 1814. 
 After about three weeks he was sent to do duty 
 as clerk at the headquarters of General Asboth ; 
 but afterward, his ambition to be a clerk being 
 satisfied, he was excused at his own request, and 
 went with his regiment to Helena. On New Year's 
 Day, 1863, the regiment went into quarters near 
 Fort Curtis, and Mr. Young performed picket and 
 guard duty from the ist of January till the 24th of 
 February, when they were sent on an expedition 
 through Moon Lake and the Tallahatchie in front 
 of Fort Pemberton, on which they made several un- 
 successful attacks. Returning up the river about 
 two days' journey they met General Quinby with a 
 reinforcement of ten thousand men, and going back 
 made another unsuccessful attack upon the fort. On 
 the 8th of April, 1863, the fleet of transports and 
 gun-boats, with infantry on board, returned to He- 
 lena. During this expedition Jonathan P. and David 
 W. Potts, brothers-in-law of Mr. Young, sickened by 
 reason of exposure and hardship and died, the lat- 
 
 ter on the nth of April and the former on the 15th 
 of May, 1863, and were buried on the top of a high 
 hill overlooking Helena. Mr. Young also was taken 
 ill, and after the death of his brothers-in-law ob- 
 tained a furlough of thirty days, and remained until 
 the sth of July, and thus was not able to participate 
 in the battle of Helena, which was fought on the 
 4th of July. On the nth of August, under General 
 Steel, of the seventh army corps, his regiment 
 marched across the country to capture Little Rock, 
 which place they entered in triumph on the loth of 
 September. During this time the captain of his 
 company and several other members had died of 
 sickness. Remaining in camp till the 23d of March, 
 1864, they then set out on the ill-fated Red River 
 expedition, marching about a month, and being en- 
 gaged almost daily in fighting. It was during this 
 time that were fought the battles of Spoonville, 
 Elkin's Ford, Prairie de Anne and Camden. At the 
 last named place they rested a few days, and on 
 the 2ist of April, 1864, Mr. Young's brigade was 
 sent to a mill about six miles distant to shell and 
 grind corn for the soldiers. That day occurred the 
 battle of Poison Springs. At evening a messenger , 
 from headquarters ordered them in, and marching 
 all night they reached Camden on the following 
 morning. About two days later, the brigade was 
 ordered to escort a train of three hundred wagons 
 going to Pine Bluff for provisions. After going 
 about eighty miles in the direction of Pine Bluff, 
 they were surrounded and attacked by an over- 
 whelming force of rebels at Mark's Mills, Bradley 
 county, Arkansas, and the whole brigade either 
 killed or taken prisoner. The fight lasted from nine 
 o'clock in the morning until half-past two in the 
 afternoon, and Mr. Young was slightly wounded in 
 the right arm abo-^e the elbow. Leaving Camden 
 to the right they marched all that night and the 
 next day until sundown, when they reached the 
 Washita river, and obtained a little corn to eat, the 
 first that they had eaten since their breakfast before 
 the battle. Thence they crossed the river and 
 marched in a circuitous route, at the rate of fifteen 
 to twenty miles per day, to .Camden. There they 
 were placed in an old cotton house, and under 
 pretense of searching for concealed weapons, the 
 rebels robbed them of all the possessions they had 
 on their persons. After about three days of harsh 
 treatment, they were taken in the direction of 
 Shreveport, Louisiana, under a promise that they 
 would there be exchanged; but instead of stop- 
 
144 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 ping there they marched through the place, crossed 
 the Red river, and camped about four miles out 
 on the Texas road. On the 15 th of May, 1864, 
 they reached Camp Ford, where they remained 
 until the 15th of February, 1865, enduring horrors 
 exceeded only by those of "Libby and Ander- 
 sonville." They were now paroled and sent to 
 Shreveport under rebel guards, thence on rebel 
 steamboats to the mouth of the Red river, where 
 they were exchanged. Thence they were sent to 
 New Orleans, and there were furnished with clothes, 
 blankets and knapsacks, and from there came north 
 to Cairo. Here they received a thirty days' prison 
 furlough, having been prisoners ten months, and at 
 the expiration of that time returned to the remnant 
 of their regiment at St. Charles, Arkansas. 
 
 On the 24th of August, 1865, they were sent down 
 the White river, and thence went up the Mississippi 
 to Davenport, Iowa, where they were discharged on 
 the 7th of September following. 
 
 Returning to his home, Mr. Young remained on 
 the farm with his family until the autumn of 1866, 
 when he was elected clerk of the district court of 
 , Monroe county. He entered upon his duties on the 
 ist of January, 1867 ; was twice reelected, and held 
 the oflSce in all six years. In the fall of 1872 he 
 was elected, on the republican ticket, secretary of 
 state of Iowa, by a majority of fifty-seven thousand ; 
 reelected in 1874, and again reelected in 1876 by a 
 majority of sixty thousand and fifty-six. 
 
 In political sentiment, Mr. Young had formerly 
 been a democrat, as was also his father and grand- 
 father. After the opening of the civil war he 
 changed his views, and in the fall of 1862, while 
 
 with his company at Camp Lincoln, Keokuk, voted 
 the republican ticket. He then thought that the 
 emancipation of the slaves would be injudicious, 
 but after being in the south, saw that it was neces- 
 sary as a means of putting down the rebellion, and 
 heartily favored it. 
 
 In religious communion, his ancestors, as far back 
 as he can trace them, have been Presbyterians, and 
 he himself is identified with that denomination. 
 
 In his business affairs, Mr. Young has been emi- 
 nently successful, and li^^es now in the enjoyment of 
 a pleasant home, surrounded with all that one needs 
 to make life happy, and enjoying the confidence and 
 high esteem of a very large circle of true friends. 
 
 Of nine children which have been born to him, 
 five are now {1877) living: Fletcher Webster, born 
 on the 9th of January, 1853, became deputy secre- 
 tary of state on the ist of January, 1876; he was 
 educated at the Iowa State University, and gradu- 
 ated from the law department. Rachael EHzabeth, 
 was born on the 25th of September, 1856; she is 
 now a cripple, having lost the use of her spinal col- 
 umn. David Whitcomb, born on the. 2d of Novem- 
 ber, 1858, was a clerk in his father's office while 
 secretary of state. Ellsworth, born on the 8th of 
 July, 1866, and Edward Baker, born on the 19th of 
 May, 1868; both are now in school. 
 
 Such is an outline of the life history of one who 
 has risen from comparative obscurity to a position 
 of honor by his own untiring energy. His has been 
 a varied career, but bravely meeting every opposi- 
 tion he has moved steadily onward, adhering strictly 
 to principles of integrity, and enjoys now the reward 
 that comes of persistent and honorable effort. 
 
 HORACE BOIES, 
 
 WATERLOO. 
 
 WHILE it is true that some men inherit great- 
 ness, and others have " greatness thrust up- 
 on them," a larger number are architects of their 
 own fortunes. The man of this stamp, self-reliant 
 and courageous, building on principle and not on 
 pedigree, starts out with the idea that God helps 
 those only who help themselves. He who has faith 
 in his own powers, who is diligent in his calling and 
 has his heart in his work, is on the road to success. 
 By this direct route the subject of this brief notice 
 reached his present high position in the legal pro- 
 
 fession. He has for nearly twenty years studiously 
 avoided all the allurements connected with office, 
 thoroughly contented with the honors and emolu- 
 ments attending a conscientious discharge of the 
 duties of a busy lawyer's life. A native of Aurora, 
 near Buffalo, New York, he was born on the 7th of 
 December, 1827, and is the son of Eber and Hettie 
 (Henshaw) Boies, farmers by occupation. 
 
 Horace worked on the farm until he was of age, 
 except when attending the district school and the 
 Aurora Academy, then a first-class institution. He 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 145 
 
 Studied law at Aurora and Boston, both in Erie 
 county, and was admitted to the bar in Buffalo at 
 the general term of the supreme court, November, 
 1852. Prior to this date he had spent one winter in 
 Boone county, Illinois, teaching school. 
 
 After practicing his profession in Buffalo and vi- 
 cinity fifteen years, he in April, 1867, removed to 
 Waterloo, Iowa, his present home. Here he has 
 steadily continued his legal practice, and risen to 
 the front rank among the lawyers of the ninth judi- 
 cial district. 
 
 Before leaving New York State Mr. Boies served 
 one term (the winter of 1857-8) in the lower house 
 of the legislature, but has never since that time 
 
 sought office. In politics, he has always acted with 
 the republican party. 
 
 On the 1 8th of April, 1848, he was married to 
 Miss Adelia King, of Aurora. They had three chil- 
 dren, two of whom, with the mother, are dead. In 
 December, 1858, Mr. Boies was married to Miss 
 Versalia M. Barber, daughter of Dr.. Barber, of 
 Waterloo, and by her has three children. 
 
 Mr. Boies' eminent success as an attorney is owing 
 to two qualifications, not always combined in the 
 same person, viz., thorough acquaintance with- the 
 law, and great argumentative and persuasive power 
 before a jury. Both qualifications are the result of 
 hard study and untiring self-discipline. 
 
 RUFUS E. GRAVES, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 COMPARATIVELY few business men are suc- 
 cessful in these days of fluctuation, strife and 
 competition. The risks are great in all enterprises, 
 and rarely does mere genius succeed, aside from 
 untiring industry, in any department. Moreover, 
 it is the man who follows a single line, the man 
 of one idea, in whatever occupation, who is most 
 likely to make his mark in the world. Mr. Graves, 
 who is here briefly noticed, is one of the few 
 who may fairly and rightly claim to have been 
 successful in business, and he has become so by 
 fulfilling the conditions of success as suggested 
 above. Of New England stock, born of good par- 
 entage, where character is the truest nobility and 
 correct habits the best heritage, it is hardly a mat- 
 ter of surprise that in this active great west he 
 should be so well known and highly respected in 
 business. 
 
 He was born at Keene, New Hampshire, on the 
 8th of August, 1835, and is son of Caleb S. and 
 Eliza Graves nee Kingman, and, on his father's 
 and mother's side, of Welsh descent. 
 
 His ancestors participated in the battles of the 
 revolution, and later in the war of 1812. His early 
 life was that of a farm boy, and his strength of 
 constitution, and the habits of economy and in- 
 dustry which have been" of invaluable help to him, 
 may be traced to that source. He received his 
 early education at the common school and academy 
 of his native town, and while not at school his time 
 was spent on the farm. His father having but lim- 
 
 ited means, he had to depend upon his own efforts 
 for support, and from the sales of popcorn and 
 other little enterprises he maintained himself at 
 school. At the age of sixteen, with a capital of 
 thirteen dollars, the result of his savings, he left 
 home to commence life for himself. He secured 
 a situation in a bank of which his uncle was cash- 
 ier, and by steady application and close attention 
 he, at nineteen, was so well versed in his duties 
 as to be elected cashier of the Brighton Market 
 Bank, being selected out of thirty-six applicants, . 
 some of whom were old cashiers. The severe hard 
 work he had undergone commenced to tell upon his 
 health, and he was forced to resign and return to 
 the farm to recruit. Here, and through the effects 
 of a sea voyage, he was restored to health, and 
 spent some time in traveling over the country. 
 
 While at St. Louis he was offered a position in 
 the Mechanics' Bank, which was declined. In 1858, 
 through the solicitations of his brother, J. K. Graves, 
 Esq., who was doing a successful banking business 
 in Dubuque, he was prevailed upon to come to that 
 city. In November, 1858, he established the Du- 
 buque branch of the State Bank of Iowa, and was 
 elected its cashier. Here he continued until 1863, 
 when he sold his interest at a premium of one hun- 
 dred per cent and accepted the po'sition of cashier 
 in one of the leading banks of Chicago. Here, 
 again, his health failed, and he was prevailed upon 
 to accept a six months' vacation offered him by his 
 house, and, with Hon. D. N. Cooley, then United 
 
146 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 States tax commissioner, spent some time in South 
 Carolina. Upon the appointment of Mr. Cooley 
 as commissioner of Indian affairs he was offered 
 the position of United States tax commissioner at 
 Charleston, South Carolina, which was declined, 
 and he returned to his duties as cashier. In 1867 
 the National State Bank and the First National 
 Bank, of Dubuque, were consolidated on condition 
 that Mr. Graves would take the management. He 
 accepted, and in March, 1867, was elected president 
 of the First National Bank, then the leading mon- 
 etary institution of Iowa. Afterward he sold his 
 interest to Hon. D. N. Cooley, and resigned the 
 presidency in his favor, intending to remove east, 
 having been offered the presidency of a bank there ; 
 but, by the advice of friends and by their earnest 
 persuasions, he started the Commercial National 
 Bank, of which he is president. This institution 
 is in very successful operation, and is one of the 
 leading solid institutions of the west. 
 
 Mr. Graves' time is too much engrossed by busi- 
 ness to accept political offices, though he has been 
 an active member of the board of education for 
 
 some time, and is also president of the Dubuque 
 Art Association and vice-president of the Dubuque, 
 Fort Dodge and Pacific railroad. In politics, he 
 is republican, though in no way a partisan. 
 
 He is a prominent member of the Masonic fra- 
 ternity, and high in its degrees. 
 
 He was married on the 10th of February, 1859, 
 to Miss Mary C. Tilden, of Keene, New Hampshire. 
 Their eldest son, George H. Graves, a bright, enter- 
 prising boy of nearly seventeen, is editor of the 
 "Boys' Journal,'' an amateur paper with a circula- 
 tion of over five hundred, now one of the oldest 
 amateur papers in the country. 
 
 Mr. Graves is a man of fine personal appearance, 
 courteous and friendly, and has marked social pow- 
 ers, which have gained the love and esteem of his 
 friends and acquaintances. 
 
 Such is the brief outline of the life history of 
 one who, struggling through trials, has worked his 
 way, unaided, to a place of high esteem, and per- 
 formed a work the influence of which shall live 
 in the hearts of those who have known him and 
 increase with the passing years. 
 
 FRANCIS M. BRUNER, 
 
 OSKALOOSA. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch, a native of Breck- 
 enridge county, Kentucky, was born on the 
 the 28th of December, 1833. He is of German an- 
 cestry. His progenitors came to America about 
 two hundred years ago, and settled at Hagerstown, 
 Pennsylvania. His father, Henry Bruner, a native 
 of Kentucky, is now (1877) a resident of Galesburg, 
 Illinois. He is a man of industrious, persevering 
 habits, and to his lessons and examples of integrity 
 and uprightness the son is mainly indebted for his 
 success. At the age of thirty-five he made a pro- 
 fession of religion and became a member of the 
 Christian church, and ever since has been devoted 
 to furthering its interests ; though a hard-working 
 man, he was never too weary and the weather rarely 
 ever too bad to attend church with his family, at a 
 distance of six miles. When Francis began to at- 
 tend school, he took him on horseback, a distance 
 of two and a half miles, to a small log hut in the 
 woods, and later, for several winters, himself at- 
 tended school, sitting beside his boy, who assisted 
 him in solving his examples in arithmetic. By this 
 
 means he acquired a considerable knowledge of 
 figures, and learned to read and write with some 
 ease and fluency. He is a man of very tender 
 heart, and extremely sensitive to every dishonor- 
 able act. He is now in his sixty-fourth year, fresh 
 and vigorous, and has the management of his con- 
 siderable estate. 
 
 His mother, Matilda nee Claycomb, a native of 
 Kentucky, was descended from Irish and Scotch 
 parents. She shared with her husband all the 
 struggles of their pioneer life in Illinois, where they 
 settled in 1834. She possessed all the excellences 
 that go to make up a thrifty housewife, and had a 
 considerable degree of education. Both she and 
 her husband used every means in their power to 
 educate their children ; four of them are graduates, 
 and the remaining four received a liberal education. 
 
 Francis passed his boyhood and youth upon his 
 father's farm, attending occasional terms of school 
 in log school-houses, walking three miles and a por- 
 tion of the time riding six. His mind was early 
 turned toward the ministry, and at the age of four- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART 
 
 147 
 
 teen he was immersed and united with the church. 
 He entered heartily into the struggles of his family 
 in the new country; but at length felt that he must 
 give himself up to the accumulation of property (for 
 they had been very successful), or stop at once and 
 carry out his long-cherished plan of preparing for 
 the ministry. Accordingly, at the age of nineteen, 
 he entered Knox College, at Galesburg, Illinois, 
 and graduated from the same in 1857. After one 
 year of teaching, he spent three years in Europe at 
 the University of Halle, in Prussia, and at I'Ecole 
 de Paris, in France. At Halle, he studied both 
 modern and ancient languages, and attended the 
 lectures of Bernhardy and Pott, and also studied 
 theology and attended the lectures of Tholuck, 
 Roediger, Jacobi, and in philosophy and metaphys- 
 ics, those of Hyra and Erdmann. In Paris, he 
 studied the sciences and attended the lectures of 
 Flowrien, Willice, Edwards, Valancienne, Quater- 
 fudges and others. He also, during his European 
 tour, spent some time in Berlin, studying the mu- 
 seums, and also spent some time in London. His 
 object in going abroad was to perfect himself in his 
 studies. After closing his college course he deter- 
 mined to fit himself for a professorship of modern 
 and ancient languages, and for preaching. 
 
 Returning to America in i860, he engaged in 
 preaching in the Christian fellowship, and in 1865 
 was ordained at Monmouth, Illinois, where he 
 served as pastor for over five years. 
 
 In the darkest hour of our nation's history, in 
 1863, he was commissioned by Abraham Lincoln as 
 captain of company A, 7th United States Colored 
 Infantry. The regiment was composed of Mary- 
 land slaves, and did valiant service in the army of 
 the Union. After one year's service in Florida and 
 up the coast against Charleston, he was, by reason 
 of impaired health, discharged, and returned home. 
 While in the service he used every means for the 
 good of his men. It was his custom to assemble 
 them, and read the bible to them and pray with 
 them, and also to teach them to read and spell. 
 
 Although Mr. Bruner has never fully recovered 
 his health, and his labors much of the time have 
 been performed under intense suffering, he has 
 never relinquished his work. 
 
 He was a member of the Illinois legislature in the 
 sessions of 1866-67, and there, as elsewhere, ren- 
 dered efficient service. 
 
 In 1870 he was elected president of the Oskaloosa 
 College, and entered upon his duties, canvassing 
 
 for the college for the first two years, and in 1873 
 began his active duty as teacher. He is not only 
 president, but serves as professor of bible history 
 and exegesis. His extensive researches in the do- 
 main of science, natural and biblical history, enable 
 him to impart an extensive fund of useful knowl- 
 edge to those who look to him for instruction. 
 
 Mr. Bruner was married in 1858 to Miss Esther 
 Lane, a native of Ohio. They have a family of 
 seven children. 
 
 Politically, he is a republican. 
 
 Such is a brief record of the worthy president of 
 Oskaloosa College. Possessed of all the requisites to 
 satisfy the letter and the spirit of the duties devolv- 
 ing upon him, we are sure that he will bear the labor 
 and come out at the end like well-burnished gold. 
 
 Below we append a brief sketch of the Oskaloesa 
 College, of which Mr. Bruner is now president : 
 
 Early in the history of Iowa influential members of the 
 church of Christ, imbued with the spirit of the age, and 
 appreciating the importance of an institution of learning of 
 a higher order, projected upon a broad, modern, liberal and 
 christian basis, began to discuss the propriety of establish- 
 ing such a college. At length, in the state rrieeting which 
 convened at Mount Pleasant, June, 1855, it was resolved that 
 the time had come to begin the work. The location was 
 offered to the locality that should offer the greatest induce- 
 ments in the way of building fund, grounds, etc. Oska- 
 loosa outstripped its rivals, offering ten acres of ground and 
 thirty thousand and fifty dollars. At an adjourned state 
 meeting, held here from the loth to the 13th of October, 
 1856, it was located at this place; and A. Chatterton, R. 
 Parker, C. G. Owen, J. Adkins, W. T. Smith, J. H. Bacon, 
 A. S. Nichols, M. Edmundson, C. Hall, J. M. Berry, W. A. 
 Saunders, J. Swallow, S. H. Bonham and S. H. McClure 
 were appointed charter trustees. At a board meeting, on 
 the 8th of November, A. Chatterton, W. T. Smith and A. 
 Johnson were appointed a committee on articles of incor- 
 poration. On the 22d of November the report of the com- 
 mittee was made and adopted; and, on motion of A. Chat- 
 terton, the institution was named Oskaloosa College. On 
 the 29th of June, 1857, the contract for building was let to 
 J.J. Adams for twenty-four thousand five hundred dollars. 
 A. Chatterton and J. F. Rowe vvei-e employed as soliciting 
 agents. Within a few weeks they raised, in notes, endow- 
 ment stock to the amount of about twenty thousand dol 
 lars. Thus everything progressed encouragingly ; but the 
 hard times of 1857 and 1858 set in, subscribers were unable 
 to pay, contractors failed, work on the building and in rais- 
 ing endowment ceased, and general disappointment and 
 discouragement followed. Had it not been for the persist- 
 ent and self-sacrificing efforts of the treasurer, R. Parker, 
 and a few other devoted friends of the college, it would, at 
 this time, have gone under the sherifT's hammer. 
 
 After vexatious delays, lawsuits and barterings, about 
 two- thirds of the thirty thousand and fifty dollars was 
 realized, while a less proportion of the twenty thousand 
 dollars endowment was ever collected. 
 
 At the state meeting which convened at Davenport on 
 the 9th of June, i860, it was resolved to raise a relief fund 
 often thousand dollars. This effort was only partially suc- 
 cessful. But the friends of the college were indefatigable. 
 They believed the work was of God and would succeed ; 
 and they continued to hope, pray and labor in the good- 
 begun work until, piece by piece, the building has been 
 nearly completed. 
 
14^ 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY". 
 
 On the 2d of September, 1861, under appointment of the 
 board, Messrs. W. J. and G. T. Carpenter opened a prepar- 
 atory school in two small rooms which had been tempo- 
 rarily finished for that purpose. A full description of the 
 unfinished building, with a debt of ten thousand dollars 
 hanging over it, of the woe-begone appearance of the build- 
 ing and surroundings, the institution being without a dol- 
 lar's worth of apparatus — not even a blackboard, not a 
 specimen, and only seats for sixteen pupils — the building 
 standing in a cornfield, fully eighty rods from any sidewalk, 
 and everything else of like fashion, would be at once sad 
 and amusing. In addition to all this, Sumter's cannon had 
 signaled the brave young men who were looked to for stu- 
 dents to the battlefield. 
 
 The two young teachers who had engaged to open the 
 college (.'), and who had arrived the evening before, on 
 going to the building, found the first thing to be done was 
 to open a way to the building and through the rubbish yet 
 in the rooms and halls. Their first day was spent with 
 coats off, in the professional (.'') way. On the second day, 
 the "immortal five," with which Oskaloosa College opened, 
 were enrolled : Geo. Wilson, James Brown, Jennie Course, 
 Jennie McCall and Maggie Stephens. During the entire 
 year there were only about fifty enrolled; and at the 
 close the teachers, who had agreed to take the tuition for 
 their pay, found, after paying for fitting school-rooms, etc., 
 that they lacked just eighty-fiv.e dollars of having enough 
 to pay their board bill. For this amount they gave their 
 notes at ten per cent. These were dark days in our college 
 ■ history, days that tried men's souls; but those who had the 
 matter in charge resolved, under the blessing of God, not 
 to know such a thing as " fail." 
 
 The attendance upon the several sessions has been as 
 follows: First (no catalogue), 50; second, 167; third, 208; 
 fourth, 220; fifth, 307; sixth, 248; seventh, 218; eighth, 169; 
 ninth, 262; tenth, 170; eleventh, 159; twelfth,'254. 
 
 The following are the names of the instructors that have 
 taught in the college, in the order of their employment by 
 the board: W. J. Carpenter, G. T. Carpenter, Mrs. A. H. 
 Carpenter, F. McGrew, Mrs. M. B. Smith, M. P. Givens, 
 A. F. Ross, B. W. Johnson (president), O. Goodrich, F. M. 
 Kirkham, F. M. Bruner (president), A. Hull, N. Dunshee, 
 J. L. Pinkerton. Besides these, several tutors and teachers 
 
 of specialties have taught more or less in the college. 
 Among the agents wKo should be gratefully remembered 
 may be named A. Chatterton, J. F. Rowe, J. B. Noe, N. E. 
 Cory, F. Walden, N. A. McConnell, G. T. Carpenter, Dr! 
 Hatton, W. J. Carpenter, J. Wiley, and last, but not least, 
 President Bruner. The names of hundreds, who, in vari- 
 ous ways, have aided the institution, are, we trust, written 
 in the Lamb's book of life. 
 
 The commercial department, which has proven such a 
 decided success, was opened by its present principal in 
 September, 1867. 
 
 At a joint meeting of the board and other friends of the 
 college, on the 19th of June, 1868, " on motion of G. T. Car- 
 penter, it was resolved to establish a bible department in 
 connection with the college." A. I. Hobbs, N. A. Mc- 
 Connell, F. Walden and W. J. Carpenter were appointed a 
 committee to report a method of securing necessary funds. 
 They reported that at least twenty-five thousand dollars 
 should be raised, and that the sisters throughout the state 
 should be requested to aid in the work. About one half of 
 this amount was raised by June, 1871, when President 
 Bruner accepted the presidency of the college, by whom it 
 was determined to enlarge the plan of this department and 
 to raise at least fifty thousand dollars for its endowment. 
 To this work he has since given his personal efforts with 
 an energy that merits and, in part, has secured success. 
 President Bruner has, under the action of the board, also 
 undertaken to establish a splendid botanical garden on the 
 college grounds. Thus it is seen that Oskaloosa College 
 has had its little beginning, its dark days, its ups and its 
 downs ; but it is now thought that a triumphant success is 
 within its reach, if only its friends prove true. Indeed, a 
 college that has achieved so much under such adverse cir- 
 cumstances can hardly fail of a glorious future now that it 
 has the best college building in the state, about fifty thou- 
 sand dollars of endowment, good apparatus, cabinets, libra- 
 ries and other necessary equipments, and a full, experienced 
 and determined faculty. Those who founded the institu- 
 tion were men of large and liberal views; and if those to 
 whom it now has a right to look for sympathy and mate- 
 rial aid do their duty, generations yet unborn will bless the 
 memories of all those who have contributed to this noble 
 enterprise. 
 
 WILLIAM W. ALLEN, M.D., 
 
 MASON CITT. 
 
 AMONG the men of mark in Cerro Gordo county 
 . is Dr. Allen, a native of New York, who was 
 born at Angelica on the 29th of July, 1834. His 
 father, Asa S. Allen, was judge of Allegany county 
 in 1838. He afterward became a minister and 
 home missionary of the Congregational church, and 
 has been preaching for nearly forty years, being 
 now eighty years old and in good health. He is a 
 descendant of the Aliens of Medfield, Massachu- 
 setts, and retained the homestead, occupying the 
 only log house left after the burning of the village 
 by the Indians nearly two hundred years ago. 
 William's mother's maiden name was Kingsbury ; 
 she was a native of Medfield. 
 
 William attended the normal school at West New- 
 ton, Massachusetts, for two or three years, and 
 
 though thrown entirely upon his own resources 
 succeeded in mastering all the elementary and sev- 
 eral scientific branches. When a mere lad he went 
 to California by the overland route, his object being 
 to obtain money with which to complete his studies. 
 After two years of successful work he returned, and 
 began the study of medicine at Mineral Point, Wis- 
 consin, and in 1856 graduated from the University 
 of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and has since prac- 
 ticed medicine in Wisconsin, Colorado and Iowa, 
 everywhere with good success. He has gained an 
 enviable reputation as a surgeon, and is widely 
 known as a physician of eminent skill and ability. 
 In cases of consultation he has been sent for forty 
 and sixty miles. 
 
 In i860 and 1861 he was in Colorado, and at the 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 149 
 
 outbreak of the war started for home to go into the 
 army. While on the plains, en route for Wisconsin, 
 he was met by a band of rebel deserters from the 
 United States army posts on the frontier going 
 southward to join the confederates. The doctor 
 had with him a stock of one hundred and fifty 
 horses, mules and cattle, of nearly all of which the 
 deserters robbed him, together with a valuable lot 
 of furs. He afterward recovered seven head of 
 cattle, and with six of these continued his journey 
 eastward, making the journey of nearly twelve hun- 
 dred miles in about forty-eight days. The follow- 
 ing amusing incident is worthy of mention : At 
 Clear Lake, in Cerro Gordo county, meeting a man 
 who began to vindicate the south, he told him that 
 he was about to fight the rebels, and might as well 
 begin at once, at the same time drawing his re- 
 volver. The rebel sympathizer took to his heels, 
 and the result was a short, hot chase, resulting in 
 harm to neither party. 
 
 Upon his arrival at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, his 
 old home, he at once proceeded to organize a com- 
 pany, and enlisted as a private in the i6th regiment 
 Infantry, but at Madison was promoted to the rank 
 of surgeon of the Iron Brigade. During the retreat 
 of the Union forces at the second battle of Bull Run, 
 Dr. Allen, with self-sacrificing patriotism and devo- 
 tion, gave himself up as a prisoner, that he might 
 attend to our wounded soldiers who were left on the 
 field. He was retained a prisoner for eight days 
 
 before being paroled, and during that time worked 
 incessantly with the wounded, without one third of 
 the usual allowance of food, and when he came into 
 our lines was utterly prostrated, and afterward con- 
 fined to a hospital for four months. On recovering 
 he was placed in charge of a hospital in Washing- 
 ton during one year. The rest of the time, until 
 the war closed, he was surgeon of the sth Wisconsin 
 Infantry. At the battle of Saylor's Creek he had 
 the entire charge of the wounded, and superin- 
 tended their removal to Berksville, Virginia, which 
 task occupied about five days. It is doubtful if 
 there was a more self-sacrificing and more patriotic 
 surgeon in the Union army. 
 
 Dr. Allen has been a member of the Masonic 
 order since 1865. 
 
 He has always been a republican, and firmly ad- 
 heres to the principles of that party. His religious 
 sentiments are orthodox. 
 
 He was married on the loth of November, r857, 
 to Miss Selah Denison, of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, 
 and by her has two sons. 
 
 Dr. Allen thinks and moves rapidly, being of a 
 nervous-bilious temperament ; is of average height, 
 and weighs one hundred and sixty-five pounds. He 
 settled in Mason City in 1867, and has built up an 
 extensive practice ; and in all matters of public 
 interest touching the welfare of his city or state he 
 has shown a most admirable spirit of energy and 
 enterprise. 
 
 HON. DELOS ARNOLD, 
 
 MARSHALLTO WN. 
 
 DELOS ARNOLD, born in Chenango county. 
 New York, on the 21st of July, 1830, is of 
 Scotch-English descent. His family was first rep- 
 resented in this country just prior to the revolution- 
 ary war, and settled in Providence, Rhode Island. 
 His great-grandfather followed a sea-faring life after 
 his arrival in America, and was lost while in com- 
 mand of a vessel on a voyage from Bordeaux, 
 France. Many of the descendants still reside in 
 Providence ; others are found living in various 
 parts of the United States, serving their genera- 
 tion in several industrial pursuits that make up 
 American civilization. His father, a native of New 
 York, was a tanner and trader by occupation, and 
 died at Marshall, in 1856, while visiting his son. 
 IS 
 
 When Delos was eleven years old, his parents re- 
 moved to Chautauqua county. New York, and there 
 he passed his youth and early manhood. At the 
 age of fourteen he left home and spent a year and 
 a half visiting various cities and places of interest 
 throughout the country, and upon his return de- 
 voted his attention to study. He spent about two 
 years in Fredonia Academy, teaching during the 
 winter months, and in 1851 entered the Albany 
 Law School, from which he graduated and was 
 admitted to the bar in 1853. Removing at once 
 to Iowa, he settled at Marshalltown and began the 
 practice of his profession; having been appointed 
 prosecuting attorney the day after his arrival, an 
 office to which he was twice elected, and in which 
 
ISO 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 he served four years. In the winter of 1853-4 he 
 taught the first school in the county, occupying 
 the court-house at Mariette for that purpose. In 
 1857 he was elected to the legislature, and served 
 during the last session held in Iowa City. After the 
 organization of the internal revenue department he 
 was made the first assessor of the sixth district, 
 embracing one-third of the area of the state, and 
 held that position until his removal by President 
 Johnson in 1865. In the fall of i86g he was 
 elected to the thirteenth general assembly, and 
 served through the session of 1870. In 1861 he 
 abandoned the profession of law, and at the close 
 of his official term engaged in the real-estate and 
 money-loan business, and in 1870 took charge of 
 a furniture store, which he has since conducted. 
 
 In the summer of 1872 Mr. Arnold took an ex- 
 tended tour, in company with several other gentle- 
 men, through Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, 
 
 returning in the fall much improved in health and 
 spirits. He spent the summer of 1873 visiting the 
 World's Exposition at Vienna, and the noted places 
 of Europe; and in the fall of 1875 was elected to 
 the state senate for the term of four years. He is 
 also at the present time (1877) engaged in the coal 
 business, in Boone county, and is a half owner of 
 the Iowa Railroad Coal and Manufacturing Com- 
 pany. 
 
 In his political views, Mr. Arnold is identified 
 with the republican party. He cast his first ballot 
 for General Scott, and in 1856 supported Fremont. 
 
 He was married on the 28th of November, 1855, 
 to Miss Hannah Mercer, daughter of John Mercer, 
 of Ohio, and by her has three children. 
 
 Beginning without means, he has, by honesty, in- 
 dustry and fair dealing, gained a liberal compe- 
 tence, and lives now in the enjoyment of a pleasant 
 home, surrounded by a wide circle of true friends. 
 
 HON. JAMES GUSHING, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 NOT many genuine examples of sturdy western 
 self-made men come into public notice. Born 
 and brought up in indigence and obscurity, they 
 ^ have fought the battle of life so earnestly and well 
 ''■i' that they seldom think of congratulating them- 
 i selves upon their ultimate success; and in general 
 they are unwilling to believe that they deserve any 
 consideration for the notable examples of honest, 
 healthy and successful life which they have given 
 us. 
 
 James Cashing, the subject of this sketch, was 
 born in West Scituate, Plymouth county, Massachu- 
 setts, on the 4th of August, 1830. When eight years 
 old his father's family removed to Peoria, Illinois, 
 where his mother died the following year, and the 
 breaking up of the family being the result, he hired 
 to work on a farm at three dollars -a month. His 
 education was gained at the common schools, where 
 he made good use of his time, and later, in his 
 nineteenth year, using his accumulated savings, he 
 attended for two years the academy at Mount Pala- 
 tine, Illinois. 
 
 In his twenty-second year he commenced life for 
 himself by going into the ice and wood business 
 at La Salle, Illinois ; this he continued successfully 
 until the spring of 1859, when he removed to Du- 
 
 buque, Iowa. Buying out the interest of his father 
 in the firm of Carter, Piper and Cushing, ice dealers, 
 he engaged in the same business. He finally bought 
 out the entire interest by assuming the debts of the 
 firm, which at that time would not pay fifty per 
 centum. He had at that time two competitors, but 
 by energy and fair dealing he soon gained the en- 
 tire trade of the city, and during nine years had 
 exclusive control of the business, and; after he had 
 obtained that control, never took- advantage of it, 
 but made fair dealing his motto and successfully 
 worked by it. After getting the business in his 
 own hands he assisted one of his employes to an 
 interest, doing so by taking his notes, which were 
 promptly met, and the profits of the business have 
 made him a man of property in the city. In 1863 
 he loaned money to a friend who was engaged in 
 the manufacture of vinegar, in Dubuque, and in 
 order to secure the amount found it necessary to 
 take hold of the business with him, and in so doing 
 expended much capital in bringing the arrange- 
 ments for manufacturing to a successful condition. 
 Owing to this circumstance he became associated 
 with the manufacture of vinegar, and has continued 
 it to this time, making it a study, and expending 
 large sums to bring the methods of manufacturing 
 
'■^^ 
 
THk UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 153 
 
 to a higher state of perfection than had hitherto 
 been attained. In this Mr. Gushing has been en- 
 tirely successful. His trade is large, and extending 
 all over the western country, and. constantly increas- 
 ing. In the summer of 1873, having outgrown his 
 old accommodations, he erected his present large 
 factory, which he has fitted up with various im- 
 provements with reference to permanent business 
 in the manufacture of vinegar for the northwest, 
 his factory and business being the largest in the 
 state. 
 
 Mr. Gushing has never been a politician or an 
 aspirant for office ; his political preferences being 
 the republican party. In the municipal election 
 in 1875 he was nominated by the republicans for 
 mayor, as it was thought he would make a suc- 
 cessful contest against any competitor that might 
 be nominated by the opposition. His opponent 
 was one of the most popular and earliest citizens, 
 yet Mr. Gushing was elected by a handsome ma- 
 jority. He filled the office with honor to himself 
 and to the satisfaction of his constituents. He 
 has always pursued a liberal policy toward the en- 
 couragement of home manufactures and the build- 
 
 ing up of the general interests of the city, and no 
 man has given more generously according to his 
 means than he. He is popular with the people 
 and has the sympathy of the working classes, and 
 is the friend and patron of labor, as opposed to 
 all forms of moneyed monopoly. 
 
 He is a member of the Masonic and Odd-Fellows 
 fraternities, stands high in the first and has passed 
 all of the chairs in the latter. 
 
 He was married, in 1854, to Miss Emma H. 
 Masterman, by whom he had two children ; she 
 died in Dubuque in October, 1861. He married 
 his second wife, Miss Mary A. Schermerhorn, of La 
 Salle, Illinois, in October, 1863. By his second 
 marriage he has four children. 
 
 Mr. Gushing is a self-made man ; commencing 
 in life with no means, he has by his own energy 
 and ability made for himself a position among the 
 leading men of Dubuque. Though not wealthy, 
 he has made for himself ah ample competency. 
 Personally, he has rare qualities, and by his up- 
 right course of life, his manly deportment and in- 
 dependence of character, has made for himself an 
 honorable reputation. 
 
 HON. JOSEPH HOBSON, 
 
 WEST UNION. 
 
 ONE of the self-made and truly successful men 
 of Iowa is Joseph Hobson, president of the 
 Fayette Gounty National Bank, West Union. He 
 is the son of John Wainwright Hobson, an English- 
 man, who immigrated to this country about sixty 
 years ago, and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 
 where the son was born on the 17th of October, 
 1823. His mother, whose maiden name was Abi- 
 gail Bishop Scott, is still living. He was educated 
 by private tutors in his native city. His father dy- 
 ing in 1834, he was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker, 
 but becoming dissatisfied his indentures were can- 
 celed. He subsequently learned the carpenter's 
 trade, and at the age of eighteen commenced life 
 for himself. From the autumn of 1848 to the spring 
 of 1853 he resided in Gonnellsville, Pennsylvania, as 
 a partner in the foundry business, following his trade, 
 and while there read law. 
 
 In the spring of 1853 he removed to Cleveland, 
 Ohio, and thence to Sanilac county, Michigan. In 
 April, 185s, he removed to Fayette county, Iowa; 
 
 purchased some government land a little south of 
 Westfield, now Fayette ; worked nearly two years on 
 it ; made up his mind that he was not a success as 
 an agriculturist; rented his farm; moved to the vil- 
 lage just mentioned, and opened a law office. In 
 those days interior towns in Iowa were small; law 
 business was not extensive. Mr. Hobson could 
 turn his hand to more than one pursuit, and during 
 the sixteen or eighteen months which he spent in 
 Fayette he not only attended to all legal business, 
 but taught school one term, and assisted for a short 
 time in editing a newspaper. 
 
 In 1858 Mr. Hobson was elected clerk of the dis- 
 trict court, and removed to West Union, the county 
 seat. He proved to be a competent officer, and ow- 
 ing to the promptness, courtesy and efficiency with 
 which he discharged the duties of that office, he was 
 continued by the people of the county for ten con- 
 secutive years. 
 
 In 1869 Mr. Hobson was elected to the thirteenth 
 general assembly, serving one term, and watching 
 
154 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 well the interests of the state. He was then ap- 
 pointed United States assessor of the third district 
 of Iowa, and held the office three years, when it was 
 abolished. 
 
 For several years Mr. Hobson was an active mem- 
 ber of the West Union school board. He was the 
 prime mover in originating the Fayette County Na- 
 tional Bank, and has been at its head since it went 
 into operation. 
 
 He has been a prominent member of the fraternity 
 of Odd-Fellows, and still retains his connection with 
 the order. He is also a Mason. 
 
 Mr. Hobson was originally a whig; cast his first 
 vote, in 1844, for Henry Clay, riding fifty miles on 
 the top of a stage-coach in order to do it. Latterly 
 he has been a republican, a leader of the party in 
 Fayette county. 
 
 On the isth of April, 1847, Mr. Hobson was 
 united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Baker, of 
 Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, a woman very act- 
 
 ive in benevolent enterprises, a veritable Dorcas in 
 society. Her husband attributes his success in life 
 largely to her influence. She has had eight chil- 
 dren, and six of them, four sons and two daughters, 
 are still living. The eldest son,. Alfred Norman, is 
 a partner of Hon. L. L. Ainsworth, in the practice 
 of law; the second, Joseph Britton, a graduate of 
 the academy at Annapolis, is a lieutenant in- the 
 navy, and the two other sons are conducting a job- 
 printing office in West Union. 
 
 As counsel, Mr. Hobson is prudent and safe, and 
 has the unlimited confidence of the people. He is 
 honorable in his dealings as well as candid in his 
 advice, and those who know him best declare that 
 his integrity has never been questioned. 
 
 Mr. Hobson is an active business man, full of 
 good, quick at repartee, and enjoys to laugh at a 
 joke, even though it be at his own expense. He is 
 kind to the poor — kind to everybody, and an inval- 
 uable neighbor and citizen. 
 
 JOHN H. ALLEN, M. D., 
 
 MA^UOKETA. 
 
 JOHN HENRY ALLEN, son of John Allen, 
 J civil engineer, and Catherine Van Allen, was 
 born in Coos county, New Hampshire, on the 13th 
 of June, 1818. The family moved to Albany, New 
 York, in the early childhood of John Henry, and 
 there he procured his literary education, finishing 
 it at a French school and becoming quite proficient 
 in that language. When about eighteen years of 
 age he went to St. Pierre, an island off the Gulf of 
 St. Lawrence, and acted as an interpreter one sea- 
 son, there receiving the first money he ever earned. 
 The next year he went to Senegambia, Africa, as a 
 supercargo on the ship John Decatur, being absent 
 nearly two years. Returning to this country, he 
 read medicine with Dr. James F. Sargent, first in 
 Lowell, Massachusetts, and then in Hopkinton, New 
 Hampshire ; attended lectures at Castleton and 
 Woodstock, Vermont, and Hanover, New Hamp- 
 shire, four terms in all, and spending a year with 
 Professor Mussey, in giving especial attention to 
 surgery. At Hanover he received his diploma, be- 
 ing examined by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, who 
 took the chair vacated by Dr. Mussey in the medical 
 department of Dartmouth College. 
 
 Dr. Allen practiced in Boscawen and Concord, 
 
 New Hampshire, in all ten or twelve years, and in 
 1856 settled in Maquoketa. On his way to Iowa he 
 was a passenger on the ill-fated steamer Niagara, 
 which was burnt in September on Lake Michigan, 
 off Sheboygan, and he came very near perishing. 
 More than two hundred persons were drowned. A 
 few were saved by sail vessels, and he and the cap- 
 tain and mate were among the four who were taken 
 off the wheel-house by the steamer Traveler. 
 
 Dr. Allen practiced here until 1862, in the sum- 
 mer of which year he was appointed surgeon of the 
 1 8th Iowa Infantry, serving two years and then 
 being discharged for disability. His early educa- 
 tion eminently fitted him for field and hospital 
 service, and the necessity for his resignation was 
 deeply regretted by privates, officers, and especially 
 the medical director, who bore strong testimony to 
 his kindness and professional skill. 
 
 Since the rebellion closed. Dr. Allen has been 
 almost constantly in some civil office. He was 
 assistant assessor three years ; postmaster about the 
 same period of time; mayor three or four years, 
 and is now a member of the council. He is prompt 
 and efficient in all duties. 
 
 Dr. Allen has been a republican since there was 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 155 
 
 such a party, and prior to that period was strongly 
 anti-slavery. He is a man of strong convictions, 
 well informed and very positive. He is well culti- 
 vated in manners as well as in mind ; courteous, 
 social and genial. 
 
 Dr. Allen has been twice married. His first wife 
 was Miss Judith Sargent, of Concord, New Hamp- 
 shire, a sister of his early and esteemed preceptor; 
 she died in 1852, leaving three children. Kate, the 
 eldest, is the wife of Moff Trumbo, of Maquoketa ; 
 James H. lives in Chicago, and Sarah J., the young- 
 est, is the wife of Mr. Ordway, of Boston, Massa- 
 chusetts. His present wife was the widow of G. D. 
 Lyon, of Maquoketa, their union taking place on the 
 24th of September, 1857, just one year after the burn- 
 ing of the Niagara. Dr. Allen is her third husband. 
 Her maiden name was Nancy R. Hall, and she was 
 the daughter of Asahel Hall, an early settler in Ma- 
 quoketa. She graduated at Miss Fields' seminary, 
 Erie, Pennsylvania. She was first married to P. A. 
 R. Brace, of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, a member 
 of the convention which framed the constitution for 
 
 that state. He left her a widow at twenty-one. She 
 married Mr. Lyon in 1853, and he died of a fever 
 in about two years. She had one daughter by her 
 first husband, now the wife of William Stephens, 
 the mayor of Maquoketa; one son by her second, 
 George B. Lyon, who has recently completed a very 
 thorough education, and she has one child, Ethan 
 Allen, by her present husband; he is a law student 
 at Michigan University. 
 
 Mrs. Allen is a woman of fine culture, a vigorous 
 writer, and quite active and prominent in the reform 
 movements of the day. She was the first secretary of 
 the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Iowa, 
 and was a delegate to tke national temperance con- 
 vention which met at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1875. She 
 is an officer of the State Woman's Suffrage Associa- 
 tion ; is a member of the executive committee of the 
 national society of the same character, and a mem- 
 ber of the Society for the Advancement of Women. 
 She is a strong believer in human progress and 
 rights, without reference to sex, and an influential 
 and untiring worker for that end. 
 
 GEORGE H. FRENCH, 
 
 DA V EN PORT. 
 
 GEORGE HENRY FRENCH, for more than 
 twenty years prominently and actively con- 
 nected with the business interests and public affairs 
 of Davenport, was born at Andover, Massachusetts, 
 on the 23d of February, 1825, and claims lineage 
 from one of three brothers by that name who emi- 
 grated from England about the year 1640 and 
 settled in Braintree, Massachusetts, one of whom 
 received the honor of knighthood from Charles I. 
 His parents, George and Mary Richardson French, 
 natives of the same place, both died ere he had 
 attained his twelfth year, and he was at that 
 tender age, without any patrimony, thrown upon 
 his own resources, with the care and support of 
 two infant sisters added to the responsibility, but 
 he proved equal to the emergency. Up to the 
 age of twelve he had attended the district schools. 
 After that he. was. able, through his own efforts, 
 to take about three years' tuition at Philips Acad- 
 emy in Andover, and at the high school of Lowell, 
 Massachusetts, both institutions of eminence, in 
 which he acquired a liberal academic and mathe- 
 matical education, earning his subsistence by act- 
 
 ing as clerk during vacations and holidays for a 
 " notion " store. 
 
 At the age of seventeen he entered the large hide 
 and leather store of Philip R. Southwick, of Boston, 
 where he remained for five years, representing his 
 firm one season in St. Louis, Missouri, and becom- 
 ing one of the most expert and accomplished busi- 
 ness men of the day. At the age of twenty-two he 
 embarked in business on his own account in Boston, 
 dealing in hides and leather with very considerable 
 success for a period of nine years. Meantime his 
 health had begun to show symptoms of decline, and 
 he was advised, for the benefit of his health and that 
 of his family, to go west, and in 1856 he left Boston 
 and immigrated to Davenport, Iowa, being moved 
 to select this point chiefly from the circumstance 
 that it was already the residence of his brother-in- 
 law, the late Bishop Lee, of Iowa. Soon after set- 
 tling in Davenport he engaged in the saw-mill and 
 lumbering interest, first in the firm of Cannon and 
 French and subsequently that of French and Da- 
 vies. The last-named firm transacted a very large 
 business throughout the late war, furnishing the 
 
156 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 greater part of the lumber used in the construction 
 of the several barracks and other buildings for 
 camps McClellan, Hendershott, Herron and Rob- 
 erts, and for the rebel prisons on Rock Island. 
 In 1872 he sold out his interest in this business to 
 his partner, having in that year been elected to the 
 presidency of the Davenport and St. Paul Railroad 
 Company, which position he retained until the cor- 
 poration became embarrassed, after which he was 
 appointed its receiver, a position which, however, 
 he resigned after a few months. While acting as 
 president he pressed forward the work of construc- 
 tion with great energy, completing ninety miles and 
 partially building forty mote. The enterprise col- 
 lapsed in the panic of 1874, Mr. French being him- 
 self one of the heaviest losers. In 1876 the bond- 
 holders took possession of the road under a fore- 
 closure, reorganized, and the work is now being 
 rapidly pushed to completion under the manage- 
 ment of John E. Henry, Esq., of Davenport. 
 
 One year since Mr. French engaged largely in the 
 manufacture of agricultural implements, in connec- 
 tion with Messrs.- E. P. Lynch and T. O. Swiney, in 
 the Eagle Manufacturing Company, which, under 
 their joint management, bids fair to outstrip many 
 older establishments. 
 
 During his residence in Davenport his fine exec- 
 utive abilities have been frequently called into ex- 
 ercise by his fellow-citizens with the happiest results. 
 In 1858 he was elected treasurer of the city school 
 board, and reelected annually for twelve consecutive 
 years. In this capacity he contributed very largely 
 to the public school system of Davenport. At an 
 early day he foresaw the wisdom of securing to the 
 city the beautiful square upon which has since been 
 erected the magnificent high-school building, one of 
 the finest in the country, the most conspicuous ob- 
 ject in Davenport and the source of its highest 
 pride. In i860 he was also elected treasurer of 
 Griswold College, Davenport, an institution which 
 was one of the cherished schemes of the late Bishop 
 Lee, and which has already accomplished much in 
 the way of a higher education and in the theological 
 training of young men for the ministry. His man- 
 agement of the funds of this institution. was marked 
 by like judgment and results. In the same year he 
 was also elected treasurer of the diocesan fund of 
 the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of 
 Iowa, and to his management of certain real-estate 
 investments is mainly due the ample resources from 
 which the tasty and appropriate episcopal residence 
 
 was lately erected in Davenport, and the revenue 
 from which the episcopate of the diocese is here- 
 after to derive its support. In 1861 and 1862 he 
 was chief magistrate of the city, filling the position, 
 as he did all others, with credit to himself and the 
 utmost satisfaction to his constituents. He was 
 one of the original organizers of the First National 
 Bank of Davenport, and its second president, which 
 was the first bank in the country to open its doors 
 under the national banking law. He served as aid 
 to Governor Stone, of Iowa, during his guberna- 
 torial term. 
 
 In the early years of his life he was a member of 
 the Protestant Episcopal church, but his theological 
 views having latterly undergone a change, he now 
 attends the Unitarian church. 
 
 In politics, he was first a whig, and on the death 
 of that party allied himself with the republican, and 
 at every period of the late war he bore an active 
 part in efforts to enlist and equip troops, furnish 
 sanitary supplies to the soldiers, and in caring for 
 the sick and wounded, and ministering to the wants 
 of the families of those who were battling for their 
 country. He took an active part, also, in securing 
 the congressional legislation by which the United 
 States arsenal was located on Rock Island. 
 
 Mr. French has long enjoyed the esteem and con- 
 fidence of his fellow-citizens. As a business man, 
 he has few equals and fewer superiors. His exec- 
 utive ability is of the very highest order, qualifying 
 him for the management of the most complicated 
 enterprises. He is especially noted as an account- 
 ant ; as a ready reckoner, he is the peer of any man 
 in the nation. 
 
 In social life, he is genial and companionable, 
 warm in his attachments and firm in his friendships ; 
 a gentleman of fine presence, liberal culture and re- 
 finement; a pleasing conversationalist, always "the 
 life " of the social circle. Although he has not accus- 
 tomed himself to public speaking, yet he can express 
 his views clearly, forcibly and elegantly when occa- 
 sion requires. 
 
 On the 1 2th of June, 1850, he married Miss Fran- 
 ces Wood Morton, daughter of ex-Governor Marcus 
 Morton, of Taunton, Massachusetts, a lady of high 
 culture, liberal mental endowments and of rare per- 
 sonal beauty, yet exemplifying in her daily life the 
 richer adornments of a meek and virtuous spirit. 
 They have six children living, four sons and two 
 daughters. The two eldest sons, Mortgn and Na- 
 thaniel have been thoroughly educated ; they stud- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 157 
 
 ied several years in Europe. The oldest is a metal- 
 lurgist and mining engineer, and engaged in the 
 mining interests of southern Utah ; the other is a 
 graduate of Harvard Law School, and was admitted 
 to the bar in 1876, and is now practicing his profes- 
 sion in the oflSce of R. G. Ingersoll, of Peoria, Illi- 
 
 nois. The eldest daughter, Alice, is a young lady 
 of literary tastes and brilliant talents, which are be- 
 ing developed by a thorough course of training. 
 George is a student at Phillips Academy, Andover, 
 and the younger ones, Fanny and Bob, are still in 
 infancy. 
 
 LEANDER O. HATCH, 
 
 McGregor. 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL history is largely filled with 
 the early struggles of farmers' sons in procur- 
 ing an education and laying the foundation for fu- 
 ture usefulness. The brief history of Leander O. 
 Hatch is a fine illustration of what self-reliance can 
 accomplish under discouraging circumstances. He 
 was born in Mesopotamia, Trumbull county, Ohio, 
 on the 13th of April, 1826, his parents being Anson 
 and Mary (Moore) Hatch. They were both natives 
 of Massachusetts, and moved into Ohio at an early 
 day and settled in the woods. Leander lived on the 
 farm, and aided in clearing and cultivating it, until 
 he was eighteen years old, having the educational 
 privileges of very inferior district schools during the 
 winter months. At fifteen he went to Farmington 
 Academy one short term, and after that age, for two 
 years or more, he aided his father constantly, con- 
 tinuing his studies without a teacher. He had a 
 strong taste for mathematics, and mastered Day's 
 Algebra and Davies' Legendre, branches to which 
 he had paid no attention while in the academy. He 
 was in constant communication with students there, 
 and while working his full time on the farm did not 
 allow himself to fall behind the classes in school. 
 
 At eighteen Leander taught his first district school, 
 and continued teaching, studying and working on the 
 farm about six years. Part of his studies during this 
 time were in the department of law. He was ad- 
 mitted to the bar at Chardon, Geauga county, in 
 August, 1849. Before commencing to practice, he 
 traveled about eighteen months in the interest of the 
 American Anti-Slavery Society, disfributing reading 
 matter and lecturing against the theory of human 
 bondage. In the autumn of 1853, after practicing 
 law for one year in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, Mr. 
 Hatch immigrated to Iowa, his first winter being 
 spent in teaching a school at Hartwick, near Delhi, 
 Delaware county. The following spring he located 
 at Waukon, the new seat of justice of Allamakee 
 
 county, there being at that time but three dwelling- 
 houses in the place. He immediately opened a law 
 office there and practiced until the ist of January, 
 1869, when he removed to McGregor, and formed a 
 partnership with Reuben Noble, the law firm of No- 
 ble, Hatch and Frese continuing until the first mem- 
 ber went upon the bench in 1874. During these five 
 years their business extended into every county in 
 the judicial district, and either Mr. Noble or Mr. 
 Hatch attended every term of the district and cir- 
 cuit courts. They had a large and lucrative busi- 
 ness. Mr. Hatch now limits his practice to Clayton 
 and Allamakee counties. 
 
 In 1855, the next year succeeding that in which 
 he located at Waukon, he was appointed treas- 
 urer and recorder of the county, to fill a vacancy, 
 and soon afterward was elected to the same office. 
 In 1866 he was chosen attorney of the tenth judicial 
 district. In view of the meager compensation he 
 resigned before his term of office had expired. Mr. 
 Noble extended to him an invitation to join him in 
 what looked and proved to be much more profitable. 
 At the time of resigning, Mr. Hatch having as part- 
 ner at Waukon C. T. Granger, now circuit judge of 
 the tenth district, this gentleman was appointed to 
 fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Mr. 
 Hatch. 
 
 From the origin of the republican party to the 
 present time he has acted with it, excepting in 1872, 
 when he voted for Horace Greeley for President. 
 
 Mr. Hatch does not belong to any church. His 
 religious creed is expressed by himself in these 
 words : " Loving obedience to the Divine Will." 
 
 On the 1 8th of November, 1856, Mr. Hatch mar- 
 ried Miss Albina Spaulding, a native of Maine, and 
 then a resident of Waukon. The fruits of this union 
 are five children, four of whom are living. The eld- 
 est child, Arthur, eighteen years old, is fitted for col- 
 lege. The defects of his own early education only 
 
158 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 give him a keener appreciation of the advantages of 
 literary attainments. When a young man, he worked 
 on a farm half of each day, at five dollars a month 
 and board, and gave the other half to scientific pur- 
 suits. While he was teaching schools of a higher 
 grade,'^branches with which he was not familiar were 
 sometimes introduced, and in such cases he always 
 completely mastered them, keeping ahead of the 
 class. He has always been a student, — the law, 
 of later years, of course, taking the precedence of 
 every other study. In his prqfession he is well 
 versed. One of his associates at the bar states that 
 his perception is acute, his mind mathematical and 
 logical, and he can shave a point with remarkable 
 precision and delicacy. He excels both before 
 court and jury. He has a keen sense of right and 
 justice, and, when district attorney, took unusual 
 pains to acquaint himself with the probable inno- 
 cence or guilt of parties under arrest before they 
 
 came to trial. His kindness of nature extends to 
 all, the poor, the unfortunate and the distressed in 
 any way, and he has a quiet, unassuming way of re- 
 lieving many such cases. 
 
 Another associate of his at the bar, a leading attor- 
 ney in the tenth district, thus speaks of Mr. Hatch : 
 
 In his mental processes Mr. Hatch is singularly inde- 
 pendent, clear and simple. To him no tradition is too sa- 
 cred for challenge, examination and, if need be, rejection. 
 Ko amount of obloquy can deter him from declaring what 
 his mind and conscience have once approved. Without 
 apparent vanity, he is evidently conscious of his superior 
 intellectual powers. I have thought sometimes, from his 
 serenity in a whirlwind of opposition, he rather enjoyed the 
 storm. As a lawyer, I have practiced with him and against 
 him for many years. He always has himself well in hand, 
 and is thoroughly master of his profession. For keenness 
 of analysis, clearness of statement and accuracy of reason- 
 ing methods, he is unsurpassed by his associates at the bar. 
 To adverse counsel he is uniformly courteous; and few 
 men are more liberal in making concessions to save incon- 
 venience, for few know so well what may be safely con- 
 ceded. With strong love of justice, quick sympathies, his 
 intellect dominates his whole character. 
 
 TIMOTHY BROWN, 
 
 MARSHALL TO WN. 
 
 TIMOTHY BROWN was born in Otsego county, 
 near Cooperstown, New York, on the 27th of 
 December, 1827. He is the son of Loring Brown, 
 who was a son of Timothy Brown, senior, who was 
 a son of Noah Brown, of Connecticut. His great- 
 grandmother was Irish ; his parental grandmother 
 was English. His maternal grandmother was Ger- 
 man; his maternal grandfather was a native of Con- 
 necticut, of English descent. The progenitors of 
 Mr. Brown have been engaged in various depart- 
 ments of industrial and professional life, and con- 
 tributed their share in developing our American 
 civilization. 
 
 When Timothy was four years of age his parents 
 removed to Unadilla, on the Susquehanna river. 
 Here he remained until about twenty-two years of 
 age, engaged in the various duties of farm life. Dur- 
 ing his minority he shared the advantages of winter 
 schools, and after his majority was for three terms a 
 student in the Unadilla Academy. During the win- 
 ters of his nineteenth and twentieth years he taught 
 a district school, an event which turned his own 
 mind more directly to the methods of study, and in 
 the end was of material advantage to him. Previous 
 to this he had taught two terms of select school in 
 the vicinity of Unadilla. At the age of twenty-one 
 
 he became a law student in the office of Hon. J. C. 
 Gregory of that place, now of Madison, Wisconsin. 
 After two years' study he entered the office of his 
 uncle, Elijah Brown, Esq., of Milford, New York. 
 At the end of a year his uncle moved to New York 
 city, and Timothy, being admitted to the bar, opened 
 an office and began his professional career. In the 
 spring of 1855, closing his business in Milford, he 
 moved to the west and settled in Toledo, Tama 
 county, Iowa, where he practiced law in partnership 
 with I. L. Allen, since attorney-general of the state. 
 In 1857 Mr. Brown moved to Marshalltown, where 
 he has since been engaged in the practice of his 
 profession. In the fall of the same year he was mar- 
 ried to Miss Laura Wheeler, of Johnson county, and 
 by her has three children. 
 
 Conducting his business in his own name until 
 1865, he then formed a partnership with H. E..J. 
 Boardman. This partnership was strengthened for 
 a time by the admission of Hon. J. L. Williams. In 
 January, 1872, the partnership was dissolved and a 
 new firm established, under the name of Brown, 
 Wyllis and Williams, which was afterward dis- 
 solved, and the present partnership of Brown, Sears 
 and Stone formed. On the organization of the 
 Central Railway of Iowa in 1870, Mr. Brown was 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 159 
 
 chosen its attorney, and has since served in that 
 capacity. As attorney for this road, he has, by pru- 
 dent management, done much to remove the preju- 
 dices against the railroad company, and enjoys the 
 confidence and good-will of'those opposed as well 
 as of his clients. When Mr. Brown crossed the 
 Mississippi river he had but twenty dollars in money, 
 but by a life of industry and devotion to his chosen 
 profession he has established a practice that ranks 
 among the best in the state, and in doing so has 
 been rewarded by a liberal income that places him 
 among the well-to-do men of the west. Rising from 
 
 poverty and obscurity, and overcoming a thousand 
 difficulties, he has advanced step by step until his 
 name has become as a tower of strength in the pro- 
 fession in which he is engaged. Earnest, studious, 
 and faithful in his devotion to his clients' interests, 
 he always wins their confidence as well as their case. 
 
 Mr. Brown is something above medium in stature, 
 standing six feet in height, and weighing one hun- 
 dred and eighty-seven pounds. 
 
 In politics, he is a republican ; is a member of no 
 church, but contributes liberally to the support of 
 all denominations. 
 
 DEXTER C. BLOOMER, 
 
 COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch stands prominent 
 among the leading men of western Iowa. A 
 native of Cayuga county, New York, he was born on 
 the 4th of July, 1816, and was reared under the in- 
 fluences of the Quakers, his father being a member 
 of that sect. He received a common-school edu- 
 cation, and in early life developed a decided taste 
 for literary pursuits. Finally, after attaining his 
 twentieth year, he in 1837 turned his attention to the 
 study of law, and soon afterward became deeply 
 engaged in political matters. Later he became ed- 
 itor of the " Seneca County Courier,'' at Seneca Falls, 
 New York, a whig paper, and acted in that capacity 
 with good success during a period of fifteen years. 
 While living at Seneca Falls he held several local 
 offices, and during the administration of President 
 Taylor (1849-53) held the office of postmaster at 
 that place. 
 
 With a view of bettering his condition and secur- 
 ing a wider field for the employment of his powers, 
 Mr. Bloomer, in 1853, removed to Ohio, settling at 
 Mount Vernon, in Knox county, and there during 
 the next two years was engaged in the publication 
 of the "Western Home Visitor," a literary paper of 
 much merit. Closing up his aff^airs, he, in 1855, left 
 Mount Vernon and, removing to Iowa, settled at 
 Council Bluffs, his present home, and established 
 himself in the real-estate and law business. At that 
 time the county was strongly detnocratic, and the 
 old whig party having Uecome disorganized, Mr. 
 Bloomer, with Mr. John T. Baldv.in, C. E. Stone, 
 and others, took an active and important part in the 
 organization of the republican party in western 
 16 
 
 Iowa. The interest which he manifested in political 
 movements, and the able manner in which he per- 
 formed the duties which were imposed upon him, 
 caused his fellow-citizens to bestow upon him many 
 trusts and political preferments, and he was fre- 
 quently the candidate of his party for judge, repre- 
 sentative, etc. In 1861 he was appointed by Presi- 
 dent Lincoln receiver of public moneys, and held 
 that position under the administrations of Presidents 
 Lincoln, Johnson and Grant, during a period of 
 twelve years, until the office was abolished. During 
 the war of the rebellion he rendered efficient service 
 to the Union cause, and was president of the Union 
 League, an organization which controlled the politics 
 of his part of the state. 
 
 Not only has Mr. Bloomer been active in political 
 matters ; in educational enterprises he has been es- 
 pecially prominent, and to his untiring exertions is 
 largely due the present high standard of the schools 
 and school system of his part of the state. Being a 
 man of fine executive ability, he was in 1864, elected 
 president of the school board, and reelected to the 
 same office during a period of eight successive years, 
 and in that time erected seven school buildings and 
 fully organized the present excellent school system. 
 
 By reason of his holding a government office, 
 Mr. Bloomer was disqualified for accepting many 
 official honors which were tendered him, yet his 
 fellow-citizens remember with gratitude the im- 
 portant services which he in various ways rendered 
 in behalf of their schools, and in i860 he was elected 
 a member of the state board of education. In 1869 
 he was elected mayor of his city, and reelected in 
 
i6o 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 187 1, and performed the duties of that office with 
 credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his con- 
 stituents. Throughout his varied career Mr. Bloomer 
 has maintained his interest in literary pursuits, and 
 during the years 1872-3 was editor of the Council 
 Bluffs "Republican." He was also editor of the 
 "Northwestern Odd-Fellow," a paper devoted to 
 the interests of Odd-Fellowship and to literature. 
 
 Prominent and important among his literary pro- 
 ductions is a history of Pottawattamie county, which 
 was published in a magazine called " Annals of 
 Iowa," under the title of " Notes on the Early His- 
 tory of Pottawattamie County." 
 
 In all the various capacities in which Mr. Bloomer 
 has acted he has maintained a character of the 
 highest standing, and shown a degree of ability and 
 
 proficiency that have commanded universal respect. 
 As a business man, he is prompt, reliable and enter- 
 prising. As a politician, he is honorable and zeal- 
 ous in what he esteems to be the cause of right. 
 As a literary man, his writings are characterized by 
 terseness and vivacity. 
 
 In his religioils communion he is identified with 
 the Episcopal church, and for twenty years has been 
 senior warden in that body. 
 
 He was married in 1840, to Miss Amelia Jenks. 
 Mrs. Bloomer is a lady of culture, and heartily sympa- 
 thizing with every movement of reform, has gained 
 for herself a wide and worthy reputation for the 
 active part which she has taken in dress reform and 
 in the question of woman's rights. She also is a 
 member of the Episcopal church. 
 
 HON. ABRAHAM G. ADAMS, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 ABRAHAM G. ADAMS was born in SterHng, 
 . Worcester county, Massachusetts, on the 2gth 
 of September, 1830, and is the son of Reuben S. 
 Adams and Maria F. ne'e Gibbs. His parents were 
 among the early settlers of Burlington, having re- 
 moved from New England in 1838. Their method 
 of traveling, by canal and boat, with teams and 
 wagons, was tedious; they were six weeks in mak- 
 ing the journey to St. Louis, where they remained 
 part of the winter. His father had visited Burling- 
 ton in July, 1838, and established there, on a small 
 scale, a boot, shoe and leather trade, and was anx- 
 ious to reach that place; the river being blocked 
 with ice, he was forced to resume the journey with 
 wagons and teams, and arrived there -in December, 
 1838. He found a small town built of frame and 
 log houses, with two or three brick dwellings of one 
 story, and a population of three or four hundred. 
 Being a thrifty and economical man, of great enter- 
 prise and good business capacity, he acquired some 
 wealth, and was always a public-spirited citizen. In 
 1840 he built what is now used as the Merchants' 
 restaurant, on Main street, at that time considered 
 an elegant house, and one that added much to the 
 appearance and value of that locality. He died in 
 April, 1864, mourned by an unusually large circle 
 of friends and acquaintances, and respected and 
 honored by all. 
 
 Abraham's education was gained much like that 
 
 of others, early in the new State. Part of the time 
 he attended school in an old log school-house, with 
 a puncheon floor and seats constructed of half of a 
 log, with two sticks in each end for legs, while the 
 other half was fastened to the side of the cabin for 
 a desk. For these privileges his parents paid two 
 or three dollars per quarter. Later he finished his 
 educational course in the basement of the old Zion 
 Church, under the direction of pioneer border peda- 
 gogues, at the same time assisting his father in the 
 little store, laying the foundation of the mercantile 
 career in which he has been so successful. During 
 1847-48 he was engaged in a large boot and shoe 
 jobbing house in St. Louis, whence he returned in 
 1849. In 1^51 ^s formed a partnership with his 
 father, conducting the business under the old name 
 of R. S. Adams till 1863* when the firm name was 
 changed to R. S. Adams and Co. His father having 
 died in 1864, he commenced business alone in 1865, 
 and has continued till the present, 1876, building 
 up the business from the small start in 1838 to the 
 largest jobbing house in his Hne in the State. By 
 his ability and perseverance Mr. Adams has acquired 
 an ample competence. He is a public-spirited, en- 
 terprising citizen, and is greatly esteemed. 
 
 In politics, he was originally a whig, and cast his 
 first vote for General Scott. With the formation of 
 the republican party he adopted its principles, and 
 has remained a faithful worker in the interests of 
 
■^ ^ lijrll.riuajEaaiiJ4"S^' 
 
 Z^i<uJ 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 l6: 
 
 that party. He served during one session in the 
 State legislature. 
 
 Mr. Adams was married in June, 1852, to Miss 
 Emily S. Swain, who died in December, 1872, leav- 
 ing a family of seven children, five having died. 
 
 He is an eminently self-made man. Commencing 
 with little means, he has gained wealth and honor 
 by pursuing a straightforward, true, honest and up- 
 right course, and has been eminently successful in 
 all that he has undertaken. 
 
 HORACE ANTHONY, 
 
 CAMANCHE. 
 
 THE subject of this biographical sketch, a son 
 of Joseph Anthony, was born in Lima, Living- 
 ston county. New York, on the 25th of July, 1816. 
 His mother was a Gilbert, and died when he was 
 seven years old. His paternal grandfather was in 
 the first war with England, and his father, who was 
 born in Connecticut, on the 19th of April, 1779, and 
 died on the 26th of December, 1876, was in the 
 second. The latter belonged to what were called 
 the " Troopers," an independent company which 
 reached Buffalo just in season to see it in ashes. 
 
 Horace spent his boyhood in various kinds of 
 employment and in getting an education ; was four 
 years a clerk in a store in New Haven, Connecticut; 
 immigrated to the west in 1838, and worked one 
 season in a saw-mill in Quincy, Illinois ; clerked a 
 short time for John Buford, of Rock Island, and in 
 June, 1839, was in the employ of the United States 
 Government, having charge of a squad of men on 
 the lower rapids. From 1840 to 1850 he was en- 
 gaged most of the time as a clerk in Rock Island, 
 and in the latter year settled in Camanche, at first 
 managing a store for other parties nearly five years. 
 In company with others he built a saw-mill in 1855, 
 and for twenty-two years has been engaged in the 
 manufacture of lumber, with moderate success. 
 
 Mr. Anthony was in the general assembly in 1859, 
 the first session held at Des Moines, serving as chair- 
 man of the committee on public library, and was on 
 other committees, and he was treasurer and recorder 
 of Clinton county from 1862 to 1866. He aided in 
 organizing the republican party in Iowa, and has 
 since acted with it — a prominent politician in the 
 county. In earlier life he was a democrat. 
 
 Mr. Anthony has been a professor of religion 
 since 1843, and a deacon of the Baptist church 
 nearly twenty years. He is a liberal supporter of 
 religious and benevolent institutions; his heart is in 
 every good cause, his hand in many a good work. 
 
 His wife was Miss Elizabeth McCloskey, of Dav- 
 enport, their marriage occurring in 1840. Of nine 
 children, the fruit of this union, eight are living. 
 Mary C. is the widow of John' D. Toy, and Martha 
 O. is the widow of William H. Cady, both dying of 
 diseases contracted in the late civil war; John J., 
 a volunteer and veteran soldier, is married and lives 
 in Camanche; Napoleon Buford, who was in the 
 hundred-days service, is also married and lives at 
 Stanwood, Cedar county, Iowa; Lucy Jane is the 
 wife of Farris Tong, of Camanche ; W. R. Anthony 
 is also married and lives in Camanche; Edward 
 Francis and Frederic Horace are single. 
 
 JAMES M. BALL, M.D., 
 
 WATERLOO. 
 
 DR. JAMES MOORES BALL was born on 
 the nth of May, 1812, in Salem, Jeffer- 
 son county, Ohio, the son of Farlin and Elizabeth 
 (Moores) Ball. The Balls are of Scotch and Quaker 
 ancestry ; seven brothers and one sister came over 
 from Scotland in the days of William Penn, and 
 settled in Philadelphia. The great-grandfather of 
 Dr. Ball removed in early life to Loudon county. 
 
 Virginia. He was a cousin of Mary Ball, the mother 
 of General Washington. Ball's Bluff's and Ball's 
 Cross Roads, now famous in American history, took 
 their names from this family. 
 
 At the age of seventeen the father of Dr. Ball 
 removed with his father to Steubenville, Ohio, and 
 when of age became a millwright, and the owner of 
 considerable land in Jeff'erson county. 
 
164 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Our subject completed his literary studies at a 
 college in Richmond, in his native county, and at 
 twenty commenced his medical studies in the same 
 place, with Dr. WilHam Farmer. He graduated from 
 the medical department of Western Reserve College, 
 Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
 Dr. Ball, followed his profession in Ohio until 
 1849, when he moved to Monroe, Green county, 
 Wisconsin, and there continuing the same until 
 1866, and obtaining a very wide reputation as a 
 skillful surgeon. In the last-named year he removed 
 to Iowa, and practiced six years in Waverly, Bremer 
 county, and removed in September, 1872, to Water- 
 loo, where he still remains, delighted with the pleas- 
 ant city, and actively pursuing his profession, with 
 his full share of popularity and business. 
 
 In the late war of 186 1-5 Dr. Ball occupied every 
 position on the medical staff of the United, States 
 army from assistant-surgeon to that of medical di- 
 rector of district, and was honorably discharged on 
 the 28th of August, 1865. 
 
 For some time while in Monroe Dr. Ball was 
 United States examining surgeon, and holds the 
 same office in Waterloo. He is president of the 
 Black Hawk County Medical Society, and is held 
 in high esteem, alike as a medical practitioner and 
 as a citizen. 
 
 Dr. Ball is a Royal Arch Mason. In his religious 
 sentiment he is a Methodist ; in politics, he has 
 been a republican since that party was organized. 
 
 On the 4th of March, 1832, he was married to 
 Miss Keturah Ford, of Jefferson county, and by 
 her has four children. Mrs. Ball died in i86o. On 
 the 9th of October, 1861, he was married to Miss 
 Martha G. Glover, of Green county, Wisconsin, and 
 by her also has four children. 
 
 A daughter by the first wife is married and lives 
 in Monroe, Wisconsin. Her three brothers were in 
 the Union army, and all distinguished themselves. 
 Stephen F. Ball, the eldest son, was one of the brav- 
 est men in the twentieth army corps; was compli- 
 mented by General Hooker for his heroism and 
 courage. The second, Farlin Q., went out as lieu- 
 tenant of the 31st Wisconsin, and was breveted 
 colonel for personal bravery ; he is now a lawyer of 
 the firm of Monroe, Bisbee and Ball, of Chicago. 
 The third, William H., went out as a private, and 
 after the battle of Stone River his name was placed 
 on General Rosecrans' roll of honor, for deeds of 
 great coolness and daring. 
 
 Although always an active and laborious man. 
 Dr. Ball has taken good care of himself; he has 
 never used tobacco or liquor, and at sixty-five is 
 sprightly and active as most men at fifty. 
 
 REV. JOSEPH W. HEALY, M.D., D.D., 
 
 IOWA CITY. 
 
 AMONG the leading clergymen of the Congre- 
 Xjl gational denomination in the country, none 
 deserves more honorable mention than Rev. Joseph 
 W. Healy, M.D., D.D., pastor of the Congregational 
 Church at Iowa City, Iowa. He was born in South 
 Hero; Vermont, on the nth of April, 1827. His 
 father Nathaniel, and his mother Jane Tabor, were 
 both of English descent, their ancestors having im- 
 migrated to America in 1643. His father having 
 died while he was young, leaving the family in mod- 
 erate circumstances, he was thrown upon his own 
 resources in acquiring an education. By manual 
 labor in the summer and teaching in the winter, he 
 prepared for college at Newbury Seminary and 
 Bradford Academy, Vermont. He spent a year at 
 Norwich University, and then entered upon the 
 study of law in the office of Judge Batchelder, of 
 Tapsham, where he remained some two years. His 
 
 early inclinations were for the ministry, and believ- 
 ing this to be his future vocation, he entered the 
 sophomore class of the University of Vermont, and 
 graduated in 1852. Having graduated, he became 
 principal of Bath Academy, Bath, New Hampshire, 
 and Tapsfield Academy, Tapsfield, Massachusetts, 
 where he taught successfully and gained a well- 
 merited popularity. While teaching he pursued his 
 theological studies, and afterward attended lectures 
 at Andover Theological Seminary. 
 
 He married Miss Jane Hibbard, daughter of Sabin 
 Clark, Esq., of Groton, Vermont, who has shared 
 with him all his struggles and successes. She is a' 
 lady of high attainments, and distinguished for a 
 marked excellence of womanly and christian virtues. 
 
 His first pastoral charge was the Congregational 
 Church in Walpole, Massachusetts. At the begin- 
 ning of the war he moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARl'. 
 
 165 
 
 and became pastor of the Hanover-street Congre- 
 gational Church. In 1865 he became connected 
 with the Tabernacle Church in Chicago, and in 1868 
 removed to New Orleans, Louisiana, because of the 
 severity of the lake climate ; there he became pastor 
 of the First Congregational Church. Among the 
 fruits of his labors in the south was the establishing 
 of Straight University, of which he became presi- 
 dent. He received the degree of M.D. from the 
 Medical College, Cleveland, Ohio, in 1870, and that 
 of D.D. from Olivet College, Michigan, in 1871. 
 He was chosen by the American Missionary Asso- 
 ciation as a delegate to Great Britain to organize 
 an auxiliary to that association, and sailed with his 
 family in January, 1872. While abroad, nearly three 
 years, he organized the Freedman's Missions Aid 
 Society, of which he became corresponding secre- 
 tary. He delivered addresses in all the large cities 
 of the kingdom, and visited the continent and the 
 east, raising large sums of money. Before returning 
 from Europe he was elected professor of English 
 literature and pastoral theology in Maryville College, 
 
 Tennessee, and upon his return was recalled to his 
 former charge in Chicago. Loving his chosen voca- 
 tion above all others, and confident that his restored 
 health would permit a residence in Chicago, he re- 
 newed his labors there in the autumn of 1874, but 
 the first winter again proved too trying for his con- 
 stitution, and he sought thcmilder inland climate of 
 Iowa City, Iowa, where he resides as pastor of the 
 Congregational Church. Dr. Healy is a popular 
 preacher and a hard worker ; into whatever he 
 undertakes he throws his whole energy, and to this 
 his success may be largely attributed. As an ardent 
 student, he has climbed the hill of knowledge, has 
 been a successful teacher, is eminent as a preacher, 
 and a great lover of his kind. He is gifted with 
 minor graces often denied men of studious habits ; 
 he is graceful, engaging, genial and attractive in 
 manner, and in personal appearance is remarkably 
 imposing. He ranks high as a promoter of every 
 good work, and has made a record to which the 
 limits of our space render it impossible for us to 
 do justice. 
 
 JOHN W. CHAPMAN, 
 
 COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 JOHN WILSON CHAPMAN, a native of Blairs- 
 •J ville, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, was born on 
 the 19th of July, 1834. He is of Scotch-English 
 descent, and a grandson of Judge Thomas Pollock, 
 of Ligonier valley. His father was engaged in vari- 
 ous kinds of business ; in early life he was a farmer, 
 and he and his brothers owned a large distillery 
 in Westmoreland county, and were interested in an 
 iron furnace; this was early in the present century, 
 when the western limit of Pennsylvania was almost 
 the boundary line of civilization ; and, in the ab- 
 sence of railroads, the varied products of the farm, 
 the distillery and the furnace, were carried to mar- 
 ket annually by means of flat-boats, between Pitts- 
 burgh and Louisville, on the Ohio river. John re- 
 moved to the west with his family while still young, 
 and received a good education at Yellow Springs 
 Academy, in Des Moines county, Iowa. 
 
 At the age of twenty he engaged in the mercan- 
 tile trade at the last named place, and continued 
 there, doing a successful business, until the year 
 1859, when he settled at Plattsmouth, Nebraska. 
 Here, during the next four years, he was employed 
 
 as chief clerk and manager in the large establish- 
 ment of Tootle, Hanna and Co., now of Kansas City. 
 The business was principally that of selling goods 
 for outfitting emigrants, and his position being 
 one of responsibility, Mr. Chapman gained from it 
 a most valuable experience. Throughout all his 
 business relations his conduct has been marked 
 by sterling enterprise, and a rigid adherence to the 
 highest principles of integrity and justice. His 
 course of life, too, has been such as to throw him 
 much upon his own resources; and he has thus 
 been enabled to develop his native powers, and to 
 acquire fine executive ability. Such characteristics 
 early disclosed themselves, and his fellow-citizens, 
 recognizing his fitness for official positions, have 
 conferred upon him offices of grave responsibility. 
 
 In the fall of 1862 he was elected a member of 
 the general assembly of Nebraska, and served dur- 
 ing that session. In the spring of 1863 he was 
 elected a delegate to the constitutional convention 
 which met at Omaha, and in the following fall was 
 again elected to the assembly. In the fall of 1864 
 he was elected to the territorial council, and in the 
 
i66 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 republican caucus was nominated for president of 
 the same. During the balloting, however, a dead- 
 lock occurred which resulted in the election of 
 Judge Mason, of Nebraska City. While acting in 
 this capacity he rendered very efficient service, and 
 was placed on some of the important committees. 
 During the second session of the council he was one 
 of the committee who prepared the constitution of 
 Nebraska, which was afterward adopted. He was 
 also author of the celebrated "Chapman Election 
 Law," the purpose of which was to protect the purity 
 of the ballot box. Although his business career was 
 one of peculiar activity he found time for general 
 reading, and kept himself posted upon the current 
 news of the day. He is a man of literary tastes, 
 and having some aspirations in that line, in the 
 year 1865 became editor of the "Omaha Repub- 
 lican." He was also, during that year, chief clerk 
 in the office of Colonel E. B. Taylor, superintend- 
 ent of Indian affairs of the northern superintend- 
 ency. In the summer of the ensuing year (1866) 
 he purchased an interest in the " Council Bluifs 
 
 Nonpareil," and took up his residence in that city. 
 He is at present editor-in-chief and principal pro- 
 prietor of that paper. In 1869 he was elected coun- 
 ty treasurer, and was reelected in 1871. He was 
 also appointed, by President Grant, United States 
 marshal for Iowa in March, 1875. 
 
 In local enterprises he has been especially active 
 and has done much toward the growth and develop- 
 ment of his city. He has been president of the 
 Merchants' Exchange Club, and is now (1877) one 
 of the committee of eight — called the railroad com- 
 mittee — whose office is to look after and protect 
 the interests of Council Bluffs in all railroad mat- 
 ters appertaining to the city. 
 
 In religious sentiment he is a Presbyterian. 
 
 Mr. Chapman was married, in 1858, to Miss 
 Ada Annagene Gillett, of Jamestown, New York, a 
 daughter of Rev. Dr. E. J. Gillett, who is now presi- 
 dent of the Keokuk Medical College. Mrs. Chap- 
 man is a lady of fine accomplishments, and highly 
 esteemed by all who know her. Their family con- 
 sists of two daughters. 
 
 J. M. ANDERSON, M.D., 
 
 MONTROSE. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch, a native of Mont- 
 gomery county, Kentucky, was born on the 
 nth of July, 1818, the son of William and Francis 
 Anderson, both of whom were natives of Virginia. 
 His father died at Montrose in 1861, and his moth- 
 er, in October, 1876, at the age of eighty-five years. 
 Our subject removed to the west in 1828, and 
 settled at Quincy, Illinois. During the cholera epi- 
 demic of 1833 the family removed about sixteen 
 miles into the country, where they remained three 
 years. An incident which occurred about this time 
 is worthy of note, since it was the means of casting 
 him upon his own resources, and doubtless shaped, 
 in a measure, his subsequent course of life. His 
 father sent him, in company with another young 
 man, with a stock of goods to Farmington, Van Bu- 
 ren county, Iowa, with a view to opening a store. 
 Upon reaching Alexandria, Missouri, his partner 
 was taken ill, and he returned home to await his 
 recovery. After ten days he went again to Alexan- 
 dria, and found that his partner had not only recov- 
 ered, but had also sold the stock of goods and, 
 pocketing the proceeds, had gone to Texas. It was 
 
 a sad disappointment to young Anderson, and being 
 unwilling to return home he went on foot to Farm- 
 ington, and at once engaged in teaching school. 
 He continued that vocation there and in Clark 
 county, Missouri, about two years, and then return- 
 ing to Farmington, spent six months working as a 
 day laborer. 
 
 At the expiration of that time he entered the office 
 of Dr. Miles, formerly of Vermont, and during the 
 next two years zealously pursued the study of med- 
 icine. In 1840 Dr. Miles went to New Orleans for 
 his health, and there died of yellow fever, leaving 
 his business in the hands of Dr. Anderson, who con- 
 tinued in practice at Farmington until 1844, when 
 he removed to Montrose, his present home. 
 
 At that time the old barracks were still standing; 
 the population numbered about two hundred ; rank 
 weeds covered the ground, breeding malaria and 
 ague, and pale faces and general lassitude marked 
 the appearance of the inhabitants. There were sev- 
 eral ■' steam doctors " in the place,_and the Mormons 
 were treating diseases literally according to the di- 
 rection of St. James : " Is any man sick among you, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARV. 
 
 167 
 
 let him call in the elders of the church, and let them 
 pray over him, anointing him with oil," etc. 
 
 Against the prejudices incident to such a state of 
 society Dr. Anderson was obliged to contend, but 
 persevering in an upright, honorable course, he mas- 
 tered every difficulty and overcame every opposi- 
 tion, and fully established himself in the respect 
 and confidence of the people. For thirty-three 
 years he has continued in the practice of his pro- 
 fession at Montrose and vicinity, and, having been 
 eminently successful, has attained a wide reputation 
 and accumulated a liberal competence. 
 
 Although Dr. Anderson is not a man of great 
 physical strength, he has passed through all these 
 years, subject at times to great exposure and fatigue, 
 with scarcely any loss of time from illness. He has 
 not been sick more than a week during this entire 
 period of more than thirty years, a fact attributable 
 to his thorough knowledge of himself and a strict ob- 
 servance of the laws of health. 
 
 Aside from his profession, Dr. Anderson has been 
 honored by his fellow-citizens with many positions 
 of trust. 
 
 In political sentiment, he is a conservative demo- 
 crat. In 1850, 1 85 1 and 1856, he was a member of 
 the state legislature, and during his first term was 
 chairman of the committee on schools and universi- 
 ties. He took an active part in legislation during 
 his terms of office, and became widely known as a 
 man of clear foresight and good judgment. 
 
 A marked characteristic of Dr. Anderson during 
 his entire career has been his untiring energy and 
 enterprise. A man of strong will and a determined 
 purpose, he turned the whole current of his life 
 force into one channel, and as a result has secured 
 that reward and success which must follow persist- 
 ent, honorable effort. 
 
 He was married to Miss Electa A. Miles, a daugh- 
 ter of his early preceptor ; they have had one son 
 and five daughters, of whom four are now living. 
 
 JAMES F. EVANS, 
 
 COUXCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 THE subject of this brief biography is a man 
 whose life-work well illustrates what may be 
 accomplished by persistent, energetic and honor- 
 able effort. He was born in Huntsville, Alabama, 
 on the 9th of October, 1825. His father, James 
 Evans, was a farmer by occupation, and a man of 
 high character. 
 
 Our subject received a fair education, attending 
 school at Jacksonville, Illinois, and closing his 
 studies at the age of seventeen, turned his atten- 
 tion to farming. He continued that occupation 
 with varying success until the year 1864, when, on 
 the 8th of November, he settled in Council Bluffs, 
 Iowa. During the next three years he was en- 
 gaged in the transportation of goods, groceries, pro- 
 visions, etc., to the mining districts of Colorado, 
 Montana and Utah. He was also, for three years, 
 engaged in the lumber trade, and at the close of 
 that time (about 1870) began dealing in grain. In 
 this business he has been very successful and is 
 vigorously prosecuting it at the present time (1877). 
 
 His business career has been one of gradual 
 growth, and he has established a wide reputation 
 as a business man of sterling integrity, shrewd tact 
 and decided action ; this he has acquired by long 
 
 years of experience. During his early life in Illi- 
 nois he underwent great inconvenience in getting his 
 produce, stock, etc., to market ; but persevering he 
 overcame all obstacles, and toiling on through every 
 vicissitude has attained to his present high stand- 
 ing, where he is reaping a bountiful reward for all 
 his effort. He has confined his attention to no 
 single line of business exclusively, but being alive 
 to the necessities of the times, and the demands 
 of trade, has carefully watched his opportunities, 
 and thus been enabled to make profitable and 
 judicious investments. He now ships large quan- 
 tities of grain to the eastern cities, and is also ex- 
 tensively interested in the shipment of cattle and 
 hogs. He owns a large interest in the elevator 
 at Council Bluffs, and besides is connected with 
 several elevators along the line of the Chicago, 
 Burlington and Quincy Railroad, and of the Bur- 
 lington and Missouri railroad in Nebraska. He 
 owns a part interest in a large stock ranch in 
 Wyoming, the object of which is to raise cattle 
 for the eastern market. The present year (1877) 
 there are about ten thousand head of cattle on the 
 ranch. The amount of grain annually shipped by 
 his firm varies from one to two millions of bushels. 
 
i68 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 Mr. Evans is a public-spirited man, and engages 
 heartily in such local enterprises as tend to build 
 up and further the interests of his city. The First 
 National Bank of Council Bluffs was first incor- 
 porated under the state law; in 1865 it was organ- 
 ized under the national banking law. In 1870 Mr. 
 Evans was elected president of this institution, and 
 still holds that office. He took an active part in 
 building up the agricultural works and the paper 
 mill of Council Bluffs, and is a stockholder in the 
 same. He is a man who takes pride in educa- 
 tional matters, and during the last ten years has 
 contributed liberally of his time and money to the 
 development of the public schools of his city. 
 
 Although he has never sought political honors. 
 
 his fellow-citizens have imposed upon him positions 
 of trust. During the years 1868 and 1869 he served 
 in the city council as alderman ; it was at the time 
 when the railroad lines running into the city were 
 being completed, and the street railway and gas 
 works were in process of construction,— so that the 
 office was one of more than usual responsibility. 
 
 Personally, Mr. Evans is a man of admirable 
 qualities, and from his varied experience and wide 
 observation has acquired a fund of knowledge that 
 renders him a most agreeable social companion. 
 
 His family consists of a wife and three sons. 
 Mrs. Evans is a lady of fine attainments. The 
 sons are now in school, their parents desiring to give 
 them the advantage of a liberal education. 
 
 HON. JOSEPH M. CASEY, 
 
 FORT MADISON. 
 
 JOSEPH M. CASEY, a native of Adair county, 
 •J Kentucky, was born on the 25th of March, 1827, 
 the youngest of a family of six children. His grand- 
 father was one of the pioneers of Kentucky, and his 
 father. Green Casey, was the first male child born 
 in Adair county. His mother, Jane ne'e Patterson, 
 was a native of Rockbridge county, Virginia. Both 
 of his parents were well educated, and zealous mem- 
 bers of the Presbyterian church. 
 
 When Joseph was eleven years old his father died, 
 leaving his family in moderate circumstances. He 
 received a good academical education, and at the 
 age of seventeen began the study of law in the office 
 of Judge John F. Kinney, who was then a prominent 
 jurist in Lee county, Iowa, and who afterward be- 
 came judge of the supreme court of Iowa. After a 
 three years' course of diligent and thorough study, 
 young Casey, in 1847, was admitted to the bar, and, 
 settling in Keokuk county, was at once elected 
 prosecuting attorney. He held that office for five 
 years, and in that time established an enviable 
 reputation as a prosecutor and as a lawyer. In 
 October, 1859, he was elected county judge of Keo- 
 kuk county, and satisfactorily performed the duties 
 of his office until April, 1861. Desiring, however, 
 to- make Fort Madison his permanent home, he 
 removed thither, arriving on the 12th of April of 
 the last-named year, leaving a lucrative practice and 
 many true friends. 
 
 Although Judge Casey's attention has been de- 
 
 voted mainly to the practice of his profession, he 
 has yet found time for literary culture. He was for 
 two years editor of the Iowa " Democrat," while a 
 resident of Keokuk county, and was for three years 
 editor of the Fort Madison "Plaindealer." 
 
 In political sentiment he has been always an 
 uncompromising democrat, and cast his first vote 
 for General Cass.- But although he has firmly ad- 
 hered to and advocated the principles of his party, 
 he has never been so biased by political prejudice 
 as not willingly to allow those who differed from him 
 the peaceful enjoyment of their opinions, recogniz- 
 ing the fact that men may honestly differ in their 
 views. As a consequence he has many warm per- 
 sonal friends among men with whose political views 
 he has no sympathy. 
 
 Personally, Judge Casey is kind, courteous and 
 affable. He has a decidedly mathematical turn of 
 mind, and his arguments, especially those before the 
 supreme court, have been styled by superior jurists 
 as models of logical strength and literary excellence. 
 
 He has taken a prominent stand in the masonic 
 fraternity, and been honored with the highest offices 
 of the craft. As a Royal Arch Mason, he is acknowl- 
 edged to have few superiors. 
 
 He has taken a deep interest in educational mat- 
 ters, and in all public enterprises tending to the 
 prosperity of his city he has cooperated to the 
 extent of his ability. He has twice filled the office 
 of mayor. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 i6g 
 
 As a lawyer, his aim has been to be true and 
 faithful to his clients. He resolved, when he first 
 began his practice, that he would never resort to 
 deception or dishonesty, and has rigidly adhered to 
 his principles, so that courts and juries never doubt 
 the sincerity of his arguments, and it has become a 
 common saying, "for safe counsel and honest advice 
 go to Judge Casey." 
 
 His life has been spent in the interests of his 
 fellow men, with a full realization of the truth that, 
 while he should seek to develop in himself a true 
 manhood, he should also do all in his power to 
 assist others. Such has been his course of life, and 
 
 his dealings with all with whom he has had to do, 
 that he has secured to himself universal confidence 
 and respect. 
 
 Judge Casey was married in 1854 to Miss Sarah 
 J. Ward, a native of Ohio, and daughter of Thomas 
 and Nancy Ward. They have had five children, 
 four of whom are now living. 
 
 Such in brief is an outline of the life history of 
 one whose career has been marked by enterprise, 
 energy, pure motives and honest effort. He has 
 made himself what he is, a worthy type of inde- 
 pendent manhood, and may justly be placed upon 
 Iowa's roll of honor. 
 
 HON. LYSANDER W. BABBITT, 
 
 COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 E5A1JJDER W. BABBITT, a native of Ovid, 
 Seneca county. New York, was born on the 
 31st of January, 181 2, and is the son of William J. 
 Babbitt and Persena nde Losey. His paternal an- 
 cestors were of Welsh origin, while his maternal 
 grandfather was a Hessian and served in General 
 Burgoyne's army. His father was a blacksmith by 
 occupation, and he himself early developed a de- 
 cided mechanical taste. In 1828, being then sixteen 
 years of age, he learned the gunsmith's trade and 
 pursued that occupation in New York until 1833. 
 During the next three years he continued his trade 
 at Cleveland, Ohio, and in 1836 removed to Bur- 
 lington, Iowa, and there resumed the same calling, 
 and continued it with good success until the year 
 1844. During his residence in Burlington he be- 
 came well known as a man of fine native talents and 
 thorough business qualifications, and in considera- 
 tion of these he was soon honored with positions of 
 trust. In 1838 General A. C. Dodge, who was then 
 brigadier-general of the territorial militia, at Bur- 
 lington, appointed him adjutant of a regiment which 
 was held in readiness to quell border troubles. In 
 1841 he was elected city recorder, and served in 
 that capacity for two years. Soon after this he re- 
 moved to Knoxville, in Marion county, and there 
 was appointed clerk of the district court and of the 
 board of county commissioners. 
 
 Iowa was then a territory, and there being at that 
 
 time no railroads within its limits, Mr. Babbitt made 
 
 the journey to Knoxville with an ox team. Some 
 
 idea of the wildness of the region may be formed 
 
 17 
 
 from a knowledge of the fact that within the last 
 hundred miles which he traveled there was but one 
 house, and that was on the present site of Oskaloosa. 
 At Knoxville he turned his attention toward mer- 
 cantile pursuits, and also operated a grist and saw 
 mill. In his business he met with fair success, but 
 was soon called to serve in other capacities. 
 
 In 1849 he was elected to represent in the state 
 legislature Marion, Jasper, Story, Polk, Dallas, Mad- 
 ison, Guthrie, Warren, Boone, and all the counties 
 of that tier, westward to the Missouri river. There 
 were then probably not more than thirty voters in 
 this whole section outside of Pottawattamie county, 
 and only nine votes were cast. After serving his 
 term of two years, he was, in 1851, reelected for a 
 second term. In 1853 he removed to Kanesville 
 (now Council Bluffs), having been appointed by 
 President Pierce register of the United States land 
 office at that place. He served in this capacity until 
 1856, at which time he again turned his attention to 
 merchandising, opening an establishment of general 
 stores, and erecting a three-storied building to ac- 
 commodate his business. He continued this busi- 
 ness with good success for two years and then sold 
 his interest. This was at that time a fine business 
 point, since the overland emigrants to California, 
 and the Mormons going to Utah, made it the prin- 
 cipal place for purchasing their outfit. 
 
 In the year 1857 Mr. Babbitt purchased the 
 " Council Bluffs Bugle," the oldest paper in western 
 Iowa, having been established in 1850. This he 
 continued to edit until 1870, firmly and zealously 
 
lyo 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAHr. 
 
 advocating the principles of democracy, antimo- 
 nopoly, hard money, opposition to every kind of 
 special privilege by the government, and the doctrine 
 of individual liability of members of corporations 
 for all debts of corporations. 
 
 For many years Mr. Babbitt has devoted much 
 attention to raising blooded horses, cattle, hogs, etc., 
 having, as early as 1853, purchased of five Mormons 
 the beautiful farm upon which he now resides (1877). 
 In local improvements he has been a leading man. 
 He was the first vice-president of the Council Bluffs 
 and Saint Joseph railroad, now known as the Kansas 
 City, Saint Joseph and Council Bluffs railroad, and 
 it is but just to state that to his foresight and per- 
 sistent effort is largely due the locating of the state 
 capital at its present site. As early as 1842 he ex- 
 plored central and western Iowa, with a view of 
 determining, in his own mind, where the capital of 
 the state would be, and finally selected Fort Des 
 Moines. He at that time attempted to settle there, 
 but was ordered off by the United States troops, 
 it being then Indian territory. Afterward, while a 
 .member of the state legislature, he introduced the. 
 first bill for removing the seat of government from 
 where it then was (Iowa City) to Des Moines. The 
 bill met with strong and bitter opposition, those not 
 favoring it declaring that all the country west of 
 Des Moines was fit only for Indians and beaver, 
 and that the United States government would never 
 
 survey it. In a caricature that was published at 
 that time Mr. Babbitt was represented as holding 
 to a long string attached to a railroad car, which he 
 was pulling westward, while four other stalwart 
 members were represented as pulling a car from 
 Keokuk to Dubuque. 
 
 As among the local offices which he has held, it 
 may be stated that he has been twice mayor of his 
 city, and served some nine different terms as alder- 
 man. In 1859 he was candidate for lieutenant- 
 governor, opposed to Mr. Rush, of Davenport, and 
 ran ahead of his ticket about twelve hundred votes. 
 General Dodge was then candidate on the same 
 ticket for governor. In 1867 he was elected to the 
 state legislature on the democratic ticket, defeating 
 his opponent by one hundred and thirty-nine votes 
 in Pottawattamie county, where at the previous elec- 
 tion there was a republican majority of two hundred 
 and fifty. Although he was never an abolitionist, he 
 was always opposed to the extension of slavery, and 
 now that the negroes are free, believes in qualifying 
 them for citizenship. At the presidential election 
 of 1876 he supported Mr. Tilden, believing that 
 the great political issues were dead, and that the 
 condition of our governmental affairs demanded a 
 change of administration. 
 
 Mr. Babbitt is a married man and has one son 
 living, who is now (1877) employed in the general 
 land office at Washington. 
 
 WILLIAM H. GABBERT, 
 
 DA V EN PORT. 
 
 AMONG the successful young men of Iowa may 
 xV fairly be placed the name of William H. 
 Gabbert. It will be generally found that similar 
 cases lead to like results in whatever branch of 
 human activity a man's genius and enterprise may 
 be employed. The essentials of success are cour- 
 age, patience and perseverance. Success brings 
 honor in every honest occupation, and when it is 
 achieved by a young man it adds new pleasure. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was born at Blue 
 Grass, Scott county, Iowa, on the 12th of October, 
 1849, and is the son of Henry and Eliza J. Gabbert 
 nde McGarvey. His father was one of the pioneer 
 settlers of Scott county, having gone there in 1835, 
 when there were few inhabitants and but little ex- 
 pectation that Davenport would be what it now is. 
 
 He was originally from Tennessee, and was identi- 
 fied with the old school of democrats, to whose 
 principles he is still an adherent. He is eminently 
 connected with the earlier history of the country, 
 and participated in its early struggles. His ances- 
 tors were among the early settlers of the United 
 States, and participated in the revolutionary war, 
 also in the war of 181 2. 
 
 William's early life was that of a farm boy. His 
 education was gained in the common schools; he 
 early developed a taste for study and the acquire- 
 ment of knowledge. After leaving school he com- 
 menced the study of law, in the meantime teach- 
 ing school two or more winters. His ambition led 
 him early to choose law for his profession, and to 
 this end commenced his studies at twenty years of 
 
THE UNITED STATES B/OGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 173 
 
 age with W. A. Foster, a prominent criminal law- 
 yer, of Davenport, Iowa, being admitted to the bar 
 in November, 1870. He formed a partnership with 
 W. A. Foster under the style of Foster and Gab- 
 bert, remaining a partner until the ist of April, 1874, 
 when they dissolved, he continuing the practice. 
 He met with much success, and was building up 
 a fine business when he was elected clerk of the 
 district and circuit courts, in October, 1874, which 
 office he has held since, greatly to his own credit 
 and the satisfaction of his constituents. He is a 
 member of the A.O.U.W. He is not connected 
 with any church, but a believer in the fundamental 
 
 rules of Christianity. He was brought up a demo- 
 crat, and was elected to his present position by a 
 majority of five hundred over his own ticket. 
 
 Mr. Gabbert was married on the 6th of February, 
 1873, to Miss Addie Gabbert, eldest daughter of 
 Captain W. H. Gabbert, of Davenport, a prominent 
 citizen and an old settler. She died on the 13th 
 of October, 1874, regretted by an unusually large 
 circle of friends and acquaintances. 
 
 Mr. Gabbert is known as a man of sterling in- 
 tegrity, decided character and untiring energy, and 
 has every promise of a prosperous and honorable 
 career. 
 
 JOHN T. BALDWIN, 
 
 COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 THE subject of this brief biography stands prom- 
 inent among the influential business men of 
 his part of the State of Iowa. Beginning life in com- 
 parative obscurity, and without capital other than 
 his own native talents and a resolute purpose to suc- 
 ceed, he has been, in a true sense of the word, " the 
 architect of his own fortune," and risen gradually to 
 a. high social and business standing among his fel- 
 low-citizens. A native American, he was born in 
 Washington county, Pennsylvania, on the 12th of 
 October, 1820. He passed his early life on his 
 father's farm, enjoying such educational advantages 
 as were afforded by the common schools. About 
 the time that he attained his majority he engaged in 
 mercantile pursuits in the village of Washington, 
 Pennsylvania, and in the year 1844 removed to the 
 west and settled at Fairfield, Iowa. During the 
 next three years he was engaged in farming in that 
 locality, and at the expiration of that time removed 
 to Ottumwa, where he employed the next six years 
 in mercantile pursuits. As showing the newness of 
 the country at the time when Mr. Baldwin settled at 
 Fairfield, it may be stated that Iowa was then a ter- 
 ritory, with a population of thirty-six thousand, and 
 that there was no post-office in Jefferson county. 
 The mail was then carried on horseback and was 
 received once in two weeks, and was so small that 
 " Tom Graham," who acted as postmaster, could 
 carry it all in his hat. 
 
 In 1853 Mr. Baldwin closed out his business in- 
 terests in Ottumwa and removed to Council Bluffs, 
 which then had a population of about five thousand, 
 
 composed principally of Mormons. Resuming his 
 mercantile pursuits, he continued the same -with 
 good success during the next three years. 
 
 In 1856 he established a land agency, and also 
 to some extent engaged in banking, and since that 
 time has continued th« same, together with various 
 other business operations. While engaged in his 
 land agency, from 1856 to 1869 he was associated 
 with General G. M. Dodge, under the firm name of 
 Baldwin and Dodge. During this last named year 
 he organized the Pacific National Bank, and became 
 a director, vice-president and general manager of the 
 same. Heartily sympathizing with all local public 
 improvements, he has lent his cooperation to many 
 worthy enterprises. In March, 1877, ^'^ principal 
 owner, he organized the street railway running to 
 the depot of the Northern Pacific railroad and to 
 the Burlington and St. Joseph depots. He also 
 owns a large flouring-mill, which is doing a prosper- 
 ous business. 
 
 As a business man, Mr. Baldwin has established 
 a wide and honorable reputation. He is known for 
 his promptness and decision, and has the happy fac- 
 ulty of seizing opportunities and turning them to 
 good account. 
 
 In politics, he was formerly a whig, but upon the 
 organization of the republican party he became 
 identified with it and took a somewhat active part 
 in its workings. 
 
 Although his business life has been one of unu- 
 sual activity, he has been able to gratify the wishes 
 of his friends and accept at their hands various 
 
174 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 positions of honor and responsibility. In 1854 he was 
 elected a member of the state legislature on the 
 republican ticket, and during his term of office ren- 
 dered efficient service. When Council Bluffs first 
 became incorporated he was elected a member of 
 the city council, and in March, 1877, was elected to 
 the office of mayor. In 1876 he was sent as a dele- 
 
 gate to the republican convention held in Cincin- 
 nati, Ohio. 
 
 Mr. Baldwin was married in August, 1843, to Miss 
 Jane Hunter, of Washington, Pennsylvania, and by 
 her has three daughters. 
 
 In his religious communion, he is identified with 
 the Presbyterian church. 
 
 HON. HANS R. CLAUSSEN, 
 
 DAVENPORT. 
 
 HANS REIMER CLAUSSEN was born in the 
 province of Schleswig Holstein, Germany, 
 on the 23d of February, 1804. He received a col- 
 lege education at Meldorf, and studied law at the 
 University of Kiel. In 1830 he was admitted to the 
 bar, and commenced the practice of his profession 
 first at Heide and afterward, in 1834, removed to 
 Kiel, the principal place in the province and the 
 seat of the supreme court and state university. In 
 1840 he was elected a member of the legislature for 
 Holstein, and was repeatedly reelected until 1851, 
 when he was exiled and emigrated to the United 
 States. The establishment of a republic in France, 
 in 1848, created throughout Germany great political 
 excitement. The revolution was victorious; in Ber- 
 lin and Vienna the people were clamorous for a 
 united Germany, a German parliament, liberty of 
 the press, and such a bill of rights as is secured to 
 the American people. The kings had to yield and 
 give consent to a German parliament, which con- 
 vened at Frankfort-on-the-Main in May, 1848, and 
 in which Mr. Claussen, elected from Holstein, was 
 a member. The assembly was a kind of constitu- 
 tional convention ; it framed a constitution for Ger- 
 many, which did not take effect, the kings refus- 
 ing to accept it. The present constitution con- 
 tains, however, very essential parts of that consti- 
 tution so framed. Schleswig Holstein belonged to 
 the king of Denmark till 1864, though the inhab- 
 itants were nearly all Germans and were always 
 dissatisfied with the Danish government, which was 
 tyrannical, oppressive and very burdensome by un- 
 just and heavy taxation. They cherished a hope 
 to be released from the Danish government by the 
 death of the ruling king, Friedrich VII, since his 
 successor. Christian IX, had no right to the govern- 
 ment in Schleswig Holstein and for Denmark, in a 
 similar manner as in Hanover and England. The 
 
 Danish king had, however, made several efforts to 
 change the laws of succession so as to make it uni- 
 form for all parts of the Danish monarchy, and thus 
 to keep Schleswig Holstein united with Denmark. 
 This policy of the Danish king had created a fever- 
 ish excitement, and was the means of very bitter 
 controversies between the Danish king, his German 
 subjects and their representatives. In 1848, when 
 nearly the whole of Germany was in arms against 
 their rulers, the Germans in Schleswig Holstein also 
 took up arms against the Danish king to conquer 
 and gain their independence. The legislature, how- 
 ever, sent previously a delegation of five of their 
 members to Copenhagen to present their grievances 
 to the king of Denmark. Mr. Claussen was one of 
 these five members. On their arrival they were in 
 great danger of their lives, the excited Danes in- 
 tending to mob them. The hotel where they lodged 
 was surrounded by thousands, who in their excite- 
 ment called them traitors and disloyal to their king. 
 When they drove to the palace of the king the 
 streets were densely crowded with excited men, who 
 attempted to overthrow the coaches and mob them. 
 The better educated Danes, and particularly the stu- 
 dents, made strenuous and successful efforts to save 
 their lives. The king received them courteously, 
 but refused to grant their petitions. When they re- 
 turned they found the people in arms, and a provin- 
 cial government established, which sent Claussen to 
 Berlin to obtain aid from the Prussian government. 
 In this mission he was successful. A Prussian army 
 entered Schleswig Holstein, drove out the Danish 
 army and occupied that province. The Schleswig 
 Holstein army maintained the government of the 
 Germans against Denmark up to 185 r, when Prussia 
 and Austria resolved, by an army entering Schleswig 
 Holstein, to compel the people thereof to subjection 
 and obedience to their Danish king. After the res- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 1/5 
 
 toration of the Danish power, a general annesty was 
 granted to the king's disloyal subjects, excepting 
 about twenty persons, and Claussen among them, 
 who were exiled from their native country. 
 
 He emigrated in 185 1 to the United States, es- 
 tablished his residence at Davenport, studied the 
 English language and law, and was admitted to the 
 bar in Iowa about two years after his arrival to the 
 United States. In 1855 he built a steam grist mill 
 in Lyons, Clinton county, Iowa, where he resided 
 about three years. He was not successful, and lost 
 almost all of his means. In 1858 he sold his mill 
 and returned to Davenport, and again commenced 
 practicing his profession. Here he met with much 
 success, as more than one-third of the population 
 of Scott county are Germans, who prefer a German 
 lawyer to do their business for them, and his known 
 ability as an attorney made him very successful. In 
 1858 he was elected, and in i860 reelected, a justice 
 of the peace; and, as his legal business was grow- 
 ing, in 1862 he took in his son, Ernest Claussen, as 
 partner in the law business. In 1869 he was elected 
 a senator for four years from Scott county. In May, 
 187 1, he retired from the practice of law, leaving it 
 to his son. 
 
 In the summer of 1871 he visited his fatherland, 
 and his native Schleswig Holstein, where the Danes 
 had ceased to rule; the decree of exile against him 
 had ceased to be operative since 1866, when it was 
 under the rule of Prussia, and he was once more 
 
 allowed to view the scenes of his boyhood, and visit 
 once more his old friends. The dreams of his life 
 were realized, and he witnessed united Germany as he 
 had struggled for it in his early days. Going to Ber- 
 lin, he visited the German parliament and heard that 
 greatest statesman of our age (Bismarck) speak in 
 regard to the administration of the government in 
 Alsace and Lorraine. 
 
 Always an enemy of slavery in any form, he has 
 been a staunch republican since the organization of 
 that party. In various ways he has done great good, 
 both by legislative and home influence, and there is 
 not a more popular or more loved and esteemed 
 man among his constituents than Mr. Claussen. 
 
 In religious matters he is liberal, though baptized 
 and educated in the Protestant Lutheran church. 
 
 He was married in May, 1832 ; his wife, Annine, 
 formerly a daughter of a Danish officer, is still living 
 to bless his old age. 
 
 It is seldom we are called upon to review the 
 record of a man so prominent in two continents as 
 Mr. Claussen. The great benefits accrued to the 
 United States by the immigration of such men are 
 vi^ell known. While making constant use of his 
 natural powers, he has never wasted- or weakened 
 them, hence he is still in possession of much of his 
 native vigor and strength, At over threescore and 
 ten his step is still firm, his form erect, his counte- 
 nance cheerful, and he bids fair to see a mellow, ripe 
 old age. 
 
 HON. CALEB BALDWIN, 
 
 COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 OF those whose names are inscribed upon the 
 roll of Iowa's honored men, none deserves a 
 more honorable mention than he whose biography 
 is briefly given in this sketch. Through many 
 years of active life he was closely identified with 
 various public interests, and the impress of his 
 noble character is indelibly stamped upon the work 
 with which he had to do. 
 
 Beginning life in adverse circumstances, he boldly 
 and persistently pushed his way onward and up- 
 ward, allowing no obstacle to check his progress, 
 and by his very force of character and native 
 power, made for himself a name and fame that shall 
 long live, cherished with .fondest remembrance by 
 the many who were honored with his acquaintance. 
 
 Caleb Baldwin was a native of Washington coun- 
 ty, Pennsylvania, and was born on the 3d of April, 
 1824. His early life differed little from that of ordi- 
 nary youth. He enjoyed the advantages of a good 
 primary education, and early disclosed a fondness 
 for study and literary pursuits. After completing 
 his preparatory studies he entered Washington Col- 
 lege, in his native state, and graduated from the 
 same with honor in the class of 1842. During his 
 early life he maintained a high character, and rigid- 
 ly adhered to those principles of honorable dealing 
 which so signally characterized all of his subse- 
 quent life. After finishing his course in college he 
 turned his attention to the study of law, and in the 
 year 1846, being then twenty-two years of age, re- 
 
176 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 moved to Fairfield, Iowa, and established himself 
 in the practice of his profession. Iowa was then 
 a territory, and during the early years of his resi- 
 dence there he was subjected to the many incon- 
 veniences and privations incident to a new country. 
 He was a man, however, of dauntless courage and 
 determined purpose, and a will-power that yielded 
 to no obstacle, and, toiling steadily on, established a 
 worthy and growing reputation. His business grad- 
 ually increased from year to year, and he grew in 
 favor and popularity with the people, who, recog- 
 nizing his talents and peculiar fitness for official 
 positions, elected him to the office of prosecuting 
 attorney, to which he was afterward twice reelected. 
 In 1855 he was appointed by Governor Grimes 
 judge of the district court, to fill a vacancy caused 
 by the resignation of Hon. W. H. Severs. Closing 
 up his interests in Fairfield, he, in 1857, settled in 
 Council Bluffs, where he continued to reside during 
 the remainder of his life. Two years later, in 1859, 
 he was- elected a judge of the supreme court of 
 Iowa, it being at the first election held under the 
 revised constitution, which provided for the election 
 
 of judges by the people. In 1862 he became chief 
 justice of the State of Iowa, by virtue of seniority 
 in office. Wearied with the cares and responsi- 
 bilities of public life, and preferring the quiet prac- 
 tice of his profession, he, in 1864, declined a re- 
 election to the bench and resumed the practice of 
 law. In the following year, however, he was ap- 
 pointed, by President Lincoln, United States dis- 
 trict attorney for the district of Iowa. His last 
 official position was that of judge of the court of 
 commissioners for the settlement of the Alabama 
 claims, to which he was appointed in 1874. 
 
 As a man. Judge Baldwin possessed those ster- 
 ling qualities which attract and hold the admiration 
 and confidence of men. He was esteemed for what 
 he was, and at the time of his death, which occurred 
 in the winter of 1876, had attained to a standing 
 among his fellow-men which fairly illustrates what 
 one may acquire by the persistent cultivation of his 
 native powers. Though he himself has passed over 
 into the unseen, his work remains, and stands as a 
 lasting and worthy memorial of the purity and 
 nobleness of his manhood. 
 
 JOHN C. ATLEE, 
 
 FORT MADISON. 
 
 JOHN C. ATLEE, a native of Maryland, was 
 J born on the 22d of March, 1816, the son of 
 Samuel J. and Martha Atlee. Several years prior, 
 to his birth his parents had removed from Lancas- 
 ter county, Pennsylvania. Upon the death of his 
 mother, which occurred when he was only a few 
 weeks old, he was left to the care of his grand- 
 mother, who lived at the old home of his parents 
 in Pennsylvania. There he remained until he at- 
 tained his twelfth year ; and after the death of his 
 grandmother he lived first with his uncle, Henry 
 Stickler, and afterward with an elder brother, Will- 
 iam A, Atlee. At the age of sixteen he was ap- 
 prenticed to his brother, Jacob C. Atlee, to learn 
 the carpenter's trade. He continued thus employed 
 during the next two years, and at the expiration of 
 that time, his brother retiring from business, he went 
 to Philadelphia to finish his trade. Soon afterward, 
 in 1835, he went to New York, and there worked 
 one year at his trade. In 1836 he went by sea to 
 Mobile, Alabama, and thence by Lake Pontchartrain 
 to New Orleans. He did not like the south, how- 
 
 ever, as he had anticipated, and leaving New Or- 
 leans he went up the Mississippi to St. Louis, and 
 finally settled for a short time at Quincy, Illinois. 
 In 1837 he spent a few months at Fort Madison, 
 and was so thoroughly pleased with the place that 
 he determined to make it his future home. 
 
 Going to Quincy he was there married to Miss 
 Emeline S. Brooks, and, immediately returning to 
 Fort Madison, established himself at his trade, and 
 continued it with good success for six years. Hav- 
 ing accumulated from his hard-earned savings a 
 sufficient capital, he purchased a farm within a few 
 miles of town, and for several years employed him- 
 self in agricultural pursuits. Returning to Fort 
 Madison in 1852, he formed a copartnership with 
 his brother, Isaac R. Atlee, and during the next two 
 years carried on a successful lumber trade. Extend- 
 ing his operations in 1854, he, in company with Na- 
 thaniel Bennett, built the first steam saw-mill that 
 was erected at Fort Madison, and was doing a very 
 prosperous business until 1856-7, when they became 
 somewhat involved and embarrassed in the financial 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 177 
 
 crisis that swept over the country during those 
 years. However, by close attention to business, 
 and a course of economy and strict integrity, they 
 avoided the serious consequences which befell many 
 business men. Mr. Atlee afterward purchased the 
 interest of his partner, and associated with himself 
 his son, Samuel, and from that time until the pres- 
 ent (1877) the business has been conducted under 
 the firm name of S. and J. C. Atlee. The business 
 tact, cool judgment and clear foresight of Mr. Atlee 
 is best attested by the growth of his business. The 
 mill, in all its appointments, is inferior to none on 
 the Mississippi river. At the time when the son 
 became asssociated in the business it was producing 
 about fifteen thousand feet of lumber per day; at 
 the present time the mill has a capacity of fifty- 
 
 five thousand feet of lumber per day, and of twenty 
 millions of shingles and four millions of lath per 
 year, and employs one hundred and fifty men. 
 
 In local enterprises Mr. Atlee has been somewhat 
 active, and heartily cooperates in all matters per- 
 taining to the growth and prosperity of his city. 
 
 Personally and socially, he is a man of excellent 
 qualities, and throughout his life has maintained an 
 adherence to those principles of honor and fair 
 dealing that have secured to him the confidence and 
 esteem of all with whom he has had to do. He has 
 accumulated a handsome fortune, and lives in the 
 enjoyment of a happy home. 
 
 He has four children : Samuel J., mentioned 
 above ; William H., who is book-keeper for the 
 firm, and Martha and Maggie. 
 
 SETH H. CRAIG, M.D., 
 
 FORT MADISON. 
 
 DR. SETH H. CRAIG, a native of Millersburg, 
 Holmes county, Ohio, was born on the 14th 
 of February, 1825, the son of James Craig and Mar- 
 garet nee Slater. His parents had formerly resided 
 in Washington county, Pennsylvania. They were 
 of Scotch origin, and of sturdy, long-lived families, 
 the father dying at the age of eighty-two years, and 
 the mother at the age of sixty-five. The doctor re- 
 ceived a good education in the public schools of his 
 native place, and in 1843, with his parents, removed 
 to Iowa and settled at Farmington, in Van Buren 
 county, at that time one of the most prosperous 
 towns in the state. Residing with his parents until 
 1847, he at that time went to Fort Leavenworth, 
 Kansas, and on the 4th of July was sworn into the 
 volunteer service for the Mexican war. His battal- 
 ion was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Powell, 
 of Missouri. He served one year in the army, and, 
 returning to Fort Leavenworth, was mustered out in 
 November, 1848. 
 
 Returning thence to Farmington, he turned his 
 attention to the study of medicine. He attended 
 medical lectures at Rock Island, Illinois, and Daven- 
 port, Iowa, graduating at the last-named place in the 
 spring of 1850. During the next two years he was 
 engaged in the practice of his profession at Farm- 
 ington, Iowa, and at St. Francisville, Missouri, and 
 was achieving considerable success, when, in the 
 spring of 1852, the " gold fever" of California lured 
 
 him from his profession. Going thither by the over- 
 land route, he engaged in mining at Smith's Flat, 
 about ten miles from Downersville. Remaining 
 there one year, he then returned home via Nica- 
 raugua, and soon after resumed his profession at 
 Keokuk, Iowa, associating himself with Dr. Sanford, 
 of that place. 
 
 In 185 s he removed to Council Bluffs, and two 
 years later was elected city treasurer. In 1859 he 
 was appointed sheriff of Pottawattamie county, to fill 
 a vacancy, and in i860 was elected to that office, 
 which, however, he resigned in 1861, and entered 
 the United States service as captain in the 4th 
 regiment Iowa Infantry. Resigning his commission 
 in 1863, he returned to Farmington, Iowa, and from 
 that time until 1868 was constantly traveling from 
 New York to Montana, Idaho, Nevada and Colorado, 
 speculating in gold and silver mines and other claims 
 in those territories, which were then just beginning 
 to be developed. 
 
 In 1868 he was elected from Van Buren county to 
 the twelfth general assembly of Iowa, and was an 
 influential member of that body. During the follow- 
 ing year he again settled at Council Bluffs, and there 
 became connected with the St. Louis, Chillicothe 
 and Council Bluffs railroad, acting as general agent 
 in Iowa. He retained this office until 1872, when 
 he was elected, by the general assembly of the state, 
 warden of the state penitentiary, located at Fort 
 
178 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 Madison, and, removing thither, was reelected to 
 the same office in 1874, and again in 1876, and is 
 now completing his third term. His work in this 
 position has been accompanied by great success, 
 and during his wardenship many improvements have 
 been made, and many reforms introduced into the 
 penitentiary. 
 
 He is an influential member of the Masonic and 
 Odd-Fellows fraternities, and also belongs to the 
 Knights of Pythias. 
 
 In religious sentiment, he inclines strongly toward 
 Universalism, but has never been identified with any 
 religious organization. 
 
 Politically, Dr. Craig was formerly a whig, but 
 upon the dissolution of that party, in 1854, he 
 became a democrat and continued such until 1861, 
 when he identified himself with the republican party. 
 
 to whose principles he has since remained a firm 
 adherent. He has been actively engaged in politics 
 for more than twenty years, and has become exten- 
 sively known throughout the state. 
 
 Dr. Craig was married on the 28th of March, 1850, 
 to Miss Susan M. Dunning, of Farmington. Mrs. 
 Craig was a lady of fine attainments, and her death, 
 which occurred in November, 1872, was deeply 
 mourned by many warm friends. In 1873 Dr. 
 Craig was married to Mrs. Sarah A. Winther, of 
 Fort Madison, a most estimable lady, a native of 
 Northumberland county, Pennsylvania. He has six 
 sons and two daughters. 
 
 His personal and social qualities are of a high 
 order. As a father, he is kind and indulgent; as a 
 husband, he is affectionate and devoted; as a friend, 
 he is true and constant. 
 
 COLONEL JOHN S. DAVID, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 JOHN SAMUEL DAVID, Burlington, Iowa, was 
 J born at Washington, Mason county, Kentucky, 
 on the loth of October, 1813. His parents were 
 Michael and Celia David, who were early settlers 
 of Kentucky, where they located about 1794. His 
 father was a friend of Simon Kenton, the great 
 Indian fighter, who made his home with them when- 
 ever he visited that part of the country. He was 
 of German and his mother English-Welsh descent. 
 The school-days of the subject of our sketch were 
 passed in the little log school-house, the pioneers of 
 western education. He commenced his life in a 
 small town, and was reared to habits of industry and 
 economy. After leaving school he went into the-em- 
 ploy of Governor John Chambers as superintendent 
 of a rope-walk, and from his excellent knowledge of 
 hemp made most of the purchases of stock. In 1834 
 he started west, and after traveling extensively over 
 the country settled in Burlington, Iowa, in the spring 
 of 1835. His first year in part was spent in building 
 houses for self and others. He erected many build- 
 ings and carried on a number of branches of busi- 
 ness, such as pork packing, brick making, livery and 
 lumber, etc., in all of which he was the pioneer. 
 
 In 1835 he went into the wholesale grocery and 
 commission business under the firm name of John 
 S. David, and continued, with the exception of three 
 years, till 1862. He was very successful. During 
 
 the gold excitement in the spring of 1849 he started 
 overland for California, and engaged for a short time 
 in mining; and removed to Sacramento and opened 
 a trading post for the mines; at the same time he 
 was engaged in a series of speculations, in which he 
 met with great success. He returned to Burlington 
 in 185 1, and in 1853 recommenced the wholesale 
 grocery business. 
 
 During the Mexican war Iowa was called upon 
 for two companies for that service. He was com- 
 missioned captain of one of them by Governor Clark, 
 but they accepted but one and he remained. He 
 was commissioned, by the secretary of war, colonel 
 7th Iowa Cavalry, but shortly after resigned. He 
 was very prominent during the war in assisting in 
 the measures of the government. 
 
 In politics, he was originally a whig, and has acted 
 more or less with the republican party since its or- 
 ganization ; but in this era of corruption of men high 
 in office, he votes for the best man in his judgment, 
 irrespective of party. 
 
 He has been 'a member of the Baptist church 
 since 185 1, of which he is an active supporter. 
 
 He is a stockholder in all the roads running from 
 the city, and active in every enterprise for the de- 
 velopment of the city and country. 
 
 He is a member of the Masonic order, having 
 joined in 1837. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 179 
 
 He has traveled extensively over the country and 
 through the provinces. He has done much for the 
 improvement and development of the agricultural 
 interests of the state. 
 
 He was first married, December 18, 1844, to Miss 
 Mary A. Meason, of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, who 
 
 died, from cholera in 1850. His second marriage 
 was to Mary E. Cameron, February 21, 1854. 
 
 Colonel David is a self-made man. Commencing 
 in life in straitened circumstances, he has by his 
 own energy and perseverance gained a competence 
 and the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 WILLIAM H. DECKER, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 WILLIAM H. DECKER, of Davenport, Iowa, 
 a prominent maltster and grain dealer, is one 
 of those men to whom belong the honor of building 
 their own fortune. Without the aid of too liberal 
 education in his youth, his success may be attrib- 
 uted solely to his own ability and persevering effort. 
 He started from home young, with no means, yet a 
 hopeful heart. To-day he is an esteemed citizen, 
 with a fortune acquired by himself as a monument 
 of his success. 
 
 Mr. Decker was born at Harrisburg, Pennsyl- 
 vania, on the i6th of August, 1827, and is the son 
 of Frederick and Elizabeth Decker Jiee Boyer. His 
 father was a native of Maryland and his mother of 
 Pennsylvania. To the early training of his parents 
 he owes many habits of economy and industry. His 
 education was limited, and confined to the ordinary 
 branches in the common schools, which he left at 
 fourteen years of age, going to work in a cotton 
 factory, where he remained two years, afterward 
 learning the plasterer's trade, at which he worked 
 for a number of years. He left home on a borrowed 
 capital of fourteen dollars in 1847, and went to Cin- 
 cinnati, Ohio, where he worked at his trade until 
 
 1849, when, the gold excitement breaking out, he 
 went to California. He worked in the mines for 
 about a year, and then went into speculating rind 
 contracting. In this he was very successful, and 
 laid the foundation for an ample fortune. He re- 
 mained there eight years, and in 1857 removed to 
 Dayton, Ohio, going into the grain and malt busi- 
 ness. This he prosecuted very successfully for two 
 years ; then removing west to Iowa, and locating at 
 Davenport, recommenced the same business. Mr. 
 Decker now carries on the largest trade in his line 
 in the state, if not in the viiest. He has been very 
 fortunate in all his business relations, and his suc- 
 cess may be attributed to his perseverance and en- 
 ergy. He is interested in several local enterprises, 
 and is president of the Davenport Street Car Rail- 
 way Company. He is not a member of any church, 
 but is liberal in his religious views. 
 
 He was married on the i2th of December, 1859, 
 to Miss Sarah A. Monday, of Dayton, Ohio. 
 
 Mr. Decker is known as a man of sterling integ- 
 rity, decided character and untiring energy, and he 
 has gained the confidence and esteem of his fellow- 
 citizens. 
 
 JEFFERSON P. CASADY. 
 
 COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 AS an example of western enterprise, he whose 
 L name heads this sketch is worthy of a most 
 honorable mention. His life career, though marked 
 by many vicissitudes, shows a gradual growth, and 
 he stands to-day as a fair e.Kample of what may be 
 accomplished by upright, persistent and persevering 
 effort. A native of Connersville, Fayette county, 
 Indiana, he was born on the ist of September, 1828, 
 and is the son of Simon Casady, a farmer by occu- 
 iS 
 
 pation. He is of Scotch-Irish descent, and until he 
 attained his eighteenth year assisted his father in 
 his farm-work. He attended the common schools, 
 and afterward pursued a course of academic studies, 
 and finding the narrow routine of farm-life wholly 
 unsuited to his tastes, early resolved to devote his 
 life to some other occupation. Finding in the law 
 a wide field for the employment and cultivation of 
 his best powers, he decided to fit himself for that 
 
i8o 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 profession, and accordingly began his studies while 
 yet in his native town, and in 1852, after removing 
 to the west, was admitted to the bar at Des Moines, 
 Iowa. Removing to Council Bluffs in April of the 
 following year (1853), he there formed a partnership 
 with Mr. H. D. Johnson, and established himself in 
 the practice of his profession. He also established 
 a land agency, and engaged in the purchase and 
 sale of real estate. 
 
 As a lawyer, he soon became widely and favorably 
 known, and in 1858 his fellow-citizens, recognizing 
 his financial and judicial ability, elected him to the 
 office of county judge. It is but due to say that 
 this honor was wholly unsought by Mr. Casady. 
 Each political party had put forth its candidate for 
 the position, but the people being dissatisfied with 
 the norninees repudiated the nominations, and with- 
 out dissent or regard to political prejudices elected 
 Mr. Casady. Under the law as it existed at that 
 time, the county judge had full management of all 
 the financial affairs of the county, and also of the 
 probate court, so that the office was attended by a 
 vast amount of responsibility and hard work. Not- 
 withstanding this fact. Judge Casady continued the 
 
 office for two years, and at the same time conducted 
 his own private business, which, until the year 1868, 
 consisted largely of real-estate operations. During 
 this last named year he was elected to represent the 
 counties of Pottawattamie, Mills, Fremont and Cass 
 in the state senate for a term of four years. 
 
 Judge Casady has always shown a worthy public- 
 spiritedness, and has heartily sympathized with all 
 local improvements and enterprises. He has been 
 especially active in railroad operations, and on the 
 13th of July, 1861, he was elected a director of the 
 Council Bluffs and St. Joseph railroad, and after- 
 ward was elected president of the road. 
 
 In political sentiment he is a democrat, and has 
 taken an active part in the workings of that party. 
 He has frequently been a delegate to the state con- 
 ventions. In 1872 he was the candidate of his party 
 for state auditor, and although he ran far ahead of 
 his ticket, the state was so overwhelmingly republi-. 
 can that he was defeated. 
 
 In his religious communion. Judge Casady is 
 identified with the Presbyterian church, and is a 
 worthy member. He has three children, two sons 
 and one daughter. 
 
 ELIJAH BUELL, 
 
 LYONS. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch, an early navigator 
 of the northern lakes, and one of the first 
 settlers in the State of Iowa, is a son of Jephthah 
 Buell, a ship carpenter of the town of Florence, Her- 
 kimer county. New York. He was born iii 1803, and 
 attended the common school of the neighborhood. 
 His immediate ancestors resided iri Connecticut, but 
 his father was a native of New York. His mother 
 (Rachel nee Strong), a worthy and estimable lady, 
 was a native of Connecticut. His paternal grand- 
 father was a native of France, and accompanied the 
 Marquis de Lafayette in his famous expedition to 
 this country in behalf of the war for independence. 
 On the arrival of that nobleman he joined the fed- 
 eral army, and remained in the service during the 
 entire period of the revolution. In 181 1 his father 
 opened a farm and settled near Sackett's Harbor, 
 New.York. The war of 1812 occurred during the 
 residence of the family in this locality, and when nine 
 years old Elijah witnessed the battle of Sackett's Har- 
 bor, and still retains a vivid recollection of the same. 
 
 In 1813 his father died. Two years later the 
 widowed mother, with a family of eight children — 
 three girls and five boys — removed to where the 
 city of Cleveland, Ohio, now stands, she having 
 a sister residing in that region. Prior to this time 
 Elijah had obtained the rudiments of an English 
 education, and also received a few months of in- 
 struction in the Cleveland Academy. He endeav- 
 ored to qualify himself in the study of practical 
 navigation, specially for the northern lakes, and in 
 this branch soon became eminent. As a pilot or 
 sailing master he had few, if any, equals, and cer- 
 tainly no superiors. Entering upon this employ- 
 ment at the early age of thirteen, he continued in it 
 during the following ten years. He navigated these 
 lakes long before the frontier forts were established. 
 He supplied, subsequently, the military posts of 
 Mackinaw and Green Bay with provisions, the firm, 
 of Mervin, Giddins and Co., of Cleveland, Ohio, 
 being the contractors. In 1823 he left the lakes, 
 and during the following twelve years devoted his 
 
'.jl^^^lI^ 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 183 
 
 time and energy to steamboating on the lower Mis- 
 sissippi river, an enterprise in which he was emi- 
 nently successful, and became widely known for his 
 ability as an experienced pilot and master. Pru- 
 dent and careful, and faithful in the discharge of 
 his responsible duties, his reputation as a sailing 
 master on the lakes and as a pilot on the Mississippi 
 has never been sullied with any serious disaster. 
 
 In July, 1835, leaving his family in St. Louis, he 
 landed from a steamboat in the vicinity of the pres- 
 ent village of Lyons. It was two years after the 
 close of the Black Hawk war. Here he opened a 
 farm, and the first year put under cultivation some 
 thirty acres. During the following three years he 
 continued the improvement of his preemption, until 
 the first land sales at Dubuque in 1840, at which 
 time he entered six hundred acres. At this period 
 the nearest settlements were Galena on the north 
 and Port Byron on the south. Previous to 1840, 
 the land on which he had settled not having been 
 surveyed, he traveled from Port Byron to New 
 Boston to obtain the requisite information regarding 
 numbers of land in the old military survey between 
 those points. All his provisions and implements 
 of husbandry had to be obtained at St. Louis. Pro- 
 visions were very scarce, and prices for the same 
 very high. In subsequent years he shipped wheat 
 to St. Louis for six and a quarter cents per bushel, 
 while his fare there and back was eight dollars. 
 In 1842 and 1843 the Chicago market afforded 
 greater attractions, and he hauled wheat thither, 
 a distance of one hundred and thirty-six miles, 
 for forty to forty-eight cents per bushel. At the ex- 
 piration of the first three years his family, consist- 
 ing of wife and children, joined him in his humble 
 log dwelling. 
 
 At the time of his settlement here the Indians 
 were quite numerous, but never troublesome, and in 
 all his intercourse with them he invariably found 
 them kind and faithful. Being possessed of indom- 
 itable industry and perseverance, he started on his 
 own account various enterprises pertaining to a new 
 county, and made the wilderness "blossom like the 
 rose." In 1849 and 1850 the point where he had 
 settled was the principal crossing of the Mississippi 
 by emigrants and gold seekers bound for California. 
 At this point a thousand yoke of oxen have been 
 transported across the river daily, affording much 
 profit as a home market for all his farm surplus. 
 At an early day Mr. Buell united with other neigh- 
 boring settlers in organizing a common school for 
 
 the mutual benefit of their respective children. 
 Land originally sold at one dollar and twenty-five 
 cents per acre, but in 1852 and 1853 decreased in 
 valuation to sixty and seventy-five cents per acre. 
 In 1856, however, the price of land again rapidly 
 increased beyond the original government price, 
 large tracts having been bought up by speculators, 
 together with railroad grants. The three lines of 
 railway that now cross the state have tended to 
 equalize the valuation of land in Iowa. The sea- 
 board is no longer the market for the western farm- 
 er, but a market is now provided at his own door. 
 Notwithstanding the monopoly of railroads, they 
 nevertheless furnish to every farmer a home market. 
 
 During his residence here Mr. Buell has dealt 
 largely in real estate. He is at this time (1876) the 
 owner of several farms in this section of country. 
 His residence, beautifully located on an eminence 
 overlooking the " Father of Waters,'' is a magnificent 
 and stately edifice, built in a neat and chaste style 
 of architecture. Fine old shade trees adorn the 
 grounds of the family mansion, imparting an air of 
 comfort and quietude to those who enjoy its hospi- 
 tality. 
 
 Mr. Buell is a reader and thinker. Indeed, hav- 
 ing passed so many years of his life with nature 
 only as his companion, he long since learned to do 
 his own thinking, and to trust and have faith in 
 himself Having never played tricks with his own 
 mind, his self-reliance has never betrayed him. 
 True to himself and nature, he has been true also 
 to his fellows. Having confidence in his own opin- 
 ions and judgment, he invariably respects the opin- 
 ions of others. 
 
 In politics, he is a Jacksonian democrat. He is 
 decidedly independent, both as a thinker and actor, 
 and has no sympathy with the party hacks who 
 make politics a trade. 
 
 In religious matters he is peculiar. He has no 
 faith in the popular theology. His views are some- 
 what indefinite. He is neither a skeptic nor a 
 sectarian. Liberal and catholic in his religious 
 sentiments, he claims the largest freedom in these 
 matters, and awards the same to others. His motto 
 through life has been never to owe a man anything, 
 but "pay as you go," which is one great secret of 
 his success. 
 
 Endowed with great bodily strength and vigor, he 
 has a wonderful capability of endurance. Although 
 somewhat advanced in life, his mind is active and 
 vigorous, and his memory as tenacious as in youth. 
 
i84 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 He is a remarkable specimen of manhood in its full 
 maturity. His life has been eventful, but filled with 
 usefulness. Equally eminent in the various depart- 
 ments of business he assumed, he has achieved suc- 
 cess in every enterprise undertaken, and ground his 
 wealth out of poverty. He has accepted office only 
 a few times, preferring to devote his entire time and 
 energies to his legitimate calling. His nature is 
 genial and social, and his manners simple, yet digni- 
 fied and unostentatious. 
 
 In early life he married Caroline Boyd, who died 
 in 1839. He was again married in 1840, to Louisa 
 Peace, a highly respected lady of his neighborhood. 
 
 His tastes are scientific and literary, and in the 
 education of his children he has patronized the best 
 and most thorough institutions in the country. The 
 high position he holds as a private citizen in Clinton 
 county has been won entirely by his own talents, 
 integrity and industry, since he began in the world 
 without a dollar. . 
 
 HON. WALTER I. HAYES, 
 
 CLINTON. 
 
 WALTER INGALLS HAYES, judge of .the 
 seventh judicial district of Iowa, was born 
 at Marshall, Michigan, on the 9th of December, 
 1841, and is the son of Dr. Andrew L. and Clarissa 
 Selden (Hart) Hayes. His father was a native of 
 New Hampshire, of ScQtch-Irish ancestry, a scion 
 of the New England Hayes family, his mother being 
 a Sanborn, of Sanbornton, New Hampshire. Dr. 
 Hayes was educated and bred to the profession of 
 medicine in his native state, but commenced his 
 professional life in Michigan, of which state he was 
 an early settler, taking an earnest and active interest 
 in its initial concerns. He was a member of the 
 legislature that first sent General Cass to the United 
 States senate, was a brigadier-general of the state 
 militia, and took a lively interest in military affairs : 
 served in the Texas war, and rendered important 
 aid in the raising of troops at the commencement of 
 the late rebellion, but died in 1861, before he had 
 time to buckle on his sword in defense of his coun- 
 try. Although a practicing physician throughout 
 his life, yet he was commonly known in Michigan as 
 General Hayes. The mother of our subject was 
 born in Durham, New York, of English descent, 
 her ancestry running back to the. early Puritan stock 
 of New England. She still lives in the enjoyment 
 of health. 
 
 His parents being in easy circumstances, the early 
 life of our subject was pleasant and smooth, free 
 from the bitter but often beneficial experiences with 
 which the early lives of many men of distinction 
 have been fraught. He received his incipient edu- 
 cation at the common schools of his neighborhood, 
 commenced the study of law at the age of nineteen 
 years in the office of Hughes and Woolley, Marshall, 
 
 Michigan, the senior member of which was the Hon. 
 D. Darwin Hughes, now of Grand Rapids ih that 
 state. He subsequently graduated at the law school 
 of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was admitted to the' 
 bar of that state in 1863. A year later he became 
 a member of the firm of his late preceptors, which 
 then went under the style of Hughes, Woolley and 
 Hayes. 
 
 In 1866, being offered a desirable partnership by 
 General N. B. Baker, late adjutant-general of Iowa, 
 he removed to Clinton, Iowa, where he has ever 
 since resided, and at once entered into active prac- 
 tice, the firm being Baker and Hayes. This part- 
 nership continued for about two years, and until 
 General Baker removed permanently to Des Moines, 
 after which he was without a partner till 1872, when 
 he became associated with the Hon. George B. 
 Young, then circuit judge, which position the latter 
 resigned in order to resume his practice. This alli- 
 ance, under the name of Hayes and Young, con- 
 tinued with great success until August, 1875, when, 
 upon -the recommendation of the bar of the seventh 
 judicial district, he was, although a democrat, ap- 
 pointed by Governor Carpenter to complete the un- 
 expired term of Judge Brannan, resigned, and in 
 October following was elected to the same position 
 by the people, without opposition. His professional 
 career has been characterized by steady onward and 
 upward progress. He has never deviated into spe- 
 cial grooves, but has always been a court and trial 
 lawyer, and eminently successful. 
 
 He was United States commissioner for the east- 
 ern district of Michigan from 1864 until he left the 
 state, and was city attorney of his native city for the 
 year 1865. He was appointed United States com- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 185 
 
 missioner for Iowa in 1867, and held the office till 
 appointed district judge. He was city attorney for 
 Clinton, Iowa, during 1869, and city solicitor during 
 1870 and 187 1, and was again elected to that office 
 in 1875, holding it until his elevation to the bench. 
 He was the democratic candidate for circuit judge 
 in the seventh district in i868, but was defeated by 
 Judge Young, afterward his law partner, and he is 
 now (1876) democratic candidate for a seat on the 
 supreme bench of the state, having been nominated 
 for the position at the late state convention by accla- 
 mation. He was a delegate to the democratic state 
 convention of Michigan in 1864; also to the Iowa 
 democratic state conventions as a rule since 1868, 
 and to all the congressional conventions of his dis- 
 trict since that period. In 1872 he was an alternate 
 delegate to, and acted in, the Baltimore convention 
 that nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency, 
 and when appointed judge was chairman of the 
 Clinton county democratic committee, a member of 
 the district congressional committee, and a member 
 of the state democratic committee. He is a stock- 
 holder and director of the Clinton National Bank. 
 
 In accepting the office which he now fills with so 
 much ability, Judge Hayes made a serious pecun- 
 iary sacrifice, relinquishing a practice inferior to few 
 in the state, and yielding a revenue of more than 
 twice his official salary, and retains the position only 
 at the request of the bar of the district, unanimously 
 and emphatically expressed in public meeting held 
 at Davenport in the summer of 1876. The district 
 
 is one of the largest and most important in the 
 state, including not only the largest county (Scott) 
 but the largest city (Davenport), and a bar inferior 
 to none in the northwest. 
 
 It is superfluous to say that Judge Hayes has 
 given universal satisfaction on the bench. He is not 
 only a well-read lawyer, but is gifted with a master 
 mind. In his decisions he is eminently equitable, 
 looking only to the legal points and true issues of 
 the controversy, irrespective of the standing of liti- 
 gants or the prominence of attorneys, and fortifying 
 them by sound reasoning and established precedent. 
 As a result of this, his judgments have been sus- 
 tained with remarkable uniformity by the supreme 
 court where appeals have been taken. He is as 
 active in mind as in body; thinks quickly, and 
 decides promptly all questions submitted to him, 
 and is the same courteous gentleman on the bench 
 as in the social circle, never having been known to 
 utter a harsh word to any attorney practicing before 
 him. Whether in official or private life, he is char- 
 acterized by the most thorough independence, tem- 
 pered in all cases by the courtesy and blandness of 
 the gentleman. His honesty as a man, and his abil- 
 ity as a jurist, are of the highest order, and with 
 continued health of mind and body, there is no 
 limit to the distinction to which he may attain. 
 
 On the 28th of June, 1865, he married Miss 
 Frances L., daughter of William F. Coan, Esq., 
 president of the Clinton National Bank, Iowa. They 
 have no children. 
 
 HENRY S. GRANGER. 
 
 ELKADER. 
 
 HENRY S. GRANGER, the first journalist of 
 Clayton county, is a native of Geauga county, 
 Ohio, and was born on the 23d of April, 182 1. 
 His mother was Lorana Smith, and her father was 
 a drummer in the revolutionary army. Ransler 
 Granger, the father of Henry, was a farmer in jnod- 
 erate circumstances, and the son remained at home, 
 aiding to clear and improve the homestead, until he 
 was twenty years of age, having, meanwhile, quite 
 limited educational privileges. In order to enlarge 
 them, he split rails and thus raised funds, by which 
 means he was enabled to spend one year at a select 
 school in his native county. About this time his 
 health declined, and after a year or two of partial 
 
 rest he went into a store in Portage county, and 
 there and in other places sold goods for five years. 
 
 In the spring of 1850 he came to Garaville, Iowa, 
 then the seat of justice. Before leaving Ohio he 
 had paid some attention to law, and here resumed 
 its study with Hon. Samuel Murdock, and was ad- 
 mitted to the bar in October, 1851. In January, 
 1853, Mr. Granger started the "Clayton County 
 Herald," a large sheet of neat typography, the first 
 newspaper published in the state north of Dubuque. 
 In about eighteen months he sold out, and formed a 
 law partnership with Reuben Noble, now judge of 
 the tenth judicial district. 
 
 In 1856 Mr. Granger removed to McGregor, and 
 
i86 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 engaged, with others, in banking and the real-estate 
 business, which, on account of the great crisis in 
 money affairs, was discontinued the following year. 
 Early in i860 he went to Colorado in search of the 
 precious metals, and returned in a few months not 
 overburdened with bullion. In December of that 
 year he located at Elkader in the same county, and 
 has here continued the practice of law when not 
 performing the duties of some office. 
 
 From 1852 to 1855 Mr. Granger was school fund 
 commissioner of Clayton county ; and in i860, while 
 in Colorado, was nominated for clerk of the district 
 court, and elected three days after his return, hold- 
 ing the office twelve years. During the first eight 
 years of this period he served also as county clerk, 
 and the last four as clerk of both district and circuit 
 courts. He made an efficient and popular officer. 
 
 Mr. Granger belongs to the Masonic order, and at 
 the time of writing is high priest of the chapter. 
 
 His politics were democratic until 1854; a year 
 later he helped to organize the republican party, and 
 still adheres to it. 
 
 On the 2ist of October, 1852, he was married to 
 Miss Mary J. Sanford, of Portage county, Ohio, a 
 woman of rare excellence and a leader, at sundry 
 times, in various noble enterprises. She has had 
 five children, and four of them are living. They are 
 excellent young people, and hence a source of com- 
 fort to their parents. 
 
 Mr. Granger is active in more than one enterprise, 
 and especially so in school matters. While one of 
 the directors he has seen the graded school of El- 
 kader gain a prominent position in the county, and 
 he takes pride in witnessing such advancement. 
 
 THOMAS HEDGE, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 THOMAS HEDGE, senior, was born in Yar- 
 mouth, Massachusetts, on the 14th of Febru- 
 ary, 1815, and is the eldest son of James and Han- 
 nah Hedge n^e Bray, natives of Massachusetts. 
 His paternal ancestor in America, Captain William 
 Hedge, was commander of a vessel which he sailed 
 from London to Boston, the latter then only a small 
 village of a few hundred inhabitants. He was among 
 the first settlers of Yarmouth in 1639, when the 
 town was founded. James Hedge, Thomas's father, 
 was also a sea captain and farmer. 
 
 The boyhood of the subject of pur sketch was 
 spent on a farm in his native town, where he en- 
 joyed the advantages of both private and public 
 schools. At the age of seventeen he went to Boston 
 and engaged as clerk in a commission house, where 
 he remained two years, when he entered the count- 
 ing-room of Burgess and Sons, a heavy firm en- 
 gaged extensively in the West India trade. Here 
 he was bookkeeper, and also went to Cuba in the 
 interest of the firm, remaining eight months, and 
 returned to Boston. In the fall of 1836 he came 
 to Burlington, in company with two other young 
 men, where he spent about three years in the mer- 
 cantile business, and then returned to . Boston and 
 resumed business with his old firm. Burgess and 
 Son, who engaged him as their agent to take charge 
 of their large business at Cienfuegos, Cuba, where 
 
 he remained four years, enjoying the confidence and 
 trust of the house. 
 
 In 1843 he again came west and went into mer- 
 cantile business at Burlington; in this he continued 
 till 1 86 1 successfully, and went into the banking 
 house of Lauman, Hedge and Co. In March, 1866, 
 he became associated with the firm of Gilbert. Hedge 
 and Co. in the lumber business, which he has con- 
 tinued till the present time. 
 
 In politics, he is a republican, though formerly a 
 whig, but in no way can he be called a politician, 
 though he has filled several offices of responsibility 
 and trust with much credit and honor to himself. 
 He is a member of the board of supervisors, and 
 chairman for four years, ending in 1874, and was two 
 years trustee of the State Insane Asylum. He is at 
 present a director in the First National Bank and 
 of the German-American Savings Bank. 
 
 He is a member of the Congregational church, of 
 which he is a liberal supporter. 
 
 He was married on the 27th of September, 1843, 
 to Miss Eliza B. Eldridge, of Yarmouth, Massachu- 
 setts, who died in May, 1869, leaving one son and 
 one daughter. The former, Thomas Hedge, junior, 
 is engaged in the practice of law in Burlington. He 
 is a graduate of Yale College and of the law school 
 at New York. While in the midst of his fftudies at 
 college he volunteered in a New York regiment as 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 187 
 
 second lieutenant. He made an exellent record, and 
 now bids fair to become one of the most prominent 
 members of the bar in Iowa. His daughter, Anna 
 B. Hedge, presides over the affairs of the household. 
 
 Socially, Mr. Hedge is genial, cordial and always 
 agreeable. Much given to hospitality, his elegant 
 home is the center of a most refined and cultivated 
 circle of warmly attached friends. 
 
 JOHN W. H. BA-KER, M.D., 
 
 DAVENPORT. 
 
 DR. JOHN WATERMAN HARRIS BAKER 
 was born in Chesterfield, Cheshire county. 
 New Hampshire, on the 21st of August, 1821. His 
 father's name was Oliver Baker, junior, and the 
 mother's name was Sally Ticknor. The father was 
 a physician, having studied under Dr. Nathan Smith, 
 the founder of the medical department of Dart- 
 mouth College, and practicing his profession in 
 Chesterfield for more than thirty years. He re- 
 moved to Vermont in 1840, and during the last few 
 years of his professional life practiced medicine in 
 Windsor, Vermont. The grandfather's name was 
 Oliver Baker, and was likewise a physician. He 
 practiced medicine in the town of Plainfield, Sulli- 
 van county. New Hampshire. The grandfather's 
 generation was previous to the establishment of 
 medical schools in New England, he having been 
 born in Tolland, Connecticut, in the year 1755. 
 The subject of this record could hardly do other- 
 wise than become the devotee of the medical sci- 
 ence with such antecedents, associated with the 
 desire of his father that he should succeed him in 
 transmitting the professional name to the next gene- 
 ration. This family of Bakers has a clear genealo- 
 gical record running back to the year 1678, and an 
 indefinite record to about the time of the landing 
 of the Pilgrims. The regular descent, of which the 
 record is perfect, is from Joseph Baker, born in 
 1678; then Heman Baker, born in 1719; then 
 Oliver Baker, born in 1755 ; then Oliver Baker, ju- 
 nior, born in 1788; then J. W. H. Baker, born in 
 1821. 
 
 There were three persons by the name of Baker 
 who were among the proprietors of the town of 
 Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1635, and from one of 
 these probably this branch of the Baker family traces 
 its origin to the landing of the Pilgrims. 
 
 Doctor John, as the subject of this record was 
 familiarly known, in distinction from the name of 
 his father, was from youth kept at school ; first in 
 the public school so common all over New Eng- 
 
 land, and then in the academy of his native village. 
 He can well remember when quite a small boy of 
 frequently wearing home from the common school 
 the prize medal, consisting of a silver dime with a 
 hole drilled in it, and a string put through it that 
 it might be worn about the neck. The pupil who 
 was at the head of the class when the school closed 
 at night was the privileged possessor of the prize 
 until he returned to school the next day. 
 
 When fourteen years of age he was sent to the 
 Kimball Union Academy, one of the best and most 
 popular schools of New England, where he re- 
 mained about two years. In this school he com- 
 pleted his classical studies. After this he com- 
 menced the business of teaching school during the 
 winter, and in the meantime began the study of 
 medicine with his father. In 1840 he became a 
 student under the teaching of Dr. Amos Twitchell, 
 of Keene, New Hampshire, one of the best and cer- 
 ■ tainly the most famous surgeon of New England 
 during his day. 
 
 From the pupilage of Dr. Twitchell he attended 
 the first of his courses of medical lectures at the 
 New Hampshire Medical College in 1840, and con- 
 tinued his studies under the professors of this school, 
 taking a private course of dissections after the close 
 of the regular course. He attended the two suc- 
 cessive courses of lectures in the same institution, 
 and received his diploma in October, 1842. In the 
 spring of 1843 he located in the village of Newport, 
 New Hampshire, and remained there until June 
 1844, when a favorable opening occurring at the vil- 
 lage of Meriden, New Hampshire, he removed to 
 that place, and there we may say he commenced a 
 most successful career in the practice of medicine, 
 soon obtaining the confidence and patronage of the 
 surrounding community. 
 
 He married on the ist of January, 1845, Julia 
 Ann Richardson, the daughter of Orlo and Nancy 
 (Wilde) Richardson, of Chesterfield, New Hampshire. 
 By. this marriage they have six living children, the 
 
1 88 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 eldest a son, named John Frederick Baker, who has 
 been educated to the profession of medicine, this 
 making the fourth generation in succession engaged 
 in the practice of medicine. 
 
 He remained in Meriden, doing a fair business, 
 until August 1853, when he left for California, and 
 in October of that year he located at Moquelumne 
 Hill, Calaveras county. He continued in practice 
 there until May 1855, when he returned to New 
 England, and after a visit west concluded to locate 
 in Davenport, Iowa, where he arrived in November 
 
 1855- 
 
 Since his location in Davenport he has been thor- 
 oughly engaged in the practice of his profession. 
 He has never made himself a noted military surgeon 
 or an eminent politician. He believes that a physi- 
 cian, in order to be successful in his mission, should 
 give his whole efforts to his profession. During the 
 late civil war he received the appointment from the 
 government of assistant surgeon, and was ordered 
 to duty in the military hospital at Camp McClellan, 
 near the city of Davenport. He performed the 
 duties of the hospital there for several months, but 
 finding the hospital duties interfering with his regu- 
 lar practice he resigned the position. 
 
 In 1856 he took an active interest in the organi- 
 zation of the Scott County Medicg.1 Society, being 
 present at the preliminary meeting and at the first 
 meeting for choice of officers. Among the first offi- 
 cers of the society he held the position of censor, 
 
 and afterward was honored with every position from 
 that to the presidency of the society. 
 
 He joined the Iowa State Medical Society in 
 1857, of which he was chosen as recording secre- 
 tary in 1858. He remained an active worker in that 
 society, and was chosen vice-president in 1864, re- 
 cording secretary for a second time in 1865, and in 
 1866 he received the choice of the members as presi- 
 , dent, and served in that position for one term. 
 
 He is a member of the American Medical Associ- 
 ation, having maintained an unbroken membership 
 since i860. 
 
 Although enjoying the well-established reputation 
 of a general practitioner, his professional brethren 
 and the community in which he lives give special 
 prominence to his ability as an obstetrician, and he 
 enjoys an extensive practice in this branch of medi- 
 cine. In his profession, his constant study, wide 
 experience and mature judgment place him in the 
 front ranks. 
 
 Whether in his profession or as a neighbor he 
 is not hasty in forming conclusions, but willing to 
 wait and investigate. He is slow to make acquaint- 
 ances, or to accept the views of others without in- 
 quiry. As a citizen, he is public-spirited, ever 
 identified with the best interests and substantial 
 progress of the city. A man of upright character 
 and excellent example, liberal in political and reli- 
 gious views ; tolerant, sympathetic and honest as the 
 solid old granite hills of the state of his nativity. 
 
 HON. LYMAN COOK, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 LYMAN COOK, president of the First National 
 -# Bank, Burlington, Iowa, was born in Ben- 
 nington, Licking county, Ohio, on the 6th _of June, 
 1820. His parents were Jacob and Abigail Cook 
 «/(? Scott, who were early settlers of Ohio, coming 
 from Massachusetts at an early date and settling in 
 Licking county. Here the subject of our sketch 
 commenced life as a farm boy, being reared to hab- 
 its of economy and industry, which greatly assisted 
 him in after life. His early education was gained 
 at the common schools of the country, and later at 
 Granville University, till the age of seventeen, when 
 he engaged as bookkeeper in the ironworks at Zoar, 
 Ohio, where he remained two years. 
 
 In March, 1840, he came to Burlington, traveling 
 
 the entire distance on horseback, being twenty-three 
 days in performing the journey. For a short time he 
 was engaged in the commission and produce busi- 
 ness, and then formed a partnership under the style 
 of Prugh and Cook, in tin and hardware. In 1854 
 he sold his interest and entered the banking busi- 
 ness as White, Cook and Co., until 1858, when he 
 formed the banking house of Cook and Baxter, con- 
 tinuing till 186 1, when the firm dissolved, when he 
 succeeded W. F. Coolbaugh as president of the Bur- 
 lington branch of the State Bank of Iowa. At the or- 
 ganization of the First National Bank of Burlington 
 in January, 1864, he was elected president, which 
 position he still holds. Mr. Cook has made his 
 financial operations successful by his own abihty, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 189 
 
 enterprise and business energy. He is a director in 
 the Iowa State Savings Bank, as also a director of 
 the Burlington and Missouri Railway Company, and 
 takes an active interest in all enterprises for the de- 
 velopment of the city and country. He was one of 
 the commissioners to organize the Union Pacific 
 railway, in convention in Chicago in 1862, of which 
 (General S. R. Curtis was president. 
 
 He was very active during the war in caring and 
 assisting the soldiers' rendevous at Burlington. In 
 1851 he was elected mayor of the city, and by three 
 consecutive elections held the office for three years. 
 
 In 1856 he was elected to the state senate and served 
 four years. He was also commissioner of the school 
 fund. As an officer, he was very popular, discharg- 
 ing his public duties with satisfaction to his constit- 
 uents and for the welfare of the state. 
 
 He was married on the 12th of October, 1846, to 
 Miss Octavia W. Lorain, who died in 1856. His 
 second marriage was to Mrs. Lucia G. St. John, of 
 Burlington, on the 4th of -March, 1861. In person 
 he is of commanding carriage, pleasant address, of 
 social and friendly disposition, and is much respected 
 by his friends and fellow-citizens. 
 
 JOHN W. GREEN, 
 
 DAVENPORT. 
 
 T OHN WALKER GREEN was born at Vernon, 
 J Indiana, on the 24th of August, 1841, and is the 
 son of Adam and Emeline (Ledgerwood) Green, 
 natives of the same place. His ancestors on the 
 paternal side emigrated from England previous to 
 the revolution, and settled in Pennsylvania, from 
 whence their descendants have since scattered 
 throughout the northwest. His mother is of Irish 
 descent. 
 
 The subject of this sketch removed with his 
 parents to Davenport, Iowa, in 1854, where he at- 
 tended the preparatory department of the Iowa (now 
 Greswold) College, and in 1862 graduated from 
 Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois. The rebel- 
 lion being then at its height, his first step after 
 leaving college was to enlist as a private soldier in 
 the 83d regiment Illinois Infantry, which was re- 
 cruited in Monmouth, and in which he served with 
 distinction till the close of the war, participating in 
 the campaigns of the army of the Cumberland un- 
 der General A. A. Smith, and promoted to the rank 
 of adjutant of his regiment. 
 
 Upon leaving the army he entered the Albany 
 
 .(New York) Law School, from which he graduated 
 
 in 1866, and soon after commenced the practice of 
 
 law in the city of Davenport, which he has since 
 
 made his home. 
 
 In politics, he has always been a staunch repub- 
 lican, and an uncompromising advocate of equal 
 rights of all men before the law. He represented 
 his county with distinction in the thirteenth and 
 fourteenth general assemblies of the State of Iowa, 
 serving as chairman of the committee on constitu- 
 19 
 
 tional amendments, and also a member of the judi- 
 ciary committee. He has been an active politician 
 since the close of the war, and has served as chair- 
 man of the republican committees, both county and 
 congressional. 
 
 He is a distinguished Mason, and occupies the 
 prominent position of grand chancellor of Knights 
 of Pythias for the State of Iowa. 
 
 Mr. Green is regarded as one of the most promis- 
 ing young men of the country ; of fine personal 
 appearance, courtly bearing and manners, soundly 
 educated, and endowed with large natural gifts, 
 among which is a retentive memory, by means of 
 which, through his extensive reading, his intellectual 
 and mental capital are being constantly augmented. 
 Upon this accumulation he draws with excellent 
 judgment and taste whenever he is called upon to 
 address his fellow-citizens. Hence he is quite popu- 
 lar as a public speaker, and on all days of national 
 import and local public celebration he is frequently 
 called upon to exercise his gifts, and always with 
 the most happy results. Thus he has been gradually 
 drawn into prominence, and has become active on 
 the rostrum, and influential in the councils of his 
 party. As an orator, he is graceful, pleasing, clear 
 and logical; his rhetoric being frequently inter- 
 spersed with passages of rare poetic beauty and 
 metaphorical richness, as well as abounding in liril- 
 liant sallies of wit, humor and sarcasm. He is 
 governed by high moral principles, and is true to 
 his convictions as the needle to the pole, so that 
 his friends always know where to find him. Nor is 
 he less steadfast and unchangeable in his personal 
 
I go 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 friendships. With him there is no variableness 
 neither shadow of turning. When he espouses the 
 cause of a friend he is constant and true. As a 
 lawyer, while he has attained an enviable standing 
 in the domain of civil jurisprudence, yet as a crim- 
 inal practitioner he has been especially successful. 
 He is a genial companion, a brilliant and spirited 
 
 conversationalist, and a gentleman in the widest 
 sense of the term. 
 
 On the i8th of August, 1862, he married Miss E, 
 C. Denman, daughter of D. T. Denman, Esq., of 
 Monmouth, Illinois, an accomplished lady, a con- 
 genial companion and a wise counselor. They have 
 two children, Arthur L. and Lucia A. 
 
 HON. AMBROSE C. FULTON, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 AMBROSE C. FULTON is a descendant of one 
 iV of the three Fulton brothers who settled in 
 this country about the year 1747, one of whom was 
 the father of Robert Fulton, who was born in Ful- 
 ton township, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 
 the year 1765, and who invented and set afloat on 
 the Hudson river, in 1807, the steamboat Clermont, 
 the first steamboat ever launched. 
 
 The subject of our sketch was born in Chester 
 county, Pennsylvania, of Quaker parents, in 1811, 
 when schools were in their infancy, and were kept 
 three or four months out of the twelve by peda- 
 gogues possessed of very limited knowledge. He 
 worked on the farm of his parents until 1827, when 
 he grew tired of a farmer's life and went to Phila- 
 delphia and acted as errand boy and assistant for 
 an extensive builder, and employed his time even- 
 ings working in a store, and later cut cordwood in 
 New Jersey, one winter, at forty cents per cord. In 
 1 83 1, with a capital of twenty-five dollars, he sailed 
 for a cruise on the coast of the Atlantic and adja- 
 cent West-India islands, and in the same year set- 
 tled in New Orleans. 
 
 During the winter of 1831 he made a trading voy- 
 age up the Yazoo river into the State of Mississippi, 
 landing where Yazoo city now stands. At that time 
 the improvements consisted of three small houses 
 and a cotton shed. Returning to New Orleans, he 
 embarked in the commerce of Jamaica, Sicily and 
 Cuba for two years, in which he was very success- 
 ful. After this he embarked in the building busi- 
 ness, and erected, as superintendent, contractor and 
 owner, a large number of the public and private 
 edifices now in New Orleans. A portion of said 
 buildings were erected on lands purchased by Mr. 
 Fulton (as the deed before us recites) from George 
 Louis Gilbert Dumottier La Fayette, a member of 
 the Chamber of Deputies, residing in the city of 
 
 Paris; in the kingdom of France, which tract of land 
 was originally granted to his father, the late Major- 
 General La Fayette, in pursuance of the fourth sec- 
 tion of an act of congress passed on the 3d of 
 March, 1803. 
 
 He prospered in all his undertakings, and was 
 able to purchase and pay eleven thousand dollars 
 for city property in 1836, which at that time was 
 considered a large sum of money. 
 
 During 1835, Santa Anna, Dictator of Mexico, 
 imprisoned within the dungeons of the capital the 
 representatives of the then Mexican State of Texas, 
 and issued his pronunciamento requiring all Ameri- 
 cans to leave Texas, under pain of death. He in- 
 creased his army and marched forth to carry out 
 his design. 
 
 Mr. Fulton, though quite a young man at the 
 time, called upon the friends of oppressed Texas, 
 through the press, to join him and march to the res- 
 cue. The immediate result was, a volunteer corps of 
 over three hundred young men was formed and put 
 under drill. The merchants and wealthy citizens of 
 New Orleans furnished arms and ammunition, a 
 vessel was chartered, and within ten days of the call 
 to arms the band of patriots were on the bosom 
 of the Gulf speeding their way to the battle-field. 
 They were known throughout the campaign as 
 the New Orleans Grays, and distinguished them- 
 selves at the storming of the Alamo under Colonel _ 
 Milam, and its final capture under Colonel Burle- 
 son after the death of Milam on the field. A large 
 number of those volunteers fell at the massacre of 
 the Alamo, on the 6th of March, 1836, in which 
 General Travis and his one hundred and seventy 
 men were put to the sword, and also the far-famed 
 Colonel David Crockett, who was at the fort as a 
 guest of Colonel Travis. Then followed, on the 21st 
 of April, 1836, the capture of Santa Anna, and the 
 
THE UNITED STATES BTOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 193 
 
 final triumph of the Lone Star of Liberty at San 
 Jacinto, and Mr. Fulton's undertaking was crowned 
 with success, and soon thereafter one more state was 
 added to our Union. 
 
 In 1839 the city of New Orleans instituted a suit 
 against him, growing out of the condemning of pri- 
 vate property for public purposes. He felt that an 
 unjust burden was sought to be placed upon him, 
 that equity and a proper interpretation of the laws 
 would siipport his views of the case. Under the 
 purchase of Louisiana from France it was stipulated 
 by the treaty that all laws then in force were to 
 remain unchanged until after 1833, consequently 
 the code Napoleon was virtually in force. The laws 
 favoring the empire or the state, not the people and 
 individual rights and interests, were ignored by the 
 courts. He applied to several eminent attorneys to 
 engage them to enter on his defense ; they, after 
 fully investigating the subject at issue in all its 
 bearings, unanimously declared it would be but 
 time and money thrown away, that they would de- 
 fend, but were satisfied from experience that no re- 
 lief could be obtained. Mr. Fulton resolved to per- 
 sonally enter the courts and test his rights. He 
 filed his answer to the suit, hunted up all decisions 
 that supported or bore on the case, compiled his 
 documentary evidence, and to the astonishment of 
 the bar, and especially of his opponent, one of the 
 most eminent attorneys of the state, obtained a de- 
 cree in his favor as prayed for. And the published 
 reports of the upper courts exhibit the fact that he 
 continues to possess the ability of defending him- 
 self at the bar. 
 
 In July, 1842, he moved from New Orleans to 
 Davenport, Iowa, bringing with him over sixteen 
 thousand dollars' worth of store goods, the largest 
 stock ever transported on the upper Mississippi by 
 one individual at one shipment up to that time, if 
 not since. This was soon followed by others, and 
 great joy arose among the people; goods went down 
 fifteen to twenty per centum and produce went up 
 twenty to thirty per centum. 
 
 In October, 1842, Mr. Fulton built, and freighted 
 with agricultural produce for the New Orleans mar- 
 ket, the first flatboat that ever cleared from the port 
 of Davenport. Whilst this work was in progress he 
 conceived the practicability of leading the waters of 
 the Mississippi river, at the upper rapids, by canal 
 along the Iowa shore, and creating a water-power 
 for mills and factories. With this view he employed 
 Mr. E. Gibbons, civil engineer of the Illinois State 
 
 Works, and with assistants after many days of labor 
 a survey was made, and the engineer's plats and re- 
 port exhibited a water-power in embryo equal to 
 Lowell, to perfect which it was necessary to pur- 
 chase adjacent lands. He purchased from Isaac 
 Vanausdoll and others, on the 6th of October, 1842, 
 Smith's Island on the rapids, since known on the 
 government plats as Fulton's Island; and also pur- 
 chased at various periods during the following year 
 the river fronts of several farms and strips of land 
 one hundred feet in width for the canal, through 
 and across other farms, all of which were paid for 
 in full and warranty deeds given. Funds grew 
 short, yet further purchases were necessary. All 
 further action was abandoned and the property sold 
 at a sacrifice. Now, in 1877, thirty-five years there- 
 after, appears before the Scott county district court 
 some of those farmers who sold canal grounds to 
 Mr. Fulton, asking the court to put them in posses- 
 sion, alleging that they did but sell for a particular 
 purpose, to which purpose it had never been con- 
 verted. 
 
 This year, 1842, Mr. Fulton, W. Bennett and D. 
 Lambert dammed the Wapsipinicon river at one of 
 its falls in Buchanan county, and erected a mill and 
 warehouse. At this time the two-roomed log house 
 near the mill contained just one-half the population 
 of the county, as well as Mr. Fulton when he visited 
 the works. 
 
 The Indian boundary line of 1837 lay twelve 
 miles north of the mil), where was then located a 
 large camp of Sacs and Foxes, which Mr. Fulton 
 visited, and spent a day with the chiefs. On a 
 homeward trip from the mill and Indian camp he 
 was caught in a severe snow-storm, on Sunday morn- 
 ing about eight o'clock, and wandered over the 
 naked prairie without food or shelter until the fol- 
 lowing Tuesday morning, when he reached a log 
 house in a grove. A portion of this time the ther- 
 mometer at Davenport stood twenty-five degrees 
 below zero. This was a trying ordeal for Mr. 
 Fulton, as he had not seen snow or ice during the 
 preceding twelve years, yet he suffered no incon- 
 venience or injury except the loss of his toe nails, 
 and a portion of his finger nails. 
 
 During his trips back and forth from the mills he 
 noted the favorable situation of the country for rail- 
 roads. In the fall of 1843 he took a trip eastward 
 to view the country between the Mississippi and 
 Chicago, and on his return he measured the river 
 above Davenport, took soundings of the depth of 
 
194 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 water, and noted the formation of the bottom and 
 of the banks, after which he called the citizens of 
 Davenport to meet him at the town school-house 
 on Harrison street, and made known to them that 
 they possessed a favorable country for railroads, 
 that the Mississippi could be bridged at Davenport, 
 and that they would live to see not only an eastern 
 connection by rail but also a western one to the 
 Pacific. 
 
 In 1845 he published in the Philadelphia "Sun " 
 a report of his examination of this route, and advo- 
 cated the utiHty of a railroad between the Atlantic 
 and Pacific via Rock Island. We take an extract 
 from Mr. Fulton's report as published in the "Sun": 
 
 The most feasible point to bridge the Mississippi is at 
 Rock Island, where the river is narrower than at any other 
 point between its mouth and the Falls of St. Anthony, with 
 high rock banks and rock bottom; the channel of deep 
 water varying from one hundred and fifty to three hundred 
 feet wide, the remaining distance at low water varying from 
 eighteen inches to three feet. No low or inundated lands 
 in the vicinity. To reach this point through Illinois in any 
 direction by railroad will require less grading for the same 
 distance than zxiy other route or section of the Union. 
 
 In 1843 he removed to Philadelphia and went 
 into the dry-goods business, and remained there 
 nearly two years ; at the same time conducting his 
 Davenport store. 
 
 Previous to 1848, as the city of Davenport had no 
 flouring mill, and suffered many inconveniences in 
 consequence, a meeting was called at the post-office 
 to devise ways and means to secure one. Mr. Ful- 
 ton, although he was conducting two stores,' — ^one 
 in Galena, Illinois, and one at Davenport, — pro- 
 posed to furnish one half the capital to build and 
 put into operation a first-class merchant flouring 
 mill, if the citizens would furnish the other one half 
 This proposition'^as accepted, but when it came 
 to marking down the dollars and cents the people 
 feared the burden. The consequence was, he re- 
 solved that he alone would put a mill in operation, 
 and immediately purchasing the ground, erected a 
 large brick structure. After all was ready for the 
 machinery "Mr. Fulton sold the mill to Messrs. Bur- 
 rows and Prettyman, who completed it and put it 
 in successful operation. The citizens and farmers 
 expressed great sorrow that he had sold the mill, 
 and called upon him to make their feelings known. 
 He replied, " Get the owner of the adjacent ground 
 to sell to me at a fair value, and I will erect another 
 steam mill and operate it." "When shall we say 
 to the owner you will commence work 1 " " Tell him 
 I will commence digging the foundation and order 
 
 building material to-morrow morning." The ground 
 was purchased and the work commenced the next 
 morning, and a twelve thousand dollar mill erected 
 and put into operation three days before the first 
 mill was run. The citizens assembled on that day, 
 January 15, 1848, and gave a complimentary dinner 
 to him and his employes, accompanied with toasts 
 and well wishes. The mills, as a financial opera- 
 tion, proved a failure, as almost every shipment 
 resulted in a loss. 
 
 He was confined to his bed by sickness for many 
 weeks, and eastern as well as home creditors crowded 
 suits in rapid succession upon him. Goods had de- 
 clined, his farming operations did not pay expenses, 
 real estate that- he had purchased was unsalable, 
 except at a great sacrifice. On his recovery froni 
 sickness he resolved to pay up and yet succeed. 
 He personally attended to the many suits at law 
 against him, as every attorney in Davenport, and 
 others in Galena and Muscatine, held claims against 
 him ; he forced them off from month to month, and 
 some from year to year, in the meantime selling ' 
 property and paying up until everything was ex- 
 hausted, and yet a large indebtedness existing. At 
 a meeting of his creditors he told them that though 
 heavily in debt and no resources, yet every dollar 
 should be paid ; that he had that day at his resi- 
 dence divided a barrel of flour between two of his 
 former workmen that he owed and himself, as he 
 had not one dollar in money to give them to pur- 
 chase food, and as he had no scales it was measured 
 by thrusting a stick into the flour and dividing the 
 stick into three parts, allowing for the bulge of the 
 barrel. And the indebtedness was paid, every dol- 
 lar, with ten per centum interest. 
 
 About this time he made a contract with Alfred 
 Churchill to build a tenant house on his farm near 
 Davenport. He personally worked at digging the 
 cellar and quarrying and hauling the stone, in the 
 meantime sleeping out on the prairie wrapped in 
 a blanket, until the building was put under roof. 
 After the completion of this work he secured a sit- 
 uation to survey and select lands at fifty dollars per 
 month, and was soon enabled to make a purchase of 
 eighty acres for himself. The day brightened slowly 
 at first, but the eighty was increased to seven thou- 
 sand acres. 
 
 In the fall of 1849 he called a. meeting of the citi- 
 zens of Davenport to take steps toward the con- 
 struction of a railroad between Rock Island and La 
 Salle, Illinois, Committees were appointed and 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 195 
 
 subscription lists were opened, and Mr. Fulton not 
 only subscribed to the stock to the extent of his 
 ability, but at the onset, almost alone and unaided, 
 held meetings to raise stock in every village and 
 school-house throughout Scott county, and at many 
 points in Illinois. A working fund was raised suffi- 
 cient to commence operations, and finally the work 
 was completed, and extended to Chicago. The 
 people of Iowa desired to have the line extend west 
 through the state. To accomplish this it was pro- 
 posed to send a memorial to congress asking for a 
 grant of land to aid in the construction. To circu- 
 late these memorials in a new and sparsely settled 
 country required time and money.- Mr. Fulton, as 
 ever, came to the rescue, and spent many days and 
 weeks in the. cause, holding meetings in the various 
 western towns and villages, visiting the farmers in 
 their fields, and at the same time had to combat 
 with opponents to the proposed line. He paid his 
 own expenses and in due time his exertions were 
 crowned with success, but instead of a grant for 
 one railroad, three obtained a like favor. " Many 
 reaping who had not sown." Work commenced on 
 the Mississippi and Missouri railroad, now the Chi- 
 cago, Rock Island and Pacific, on the ist of Sep- 
 tember, 1853, with proper ceremony, and he acted 
 as chief marshal of the day, and the bridge that he 
 called the attention of his neighbors to in 1843, 
 and the world to in 1845, was erected. 
 
 His father at his death left a valuable farm and 
 other property in Pennsylvania to be divided equally 
 among his children. Mr. Fulton felt he was better 
 off than any of the rest of the family, so he deeded 
 and gave his portion to them, though all were well 
 situated in the world. Previous to 1854 the city of 
 Davenport did not possess a suitable cemetery. In 
 the fall of that year Mr. Fulton proposed to one 
 of the ministers and a few private citizens to unite, 
 and purchase a large tract of land for cemetery 
 purposes. The proposition was sanctioned and Mr. 
 Fulton appointed to select a site, which he did, and 
 entered into contract with part of the owners ; but 
 at this point the money expectations of two of the 
 number failed, and the others declined the risk. 
 Mr. Fulton fulfilled his contract, paid for seventy- 
 two acres of land, fenced and laid it out with four 
 miles of carriage road and eleven miles of walks, 
 and planted five hundred evergreen and other trees, 
 and many costly tombs now mark the resting-place 
 of the departed, and Mr. Fulton still remains the 
 owner of Pine Hill. 
 
 During this year Mr. Fulton, in connection with 
 two others, purchased lands and laid out the town 
 of Fulton, in Muscatine county, on the Rock Island 
 and Pacific railroad, where they built a hotel and a 
 steam flouring mill. Previous to this time there was 
 a town in the state called Fulton, and this created 
 many mistakes in the delivery of goods and letters, 
 and the name of the town was therefore changed to 
 that of Stockton. 
 
 In 1853 Mr. Fulton purchased a tract of land ad- 
 jacent to the city of Davenport, and laid out an 
 addition, and in doing so he dedicated grounds for 
 four churches, two of which have been erected. 
 
 In 1854 Mr. Fulton was elected to the Iowa 
 senate, by the anti-slavery whigs, by a large ma- 
 jority. He took the responsibility and organized 
 that body, after one week's dead-lock, by voting 
 for a democrat for president of the senate. He 
 also disobeyed the almost unanimous petitions and 
 requests of his constituents in supporting Hon. J. 
 Harlan as United States senator in preference to 
 their favorite candidate, and could have deprived 
 Iowa of that efficient senator in congress had he so 
 desired. In due time his constituents admitted that 
 they were wrong, and that the action he took was 
 right. 
 
 After the breaking out of the rebellion he fur- 
 nished the Union army with a soldier in his son, a 
 lad of seventeen years ; he also drafted and fur- 
 nished the war department with maps of New Or- 
 leans and the adjacent country, embracing Fort 
 Jackson and the Mississippi river, with all timber 
 lands and overflowed and swamp lands, with the 
 depth of the water and the nature of the bottom, 
 also the public roads and bridges, location of city 
 and all surroundings, a great portion of which was 
 mapped from recollection, for which he received 
 the personal thanks of Simon Cameron, then secre- 
 tary of war. 
 
 In 1867 he through the press advocated the build- 
 ing of street railways in Davenport ; setting forth 
 the benefits to be derived, he induced others to act 
 with him, and organized a company and constructed 
 a street railroad east and west through the city of 
 Davenport, of which he was president until it was in 
 successful operation. In the summer of 1867 he 
 proposed to a neighbor of his, L. F. Parker, Esq., 
 to join him and take a view of the country north of 
 Davenport, to select a line for a railroad to connect 
 Davenport with St. Paul. The view was taken and 
 considered favorable, and a report published, In 
 
196 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 1868 he drew up a stock subscription, which he 
 headed with five thousand dollars, and after many 
 days' labor obtained subscriptions to the amount of 
 forty-seven thousand dollars. ' All action then lay 
 dormant until 1869, when a large number of citizens 
 entered into the undertaking with energy, and funds 
 were subscribed sufficient to put one hundred and 
 sixty-five miles under contract, and by the aid of 
 outside capital this portion of the road is now in 
 operation. Mr. Fulton was elected one of the di- 
 rectors of the road. 
 ^ Mr. Fulton has erected thirty buildings in Iowa 
 for himself, and fenced and put two thousand acres 
 of land under cultivation. Although he has not al- 
 ways met with success, but rather with reverses that 
 would conquer most men, still with indomitable 
 energy and courage he has built up a second fortune 
 on the ruins of his first. 
 
 He possesses one of the finest farms in the country, 
 consisting of seven hundred and forty acres, besides 
 two valuable city blocks and many unimproved city 
 lots, and a fine suburban residence commanding a 
 beautiful view of the river. 
 
 He has not abandoned an active life, and we 
 found him directing workmen who are driving a tun- 
 nel through solid rock across and under a street 
 twenty-four feet below the surface, to drain his quar- 
 ries and furnish sewerage for his adjacent lots. 
 
 Mr. Fulton has perhaps done more for Davenport 
 and the country in the vicinity than any other man, 
 and is interested in all its enterprises for develop- 
 ment. 
 
 He is known as a man of decided character and 
 untiring energy, and possesses the confidence of his 
 fellow-citizens, and we trust we may find many who, 
 like him, declares " Resolution is omnipotent." 
 
 ISRAEL HALL, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch, a native of Halifax, 
 Windham county, Vermont, was born on the 
 nth of September, 1813. His father was a native 
 of Connecticut, where his grandfather and great- 
 grandfather also resided. His-parents owned a small 
 farm, and were in very moderate circumstances ; they 
 had a family of four sons and three daughters, whose 
 opportunities for gaining education were very mea- 
 ger. Israel received about five months' schooling 
 during the year in early life, and assisted his father 
 the remainder of the time. 
 
 When he was eleven years old his mother died, 
 making the maintenance of the family doubly hard 
 for the father, who afterward married again. 
 
 He remained on the farm until 1830, and at that 
 time was apprenticed to learn the carpenter's trade 
 at Guilford, Vermont. His employer, however, soon 
 afterward failed, and young Hall went next to work 
 for a Mr. Gregory, a fine mechanic, with whom he 
 remained one year. He continued at his trade with 
 different builders until 1835, when he engaged in 
 business for himself, and continued with good suc- 
 cess until 1837. During the financial revulsion 
 that swept over the country during that year his 
 business was greatly interrupted and he lost most 
 of his previous earnings. 
 
 Mr. Hall had long had a desire to remove to the 
 
 west. Even while a boy at school, in studying the 
 geography of our country, he had thought that 
 somewhere near the junction of the Missouri and 
 Mississippi rivers would some day in the near future 
 be the center of commerce, industry and population, 
 and resolved that he would be one of the early set- 
 tlers of that region. 
 
 In 1837 he was married to Miss Rachael Brown, 
 then living in Brattleboro, Vermont. She was a na- 
 tive of Baltimore, Maryland, but her parents dying 
 when she was quite young, her home had been 
 with friends in Vermont. Mr. Hall's responsibili- 
 ties having now become greatly augmented, and his 
 •means of gaining a livelihood having been greatly 
 reduced by the continued hard times, resulting from 
 the panic of 1837, he decided that he would now 
 realize his long cherished hope, and become one of 
 the pioneers of that country of which he had 
 dreamed in his youth. Accordingly, in 1839, he 
 started with his family, but finding that fever and 
 ague was very prevalent in the region which he had 
 previously selected, he went northward, and on the 
 30th of April of that year reached Davenport, Iowa, 
 
 There were then a few scattered hamlets and not 
 many residents in the place, and one can hardly 
 realize the progress that has been working while it 
 has developed into the metropolis of Iowa, with its 
 
THE UNITBD STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAkT. 
 
 197 
 
 twenty-five thousand inhabitants. Soon after his 
 arrival, Mr. Hall found employment with Mr. Asa 
 Green, well known among the " old settlers " of 
 Davenport. Subsequently he located his home and 
 place of business on the ground still owned by him 
 and occupied by Messrs. Thompson and Risley, Eg- 
 bert, Fidlar and Chambers, E. A. Day, and others, 
 on Brady street, between Third and Fourth streets. 
 
 Here he steadily pursued his vocation, helping by 
 every means in his power to build up and advance 
 the interests of his adopted home. The trials and 
 anxieties and privations of those days were many 
 and grievous. These we need not enumerate, as 
 they can be fully appreciated only by those who have 
 experienced the hardships of pioneer life. Suffice 
 it to say that sorest among these trials was the lay- 
 ing away in the grave of four loved ones. Three 
 daughters sickened and died, and a son, who fought 
 bravely in the defense of his country, died from 
 causes growing out of that bloody strife. A brief 
 history of his career will be found succeeding this 
 sketch. 
 
 Notwithstanding all his discouragements, Mr. Hall 
 grew with the development of the city, and at the 
 earnest solicitations of friends and citizens began 
 the business of undertaking, keeping up with the 
 demands of the times, so that Davenport, in this 
 line, was -not at all behind her sister cities of the 
 east. 
 
 In 1866, having secured a competency, he discon- 
 tinued his business and retired to more private life, 
 content to give room for others and live in the 
 
 enjoyment of what he had accumulated. He owns 
 a fine block on Brady street, besides farms and 
 other lands in the west, to which he has given his 
 attention during the last ten years. 
 
 From its organization, Mr. Hall has been a lead- 
 ing member of the Scott County Pioneer Settlers' 
 Association. He was its president in 1867, and 
 since i86g has been treasurer of the same. He has 
 also been connected with the Oakdale Cemetery 
 Company since its organization, and is now secre- 
 tary of the same. 
 
 He has always been an outspoken friend of tem- 
 perance, and has heartily encouraged every move- 
 ment tending to lead men into ways of sobriety. 
 
 In religious sentiment he is a Methodist, and 
 united with that church in 1832. He has been an 
 active worker in the Sunday-school, and in times of 
 need has given generously of his time and means to 
 the support of this cause, which, under the blessing 
 of God, has resulted in great good. 
 
 He has never sought, or ever desired, political 
 honors, preferring the quiet and peace of his legiti- 
 mate business to the turmoil and excitement of 
 political strife; and having found in that oppor- 
 tunity for the employment of his best powers, he 
 has always deemed it the highest honor to be recog- 
 nized as an honest American citizen. • 
 
 M;-. Hall's personal and social qualities are of the 
 highest type ; cordial, sympathetic and generous in 
 his nature, he has won a place in the hearts of all 
 who know him, gaining their lasting confidence and 
 high esteem. 
 
 LIEUT. GEORGE F. HALL, 
 
 DAVENPORT. 
 
 AMONG the noble men whom Iowa furnished in 
 l\. the late civil war, none fought more bravely 
 or made for himself a more honorable record than 
 he, a brief history of whose life we give below. 
 
 A native of Brattleboro, Vermont, he was born on 
 the 14th of February, 1838, the son of Israel Hall 
 and Rachael ne'e Brown. In 1839 his parents re- 
 moved to the west and settled at Davenport, Iowa, 
 and there, among the pioneer settlers of Scott 
 county, he passed his youth and grew to manhood. 
 
 From early life he disclosed a firmness of charac- 
 ter and resolution of purpose that gained the admira- 
 tion of all who knew him. Among his schoolmates, 
 
 his honesty of motive was well known, and, although 
 slow of speech, his words of advice, delivered with 
 coolness and deliberation, even in the excitement of 
 the play-ground, never failed to command respect 
 and esteem of his fellow-students. 
 
 The circumstances of his early life, and the dis- 
 cipline received at the hands of his parents, accus- 
 tomed him to habits of industry and integrity which 
 marked his conduct and dealings. 
 
 At the opening of the war of the rebellion his 
 patriotism became thoroughly aroused, and with 
 that coolness and determination which character- 
 ized all his doings, he determined to enter the 
 
19§ 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 army. Accordingly he enlisted as a private in 
 company C, of the famous 2d Iowa Infantry. 
 
 Upon the organization of the company he became 
 sergeant, and served with unusual vigor and credit 
 beyond the full term of his enlistment. In the des- 
 perate charge of his regiment at Fort Donelson, he 
 made for himself a most honorable record for his 
 courage and bravery. In that battle he was very 
 seriously wounded, and afterward sent home until 
 he should recover. He was promoted from time to 
 time for meritorious services, and closed his military 
 career as first lieutenant and acting ordnance offi- 
 cer on the staff of General Sweeney, second divi- 
 sion, left wing, sixteenth army corps. 
 
 As a soldier, he was loyal, patient and brave, and 
 for the noble service which he rendered, well de- 
 serves a place on Iowa's roll of honor. 
 
 Major Thomas G. Morrison, of the 2d Indiana 
 regiment, writing to a friend, says of him : 
 
 I became acquainted with George in January of 1863, 
 and esteemed him so highly as an officer and a gentleman, 
 that,' as the months rolled on, I was proud at last to know- 
 that we were friends. Seeing and knowing him as I did, 
 at all hours of the day and night in garrison, and in the 
 march — in summer heat and in the snow and frost of win- 
 ter — in bivouac and battle, always the same genial, happy 
 soul. All who knew him loved him for his quiet, unosten- 
 tatious patriotism, his untiring energy and devotion to 
 duty, and for his patient unflinching courage in the storm 
 of ^battle. He was the only son, and his death in the very 
 prime of a splendid manhood was an irreparable loss to his 
 family and country." 
 
 After the close of his service in the army. Lieu- 
 tenant Hall returned to his home with health seri- 
 ously impaired by hardships which he had under- 
 gone. With a view to recruiting his strength he made 
 a trip to California, where he partially recovered. 
 Turning his steps homeward, no doubt with high 
 hopes of a long life of usefulness, he on the way 
 received injuries which cut short his days. In 
 jumping from the ocean steamer, to go on shore, he 
 fell, from the effects of which an abscess formed in 
 his right side, proving unexpectedly fatal soon after 
 his arrival at home. He died on Friday morning, 
 on the 6th of April, 1866, aged twenty-eight years, 
 two months and twenty-one days. The funeral ser- 
 vices on the following Monday were conducted by 
 the Rev. Mr. Powers, of the Episcopal church, and 
 the Rev. Mr. Baylies, of the Methodist church. 
 The pall-bearers, intimate friends of the deceased, 
 and brother soldiers and representatives of the 
 "old settlers," were Major Hamill, Captain Doo- 
 little, Captain Andreas, Lieutenant McNeil, Lieu- 
 tenant Hartwell, Dr McCosh and L. S. Davis. The 
 funeral cortege was largely composed of old settlers, 
 soldiers and friends, who laid the body away in Oak- 
 dale Cemetery, where, on each returning decoration 
 day, the huge granite block that bears the soldier's 
 name and marks his grave is wreathed with a beau- 
 tiful floral tribute. 
 
 HON. MOSES BLOOM, 
 IOWA ciTr. 
 
 MOSES BLOOM, ex-mayor of Iowa City, was 
 born in Alsace, France, on the 28th of 
 March, 1834. His father was a man of wealth, and 
 until his sixteenth year Moses had all the advan- 
 tages of an education. He attended the schools of 
 his native town, and later entered Strasbourg Col- 
 lege, but did not graduate, owing to the misfortune 
 of his father, who lost his estate by becoming bonds- 
 man for friends. In his sixteenth year he came 
 alone to America, and started making a living un- 
 aided by any relative, and succeeded in securing a 
 situation as clerk in a mercantile house in New 
 York, remaining a year, and removed to Hagers- 
 town, Maryland. In 1854 he came west, first to 
 Lafayette, and then to South Bend, Indiana, where 
 he engaged in the mercantile business until 1858, 
 when he removed to -and permanently settled at 
 
 Iowa City, Iowa. Here he engaged in the cloth- 
 ing business, and such has been his success that 
 he now stands at the head of one of the largest 
 establishments, in his line, in the State of Iowa. 
 Much of his success is due to his energy, patience 
 and perseverance, and to his undisputed reputation 
 as a fair dealer and a liberal dispenser of charities 
 to the needy, regardless of creed or nationality. 
 
 Not only is Mr. Bloom popular as a merchant, 
 but also as a man and a citizen. In i860 he was 
 elected alderman, and in 1873 mayor of Iowa City, 
 and, serving one term, declined a reelection. In 
 1875 he received the nomination as representative 
 to the legislature of the state, and, though running 
 far ahead of his ticket, was defeated by only seven- 
 teen votes. Without any solicitation on his part 
 the democratic party of Johnson county renomi- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 199 
 
 nated him as their candidate for representative to 
 the legislature, and he was triumphantly elected by 
 a very large majority at the election of the 9th of 
 October, 1877. 
 
 He has been connected with nearly all the enter- 
 prises tending to develop the interests of the city 
 and the country, and is at present a director of the 
 Johnson County Savings Bank, one of the solid in- 
 stitutions of the west, of which Governor S. J. 
 Kirkwood is president. 
 
 He was made a Mason in i860, and was one of 
 the originators of Teutonia Lodge of the Independ- 
 ent Order of Odd-Fellows, of which he is a past 
 grand and past representative in the Grand Lodge. 
 
 Though born an Israelite, he is generous in his 
 
 religious views toward people of all creeds, as his 
 liberality toward the many churches of Iowa City 
 have frequently demonstrated. 
 
 In politics, he is a democrat, and an advocate of 
 reform. During the war of the rebellion, his sym- 
 path}', purse and voice was for the Union and right. 
 He is a good speaker, and carries force and convic- 
 tion in his words, and his party finds in him an able 
 advocate of their principles. 
 
 Mr. Bloom is courteous and genial, and has the 
 happy faculty of making and keeping friends ; has a 
 fine commanding appearance and dignified bearing 
 which gain for him respect everywhere. Such is 
 the brief history of the struggles of one who has, 
 unaided, climbed the ladder of success. 
 
 FREDERICK H. HANCOCK, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 FREDERICK HARRISON HANCOCK, pres- 
 ident of the Board of Trade, Davenport, was 
 born in Tazewell county, Illinois, on the 6th of 
 November, 1836, and is the son of Harrison and 
 Martha (Rockhold) Hancock, the former a native of 
 New Hampshire, and the latter a native of Mary- 
 land. His father is descended from English ances- 
 tors who settled in New England some four genera- 
 tions since, from whence have sprung most of the 
 families of that name now scattered throughout the 
 nation, the distinguished Major-General Hancock, 
 United States army, being a connection. His mother 
 is descended from Welsh stock who settled in Mary- 
 land shortly before the revolution, where the name 
 is now quite frequently met with. His father was a 
 thrifty farmer and lumberman in his native state, 
 where by his industry and energy he wrung from the 
 sterile soil and flinty cliffs a comfortable subsistence, 
 and was in easy, if not affluent, circumstances. Fol- 
 lowing the tide of empire, they moved westward in 
 the fall of 1830, remained the ensuing winter in 
 Ohio, from whence they removed in the following 
 summer to Tazewell county, Illinois, where both 
 parents still reside in the enjoyment of health and 
 afiSuence. Soon after settling in Illinois his father 
 commenced farming on a large scale, which he con- 
 tinued with great success for thirty-five years, when 
 he retired. They had two sons and three daughters. 
 The younger son died in early youth, leaving our 
 subject the only male survivor of the children. 
 20 
 
 Frederick H. Hancock received the rudiments of 
 his education in the common schools of his native 
 county, and afterward took a thorough course at a 
 private academy in Pekin, Illinois, conducted by a 
 Rev. Mr. Bailey, studying, besides the usual branches 
 of higher education, the German language. He 
 subsequently received a very superior business edu- 
 cation at a commercial college in the same city, and 
 was thus fitted for success in the business of life. 
 
 From a very early period his leading desire was 
 to be a merchant, in which even then his fancy por- 
 trayed the success which has since crowned his 
 intelligent efforts. It was the wish of his father, 
 however, that he should continue the pursuit of 
 husbandry, from which he had already reaped a 
 bountiful reward, and in deference to the parental 
 wish he entered extensively upon the business of 
 farming, which he conducted in its various depart- 
 ments for six years with very satisfactory results. 
 His penchant for mercantile enterprise was, however, 
 unabated, and he regarded his farming operations 
 as simply a means to an end. Accordingly, as soon 
 as he had accumulated sufficient capital, he engaged 
 in the grain and produce business, which he con- 
 ducted for three years with marked success at An- 
 nawan, Illinois. He moved, in 1867, to Davenport, 
 Iowa, where he formed a partnership with Dow 
 Brothers and S. F. Oilman, Esq., in the grain, mill- 
 ing and elevator business, which has grown to be 
 one of the largest and most prosperous concerns in 
 
200 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 the west, the firm also owning extensive grain ele- 
 vators at Annawan, Illinois, Atlantic and Wilton, 
 Iowa, besides the Star Flouring Mill and a capacious 
 elevator at Davenport. Mr. Hancock is likewise the 
 proprietor of many thousands of acres of excellent 
 farming lands in the states of Illinois, Iowa and 
 Nebraska, and is justly recognized as one of the 
 capitalists of the west. His superior business qual- 
 ifications and sterling integrity were appropriately 
 recognized by his election to the presidency of the 
 Davenport Board of Trade in 1875, to which he 
 was reelected in 1876, being probably the youngest 
 merchant who was ever honored with a position of 
 like responsibility and eminence. His characteris- 
 tics as a business man may be inferred from the 
 success which has attended his brief but brilliant 
 career. A sound judgment, united with the most 
 scrupulous integrity of moral principle, an intuitive 
 perception of men's motives and character, quick- 
 ness to adapt himself to unexpected events, and 
 prompt decisive action when he has made up his 
 mind, are doubtless the chief qualities that have 
 contributed to his business success, to which may 
 be added that push and energy characteristic of so 
 many successful western men. He, moreover, pos- 
 sesses a genial and affable temperament, and is one 
 of the most devoted and unchangeable of friends. 
 
 Generous and charitable, he witnesses with pleasure 
 the success of others, and cheerfully gives a helping 
 hand to worthy young men beginning in life. 
 
 He was brought up under Methodist influence, 
 but is now a regular attendant on the services of the 
 Presbyterian church, to the support of which, as 
 well as to charitable and benevolent objects gener- 
 ally, he is a generous contributor. 
 
 In politics, he is a staunch and earnest republican ; 
 but has never held any ofiSce, except of a local or 
 municipal character. 
 
 Mr. Hancock is a distinguished Mason, a Knight 
 Templar of No. 9, St. Simon of Cyrene, and was 
 during his residence in Illinois four years master of 
 lodge 352. 
 
 He was married on the 5th of December, 1867, to 
 Miss Mary E., daughter of Rev. Samuel B. Hard- 
 man, a veteran minister of the Methodist Episcopal 
 church, a lady of rare personal beauty, and of the 
 highest mental endowments ; amiable, graceful, ac- 
 complished and vivacious. She diffuses happiness 
 and sunshine amidst a large circle of devoted friends 
 and admirers. She is, moreover, an exemplary 
 member of the Presbyterian church, and illustrates 
 her christian principles by a life of consistency and 
 usefulness. They have one child, Harry Walton, 
 born on the 12th of May, 1870. 
 
 HON. EZEKIEL S. SAMPSON, 
 
 SIGOURNEr. 
 
 EZEKIEL SILAS SAMPSON, member of con- 
 gress for the sixth district of Iowa, was born 
 in Huron county, Ohio, on the 6th of December, 
 1831, and is the son of Ezekiel Sampson and Polly 
 nee Merifield. Ezekiel Sampson was third in de- 
 scent from Ezekiel Sampson, — supposed to have 
 been a native of Massachusetts, but of English par- 
 entage, — who, in 1766, united with Warwick Baptist 
 Church. 
 
 Tradition says that said Ezekiel was a lieutenant 
 in the revolutionary war, and subsequently pastor of a 
 church in Shohockton, Delaware county, New York. 
 A paragraph in " Whaley's History" states that the 
 first wedding in Mount Pleasant, Wayne county, 
 Pennsylvania, which occurred on the ist of January, 
 1796, was that of Silas Kellogg and the eldest daugh- 
 ter of Josiah Mumford. " The ceremony was per- 
 formed by Ezekiel Sampson, a Baptist minister ; 
 
 there was then no resident clergyman or magistrate. 
 Mr. Sampson came from the Delaware, twenty miles 
 distant, guided by marked (or ' blazed ') trees. It 
 was a gay new-year's party, for nearly every man, 
 woman and child in the town was present, and 
 all were accommodated in one room," — -from which 
 it may be inferred that the room was either very 
 large, or the town very small. Later authentic 
 records inform us that this same " Elder" Sampson, 
 " recognized " at Mount Pleasant, Wayne county, 
 Pennsylvania, on the 29th of October, 1806, the first 
 Baptist church organized in that county. He came 
 from " Eighth" town, a point between Owego and 
 Ithaca, New York, and preached before Chenny 
 Association. The records touching the time and 
 place of his death are conflicting ; one account says 
 that he died in the " Lake country" at an advanced 
 age, another says that he died in Detroit, Michigan. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 203 
 
 Isaac Sampson, son of " Elder" Sampson, as he 
 was called, was also a soldier in the' revolutionary- 
 war during the entire struggle, and afterward re- 
 moved from Delaware county. New York, to Ontario, 
 near Geneva; thence to Rochester ; thence to Huron 
 county, Ohio, and thence, about the year 1835, to 
 Fulton county, Illinois, where he died soon after. 
 Isaac Sampson was the father of Ezekiel Sampson, 
 the father of our subject, who was born in the State 
 of New York in 1793. He was a soldier in the war 
 of 1812, and was married in Monroe county, New 
 York, to Polly Merifield, in 1816. He removed 
 thence to Huron county, Ohio, and from there to 
 Fulton county, Illinois ; thence to what is now Keo- 
 kuk county, Iowa, in 1843 — the first year the whites 
 were permitted to enter upon that portion of the 
 territory called the " New Purchase." He took and 
 improved a claim, and subsequently entered a part 
 of it. This he continued to improve and cultivate 
 until the time of his death in 1853. He was a very 
 energetic, hard working man, and acquired considera- 
 ble property in his younger days, but lost it all in 
 the hard times of 1836-40, and came to Iowa a very 
 poor man ; but by hard work at his trade of stone- 
 mason, and plasterer part of the time, and close at- 
 tention to his new farm, assisted by his family, he 
 was enabled to save the money to enter his place, by 
 the time the land came into market. 
 
 He and his wife were once members of the Baptist 
 church, but while yet in Ohio, and early in life, they 
 united with the Christian church, and maintained 
 that connection till the time of their death. He was 
 an elder and leading member of the organization, 
 near Springfield, Keokuk county, for many years 
 before his decease, and was highly respected and 
 honored by all who knew him. 
 
 Although he had received but a limited education, 
 yet he was extremely fond of reading religious and 
 historic works, and afterward became possessed of 
 considerable information. 
 
 The mother of our subject was a native of Ver- 
 mont, and the daughter of Joseph Merifield, who 
 in early life (from about 1790 till 1806), in addition 
 to farming in a small way, assisted in the mainte- 
 nance of his family by hunting and trapping along 
 what are now the historic banks of Otter creek. 
 Her leading traits of character were, strong attach- 
 ment to localities, conscientious regard for religion, 
 order and deliberation in her movements, and pre- 
 cision, accuracy and ingenuity in all work where 
 these qualities were called into requisition. She died 
 
 in 1870, aged eighty-two years, in the full assurance 
 of faith and in hope of a blessed immortality. She 
 had made her home for several years previous to her 
 death with our subject, who is the youngest of a 
 family of eight children, of whom but four survive. 
 
 Ezekiel S. Sampson, our subject, attended the 
 public and subscription schools a portion of the 
 time between the age of seven and twelve years. 
 From twelve to nineteen he worked on his father's 
 farm, attending school but one winter. He was, 
 however, a diligent student, and extremely fond of 
 books. He studied arithmetic and grammar at night 
 and during the intervals of labor, often carrying 
 Kirkham's grammar to the corn-field, to read while 
 his jaded horses would rest. His father, being in 
 limited circumstances, was able to render but little 
 assistance to his son in the way of procuring an 
 education, so that he was mainly thrown upon his 
 own resources. 
 
 From 1850 till 1853 he attended the high school 
 of Professor S. S. Howe, at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. 
 In addition to the management of his academy, the 
 professor published a newspaper, and gave his stu- 
 dents the privilege of learning to set type, an oppor- 
 tunity of which young Sampson availed himself 
 until he became so proficient at the business that 
 during the last two years of his stay at the academy 
 he was able, by working Saturdays, and mornings 
 and evenings, to pay his board and tuition fees. In 
 the autumn of 1853 he entered the sophomore class 
 of Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, and passed 
 through the year on very scanty means, working to 
 help pay his expenses, when the work could be pro- 
 cured. His father died during this year, which ter- 
 minated his educational privileges. He had acquired 
 a fair knowledge of mathematics, Latin, and the 
 sciences generally, and a considerable understanding 
 of Greek. He had also developed a taste and apt- 
 ness for professional studies, and accordingly in the 
 autumn of 1854 commenced the study of law in the 
 office of Messrs. Enoch Eastman and S. A. Rice, then 
 in the practice of law at Oskaloosa. In the year fol- 
 lowing he was admitted to the bar, and in the spring 
 of 1856 moved to Sigourney (which has since been 
 his home) and entered upon the practice of his pro- 
 fession. In the month of August following he was 
 elected county prosecuting attorney, and held the 
 position till January, 1859, carrying on a general 
 civil practice at the same time. In the autumn of 
 the last-named year he was nominated by the re- 
 publicans for representative of Keokuk county in 
 
204 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 the general assembly of the state, but was defeated 
 by a majority of thirty-four votes. 
 
 Immediately after the fall of Fort Sumter, in 
 April 1 86 1, he volunteered with a sufficient number 
 of others from the county, to form a company, which 
 was tendered to the governor on the first call for 
 troops, but on account of the many earlier offers of 
 others, more convenient of access, the company was 
 not actually mustered into the service till the isth of 
 July, i86i,when it became company F, sth Iowa In- 
 fantry. Our subject served as captain of this com- 
 pany till September, 1862, when he was promoted to 
 the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, and 
 served in that capacity until mustered out in Sep- 
 tember, 1864. He participated in all the marches, 
 fatigues, hardships and privations, and shared in the 
 triumphs and glories achieved by his gallant com- 
 mand, in the advance on New Madrid, capture of 
 the rebel force of Island No. 10, and the manoeuvres 
 iagainst Corinth under General Halleck, in the battle 
 of luka, the battle of Corinth under General Rose- 
 crans, trip down the Yazoo Pass, battle of Jackson 
 (Mississippi), battle of Champion Hills, and assault 
 on Vicksburg, on the 22d of May, 1863, — in which 
 last three engagements he commanded the regi- 
 ment. He was also in command from the time 
 the army under Grant left Milliken's Bend to cross 
 the river below Vicksburg, till some time after the 
 last-named stronghold was invested. He also par- 
 ticipated in the battles of Mission Ridge, near Chat- 
 tanooga. In one of these engagements. Champion 
 \ Hills, his horse was shot under him, a minie-ball 
 entering his left side near the heart. With blood 
 streaming, and frantic with pain, he plunged down 
 the hill among fallen trees, where the colonel was 
 compelled to dismount, abandon him and proceed 
 with the formation of his regiment in line of battle. 
 The horse ran back a short distance and expired. 
 In other engagements Colonel Sampson twice felt 
 the rebel lead on his person, but so lightly as not to 
 disable him from duty. His conduct at the memo- 
 rable battle of luka, one of the fiercest contests of 
 the war, is complimented in the highest terms by 
 his colonel in his report of that encounter. 
 
 So pleased and filled with admiration were the offi- 
 cers of his regiment by his courage and skill, that as 
 a fitting expression of their sentiments with regard 
 to his conduct while in command, that they had 
 manufactured a magnificent and costly sword, with 
 appropriate devices, which was presented to him 
 with an address soon after. Among the devices 
 
 on the one side of the weapon is an illustration of 
 the regiment in battle,— the colonel's horse expiring 
 on the field, while he on foot is issuing his com- 
 mands to the regiment; on the other side is the 
 following inscription : 
 
 Presented to Lieutenant-Colonel E. S. Sampson by the 
 officers of the 5th regiment Iowa Infantry, in token of our 
 appreciation of his gallant services in the fields of Jackson, 
 Champion Hills and Vicksburg. 
 
 This well-earned and highly complimentary memen- 
 to of his gallant services to his country, from his 
 copatriols, will be a source of just pride and grati- 
 fication to his descendants to the remotest genera- 
 tion, and will be cherished by them as a priceless 
 souvenir. 
 
 On retiring from the army he entered again upon 
 the practice of the law in partnership with G. D. 
 Woodin, Esq., and soon took a leading rank at the 
 bar. 
 
 In the autumn of 1865 he was elected to represent 
 his county in the state senate, and served in the 
 session of 1866, being a member of the committees 
 on the judiciary, constitutional amendments and 
 corporations, and making a most excellent record as 
 a legislator. In the autumn of the latter year he 
 was elected judge of the sixth judicial district of the 
 state, and served in that capacity till the end of 
 1874, being reelected in the autumn of 1869 without 
 opposition. In this situation he won and maintained 
 the reputation of being one of the foremost jurists 
 in the state, receiving on his retirement the most 
 flattering testimonials as to his ability and impar- 
 tiality from the bar of every county in the district. 
 While yet on the bench, and after having declined 
 to become a candidate before the convention, he 
 was nominated to represent the sixth district of 
 Iowa in the forty-fourth congress. He accepted the 
 nomination with the understanding that he would 
 serve out his term as judge, and was elected by a 
 majority of two thousand seven hundred votes. He 
 served on the committees on patents and " Freed- 
 man's Bank." As measures which received his special 
 attention as a member of the committee on patents, 
 were the limitations of terms of patents granted, 
 first in foreign countries and afterward in this ; and 
 what interest, if any, an officer of the army detailed 
 to make experiments in improvements of arms or 
 ammunition might have in new and useful discov- 
 eries thus made ; on both of which subjects he sub- 
 mitted reports to the house, which 'were adopted. 
 
 He also had charge of a senate bill for the pun- 
 ishment of the counterfeiting of trade marks, on' 
 
'y^r}fS^oUe^ 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 205 
 
 which he submitted many important amendments 
 for the consideration of his committee, which were 
 adopted by the committee, and afterward by the 
 house and senate. He also favored the bill for the 
 counting of the electoral vote, on which he de- 
 livered a speech of great ability and wisdom, in 
 which the patriot rose above the partisan. He was 
 reelected to congress in 1876, by a majority of four 
 thousand votes. 
 
 In politics he has always afifiliated with the repub- 
 lican party since its organization. 
 
 While quite young he became a member of the 
 Christian church, but since arriving at manhood has 
 not been a member of any church. He frequently 
 attends the services of different denominations, and 
 liberally assists in the maintenance of all Evangelical 
 churches. 
 
 Mr. Sampson is a man of singular coolness and self- 
 possession, and although naturally of quick temper, 
 is seldom known to be excited, or to manifest feel- 
 ings of anger or bitterness. In mnnners he is quiet, 
 unassuming, courteous and dignified, and universally 
 beloved by all classes of society, while his home is, 
 the synonym of all that is generous and affection- 
 ate. He is also characterized by great industry, 
 being always employed, if not for himself, for others ; 
 although of small stature, and apparently delicate 
 framework, he possesses great energy and endurance. 
 
 In appearance he is quite youthful, fair and ruddy 
 complexion, blue eyes, and light hair unmixed, as 
 yet, by a single thread of gray. He is governed by 
 the most rigid principles of honesty and integrity — 
 a stranger to deceit, cunning, and other vices so 
 frequently chargeable to members of the bar. His 
 mind is of an eminently legal cast, and as a prac- 
 titioner his forte is in being thoroughly prepared, 
 and never taken by surprise. 
 
 As a judge, he was most careful and conscien- 
 tious, taking as many cases as circumstances would 
 permit, under advisement, and studying them thor- 
 oughly ere he rendered decisions, which were as 
 impartial as the code of the state, and he left the 
 bench unanimously regarded as among the ablest of 
 the district judges in Iowa. 
 
 In the year 1855 he married Miss Eunice Ellen, 
 daughter of William McCahn, formerly of Indi- 
 ana, afterward of Keokuk county, Iowa, a lady of 
 great amiability of character and modesty of dis- 
 position, devoted to home and the interests of her 
 family. They have had a family of seven children, 
 all living, two sons and five daughters. The sons 
 are Lee and Edmund ; the daughters are Flora, 
 Leona, Clara, Ellen and Lavina. Flora is the wife 
 of C. M. Brown, Esq., an attorney residing in Sigour- 
 ney ; the others are still at home, but preparing for 
 lives of usefulness and honor. 
 
 HON. THEODORE W. BURDICK, 
 
 DECORAH. 
 
 THEODORE W. BURDICK, congressman elect 
 to the forty-fifth congress from the third dis- 
 trict, is a native of Pennsylvania, and was born at 
 Evansburgh, Crawford county, on the 7th of October, 
 1836, his parents being Nelson and Amanda Mason 
 Burdick. His father was treasurer and recorder of 
 Winneshiek county from 1854 to 1858, and has long 
 been one of the leading citizens of Decorah. His 
 grandfather was Sheffield Burdick, of AVyoming 
 county, New York, and his great-grandfather was 
 Adam Burdick, third son of Nathan Burdick, of 
 Rhode Island, whose two sons bore a conspicuous 
 part in the struggle for our national independence. 
 
 At the age of seventeen Theodore was prepared 
 to enter Oberlin College, Ohio, but at that time his 
 father and the whole family immigrated to Iowa, 
 reaching Decorah in the spring of 1853. During 
 
 the summer of that year a school-house was com- 
 pleted, and during the following winter the subject 
 of this sketch became the first teacher. 
 
 In the spring of 1854, when his father assumed the 
 responsibilities of the county office or offices already 
 mentioned, the son took charge of the books, keep- 
 ing them until, in 1857, he became of age ; when his 
 father's term of office expired, the son, in compliance 
 with the vote of the people, succeeded him, holding 
 it until he resigned to enter the military service. 
 
 In October, 1862, Mr. Burdick was commissioned 
 captain of company D, 6th Iowa Cavalry, its field 
 of operations being on the western frontier. He 
 participated in three battles with the Indians : White 
 Stone Hills, Dakota Territory ; Tah-kah-o-kuta, near 
 the line of Dakota and Montana Territories, and 
 Bad Lands, on the Little Missouri river. He served 
 
206 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTION ART. 
 
 three years, when the regiment was mustered out. 
 In the official reports of the engagements mentioned 
 Captam Burdick is honorably named for gallant 
 services on the field, and was recommended for pro- 
 motion. 
 
 In February, 1865, Mr. Burdick purchased an 
 mterest in the First National Bank of Decorah; was 
 elected its cashier, and at the time of writing still 
 holds that position. Since his return from the army 
 he has also been an extensive dealer in real estate, 
 being quite successful in the business. 
 
 On the 6th of September, 1876, to his surprise, 
 durmg an absence of several weeks east, visiting 
 the Centennial, he received, at the hands of the re- 
 publican party, its unanimous and unsolicited nomi- 
 nation for congress to represent the third district, 
 and was elected by more than thirteen hundred 
 
 majority in a district which, two years before, had 
 elected the democratic nominee, and in 1875 had 
 given a larger majority for the democratic candi- 
 date for governor than the democratic congressman 
 had received. , Mr. Burdick's majority was a well- 
 merited tribute to his character as a man, his fi- 
 delity and services to his party, and the confidence, 
 which the people generally have in his talents and 
 his trustworthiness. 
 
 Mr. Burdick is a member of the Congregational 
 church, and a faithful worker in the sunday-school. 
 
 In December, 1858, he married Miss Nancy Graves, 
 youngest daughter of the Hon. Gaylord Graves, of 
 Whitewater, Wisconsin. She has had six children, 
 five of whom are living. 
 
 Mr. Burdick is a conscientious, reliable man, and 
 does everything well which he undertakes. 
 
 COLONEL OSCAR C. HALE, 
 
 KEOKUK. 
 
 OSCAR CUTLER HALE, a native of Wells 
 River, Vermont, was born on the 26th of 
 July, 181 6, and is the son of Charles Hale and Mary 
 Ann n^e Reed. His paternal ancestry is of an old 
 Puritan English family, which still occupies the an- 
 cestral estate at King's Walden, in Hertfordshire. 
 His branch settled in America in 1635. His mother 
 traced her lineage from a Scotch Presbyterian family 
 who immigrated to this country from the north of 
 Ireland before the revolution, and settled at Lon- 
 donderry, New Hampshire. Among his ancestors 
 ■were many who were prominent in military and civil 
 offices, and were active in the formation of the ori- 
 ginal government, in the states of Massachusetts 
 and New Hampshire, and in the revolutionary war. 
 In this his great-grandfather was a colonel, and his 
 grandfather a soldier. 
 
 Oscar C. received his early education in the com- 
 mon schools of his native place, and at the age of 
 fourteen years entered the Kimball Union Academy 
 at Meriden, New Hampshire. Possessed of fine 
 native endowments and a studious disposition, he 
 made rapid progress, and developed a special fond- 
 ness for mathematical and scientific subjects, also 
 history and geography. At the age of sixteen, con- 
 trary to the wishes of his teachers and friends, he 
 left school, and, although his father was in inde- 
 pendent circumstances, resolved to begin life on 
 
 his own account. He first engaged as clerk in the 
 mercantile business, and continued during six years, 
 becoming thoroughly acquainted with every depart- 
 ment of trade. At the expiration of this time, ow- 
 ing to impaired health, he relinquished his position, 
 formed a partnership, and under the firm name of 
 Holt and Hale, engaged in the manufacture of iron 
 and steel goods. Owing to financial difficulties of 
 his partner, the firm was dissolved at the end of one 
 year, and in 1840 he started on an extensive tour, 
 traveling through twenty-four different states, and 
 visiting all the principal cities in the Union. During 
 his absence, without his solicitation or even knowl- 
 edge, he was elected cashier of the Bank of New- 
 bury ; and although but twenty-four years of age, 
 he accepted the position and held it for a period 
 of seventeen years, carrjing the principal manage- 
 ment of the institution, and by the success which 
 attended him, made for himself a most worthy repu- 
 tation among the business men of his native state as 
 a skillful manager and financier. In 1857 he vis- 
 ited the west, intending to establish himself in the 
 banking business. But,- owing to the financial cri- 
 sis of that year, the directors of his old bank called 
 him back, and he remained with them till February 
 1858, carrying the institution safely through its peril. 
 At this time he settled at Keokuk, Iowa, and organ- 
 ized the private banking house of Rix, Hale and 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 207 
 
 Co., but at the end of four j'ears the firm relin- 
 quished banking, and he became cashier of the 
 Keokuk branch of the State Bank of Iowa, taking 
 an interest in the stock, and serving for some time 
 as state director of this branch in the state board. 
 When, in 1865, this bank was converted into the 
 State National Bank of Keokuk, he was elected to 
 the office of cashier, which he still holds, being one 
 of the most thorough and successful bankers in the 
 State of Iowa. Mr. Hale was formerly a whig, and 
 before coming west was active and influential in 
 political matters. He served in the Vermont legis- 
 lature two terms, and held various other positions 
 of public trust. Since his removal to the west, how- 
 ever, he has taken no active part in politics, having 
 declined nomination to various offices, preferring 
 the quiet and emoluments of his business to political 
 honors. He is now identified with the republican 
 party, and holds decided democratic views in the 
 truest sense of the word. At the solicitation of 
 friends of all parties he served as alderman for two 
 years, being president pro tem. of the city council 
 for one year, and acting mayor for a time, in the 
 absence of that officer, and for several years city 
 treasurer. In 1844 he was appointed aid-de-camp to 
 Governor Mattocks, of Vermont, with the rank of 
 colonel, and served on his staff during his official 
 term. He is at present a director of the Des 
 Moines Valley railroad, also a director of the Valley 
 National Bank of St. Louis and of the State Na- 
 tional Bank of Keokuk, and besides sole manager 
 
 of the business of Rix, Hale and Co., employing 
 considerable capital in lands, stocks, loans and other 
 investments. 
 
 As a sagacious and successful banker and busi- 
 ness man, it is but due to say that he has few supe- 
 riors in the west, and that few men possess more 
 fully the entire confidence and respect of their ac- 
 quaintances. His entire career has been marked 
 by integrity, fair dealing and conscientiousness in 
 the performance of all trusts, combined with method 
 and system in his business arrangements and invin- 
 cible persistence and perseverance in accomplishing 
 his purposes. He has devoted much time to self- 
 culture, and from his travels, careful observation 
 and close reading, is well versed in history, politics, 
 philosophy and general literature, and posted on all 
 matters of current interest. Without possessing an 
 avaricious disposition, and although he has in a 
 quiet and unostentatious manner shown a commend- 
 able liberality in all public, religious, benevolent 
 and charitable enterprises, he has accumulated an 
 ample competence, which he quietly enjoys in his 
 comfortable and substantial home situated in a most 
 desirable part of his city. He has never sought 
 office, and in the discharge of all public trusts that 
 have been imposed upon him has given entire satis- 
 faction, and is most highly esteemed by those who 
 know him best. 
 
 Colonel Hale was married on the 26th of June, 
 1844, to Miss Susan D. Rix, of Royalton, Vermont, 
 who still survives. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKETT, 
 
 CLERMONT. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch, an Englishman by 
 birth, though a resident of this country since 
 infancy, was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, on the 4th 
 of May, 1801. His parents, John and Elizabeth 
 (Whitely) Blackett, crossed the ocean and settled in 
 Albany, New York, about 1805 ; there John Blackett 
 was naturalized in 1808. He lived only a few years. 
 When about seventeen or eighteen William removed 
 with his stepfather and the family to New Bruns- 
 wick, New Jersey, engaging in the hardware busi- 
 ness. Mr. Blackett, at twenty-one years of age, be- 
 came a partner of his stepfather; a little later he 
 engaged in business for himself, and in 1826 re- 
 moved to New York city, there continuing in the 
 
 hardware trade, part of the time with his stepfather 
 and brother, but a longer time alone. He always 
 gave his business his immediate supervision, manag- 
 ing it with prudence, which resulted in success. 
 
 In 1856 Mr. Blackett immigrated to Clermont, 
 Iowa, intending to retire from business ; but at the 
 end of two years he built a store, and took his son 
 James P. Blackett, into partnership. After the close 
 of the rebellion another son, Henry S. Blackett, 
 came out to Clermont, where he became associated 
 with them in business. Mr. Blackett and his sons 
 opened a store at Lawler, in Chickasaw county, six 
 or seven years ago, and his son Henry continues 
 the business there. 
 
208 
 
 THE UNITED^ STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Mr. Blackett has been a member of the Methodist 
 church since boyhood, and an ofifice-bearer of some 
 kind in the same the greater part of the time. He 
 was a large contributor when the beautiful church 
 in which he worships was erected, and his heart is 
 in every cause which will benefit his fellow-men. 
 
 Since 1856 he has voted the republican ticket; 
 prior to that date, was a whig. 
 
 On the 8th of March, 1823, he married Miss 
 Sarah E. Stevenson, of New Brunswick, New Jersey. 
 She is still living, and is a true mother and help- 
 meet. She has had four children, and three of them 
 are living, the two enterprising sons mentioned and 
 Elizabeth Whitely, the wife Dr. Lewis, of Clermont. 
 
 Mr. Blackett has always been a great reader and 
 a close observer ; his faculties are unimpaired and 
 he has a rich fund of general knowledge always at 
 his command. He has a vivid recollection of see- 
 ing at Albany the first steamboat which went up the 
 Hudson river on her first trip in 1807 ; and his remi- 
 niscences of his early years are instructive as well 
 as entertaining. Mr. Blackett has always been an 
 industrious, frugal man, carefully husbanding his 
 resources, yet liberal in his contributions where ne- 
 cessity made known her wants. For many years his 
 hospitality was known far and wide. He has never 
 been " forgetful to entertain strangers," or of any 
 other duty as a citizen. 
 
 DAVID W. RICHARDSON, 
 
 DAVENPORT. 
 
 DAVID NELSON RICHARDSON, editor and 
 proprietor of the Davenport " Democrat," 
 was born at Orange, Orange county, Vermont, on 
 the 19th of March, 1832, and is the son of Christo- 
 pher and Achsah (Foster) Richardson, thrifty farm- 
 ers of the Green Mountain State, who by the most 
 assiduous industry educed a scanty subsistence from 
 the sterile and flinty hillside which they called their 
 farm, ignorant as yet of the infinite resources and 
 exhaustless fertility of the boundless prairies of the 
 west. The Richardson family is of English lineage, 
 and trace descent in an unbroken chain to William 
 Richardson, who came over in 1635, ^"^d settled in 
 Newburyport, Massachusetts, the intermediate links 
 being Christopher — father of our subject — son of 
 Samuel, son of Christopher, son of Daniel, son of 
 Joseph, son of the original William. On the moth- 
 er's side he is descended from the Leland stock, 
 also English, crossed by the Powers' blood, pro- 
 ducing some men of note of both names. Most of 
 the male progeny were men of the sea, soldiers, 
 merchants or professional men, an honest, hardy, 
 self-reliant race, conspicuous for honesty, virtue and 
 morality. With such antecedents, it is not surpris- 
 ing that our subject failed to develop a fondness for 
 agricultural pursuits, or that he should, on the other 
 hand, prefer the companionship of books, and de- 
 vote his time and energies to the attainment of 
 knowledge, with a view to a profession. 
 
 His early experiences were like those of most 
 farmer boys brought up on the rock-strewn hillsides 
 
 of New England. Until the age of eighteen he had 
 enjoyed the advantages of- a three-months common 
 schooling annually. He read all the books and 
 papers he could find, studying to the outer verge of 
 his opportunities, and shirking all the farm-work 
 that it was decently possible for him to avoid. At 
 this date, however, he resolved to launch out for 
 himself. He taught school, and' earned money to 
 pay the. expenses of an academic education, which 
 he resolved to obtain in spite of all obstacles. He 
 entered Franklin Academy at Malone, New York, 
 passing through the regular curriculum of studies ; 
 had also given considerable attention to the study 
 of law, with a view to that profession, and was pre- 
 pared to enter Middlebury College, Vermont. But 
 about this time the " western fever " broke out in 
 that region, and carried many very promising young 
 men with it, our subject among others, who, happen- 
 ing to be possessed of fifty dollars and a suit of 
 clothes, bought a railroad ticket, and landed in St. 
 Louis in March, 1854. From thence he moved to 
 Sparta, in Randolph county, Illinois, where he 
 taught school for three months, passing much of his 
 leisure time in the printing office of C. P. Johnson, 
 now ex-governor of Missouri, setting type and work- 
 ing a hand-press. In this way he obtained a fair 
 idea of the routine of a country printing office, and 
 acquired a taste for that line of life. Leaving 
 southern Illinois, he steamed up the river to Rock 
 Island, and thence crossed the country to Peoria, 
 "where," to borrow his own expression, "he found 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 209 
 
 himself dead broke," a thousand miles from home, 
 or from any place where he could honestly get 
 money without working for it. But hunger is inex- 
 orable, and soon mastered his prejudice against 
 labor. So he went to work again in a printing 
 office, setting type for his board, which he believes 
 he honestly earned. But as his aversion to work for 
 either board or wages was by no means eradicated, 
 he soon changed his base of operations. Early in 
 October, 1855, he set his face toward Davenport, 
 Iowa, resolved to settle in that promising young city 
 and grow up with it. Here he bought an old news- 
 paper office, on credit, and on the 15th of the same 
 month started the daily and weekly " Democrat," 
 which he has continued to edit and publish ever 
 since, taking into partnership with him, in 1863, his 
 brother, J. J. Richardson, thus making the firm of 
 Richardson Brothers. For twenty-one years his 
 life has ran in an even, quiet channel, in the happy 
 valley which lies between extremes of every kind. 
 From a penniless boy in 1855 he has advanced to a 
 position of wealth and social influence second to 
 few men in the state of his adoption, while ills paper 
 has come to be the recognized exponent, within the 
 sphere of its influence, of the political party whose 
 name it bears. He has studiously avoided all public 
 and official life, as tending to divert him from his 
 one sole purpose, an office of his own, independent 
 of political changes or partisan whims, avoiding all 
 save those which every good citizen should consent 
 to fill in turn. 
 
 He is a useful and influential member of the city 
 school board and the city council, of the Iowa State 
 University regency, a curator of the State Historical 
 Society, a bank, street railway and cemetery direct- 
 
 or, a trustee of the Presbyterian church, and a Past 
 Master Mason. 
 
 Although an attendant upon the services of the 
 Presbyterian church, he is not in communion with 
 any religious organization. He has believed, how- 
 ever, from his youth up in the fatherhood of God 
 and the brotherhood of man, and he is so rooted 
 and grounded in this faith that it is unlikely he will 
 ever vary it. 
 
 In politics, he is a democrat; not of the ultra 
 stripe, never having a taste for extremes in anything. 
 During the late rebellion he was what was denom- 
 inated a war democrat, and his paper was loyal to 
 the Union and the government, opposing the ex- 
 treme views of his party, both in its columns and 
 upon the stump. 
 
 Mr. Richardson is not only a self-made man, but 
 he is one of nature's noblemen, genial generous and 
 kind-hearted, finding his greatest happiness in the 
 paths of a contented, quiet, peaceful, social life, 
 always ready to lend a helping hand to the strug- 
 gling and unfortunate. As a writer, he is scholarly, 
 forcible and matter of fact, and though at times sar- 
 castic and pungent, he is always fair and honorable, 
 never descending to personalities, or indulging in 
 claptrap or sensationalism. Strictly moral and tem- 
 perate in all his habits, just and true in all his deal- 
 ings, public-spirited and benevolent, a credit to his 
 race and an honor to his city. 
 
 On the isth of April, 1858, he married Miss Jen- 
 nette Darling, daughter of a thrifty New England 
 farmer, who has made a model wife and mother. 
 She presides with grace and wisdom over one of the 
 happiest homes in the west. They have four promis- 
 ing children, Jennette, Morris, Anna and Jenness. 
 
 THOMAS F. BUTTERFIELD, 
 
 DE WITT. 
 
 AMONG the business men of De Witt, few who 
 have ever settled here brought with them 
 more of the elements of success than Thomas F. 
 Butterfield, who has been a trader here thirty-three 
 years. He has indomitable energy and perseverance ; 
 carefully oversees every branch of his business ; is 
 shrewd and keen, yet conscientious ; deals fairly 
 with his customers, hence makes friends rapidly, se- 
 cures and retains their custom easily, and his suc- 
 cess is a fine example of the reward which industry 
 
 and honest dealing often secure. Mr. Butterfield 
 is the son of Jonathan Butterfield, a New Hamp- 
 shire farmer, and Jane Forsyth, his birth dating at 
 Goffstown, Hillsboro county, on the 19th of August, 
 1821. His grandparents on both sides of the family 
 aided in gaining our independence, and his father 
 was a captain in the war of 1812. Thomas com- 
 menced his business education as a clerk in Hop- 
 kinton when about fourteen ; subsequently spent 
 three or four terms in school at Weare, New Hamp- 
 
2IO 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAHT. 
 
 shire; operated for himself awhile as a merchant, 
 and in the spring of 1844 removed from Hopkinton 
 to De Witt. Here he resumed the mercantile busi- 
 ness on a small scale, De Witt village at that time 
 having less than fifty inhabitants. His first store 
 was on Jackson street, facing the public square, 
 where he remained several years, his family and 
 goods being under the same roof. For twenty years 
 or more he has been on Jefferson street, and is one 
 of the leading merchants in the place, having a 
 large store well stocked with general merchandise. 
 For twenty-five years Mr. Butterfield has also dealt 
 in agricultural implements and machines, being one 
 of the first men in Clinton county to introduce such 
 articles, and having been quite successful. A very 
 large number of farmers in the county have dealt 
 with him and found him "true as steel." 
 
 Mr. Butterfield was county clerk five years ; treas- 
 urer and recorder four years, when the two offices 
 were combined ; a member of the board of super- 
 
 visors a year or two ; has been mayor of the city, 
 and held other offices, both city and county, and 
 has left an untarnished record. He usually votes 
 with the democratic party. He is a Freemason and 
 has taken the thirty-second degree. 
 
 His wife was Caroline A. Gove, of Deering, New 
 Hampshire, their marriage taking place in 1843. 
 They have five children, three of whom are married 
 and living in De Witt. Dennis G., formerly adju- 
 tant of the 26th Iowa Infantry, is a grain and lum- 
 ber dealer ; Mary Jane is the wife of Parley S. 
 McCracken, and Ann A., of Jay O. Ferrel. Frank- 
 lin P., a graduate of the Ann Arbor, Michigan, Uni- 
 versity, is an attorney at De Witt, and Charles is 
 clerk for his father. The last two are single. 
 
 Mr. Butterfield is a man of hardly medium stature, 
 dark complexion, " snugly built," well-preserved and 
 " tough as a knot." He has a cheerful disposition, 
 laughs easily, often and long, believes in sunshine 
 and aids in making it. 
 
 HON. MARCUS TUTTLE, 
 
 CLEAR LAKE. 
 
 ONE of the town builders of Iowa is Marcus 
 Tuttle, who selected Clear Lake for his home 
 when there were not more than half-a-dozen families 
 here, and no other settlement nearer to the north- 
 ward or westward than Algona, forty miles distant ; 
 except eastward, there was no road and. no com- 
 munication. Clear Lake spread out seemingly in 
 primeval freshness and wildness, as if poured from 
 the hollow of God's hand only the day before. On 
 every other side rolled the prairies, "boundless and 
 beautiful," challenging the coffers of enterprise and 
 wooing the hand of industry. Here, thought Mr. 
 Tuttle, must some day be a watering place, and he 
 resolved to help make it attractive. Here he com- 
 menced operations, and his judgment did not lead 
 him astray. 
 
 Mr. Tuttle is the son of Ira Tuttle, a New York 
 farmer and cheese manufacturer, and was born in 
 Fairfield, Herkimer county, on the loth of May, 
 1830. The maiden name of his mother was Lucy 
 Brockett. The Tuttles were early settlers in New 
 Haven, Connecticut, and their descendants haye 
 since spread over most of the western as well as the 
 eastern states. President Tuttle, of Wabash College, 
 Crawfordsville, Indiana, and General Tuttle, of Des 
 
 Moines, Iowa, are distant relatives of the subject of 
 this sketch. 
 
 Ira Tuttle moved to Clinton, Oneida county, New 
 York, when his son was about twelve years old. Like 
 many farmer boys in those days, the lad's opportuni- 
 ties for education were very limited from ten to six- 
 teen years of age, consisting of three months' school- 
 ing in the winter. At the latter age, his time being 
 given him by his father, by working out in the sum- 
 mer and teaching in the winter, carefully saving his 
 hard-earned wages, he paid his own expenses for 
 two terms at the Whitestown Seminary, purposing at 
 that time to go through college. But at the age of 
 eighteen, his father, having become financially em- 
 barrassed by the hard times, and being in danger of 
 losing his home, insisted that Marcus should give up 
 his ideas of further literary pursuits and help save 
 the farm for the family. This he consented to do, 
 though with great reluctance, and has since regarded 
 this as the greatest disappointment of his life. By 
 dint of the hardest work, foregoing most of the 
 amusements and innocent pleasures so congenial to 
 the youthful taste, the son succeeded in clearing the 
 property of debt, and removing the anxiety of his 
 parents. 
 
(^Z^i CL<A.^ 
 
 .'S^ 
 
THE UNITED STATES BTOGRAPHICAJ. DICTIONART. 
 
 213 
 
 Being a great reader from childhood, and becom- 
 ing familiar with the glowing pictures of the rising 
 west, he at length made up his mind that here was 
 the field for his future operations. Early in 1855, 
 having sold his farm, and finding himself possessor 
 of. a little fortune of three thousand dollars, and a 
 wife whom he had chosen four years before, he 
 crossed the " Father of Waters" into Iowa, and leav- 
 ing his wife in Johnson county, he found his El 
 Dorado at Clear Lake, in May of that year, where 
 his wife joined him two months later. He com- 
 menced opening a farm of two hundred acres on 
 the eastern shore of the lake. Two years later he 
 assisted in laying out the town of Clear Lake, part 
 of which was situated on his own land, and since 
 1857 one branch of his business has been the buy- 
 ing and selling of real'estate, in which he has been 
 an extensive and successful operator. During all 
 this time he has cultivated more or less land, partly 
 by the aid of hired help and partly through renters ; 
 he has been constantly on the alert and actively en- 
 gaged in supplying the wants of Clear Lake, and 
 has very largely .contributed to the growth of the 
 village. At an early day he saw that a saw-mill was 
 indispensable, so he bought a steam one, moved it 
 hither, and run it several years. The first merchant 
 who settled here failed in a short time and moved 
 away, leaving the place without merchandise. In 
 this emergency, though having his hands already 
 pretty full, Mr. Tuttle purchased a stock of goods, 
 and continued in mercantile trade until the spring 
 of 1876. He has been interested in almost every 
 enterprise that promised to build up the place; and 
 his energy and indomitable will seemed to make him 
 successful in everything that he undertook. 
 
 Mr. Tuttle was county judge many years ago, 
 holding the office for two years. He held the posi- 
 tion of assessor of internal revenue from the crea- 
 tion of the office, in the early part of the civil war, 
 until the autumn of 1867, when he resigned in con- 
 sequence of being elected state senator. He was 
 in the senate four years, and was chairman of the 
 committee on commerce, and a member of the com- 
 mittee on railroads, and the committee on constitu- 
 tional amendments, etc. While in that body his 
 great interest centered in the railroad committee, he 
 working very hard to secure the grant of land for 
 what is now the Iowa and Dakota branch of the Chi- 
 cao^o, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad, an enterprise 
 which brought this thoroughfare to Clear Lake in 
 1 87 1. He also favored and helped to secure the 
 
 passage of a bill to amend the state constitution so 
 as to extend right of suffrage to females. The next 
 general assembly, however, defeated the final com- 
 pletion of the measure. The school laws of Iowa are 
 conceded to be among the best in the Union, and 
 among, them is the present county high-school law, 
 which was framed by Mr. Tuttle, and by him care- 
 fully guarded until its final passage. 
 
 The interests of Mr. Tuttle have been with north- 
 ern Iowa as well as his adopted home ; his views 
 are broad and comprehensive, and he and many 
 others of like forecast and energy have seen great 
 and most happy results from their untiring efforts. 
 The world has seldom seen anything that exceeded 
 the growth of northern Iowa during the last twenty 
 years. 
 
 Mr. Tuttle has always been a republican, and is 
 both active and influential in the party, being usually 
 a delegate to its county and state conventions. 
 
 He is a member of the Methodist church, and a 
 trustee of the same. But his religious views are of 
 the broad and liberal type that leads him to think 
 and act for himself, regardless of whether it con- 
 forms to the creed of one church or another. As a 
 worker in sabbath-school, and in the temperance 
 cause, no man stands higher in Cerro Gordo county. 
 
 He is a strict temperance man, and is opposed to 
 the use of tobacco. 
 
 His wife, of whom mention has been made, was 
 Miss Caroline M. Warner, of Otselic, Chenango 
 county. New York, their union taking place on the 
 4th of FeTjruary, 185 1. She seems to have been 
 admirably adapted for a helpmeet for one who 
 must be self-made, if made at all. She is a noble 
 Christian woman, the mother of three children now 
 living, and of offe child, their first-born, whose bu- 
 rial caused the breaking of the first sod in the Clear 
 Lake cemetery. 
 
 The twenty-fifth anniversary of the marriage of 
 Mr. and Mrs. Tuttle occurred on the 4th of Febru- 
 ary, 1876, and was observed by a large attendance 
 of friends and a generous supply of gifts. The in- 
 terest of the occasion was greatly enhanced by the 
 happy surprise and marriage of the eldest child. 
 Rose, to Mr. G. B. Mcintosh, of Cerro Gordo 
 county. 
 
 In less than a week after Mrs. Tuttle arrived at 
 Clear Lake she had quite a "scare." She and one 
 or two other women were in the cabin, and all the 
 men away : her husband at Mason City, and two or 
 three other men in the field. Suddenly a dozen 
 
2 14 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 Sioux Indians walked into the cabin, looked around, 
 made themselves free with provisions, took down two 
 or three guns which hung overhead, and wanted to 
 buy the best one ; but it was Mr. Tuttle's new and 
 favorite fowling-piece, and she would not part with 
 It. They then went out-of-doors, after pilfering a 
 few things, and carefully loaded their own guns. 
 About this time two of the men returned from the 
 field. A small grindstone lay on the ground, and 
 one of the Indians picked it up and tried to break 
 off a small piece by letting it fall on a log. He did 
 not succeed, but .the white man, Mr. D., reproved 
 him, when he caught up the stone and was making 
 off with it. Mr. D. had a scuffle with him, and suc- 
 ceeded in wresting the grindstone from him, when 
 the Indian knocked his hat off with a club. Mr. 
 D. thereupon threw, the grindstone at him, and 
 for some time he lay as though dead. The other 
 Indians then became boisterous, and made some 
 threats, but by-and-by the wounded Indian arose, 
 and at length the whole squad left, taking some 
 plunder with them, threatening a speedy return and 
 revenge. About this time Mr. Tuttle returned, and 
 having ascertained what had transpired, he took 
 
 all the women in a rustic vehicle and hastened 
 back to Mason City, and before midnight he was 
 at Clear Lake again with all the men in Mason 
 City who had arms to bear. That night about 
 twenty-five men, all told, watched till morning for 
 the return of the savages. They did not come, and 
 the next forenoon it was resolved to go to them. 
 Following their trail, they were found a few miles 
 away, hunting on Lime creek. The chief met them, 
 very much frightened, heard their demands, restored 
 all the, pilfered property not eaten or destroyed, 
 paid for what they could not restore, and departed, 
 never to return. 
 
 Mr. Tuttle has seen the village of Clear Lake ex- 
 pand from half-a-dozen log cabins to two or three 
 hundred frame houses, and, scattered among them, 
 neat little churches, large hotels and brick blocks, 
 and every sign of thrift. At the end of twenty- 
 two years he finds himself in the center of one of the 
 most popular summer resorts in the northwest, and 
 increasing in attractiveness every season. In the 
 summer of 1877 the Methodists held a national camp- 
 meeting, and the Sunday-school people an interna- 
 tional convention at Clear Lake. 
 
 HENRY C. BULIS, M.D., 
 
 DECORAH. 
 
 HENRY C. BULIS, a son of Hiram L. and 
 Amanda (Reynolds) Bulis, is a native of New 
 York, and was born at Chazy, Clinton county, on 
 the 14th of November, 1830. His maternal grand- 
 father was a soldier in the revolutionary war. Hi- 
 ram L. Bulis was a farmer, and moved to Alburgh, 
 Grand Isle county, Vermont, when Henry was six- 
 teen years old. A year or two later, after aiding 
 his father in the more busy season, and attending 
 the common school during the winter, the son spent 
 four years in teaching, and in attending different 
 academies. At twenty-one he commenced studying 
 medicinewith Dr. A. C. Butler, of Alburgh, attending 
 lectures subsequently at Woodstock, and graduating 
 in the summer of 1854. In October of the same 
 year Dr. Bulis settled in Decorah, and has prac- 
 ticed here since that date, when not discharging offi- 
 cial duties outside his profession. 
 
 When the law creating the office of county super- 
 intendent of public schools went into force, Dr. 
 Bulis was the first man to fill it. He served three 
 
 years. He was a member of the county board of 
 supervisors several years ago. In 1865 he was 
 elected state senator, and by reelection served, six 
 years, resigning in the middle of his second term 
 to take the office of lieutenant-governor, to which the 
 people had called him. While in the upper branch 
 of the general assembly he was at one time chair- 
 man of the committee on claims, and at another, of 
 the committee on state university. He did espe- 
 cially good service on the latter committee ; a warm 
 friend of education, and being generous and broad 
 in his views on the subject, he earnestly advocated 
 the appropriation bills, and every measure calculated 
 to advance the interests of the university. Part of 
 the time while in the senate he served as its presi- 
 dent pro tem., and was in that position when placed 
 in the chair of lieutenant-governor. He has been 
 a trustee and regent of the university ; he was ex- 
 amining surgeon for pensions from 1865 to 1876, 
 and is now president of the Iowa State Medical 
 Society. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 215 
 
 Dr. Bulis has always been a republican, and, as 
 will be seen by this sketch, much of the time since 
 he has been in Iowa he has been a favorite of the 
 party. He has been very serviceable, not to his party 
 or the state alone. On the 25th of August, 1876, 
 he was appointed a member of the Sioux Indian 
 commission, and aided essentially in forming, a few 
 weeks later, the treaty with them by which they 
 ceded the Black Hills, and granted the right of way 
 to the same of three different routes. The service 
 which the doctor rendered in securing this treaty 
 
 can hardly be overestimated, and is regarded as the 
 crowning act of his life. 
 
 On the loth of September, 1854, he married Miss 
 Laura A. Adams, of Champlain, New York. She 
 had three children, and died in 1861. Two of her 
 children survive her. On the 17th of June, 1863, he 
 married Miss Harriet S. Adams, sister of his first 
 wife. 
 
 The services which Dr. Bulis has rendered to the 
 county, the state, and the country, will long keep his 
 name in remembrance. 
 
 HON.. JAMES L. HOGIN, 
 
 SIGOURNBT. 
 
 TAMES LATIMUS HOGIN, for many years a 
 J distinguished member of the Masonic order, and 
 in 1854 grand master of Iowa, was born in Kent 
 county, Delaware, on the 7th of March, 1801 ; his 
 parents bein^ John Hogin and Elizabeth nde Christ- 
 field. His father was a distinguished and zealous 
 minister of the Methodist church, and preached the 
 gospel with great success in the states of Maryland 
 and Delaware, throughout his lifetime. He died at 
 an early age, however, in the year 1810, when our 
 subject was but a lad. He was a man of deep piety, 
 great force of character, influential in his community, 
 and a leading spirit in his denomination. The 
 grandfather of John Hogin, the great-grandfather 
 of our subject, was a native of north Ireland, and 
 of Scotch ancestry. About the year 1750 he emi- 
 grated from Londonderry to the colony of Delaware, 
 where his descendants remained for three genera- 
 tions, but they have since nearly all immigrated to 
 the western and southwestern states, where many of 
 them have become men of note and distinction. 
 The mother of James L. Hogin was a daughter of 
 John Christfield, a native of England, who immigrated 
 to Maryland a short time previous to the revolution. 
 She was a lady of great force and individuality of 
 character, a leader and exhorter in the Methodist 
 Episcopal church, and, moreover, of unusual edu- 
 cation and literary attainments for her day. 
 
 Both families were strong patriots during the re- 
 volutionary struggle, and several of them bore arms 
 in the cause of the colonies. 
 
 James Latimus Hogin received but a limited edu- 
 cation in early life, and during his minority learned 
 the boot and shoe making trade, at which he worked' 
 
 for many years ; but he was always a diligent student, 
 and noted as a lover of books. Even when poor 
 and earning but a scanty livelihood he was con- 
 tinually adding to his stock of historical and stand- 
 ard books, and in after years possessed one of the 
 finest libraries in the west, and was recognized as 
 among the most intellectual' and generally informed 
 men of the day. 
 
 In March, 1819, he removed to Indiana, and lo- 
 cated in Brookville, Franklin county, of that state, 
 where he worked at his trade of shoemaking for a 
 number of years. He afterward engaged in mer- 
 chandising, a pursuit which' he followed as long as 
 he continued in business, and from which he realized 
 a reasonable competency upon which to retire when 
 declining years came upon him. In the spring of 
 1832 he removed to Indianapolis, and continued in 
 business there till 1845, '«'hen he removed to Dan- 
 ville, where he remained till his removal to Iowa, 
 which occurred in the spring 61 1850 ; in which year 
 he located at Sigourney, where he made his home 
 and passed the remainder of his lifetime, enjoying 
 the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 Of a modest and diffident nature, he shrank from 
 public notice, yet the importunities of his fellow- 
 citizens of Keokuk county pressed him into their 
 service, and he was elected to the state senate in 
 the autumn of 1854, and served with distinction 
 two regular and one special session in that body. 
 Among the measures which he favored and con- 
 tributed very materially to the success of, was the 
 geological survey of the state. For his efforts in 
 this direction he had the thanks of Governor Grimes 
 and the scientific men of the state generally, and is 
 
2l6 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 deserving of the gratitude of all citizens interested 
 in the material progress of Iowa. 
 
 But, as already intimated, it was as a Mason that 
 he was especially distinguished. On the nth of 
 November, 1822, he was initiated into the mysteries 
 of that ancient and benevolent order, in Harmony 
 Lodge No. II, Brookville, Indiana, where he served 
 the craft in many capacities, and for two years as 
 worshipful master. 
 
 On moving to Indianapolis in 1832 he found 
 Masonry at a low stage of existence there. A lodge 
 had once existed, but it had been suffered to go 
 down and its charter forfeited. He soon revived 
 the dying embers, however, and in the spring of 1833 
 united with others in petitioning the grand lodge 
 for a renewal of its charter, which was granted. Of 
 this lodge, which was known as Centre Lodge No. 
 23, he was the presiding officer for four years. In 
 
 1835 he was a member of the grand lodge, and in 
 
 1836 he was elected most worshipful grand master 
 of Indiana, showing most conclusively his ability 
 and the high a^jpreciation of his brethren of that 
 jurisdiction. 
 
 In the winter following his removal to Danville, 
 with others he petitioned the grand lodge for leave 
 to organize a new lodge, which received the name 
 of Western Star No. 26, over which he presided for 
 three years. 
 
 His chief regret in removing from Indiana was in 
 severing his masonic associations, which had ever 
 been pleasant, but he was agreeably surprised at find- 
 ing Masonry so flourishing in his new home ; and 
 in 1851 he, with six others, received from the grand 
 lodge of Iowa, a dispensation for the organization 
 of Hogin Lodge No. 32, at Sigourney. Of this or- 
 ganization, named for him by his brethren, he was 
 the master for several years. He represented it in 
 the grand lodge in 185 1 and 1852, was deputy 
 grand master in 1853, and elected grand master of 
 the state in 1854. 
 
 He was made a Royal-Arch Mason in McMillan 
 Chapter No. 2, Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 2d of May, 
 1836. On the 19th of December of the same year 
 he received the degree of royal and select master 
 in Cincinnati Council No. i, and on the 21st of 
 August, 1848, he was knighted in Roper Encamp- 
 ment No. I — as commanderies were then and until 
 1856 called — at Indianapolis. He was one of the 
 organizers of De Molay Commandery No. i at Mus- 
 catine, Iowa, and assisted greatly in the introduction 
 and extension of knighthood in Iowa. 
 
 In religious faith, his preference was for the Epis- 
 copal church ; but as there was no congregation of 
 that church where he resided, he attended the 
 Methodist Episcopal church, of which his wife was 
 a member, for many years. 
 
 In politics, he was raised in the whig school, and 
 afterward embraced the principles of the republic- 
 an party, with which he acted during the remainder 
 of his lifetime. 
 
 Mr. Hogin died at the home of his son, B. R. 
 Hogin, in Sigourney, on the 17th of December, 1876. 
 
 On the 3d of September, 1822, Mr. Hogin married 
 Miss Eliza, daughter of John Crouch, Esq., of Wells- 
 burg, Virginia, who in after life manumitted his 
 slaves and removed to Ohio. She was a well-edu- 
 cated woman, of high intellectual attainments, a 
 zealous and exemplary member of the Methodist 
 Episcopal church, and led a blameless and useful 
 life. Her social qualities were highly developed, 
 and she was the center of a large circle of friends, 
 who looked up to her as a leader and counselor; 
 she died in 1864. One of her brothelrs, Benjamin 
 T. Crouch, was an eminent minister in the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal church in Kentucky for many years. 
 He filled the office of presiding elder for a pro- 
 longed period, and for sixteen years successively 
 represented his conference in the general conferences 
 of the church, previous to its division into " North" 
 and " South." He was also president of the Tran- 
 sylvania College in that state for a number of years. 
 A half-brother of Mrs. Hogin's, named G. C. Beeks, 
 is still a prominent minister in the same church in 
 Indiana. 
 
 Mrs. Hogin was the mother of twelve children, 
 eleven of whom lived to maturity, and eight of whom 
 are still living : John Christfield, the eldest, is a 
 prosperous merchant in Sigourney ; Catherine Noble, 
 the second, was married to Samuel, A. Russell, of 
 Des Moines, and died in 1870; Caroline Norton is 
 the wife of Dr. N. Henton, residing at Albany, Ore- 
 gon ; Elvira A. is the wife of William M. Wells, 
 Esq., of Oskaloosa, Iowa ; James L., junior, who had 
 been bred to the profession of pharmacy, died in 
 1861 ; Mary is the wife of F. B. Mathews, Esq., of Si- 
 gourney ; Cornelia E. is the wife of Rev. C. W. Shaw, 
 of Salem, Oregon ; George B. is a druggist in New- 
 ton, Iowa, who entered the Union army early in the 
 late war as quartermaster-sergeant of the 13th Iowa 
 Infantry, and rose to the command of his company, 
 and later was elevated to the position of paymaster, 
 with the rank of major ; Juliett W. is the wife of A. C. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 IIJ 
 
 Romig, Esq., of Abilene, Kansas ; William F. was 
 captain of company F, 8th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, 
 and was killed at the battle of Shilo, Tennessee, 
 on the 6th of April, 1862, having just reached 
 his majority, — he was a youth of great promise, a 
 gallant soldier and an estimable gentleman ; Benja- 
 min R., the youngest, is a successful drug merchant 
 in Sigourney, — he was a member of the 9th Iowa 
 Cavalry, in which he served with fidelity some 
 eighteen months. 
 
 James L. Hogin was one of nature's noblemen ; 
 living an upright and honorable life, he impressed 
 his character upon all around him, and did much to 
 build up the town and county in which he cast his 
 lot ; and to-day many rise up and call him blessed 
 in their pleasing memories of his genial intercourse 
 with them. He was of fine form, majestic in figure, 
 and grave, earnest and dignified in manner. In all 
 
 the relations of life he was a true man and a per- 
 fect gentleman. A business partner of his wrote of 
 him that " for forty years, as a merchant, whether 
 rich or poor, his word was as good as his bond, and 
 his bond as good as gold." So he lived and died, 
 and there were no regretful memories to cloud his 
 parting hours. 
 
 In the home of a son he forgot the world of care 
 and the battles of life which had furrowed his earlier 
 years : drawn closely around the hearths of children 
 and grandchildren, in their loved presence he await- 
 ed the hour when he should be summoned to meet 
 his beloved partner in the mansions of rest. The 
 hour came in peace and quiet, and '' the spirit as- 
 cended to God who gave it.'' 
 
 " So fades the summer cloud away. 
 
 So sinks the gale when storms are o'er, 
 So gently shuts the eye of day, 
 So dies a wave along the shore." 
 
 CHARLES C. OILMAN, 
 
 ELDORA. 
 
 CONSPICUOtJS among Iowa men who have 
 aided in developing the agricultural, mineral 
 and other resources of the state through the agency 
 of railroads, is Mr. C. C. Oilman, projector and 
 builder of the Central Railroad of Iowa, and its 
 president and general superintendent during its 
 construction and operation from 1867 to 1872 in- 
 clusive. 
 
 Charles Carroll Oilman was born on the 22d of 
 February, 1833, in the town of Brooks, Waldo county, 
 Maine, and was named by his parents Charles Car- 
 roll, after Charles Carroll, of CarroUton, the latest 
 survivor of the signers of the declaration of inde- 
 pendence, and who had died a few months before 
 this son was born. The father of Charles, an emi- 
 nent physician, was a native of New Hampshire, and 
 known as belonging to the Newmarket branch of 
 the family. The mother, Lois P. Oilman nee Webb 
 was of the Pollard family, from Kennebec county, 
 Maine. 
 
 C. C. Oilman received an academic education in 
 Frankfort, now Winterport, Maine, where his parents 
 resided ten years ; and fitted himself at home for 
 the sophomore class of Waterville College, now 
 Colby University, and at the same time completed 
 two years of study in a medical course with his 
 father, who was a graduate of Bowdoin. His health 
 
 failing, Charles went to work at lumbering, and in 
 two years gave up study entirely, and entered on 
 what has proved to be, thus far, a very active busi- 
 ness life. 
 
 In 1853 he started westward, halting three years 
 in Michigan, conducting a saw-mill in the summers 
 and devoting the winters to exploring and locating 
 pine lands owned by government. In 1857 he 
 pushed further westward to Dubuque, Iowa. En- 
 gaging in the wholesale lumber trade in that city, 
 he established retail yards in 1858 and 1859 at 
 Earlville, Dyersville, Independence, Waterloo, Cedar 
 Falls, Sand Spring, Anamosa, Monticello and Mari- 
 on, towns on the Dubuque and Sioux City and 
 Dubuque Southwestern railroads. 
 
 In 1 86 1 he devoted a short time to the enlisting 
 of soldiers, raising four companies of infantry for 
 the brigade of Oeneral F. J. Herron, his Dubuque 
 neighbor and friend. 
 
 While the subject of this sketch has, ever since 
 his residence in Iowa, maintained a large private 
 business in conjunction with partners, his chief 
 labors have been expended on what he is pleased to 
 call outside operations. In 1858 the Dubuque and 
 Sioux City railroad coming to a halt on the prairie 
 thirty-eight miles west of Dubuque, he started the 
 town of Earlville, by building twenty-eight stores 
 
2l8 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 and dwelling-houses in that year and the following. 
 In i860 and 1861 he built grain elevators at Monti- 
 cello, Marion and Cedar Falls, and opened a large 
 farm in Delaware county. About this time he pur- 
 chased a water-privilege on the Maquoketa river, 
 north of Cascade, erected a flouring-mill and saw- 
 mill, and founded a town called Hillside. In 1864, 
 by a series of able articles in the Dubuque and St. 
 Louis daily papers, he called the attention of the 
 public to the necessity of unimpeded navigation of 
 the Mississippi river as a competing outlet for the 
 products of the Mississippi valley, which resulted, 
 after great personal effort on the part of Mr. Gil- 
 man, in conventions being held at Dubuque and St. 
 Louis, and finally in appropriations by congress, 
 which have removed the rapids near Davenport 
 and Keokuk. Frank Gilbert, now one of the edit- 
 ors of the " Chicago Evening Journal," and Stilson 
 Hutchins, present editor of the "St. Louis Times," 
 but at the time referred to respectively editors of 
 the " Times" and " Herald " of Dubuque. General 
 William Vandever, B. B. Richards, Patrick Robb 
 and others were his faithful coadjutors in this great 
 work. 
 
 In 1865, in conjunction with other active business 
 men of Dubuque, he secured the incorporation of 
 the Dubuque Produce Exchange, an institution which 
 will long be remembered by the citizens of that 
 place as inaugurating a new era in Dubuque's rela- 
 tions to surrounding country tributary to it, the 
 good effects of which are felt to this day. In 1866 
 Mr. Gilman made the first soundings of the Missis- 
 sippi at Dubuque, with the view of erecting a bridge, 
 and the next year was appointed chairman of a 
 convention by the Produce Exchange, whose duties 
 were to call a public meeting for the purpose of 
 incorporating a company to build it. This was 
 done ; and although not built by the company thus 
 formed, the result was the immediate organization of 
 the Dubuque and Dunleith Bridge Company, which 
 erected the beautiful structure which now spans the 
 river at that point. 
 
 In this effort Mr. Gilman was ably seconded by 
 Hon. Piatt Smith, Hon. William B. Allison and 
 Henry L. Stout. 
 
 In 1867 Mr. Gilman originated the construction 
 of the Eldora Railroad and Coal Company line 
 from Ackley to Eldora, Hardin county, a distance of 
 seventeen miles, afterward extended southward of 
 Eldora twenty-eight miles to Marshalltown. In 
 1868 he bought out all parties identified with this 
 
 enterprise, — Piatt Smith and J. K. Graves, of Du- 
 buque, George Greene and William Greene, of 
 Cedar Rapids, and others, — went to New York and 
 formed a new company, and engaging the services 
 of W. B. Shattuck as financial agent (the man 
 who had previously sold the 10-40 government 
 bonds, as well as the bonds of the Union Pa- 
 cific railroad), The bonds of the Iowa road were 
 promptly sold, and the road as promptly built, one 
 hundred and thirty-two miles of the two hundred 
 in eight months. The peculiar feature in this trans- 
 action was the fact that no land grant or subsidy 
 was attached to the project, and for the first time 
 in the history of western railroad -enterprises, two 
 hundred miles of railroad were built on the merits 
 which a surrounding country alone offered for busi- 
 ness. The Central Railroad of Iowa, extending from 
 Albia, Monroe county, to Northwood, in Worth 
 county, was the first north and south road built in 
 the state, and bids fair to be the most important. 
 In 1870, when this line, which was built in sections, 
 was united in Mahaska county, at North Skunk River 
 bridge, with loaded freight trains from the north and 
 south waiting to pass. President Gilman happily 
 remarked, as he drove the last spi'ke : " To southern 
 Iowa we have brought the lumber of Minnesota ; to 
 northern Iowa and Minnesota we introduce the cheap 
 fuel, the magnificent coal of Mahaska county." 
 
 Mr. Gilman resigned the presidency of this rail- 
 road in 1873, and immediately commenced mining 
 coal in Mahaska county, in connection with his old 
 secretary, H. W. McNeill, forming a company for 
 the purpose, under the name of the Consolidation 
 Coal Company. These works were increased from 
 a delivery of one huhdred and ten cars in 187 1 to 
 twelve thousand seven hundred and eighty in 1875. 
 In this year he sold his interest to Hon. Ezekiel 
 Clark, of Iowa City, and immediately began to de- 
 velop the resources about his new home in Eldora, 
 to which place he had removed from Dubuque in 
 1867. This he did by organizing a company for 
 the manufacture of sewer pipe, drain tile and terra 
 cotta from the superior fire clays which abound in 
 this region. The company is known as the Iowa 
 Terra Cotta and Fire Clay Company, and bids fair 
 to become one of the most important manufactories 
 in Iowa. Of this company he is president and 
 chief owner, as well also of the telegraph company 
 whose headquarters are at Eldora. 
 
 He is a member of no church, but attends the 
 Congregational. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTfONARY. 
 
 219 
 
 In politics Mr. Oilman takes no active part. His 
 first vote for president was cast for John P. Hale ; 
 his last for Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 In August, 1858, he married Miss Abbie Williams, 
 of Saginaw, Michigan. They have had five children, 
 only two of whom are living. 
 
 Mr. Oilman is a man of indomitable energy, and 
 
 great force both of character and intellect. He 
 is a solid thinker on practical subjects, a ready 
 writer, a splendid organizer of physical forces, and 
 uses his hands as well as his brains in carrying 
 forward a great enterprise to completion. To just 
 such men the present age owes the glory of its 
 progress. 
 
 HON. WESLEY C. HOBBS, 
 
 FORT MADISOX. 
 
 WESLEY C. HOBBS is a native of Des 
 Moines county, Iowa, and was born on the 
 3d of February, 1842, the son of Warren C. Hobbs 
 and Susanna nee Johnson. 
 
 His forefathers, of English descent, settled in 
 Maryland under Lord Baltimore. Both of his great- 
 grandfathers were active participants in the revo- 
 lutionary war. 
 
 His great-grandfather, Joshua Hobbs, removed 
 from Maryland to Kentucky soon after the close of 
 the war of independence, and in after years was 
 elected to the general assembly of that state. Here 
 the father of our subject was born in 1814. In 
 1835 he settled at Springfield, Illinois, and began 
 the study of medicine, graduating three years later. 
 During his residence at Springfield he was in- 
 timately acquainted with Lincoln and Douglas, and 
 always held them in high regard. 
 
 On the isth of July, 1839, he was married to 
 Miss Susanna Johnson, a handsome and accom- 
 plished lady, and soon afterward settled in Des 
 Moines county, Iowa. In 1849 he removed to New 
 London, in Henry county, and is residing there at 
 the present time, 1877. 
 
 Our subject was a regular attendant of the public 
 schools until his sixteenth year. He early disclosed 
 an excessive fondness for study, and at times pur- 
 sued his task under adverse circumstances, being for 
 a long time severely afflicted with the inflammatory 
 rheumatism. 
 
 After closing his studies in the public schools he 
 entered the university at Burlington ; there he made 
 rapid progress in his studies, and such was his desire 
 for knowledge that he remained after his means 
 were exhausted, defraying his expenses by acting as 
 janitor for the institution, building fires, etc. Find- 
 ing, however, that such labor required too much of 
 his time, he returned to New London and engaged 
 
 in teaching, and continued that vocation until he 
 had accumulated money sufficient to enable him to 
 attend the university another year. 
 
 At the opening of the rebellion, in 1861, he left 
 school and enlisted as a private in company K, 6th 
 Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He remained 
 with his regiment about six months, the most of the 
 time in Missouri, where he participated in Fremont's 
 campaign against Price, marching through Missouri 
 and over the Ozark Mountains, driving the rebel 
 forces into Arkansas. Being rendered unfit for ser- 
 vice by the return of his old complaint, inflamma- 
 tory rheumatism, he was discharged in January, 
 r862, and, returning* home, engaged in teaching. 
 Three months later, upon the call of President Lin- 
 coln for three hundred thousand men, he discontin- 
 ued his school and assisted in raising company K,25th 
 Iowa Infantry, and was elected second lieutenant of 
 the same. He was afterward promoted to fill the 
 vacancy caused by the resignation of his captain. 
 He commanded his company during the three days' 
 fight in the rear of Vicksburg, under Gen. Sherman, 
 in 1862, and also participated in the battle of Ar- 
 kansas Post on the nth of January, 1863. At both 
 of these battles his uniform was pierced with balls, 
 and at the latter his regiment sustained a heavy loss 
 of men. Among the many killed was Mr. George 
 W. Wilson, a brother-in-law of Captain Hobbs. 
 
 Resigning his commission soon after this, he re- 
 turned home and began the study of law, and in 
 November, 1864, was admitted to the bar by the 
 district court of Henry county, then sitting at 
 Mount Pleasant, and of which Hon. Francis 
 Springer was presiding judge. 
 
 He soon afterward established himself in practice 
 at Fort Madison, and in 1870 was elected city attor- 
 ney without opposition. During the succeeding 
 two years he was deputy clerk of the courts. 
 
220 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 In 1873 he formed a copartnership with Hon. 
 Judge Casey, with whom he has since continued in 
 practice, building up an extensive and prosperous 
 business. Mr. Hobbs was also, during the last- 
 named year, elected president of the school board, 
 and in the year following was elected county super- 
 intendent of public schools. In 1875 he was 
 elected by a very large majority to the general 
 assembly of Iowa, and rendered most valuable and 
 efficient service as a member of that body. In 
 1876 he was democratic nominee for congress, and, 
 although he made a brilliant canvass and ran ahead 
 of his ticket by nearly two thousand votes, he was 
 defeated. During the campaign, at the urgent re- 
 quest of the national democratic committee, he 
 spent ten days in Indiana advocating the cause of 
 democracy, and, as testified to by the state central 
 committee of Indiana, contributed largely to the 
 triumph of " Blue Jeans Williams " at the Octo- 
 ber elections. Although Mr. Hobbs is a demo- 
 crat in sentiment, he never allows party prejudice 
 
 to bias his better judgment. He has of late been 
 strongly urged to enter the lecture field, but has de- 
 clined, except to comply with a few special requests, 
 preferring to give his attention to his profession. 
 
 He united with the Baptist church at the age of 
 seventeen, and still continues a worthy member of 
 that body. 
 
 He is also a member of the Odd-Fellows and 
 Masonic fraternities. In 1876 he was district dep- 
 uty grand master of the former, and at the present 
 time, 1877, is master of the Masonic lodge at Fort 
 Madison. 
 
 Mr. Hobbs was married on the 24th of August, 
 
 1862, to Miss Sallie Estella Smith, a lady of fine 
 
 native abilities and rare accomplishments. Of the 
 
 children who have been born to them, a daughter of 
 
 .ten and a son of eight years are now living. 
 
 As a citizen, Mr. Hobbs is highly esteemed by all 
 who know him, while his personal and social quali- 
 ties are such as render him a devoted husband, a 
 kind and indulgent father, and a true friend. 
 
 HON. NATHANIEL C. DEERING, 
 
 OSAGE. 
 
 NATHANIEL COBB DEERING, congressman 
 from the fourth Iowa district, was born in 
 Denmark, Oxford county, Maine, on the 2d of Sep- 
 tember, 1827. His father, James Deering, was born 
 in Saco, Maine, and moved to Denmark with his 
 parents when fourteen years old. 
 
 At the age of twenty-seven he married Elizabeth 
 Prentiss, of Gorham, Maine, an own aunt of the fa- 
 mous Mississippi orator, Hon. S. S. Prentiss, and 
 settled on a farm in Denmark, upon which he re- 
 sided through life, although his death occurred in 
 San Francisco, on the 30th of October, 1862, and 
 his wife's on the loth of January, 1863, while on a 
 visit to their sons. He amassed a considerable for- 
 tune, and often filled important positions of public 
 trust. In 1856 he was elected a representative to 
 the state legislature, and filled the office with credit 
 and honor to himself and district. The Deering 
 family were of Scotch and English descent : the 
 Prentiss family were English, 
 
 Nathaniel C. was the third in a family of seven 
 sons. He was educated at the common and high 
 schools in Denmark, and at the North Bridgeton 
 Academy, teaching school during the winters from 
 
 1845 to 1847. He had a strong desire to procure 
 a liberal education, and to study law, but under an 
 attack of whooping cough and measles his health 
 broke down and his lungs became diseased. Warned 
 by his physician of the danger that would attend 
 the further prosecution of his studies, in the spring 
 of 1847 he went to Hampden, Penobscot county, 
 and accepted a clerkship in a store, serving in that 
 capacity until January, 1850, when he determined to 
 join the gold-seekers. The trip was made by way 
 of Panama, and he arrived at San Francisco on the 
 14th of the following April. After spending about 
 two years in this " land of gold," he returned to 
 Maine with a considerable fortune, and embarked 
 in the paper manufacturing business, following it 
 until the autumn of 1856, when he lost his entire 
 property by fire. In September of the year before 
 he had been elected a representative to the Maine 
 legislature, and was reelected in the autumn of 1856, 
 his father being a member of the same body. 
 
 On the 14th of September, 1857, he arrived with 
 his family at Osage, his present home, where he 
 engaged in land and lumber operations, with a good 
 degree of success. In July, 1861, he visited Washing- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 ton, District of Columbia, and through the influence 
 of Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, then vice-president, he 
 was appointed a clerk in the United States senate, 
 by its secretary, John W. Forney. This position he 
 held until the spring of 1865, when he resigned, 
 and was soon after appointed a special agent of the 
 post-office department for Iowa, Minnesota and 
 Nebraska, resigning the position in the spring of 
 1869. In July, 1872, he was appointed national bank 
 examiner for the State of Iowa, the duties of which 
 position he continued to discharge until the 3d of 
 March, 1877, when he resigned preparatory to taking 
 the seat in congress, to which he had been elected 
 the previous November. 
 
 From childhood Mr. Deering has held in great 
 veneration everything of a religious character, and 
 in the summer of 1875, with his wife and daughter, 
 he became a member of the Congregational church 
 at Osage. 
 
 As a citizen, he has alwa,ys enjoyed the esteem of 
 
 his fellows. "As a pure christian gentleman, he 
 stands among the first in the land, nowhere more 
 highly appreciated than by those among whom he 
 dwells." So writes an Osage neighbor who has 
 known Mr. Deering from boyhood. 
 
 In the spring and summer of 1855 he was active 
 in organizing the republican pacty in Hampden, 
 Maine, and with his party he has since affiliated with 
 the utmost sincerity and cordiality. His services to 
 the party have been unremitting, appreciated and 
 rewarded. 
 
 Mr. Deering has had two wives. The first was 
 Miss' Kate D. Bailey, daughter of Charles Bailey, 
 Esq., of Milford, Maine, married on the 31st of July, 
 1853, with whom he lived till the nth of April, 1855, 
 when she died of consumption, leaving one daughter, 
 Katie B., who died of the same disease on the 28th 
 of July, 1875. His present wife was Miss Lucretia 
 W. Bailey, sister of his first wife, married on the 30th 
 of ."Vpril, 1856. 
 
 SAMUEL L. HOWE, 
 
 MOUNT PLEASANT. 
 
 SAMUEL L. HOWE, a native of Vermont, was 
 born in the year 1808, When he was ten years 
 old his parents removed to the then far west, set- 
 tling at Granville, in Licking county, Ohio. Samuel's 
 early life was characterized by that ambition, de- 
 termination and courage which marked his entire 
 subsequent life, and he early resolved to gain a 
 liberal education. His parents not having the means 
 to keep him at school, he defrayed the greater part 
 of his expenses through Athens University by cut- 
 ting wood and doing other work about the institution. 
 He was not ashamed to work, and the discipline and 
 habits of his school days left an impress upon his 
 character which marked all his after life. 
 
 After completing his literary studies he turned 
 his attention to the study of law, intending to enter 
 that profession ; soon, however, he abandoned this 
 plan, and began teaching, finding this vocation 
 more in keeping with his tastes. In Ohio he was 
 very successful in his work, and established a worthy 
 reputation as an educator; but wishing for a new 
 field of labor, he, in the autumn of 1841, removed 
 to Iowa, and settled on a farm three miles east 
 from Mount Pleasant. During the following winter 
 he taught school in a log school-house. In 1849 
 
 he removed into the village and opened a school 
 in the old log jail, and afterward taught in the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church building. He also 
 about this time inaugurated his High School and 
 Female Seminary in a brick building erected for 
 the purpose. Of this school he acted as principal 
 during the remainder of his life, and here, in a great 
 measure, performed his mission to mankind. 
 
 A man of noble, generous impulses, he did what- 
 ever he undertook with a will, , and inspired with 
 zeal and enthusiasm all who came under his influ- 
 ence. He so moulded the habits of his pupils, and 
 transformed the reckless and vicious that they be- 
 came energetic and sinceire in their work, and res- 
 olute as their teacher in elevating themselves, and 
 bettering others. So successful was he in stimulat- 
 ing to noble endeavor those under his charge, that 
 parents from far and near brought to him their sons 
 to be reclaimed from evil and dissolute habits, and 
 started in the way of intellectual pursuits. 
 
 Feeling the responsibility of his tru^t, he spared 
 no pains in learning the mental traits and the phys- 
 ical habits, and all the various idiosyncrasies of 
 each member of his school ; and with gentle, yet 
 firm, methods of discipline striving to correct what- 
 
224 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 ever was wrong in their natures,- and to cultivate 
 whatever was promising. He won the hearts of his 
 pupils by making them feel that their interests were 
 dear to him, and that his work was a work of love ; 
 and by the might of a strong spirit and an intense 
 magnetic power he easily controlled the wills of all 
 who were under him, and inclined them toward the 
 good, the true and the beautiful. 
 
 At the school which he established at Lancaster, 
 Ohio, both General and Senator Sherman were 
 among his pupils ; and during his famous March to 
 to the Sea in 1864, in a conversation with General 
 George A. Stone, General Sherman said : "-Pro- 
 fessor Howe, I consider to be the best teacher in the 
 United States ;■ nay more," he added with peculiar 
 emphasis, " I am more indebted to him for my first 
 start in life than to any other man in America." 
 This is but one of the many encomiums that have 
 been voluntarily given ; but recently ex-Governor 
 Saunders, of Nebraska, wrote to Mr. Howe's son : 
 " It is to the kindness of your father that I am 
 indebted for much of my success in life. . It 
 
 was that word on his part, or the success that grew 
 out of it, that laid the foundation of my public life.' 
 
 While teaching at Lancaster, Ohio, Mr. Howe 
 published a treatise on grammar, entitled, " Howe's 
 Philotaxian Grammar." This manual was reprinted 
 in Chicago in 187 1, and again in Detroit in 1874. 
 Its merits have commended it to educators, and it 
 is now widely adopted in the schools throughout the 
 country. 
 
 Mr. Howe was superintendent of the schools of 
 Henry county for several terms, and resigned that 
 office a few weeks prior to his death. 
 
 His life, however, was not wholly devoted to edu- 
 cational interests ; every worthy cause found in him 
 an ardent support. When the wrongs of the Negro 
 called for redress, his ear heard the cry, and he 
 directed his powers toward the relief of the wronged. ■ 
 In 1849 the first anti-slavery paper in Iowa was 
 established. It was called the " Iowa Freeman," 
 edited by David Kelsey, and published by G. L. 
 Galloway. 
 
 Identifying himself with this paper, Mr Howe 
 soon acquired exclusive control of it, and removing 
 the office to his own building, changed the name to 
 " Iowa True Democrat," and for several years issued 
 it as an anti-slavery sheet. The work of publish- 
 ing the paper combined with his school rendered 
 his duties burdensome, but he had a great capacity 
 for work, and midnight often found him busy at the 
 
 desk or the case. His pupils, too, assisted him in 
 setting type and in printing off the sheet, so that 
 the paper came out at the appointed time filled with 
 stirring arguments in favor of freedom to the slaves. 
 
 His advocacy of so unpopular a cause brought 
 down upon him bitter hatred and persecutions, and 
 at one time he was pursued by an excited mob, 
 who poured upon him the fiercest revilings, and 
 ended up by pelting him with rotten eggs. Reach- 
 ing a place of shelter, he quietly took off his cap 
 and shook the egg-shells from his hair, with a 
 mute smile of derision at the outrage, which alone 
 gave utterance to the invincible principles that ani- 
 mated him. Threats, opposition, violence, none of 
 these could move him when once he had taken 
 counsel with his conscience and reason, and learned 
 from their dictates the line of duty. He was a moral 
 hero, and no matter how hard to travel, no consider- 
 ation could tempt him from the path of rectitude. 
 
 He was one of the leaders of the free-soil party 
 in Iowa, and made costly sacrifices of health, money 
 and friends in advancing its principles. Yet he 
 rigidly followed out his line of duty, and afterward 
 received his reward in the triumph of the republi- 
 can party, in the organization of which, in Iowa, he 
 took an active part. 
 
 Mr. Howe was an eloquent advocate of woman's 
 suffrage, of temperance and of the abolition of the 
 death penalty, and also fought with all his might the 
 "Land Monopoly." In short, he was an uncom- 
 promising opponent of every wrong, and equally a 
 defender of every right. 
 
 Before attaining his majority, in 1829, Mr. Howe 
 was married to Miss Charlotte Perrin, and by her 
 had nine children : Oscar P., Elizabeth W., Warring- 
 ton P., Edward P., Hayward H., Mary Frances, 
 Samuel L., Seward C. and Cora Belle, — all but two 
 of whom still survive to comfort and cheer the de- 
 clining years of their widowed mother. 
 
 Mr. Howe was for many years a consistent member 
 of the Congregational church ; his was a living and a 
 liberal religion, entering into the heart and flowing 
 out through every avenue of the soul; and when on 
 the isth of February, 1877, he laid down the ar- 
 mor in which he had so nobly fought the battles 
 of this life, it could be truly said of him that a 
 victor has passed to his reward. He had led men 
 onward in the path of progress, himself going before 
 and smoothing the way. Such was the force of his 
 life that its impress is stamped upon all his works, 
 while his example and influence will continue to 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 225 
 
 affect the lives of the many who cherish with fondest 
 remembrance the memory of his deeds. 
 
 The school in which Mr. Howe labored he left to 
 the charge of his son, Seward C. Howe, who was 
 trained by his father with special reference to this 
 
 work, and who is peculiarly fitted for this vocation, 
 having inherited mSny of his father's best gifts. 
 ■ Under his able management Howe's High School 
 and Female Seminary will undoubtedly maintain its 
 present high reputation and prosperity. 
 
 JOHN HANEY, 
 
 LANSING. 
 
 THE pioneer settler in Lansing was John Haney, 
 a man of christian worth, who died on the 
 15th of April, 1875, leaving the impress of his 
 character on the town. He was a native of Penn- 
 sylvania, and was born in Fayette county, on the 15th 
 of September, 1798. His father was a Methodist 
 clergyman, and early instilled into his mind the 
 loftiest principles of virtue. The whole family moved 
 to Richland county, Ohio, when the son was seven- 
 teen years old, and there among the thick forests 
 the young man cleared and opened a farm. He 
 also learned to survey, and during this period laid 
 out a town called Haneyville, now Savannah, Ash- 
 land county. In the summer of 1832 he removed 
 to Rushville, Schuyler county, Illinois, where he 
 opened another farm. 
 
 In July, 1839, Mr. Haney left Illinois, went to 
 Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, made a claim in Sep- 
 tember of the same year, on the Kickapoo river, and 
 subsequently opened a farm there, in what was 
 known as Haney Valley, Crawford county. On 
 account of the isolation of his family from schools, 
 after a few years he moved to Galena, Illinois. 
 
 On the 9th of July, 1848, Mr. Haney made a 
 landing at Lansing, directly on the western shore of 
 the Mississippi. He and his eldest son, James, put 
 up a log-house, the first permanent building of the 
 kind in the place. In that humble house John 
 Haney lived for twenty-five years. For a long time 
 it was the home of all who came, and Mr. Haney 
 never made a charge for a night's lodgings in his 
 life. What he had was free to everybody, white 
 man or red. The latter always called him " father,'' 
 and never left his house hungry. 
 
 His son James had just aided in removing the 
 Winnebagoes, and Mr. Haney's was the first white 
 family making a permanent settlement here. He 
 surveyed the land and made a claim of about six 
 hundred acres, which he subsequently purchased at 
 the government price, and which now includes the 
 
 site of Lansing city. Aided by his son, already 
 mentioned, he laid out the town in the spring of 
 1 85 1. A few years later Mr. Haney built a saw- 
 mill, and shortly afterward a grist-mill, on Clear 
 creek, one mile from town. There he operated for 
 several years. He was a man diligent in business, 
 and brought up his family to habits of industry. He 
 died in his seventy-seventh year, and the great con- 
 course of people at his funeral testified to the re- 
 spect in which the father of the town was held. 
 
 Mr. Haney joined the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church nearly forty years before his demise, and 
 lived a blameless and truly exemplary life. 
 
 He had two wives. In iSig he married Miss 
 Elizabeth Allender, of Washington county, Pennsyl- 
 vania. She had seven children, three only of 
 whom are living, James, John and William. 
 
 James Haney, of whom we have already spoken, 
 was the first postmaster at Lansing, and resigned 
 after having held the office several years. He was 
 born on the 28th of December, 1820, and his was 
 the first marriage in Lansing, it occurring on the 4th 
 of February, 1852, his wife being Rachel W. Horton, 
 of Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania. She came 
 to Lansing on the 15th of July, 1851. She had 
 two children, a son and a daughter, the former dy- 
 ing on the isth of April, i860. In 1857 James 
 Haney laid out an addition to Lansing, known as 
 Haney's Addition. He lives three miles west of 
 the town, and is a frugal, hard-working, well-to-do 
 farmer. In April, 1850, when Allamakee county was 
 organized, he was appointed the first clerk, and was 
 afterward elected by the people to the same office, 
 but refused to qualify. At one time he was a trader 
 among the Indians, operating for Ewing and Co., 
 of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Part of the time he 
 was at Fort Atkinson, and part at Bradford. He 
 and his brother John built the first house erected 
 •on the present site of Bradford. They could both 
 speak the Winnebago language fluently. 
 
226 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL BICTIONART. 
 
 When the Indians were removed northward, John 
 Haney, who came to Lansing iti 1852, went with 
 them, and continued the trade until he settled in- 
 Lansing. He now lives two miles west of the city, 
 and, like James, is a thrifty farmer. He is married. 
 He and his brother William own a flouring-mill 
 near Lansing. In 1872 John Haney was the re- 
 publican candidate for state senator, but the county 
 is democratic and he was defeated by a very close 
 vote. 
 
 William Haney came to Lansing in June, 1852, 
 and married Miss Jacobine Welty, a native of France. 
 She died on the 29th of October, i860. 
 
 The second wife of John Haney, senior, was 
 Miss Fanny Hemenway, of Rushville, Illinois. She 
 had seven children, and died on the 13th of Jan- 
 uary, 1872. Only three of her children are living. 
 Richard, one of her sons, is a lawyer, residing in 
 Lansing, and is a young man of more than ordinary 
 promise. 
 
 FRANCIS H. GRIGGS, 
 
 DAVENPORT. 
 
 FRANCIS H. GRIGGS, president of the Citi- 
 zens' National Bank of Davenport, was born 
 on the 14th of November, 1834, in Brookline, one 
 of the suburbs of the city of Boston, Massachu- 
 setts. His parents were Thomas and Harriet (Ful- 
 ler) Griggs, both natives of the Bay State. 
 
 His early education was obtained in the public 
 schools of Brookline. In 1850 he entered Harvard 
 University, taking the full collegiate course and 
 graduating in 1854. In the early part of 1855 he 
 removed to Davenport, Iowa, where he has since 
 resided. Until 1873 Mr. Griggs has been engaged 
 in mercantile pursuits, from 1855 to 1859 in the 
 shoe and leather business, and from i860 to 1873 
 in the printing and publishing business. Since 1873, 
 with a brief interval of travel, his duties as presi- 
 dent of the Citizens' National Bank have fully oc- 
 cupied his time. 
 
 On the 8th of October, 1861, he was married to 
 Miss Candace Watson, daughter of Joseph Watson, 
 of Indianapolis, then deceased. They have two chil- 
 dren : Elizabeth H., born on the 22d of April, 
 1866, and Thomas W., born on' the 14th of Febru- 
 ary, 1875. 
 
 By his business qualifications and strict integrity 
 Mr. Griggs has won the confidence of the com- 
 munity in which he has spent his life. He is not a 
 public man, yet he is public-spirited and gives freely 
 of lime and money to promote the common good. 
 
 Personally, he is sociable and friendly, a good 
 talker when aroused to interest, but usually unde- 
 monstrative and retiring. 
 
 Politically, a member of the democratic party, he 
 seldom makes a public appearance as such. 
 
 In religious sentiment he favors Protestantism, 
 but is a member of no church. 
 
 GIDEON GARDNER, 
 
 NEW HAMPTON. 
 
 DEACON GARDNER, as he is called through 
 Chickasaw county, is a native of Massachu- 
 setts, and was born in Plainfield, Hampshire county, 
 on the 23d of February, 1807, his parents being 
 Benjamin and Molly Tirrill Gardner. His father, 
 the youngest of seven brothers, carried a musket 
 during the strife for independence. The head of 
 the Gardner family came over in the Mayflower, 
 and Governor Gardner, of Massachusetts, was one 
 of his descendants. William Gardner, an uncle of 
 Gideon, was aid-de-camp to General Washington. 
 
 Benjamin Gardner was a farmer, and Gideon was 
 raised in the calling, remaining in Massachusetts 
 until 1831, working awhile in Pittsfield at the ma- 
 son's trade. In the year just mentioned he came 
 as far. west as Ohio, halting in the town of Chester, 
 Geauga county, working at his trade and teaching 
 music. Three years later he went to Medina county, 
 laid brick in the summer and taught music schools 
 in the winter, carrying on a farm, buying wool 
 and dealing in stock also part of the time. He 
 spent three years as merchant in Chatham, Medina 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 227 
 
 county, and in 1854 immigrated to Grinnell, Iowa. 
 There he aided in laying out the town, founding the 
 colfege and organizing the Congregational Church, 
 at which time he was chosen deacon. He remained 
 there two years, tilling land part of the time, and 
 managing a store for another man, and in the au- 
 tumn of 1856 made a permanent location at New 
 Hampton. He was the original proprietor of most 
 of the present site of this little city, surveyed and 
 platted it, there being less than half a dozen fami- 
 lies here then. It is a beautiful spot for a prairie 
 town, and is blooming like a rose as we write this 
 sketch in the summer of 1877. 
 
 In July 1861 Mr. Gardner went into the army as 
 captain of company B, 7th Iowa Infantry, and was dis- 
 charged in September, 1862, on account of age and 
 disability, serving as major when he left the regiment. 
 
 While in Medina county, Ohio, he was assessor of 
 the county two years, and during his early residence 
 at New Hampton was justice of the peace for some 
 time ; was chairman of the county board of super- 
 visors for a number of years, and has been mayor of 
 the city one term. 
 
 Mr. Gardner was originally a whig, then a free- 
 
 soiler, and latterly has been a republican. He has 
 been a member of the church forty-five years ; 
 helped to organize the New Hampton Congrega- 
 tional Church, and was its first deacon. His chris- 
 tian character has never been questioned ; his life is 
 a model of the purest religious type, and has been 
 a power in keeping up the moral tone of the place. 
 
 In 1827 Miss Naomi Parker, of Plainfield, Mas- 
 sachusetts, became his wife, and she is living still, a 
 moderately healthy old lad}', with treasures enough 
 on earth to make her comfortable, and' treasures 
 enough in heaven to make' her happy. They have 
 had three children, none of whom are now living 
 but one son, Weston D., who is married, his wife 
 being Harriet Lyon, of Medina county, Ohio. They 
 have four children. The son resides in New Hamp- 
 ton ; kept the Gardner House several years, and is 
 like his father, a much respected citizen. 
 
 Deacon Gardner has entered on his seventy-first 
 year, yet never stood more erect. He is six feet 
 and two inches tall, well-built, and a fine specimen of 
 manhood. He has married grandchildren who ven- 
 erate his name, as also do the citizens generally, for 
 his unblemished and useful life. 
 
 HON. JOHN HILSINGER, 
 
 S ABU LA. 
 
 JOHN HILSINGER is a son of Barnabus and 
 J Polly Coonrod Hilsinger, and the fifth child in a 
 family of thirteen children, twelve of them now liv- 
 ing and having families. Both parents are of Hol- 
 land descent. Barnabus Hilsinger was a farmer, 
 and John, who was born at Marathon, Cortland 
 county. New York, on the 4th of March, 1835, 
 worked at the same business until about sixteen, at- 
 tending school each winter. At the age mentioned 
 he commenced learning the carpenter and joiner's 
 trade, and worked at building houses, agricultural 
 implements and saw-mills, at Marathon, until about 
 at his majority, teaching school during the winters. 
 He had a strong love for study, and from boyhood 
 devoted his leisure to books. In 1856, after dip- 
 ping into law books some in private, he commenced 
 reading with Judge Lewis Kingsley, of Cortland 
 village, finished the next year with Judge Hiram 
 Crandall, of the same place, and was admitted to 
 the bar at Ithaca at the general term of the su- 
 preme court in the autumn of 1857. He remained 
 
 in Cortland until the next March, when he started 
 for Floyd county, Iowa, and was admitted to the 
 bar at Charles city in the May following. In July 
 he settled in Sabula, Jackson county, here teach- 
 ing the graded school two years, and practicing law 
 during the vacations. Since i860 he has been in 
 the practice of his profession, and steadily growing 
 in reputation as an attorney, he being a close stu- 
 dent and an able counselor. No man at the Jack- 
 son-city bar has a better standing. 
 
 In 1873 Mr. Hilsinger started a bank in com- 
 pany with Ira B. Overholt, at first as a corporation 
 called the National Savings Bank, which was dis- 
 solved in 1875, and he has since conducted it as a 
 private institution, the firm name being Hilsinger 
 and Overholt. 
 
 Mr. Hilsinger was elected one of the supervisors 
 of the county in i860, and held that office nine or 
 ten years ; was postmaster at Sabula during part of 
 Mr. Lincoln's first presidential term ; and has held the 
 same office during the last four years ; was elected 
 
228 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 the second mayor of Sabula, and by reelections held 
 that ofifice three years, and was state senator from 
 1864 to 1868. In that body he was on the com- 
 mittee on agriculture and commerce, and one or 
 two other committees, and was assiduous in the 
 discharge of his duties. 
 
 Mr. Hilsinger is attorney for the Sabula, Ackley 
 and Dakota railroad, and active in all enterprises 
 tending to benefit the city, the county or the state. 
 
 He cast his first vote for John C. Fremont in 
 1856, and has always voted the republican ticket. 
 He was a delegate to the national convention which 
 nominated General Grant in 1868. 
 
 Mr. Hilsinger is an Odd-Fellow and Freemason ; 
 
 has taken three degrees in Odd-Fellowship, is a 
 Royal Arch Mason and Knight Templar, and has 
 taken the thirty-second degree in the Scottish rife. 
 
 He is not a member of any church, but he has a 
 partiality for the Methodist Episcopal creed. 
 
 In 1867 Miss Mary E. Scarborough, of Sabula, 
 became his wife, and they have had four children, of 
 whom they have lost two. 
 
 Mr. Hilsinger has a modest, unassuming appear- 
 ance, and a stranger would not be likely to esti- 
 mate him according to his ability and worth. He 
 has been, and iS; a very useful citizen of Jackson 
 county, those who know him best having the highest 
 esteem for him. 
 
 HON. JONATHAN C. HALL, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 JONATHAN CHAPIN HALL was born in Ba- 
 ~' tavia county. New York, on the 27th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1808. He was the third child of Colonel 
 Samuel Hall and Hannah Chapin Hall, who were 
 pioneers of that county, having settled there in 
 1804. 
 
 Judge Hall was eminentl}' a self-made man. His 
 early life was that of a farm boy, his father having 
 at an early day cleared a farm out of the heavy 
 forests. His early culture was obtained at the 
 common schools and Middlebury (now Wyoming) 
 Academy. By his own exertions he received a 
 good English education, having taught school for 
 three years during the winter to defray the ex- 
 penses of his summer tuition. After leaving school 
 he joined a civil engineering corps, and surveyed 
 into sections Genesee and adjoining counties. 
 
 In 1828 he began reading law at Albany, New 
 York, under the instruction of Abram Van Vecten, 
 and. continued until 1829, when he entered the law 
 office of Coles and Andrews, in Cleveland, Ohio, 
 where he remained until 1830. He removed to 
 Zanesville, Ohio, and completed his legal studies 
 under Judge Keith, of that place. In this year he 
 was admitted to the bar at Columbus, and locat- 
 ing at Mount Vernon, Knox county, Ohio, at once 
 commenced the practice of his profession. On the 
 1 2th of June, 1832, he was married to Miss Achsah 
 F. Childs, at Bethany, New York. His practice 
 increased and it was not long until he was engaged 
 in nearly all the important litigation in that por- 
 
 tion of the state. But in 1839, induced in some 
 degree by the unfortunate results of the financial 
 troubles of 1836-7, but more especially in conse- 
 quence of the death of a favorite child, whose loss 
 rendered him dissatisfied with his surroundings, he 
 removed to what was then the far west, and tem- 
 porarily stopped at Burlington, Iowa territory. He 
 concluded to locate at Mount Pleasant, Henry 
 county, to which place he removed in January, 
 1840. During his first year he succeeded in es- 
 tablishing himself in an extensive practice, attend- 
 ing courts in eleven counties. He witnessed the 
 organization and opening of the first courts in . 
 many counties, and for many years in the early 
 history of Iowa was retained in important litiga- 
 tion in all parts of the state and in Illinois. In 
 1845 he was elected a member of the first consti- 
 tutional convention, and shortly after the close of 
 the session he removed to Burlington, where he 
 spent the remainder of his life. In 1854 he was 
 appointed associate justice of the supreme court 
 of the state, to fill a vacancy caused by the resig- 
 nation of Hon. J. F. Kinney. The opinions written 
 by him appear in fourth G. Green's "Reports." In 
 
 1855 he was elected president of the Burlington 
 and Missouri River Railroad Company, and it was 
 largely owing to his indomitable energy and per- 
 severance that that enterprise was organized upon 
 a successful basis. In the Presidential campaign of 
 
 1856 he was again elected member of the consti- 
 tutional convention that framed the present funda- 
 
THE UNITED STATES B/OGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 229 
 
 mental law, under which the state government is 
 organized. He was an active and influential mem- 
 ber of the convention, and to his exertions and in- 
 fluence is greatly due the superior educational sys- 
 tem of Iowa. In the discussions to be found in the 
 constitutional debates remains a perpetual monu- 
 ment of his research, broad and liberal views, can- 
 dor, unselfish and disinterested zeal for the public 
 good. He was elected a member of the ninth 
 general assembly of the state in 1859, and consented 
 to forego his professional duties for that purpose 
 at the solicitations of his professional brethren, who 
 wished his influence and judgment in the prepara- 
 tion of the revision of the laws,. which it had been 
 appointed for that assembly to frame and enact. 
 He was a memtier of every ^constitutional con- 
 vention, and was regarded as one of the founders 
 of the state, and did more, perhaps, toward fram- 
 ing the state government than any other single 
 individual, and was always the uncompromising 
 champion of the educational interests; his first act 
 in the young territory being to assist in founding an 
 academy, which has since developed into the Iowa 
 Wesleyan University. The State University found 
 in him a staunch supporter. .To his liberal views 
 
 the beneficent provisions of the homestead and 
 other exemptions are due, vk-hile his practical judg- 
 ment was largely influential in the adoption of a 
 form of procedure which, for its justice and sim- 
 plicity, its freedom from technicalities and evasions, 
 has probably no superior. He was regarded as one 
 of the prominent lawyers of the northwest, compre- 
 hensive in his views, clear and perspicuous in argu- 
 ment, and of great power as an advocate. 
 
 In politics, he was an unswerving democrat, a 
 prominent, honored and influential member of that 
 party. During the Buchanan campaign he made 
 one hundred and seventeen speeches, which re- 
 ceived the commendation of his friends and the 
 respectful consideration of his political opponents. 
 
 Socially, he was a man of great heart; his charity 
 and liberality were scarcely limited by his means. 
 In kindness and tender consideration for all his 
 fellows he was without many equals, and none could 
 say of him that he ever intentionally did any man 
 a wrong. He was an extraordinary man in all the 
 elements of greatness, his presence was command- 
 ing, and his supremacy was written in his person 
 and features; his fair fame will ever remain a proud 
 legacy to the state he so greatly honored. 
 
 GEORGE M. REYNOLDS, 
 
 NEW HAMPTON. 
 
 THE oldest journalist in Chickasaw county, 
 Iowa, in age and in occupancy of the editorial 
 chair, is George M. Reynolds, proprietor of the 
 New Hampton "Courier." He left home just as he 
 had entered on his teens; received most of his edu- 
 cation at the printer's case, and is to-day one of the 
 best informed men in the county. Mr. Reynolds is 
 the son of a cloth manufacturer, Joseph Reynolds, 
 and was born in Rahway, New Jersey, on the 13th 
 of November, 1814. His grandfather, John Rey- 
 nolds, was a revolutionary soldier, and a pensioner 
 until his death. 
 
 The maiden name of George's mother was Effie 
 Marsh, and her grandfather, Christopher Marsh, 
 was a captain of scouts for General Washington. 
 He was caught by the tories and marched, in his 
 drawers and stocking feet, to Trenton, New Jersey, 
 whence he was subsequently released by General 
 Washington during the battle at that place. 
 
 George attended a district school, and worked at 
 ^7, 
 
 home until fourteen years old, and from that age to 
 that of twenty-one, was in a printing office at Mont- 
 rose, Pennsylvania. He then spent three years in 
 New York city, mostly in the office of the " Courier 
 and Enquirer," published by James Watson Webb ; 
 was two years in the office of the Mobile, Alabama, 
 "Advertiser," and the same period in the office of 
 the Montgomery "Journal," edited by Hon. Henry 
 W. Hilliard, then a state senator from Alabama, and 
 afterward member of congress. He then went to 
 Louisiana and published papers six years, and re- 
 turned to the north in 1848. He established the 
 "National Reformer," at Honesdale, Pennsylvania, 
 and the next year removed the establishment to 
 Carbondale and started the Lackawanna "Journal," 
 which he conducted for nine years, and sold in 
 May, 1858. He came to Dubuque, Iowa, the next 
 month, and worked on tire Dubuque " Daily Times," 
 Jesse Clement, editor. In 1859 he removed into 
 the interior of Iowa, and became one of the pub- 
 
230 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 lishers of the " Cedar Valley News," of Bradford, 
 Chickasaw county, and in June, 1862, purchased a 
 half interest in the New Hampton "Courier," and 
 settled in this place. 
 
 In 1 868 Mr. Reynolds became sole proprietor of 
 the " Courier," and still owns and conducts it. It is 
 a quarto six-column sheet, very neatly printed, and. 
 edited with much care and ability. Mr. Reynolds 
 is one of the best printers in the Cedar Valley 
 country, and takes great pleasure and, it is not un- 
 likely, some pride, in publishing a model county 
 paper. He has built himself a pleasant home at 
 the county seat, and has probably ended his pere- 
 grinations as a newspaper publisher. At the head of 
 the official paper of the county, in comfortable cir- 
 cumstances, and surrounded by many friends who 
 
 appreciate his journalistic services, he seems to be 
 contented and happy. 
 
 Mr. Reynolds is a well-read politician, is a repub- 
 lican, with whig antecedents, and has a good deal of 
 influence in the politics of the. county. The same 
 is true of his influence many years ago in Alabama, 
 Louisiana and Pennsylvania. He is a member of 
 the blue lodge in the Masonic fraternity. 
 
 Miss Harriet Clark, of Bradford county, Pennsyl- 
 vania, became his wife in September, 1847, and 
 they have one child, Dimock D., a printer in his 
 father's office. 
 
 Mr. Reynolds is a man of great industry, good 
 social qualities, and an interesting converser, espe- 
 cially on the political history of the country for the 
 last forty years. 
 
 CHARLES B. RICHARDS, 
 
 FORT DODGE. 
 
 SEVERAL of the early settlers in Fort Dodge, 
 Iowa, have been eminently successful. They 
 were men of intellectual, moral and physical stami- 
 na,- industrious, energetic and shrewd, and early laid 
 a good foundation, and have built slowly yet safely 
 and surely. Among these men is Charles Benedict 
 Richards, a native of New York. He was born at 
 Warrensburg, Warren county, on the 13th of August, 
 1833. His father, Pelatiah Richards, was a lumber 
 dealer. His mother belonged to the Benedict fam- 
 ily, noted for the great number of its clergymen, 
 college teachers and jurists. The heads of both 
 the Richards and Benedict families emigrated to 
 this country only a few years after the Mayflower 
 arrived, and have furnished their full share of the 
 distinguished scholars, professional men and patriots 
 of the land. 
 
 The grandfather of Charles Benedict Richards, 
 and five of that ancestor's brothers, were soldiers in 
 the revolutionary army. 
 
 From a very early age the subject of this sketch 
 was kept at school at North Granville, Glen Falls 
 and Kinderhook Academies, and the Rensselaer 
 Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, graduating from the 
 last-named school in 1854. He studied law with 
 Hon. Joshua A. Spencer, of Utica, and was ad- 
 mitted to the bar in January, 1855. After practicing 
 one year in his native town he immigrated to Iowa, 
 and located at Fort Dodge in March, 1856. The 
 
 first eight or nine years in this state he devoted al- 
 most exclusively to his profession, building up a 
 business of which any young man might be proud. 
 A few years ago he organized the First National 
 Bank of Fort Dodge, and owned nearly half of its 
 stock. Two or three years since he sold out, and 
 went into the coal business, and in partnership with 
 Hon. J. F. Duncombe owns four mines in Webster 
 and Greene counties. He is treasurer of the Greene 
 County Coal Company, which owns the celebrated 
 Snake Creek coal mines. His great energy and 
 business talent, now largely devoted to the develop- 
 ment of the coal interest of the Des Moines valley, 
 are reaping rich returns, the usual reward of indus- 
 try wisely applied. 
 
 Mr. Richards has never sought political prefer- 
 ment, and has uniformly given his professional 
 and other business precedence over politics, help- 
 ing others to offices which he would not take himself. 
 Yet he had not been in Iowa a year before the 
 office of prosecuting attorney was thrust upon him. 
 At that time every county had such an officer, and 
 Webster county was more than three times its pres- 
 ent size. It included Humboldt and Hamilton coun- 
 ties. He held the office until January, 1859. 
 
 In March, 1857, when forty-nine persons were 
 massacred by the Sioux Indians at Spirit lake, Dick- 
 inson county, Mr. Richards raised one of the three 
 companies of volunteers that went out to bury the 
 

 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 233 
 
 dead, and, if need be, protect the living. He was 
 captain of company A, and ex-Governor Carpenter 
 was one of the privates. They had to march through 
 three feet of snow, and for seventeen days Captain 
 Richards did not take off his overcoat. Mr. Burk- 
 holder, one of his company, was frozen to death. On 
 his return from the burial of the dead, he was ap- 
 pointed commissary and quartermaster-general of 
 the state, having charge of all the troops which, for 
 two or three years, the state kept on the frontier. 
 
 In April, 1861; Mr. Richards was appointed regis- 
 trar of the United States land office, for the district 
 of lands subject to sale at Fort Dodge, holding that 
 responsible position eight years, and discharging its 
 duties with great executive ability. 
 
 He has long been a member of the encampment 
 of Odd-Fellows. 
 
 He is a regular attendant on divine worship, but 
 holds membership in no church. He has always 
 been a firm republican. 
 
 On the 14th of June, 1857, he was married to Miss 
 Mary J. Olcutt, of Fort Dodge, a refined and intelli- 
 gent lady, by whom he has two sons. 
 
 Mr. Richards and his partner, Mr. Duncombe, 
 have done most of the work on the first fifty-three 
 miles of the Iowa and Pacific railway, eastward of 
 Fort Dodge. They have also built railroads to two 
 coal mines in this county, and are at this time (au- 
 tumn of 1876) laying the track to a mine in Greene 
 county. The enterprise of Mr. Richards crops out 
 in new undertakings from year to year, and every 
 bold push which he makes tends to improve the 
 country as well as his own fortune. He is one of 
 the nation's wealth-producers. 
 
 WILLIAM GARRETT, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 WILLIAM GARRETT, cashier of the Iowa 
 State Savings Bank, Burlington, Iowa, was 
 born in Lexington, Kentucky, on the i8th of June, 
 1823. His parents were William and Ann Garrett 
 nie McConathy, who were married in Lexington, 
 Kentucky, in 1822. His father was born and brought 
 up in Caroline county, Virginia, and died in Louis- 
 ville, Kentucky, in June 1830.' His mother, with 
 four young children, was left in rather destitute 
 circumstances, and removed soon after to Hunter's 
 Bottom, Trimble county, Kentucky, fifty miles above 
 Louisville. His mother was a daughter of Captain 
 Jacob McConathy, who settled at Lexington in 
 1797, and erected and owned the first steam mill 
 in the- place, and supposed to be the first in Ken- 
 tucky. While living at Hunter's Bottom he attended 
 the common schools of the country four or five 
 years. In 1834 his mother remarried, and in March, 
 1836, left Kentucky for the far west, and arrived at 
 Flint Hills (now Burlington), then in Michigan Ter- 
 ritory, on the nth of April, 1836, where he has re- 
 sided since. He attended a grammar and writing 
 school and worked on a farm till October, 1837, 
 when he engaged as a boy in the store of Webber 
 and Remey, who kept a stock of general merchan- 
 dise, for his board and clothes, remaining for three 
 years, when he engaged as salesman in the store of 
 Shepherd LefHer and Co. for a salary of one hun- 
 
 dred and fifty dollars per annum and board (Mr. 
 Leffler was for some years a member of congress, 
 and in 1875 the democrat candidate for governor); 
 here he remained two years, as also one year with 
 another house, and went to Wheeling, West Virginia, 
 during the winter of 1843-44, and was engaged in 
 the house of Lazier and Cox, of that place. On 
 the ist of March, 1844, he staged it over the moun- 
 tains to Baltimore, and purchased a stock of goods, 
 with which he returned to Burlington and opened 
 his store on the ist of April, 1844, before he was 
 twenty-one years of age. He was assisted by Mr. 
 M. B. Cox, who had formerly been a merchant at 
 Burlington. He remained in business till 1853, when 
 he was elected sheriff of the county as the whig 
 candidate; to this office he was reelected in 1855. 
 In 1857 he was nominated as the republican can- 
 didate for county judge, but was defeated, the dem- 
 ocrats carrying the county. He then engaged with 
 William H. Postlewait as book-keeper and salesman, 
 remaining two years, when he formed a copartnership 
 with Mr. Postlewait and John W. Rhodes, under the 
 firm name of Garrett, Rhodes and Co., remaining in 
 business until early in 1862, when the firm closed 
 up their business, he retiring after being in mer- 
 chandising for nearly twenty-one years, having con- 
 ducted it with much success and accrued a com- 
 petence. His old friend, Major Remey, was elected 
 
234 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 recorder and treasurer of the county, Mr. Garrett 
 going with him as his deputy, remaining till the ist of 
 January, 1863, when he was elected by the republican 
 party clerk of the district courts, and board of county 
 supervisors in October, 1862, and afterward five times 
 reelected, serving as clerk until the ist of September, 
 1874. Having been elected cashier of the Iowa 
 State Savings Bank by the directors, he resigned as 
 clerk and accepted that of cashier, having served 
 the county eleven years and eight months as clerk. 
 Mr. Garrett has acquired a good name in the 
 community, and is a public-spirited citizen, active in 
 all progress, enterprising, and greatly esteemed. In 
 October, 1844, he became a member of Washington 
 Lodge No. I, Independent Order of Odd-Fellows, 
 then the only lodge in the state, and has remained 
 a member until this date, and is now the oldest 
 initiate in the lodge. He became associated with 
 Eureka Encampment No. 2 in May, 1848 (being 
 a charter member), in which he still remains, having 
 passed the chairs in both lodge and encampment. 
 He became a member of the grand lodge of the state 
 in 1849, and in October, 1852, was elected grand sec- 
 retary ; has been reelected each year since, often by 
 acclamation, and when he serves out his present 
 term will have been in that office twenty-five years, 
 and is now the senior grand secretary of the order. 
 When he was initiated there were but sixteen mem- 
 bers in the state, and now there are over eighteen 
 thousand in good standing. He was representative 
 of his encampment in 1852, when the grand en- 
 campment was instituted, and was elected grand 
 junior warden, and in 1855 was elected grand scribe. 
 
 and reelected each year since by acclamation, and 
 at the same session was elected as grand represent- 
 ative to Grand Lodge of the United States, and 
 served as such six sessions. 
 
 His religious views are in accordance with the 
 Protestant Episcopal church, of which he has been 
 a member for over thirty years, being confirmed 
 in 1855 ; he has served as vestryman and secretary 
 and treasurer, and is treasurer at present time, but 
 his views having gone beyond the old landmarks, 
 he respects the religious convictions of all. 
 
 In politics, he has been a whig, and is now a re- 
 publican, though never an active partisan, and was 
 formerly a great admirer of Henry Clay. He served 
 his ward as alderman two years in the city council, 
 and has been secretary of the Aspen Grove Ceme- 
 tery Association for over ten years. 
 
 He was married on the 9th of May, 1848, to Miss 
 Martha Rorer, eldest daughter of the Hon. David 
 Rorer, of Burlington, and they have had nine chil- 
 dren, five sons and four daughters, of which seven 
 are now living, four sons and three daughters. The 
 eldest son is book-keeper in the Merchants National 
 Bank, is married, and resides in the city ; the others 
 still remain at home \vith their parents. His mother 
 resides with hioi at the advanced age of seventy- 
 two years. 
 
 As a business man and financier, he is eminently 
 conservative and safe, and in private life much re- 
 spected and beloved by his friends and associates. 
 William Garrett has earned a reputation and a name 
 by patient industry and honesty, and he well deserves 
 his place among the self-made men of our country. 
 
 HON. JOHN HALL, 
 
 ELD OR A. 
 
 THE first mayor of Eldora was-not taken from 
 the older class of residents. Comparatively a 
 new comer was selected, probably because of his 
 eminent practical business abilities, such as a young 
 city requires at the head of its municipal aifairs. 
 John Hall, on whom this honor was conferred, is a 
 native of Massachusetts, he having been born in 
 Ashburnham, Worcester county, September 19, 
 1827. He took the full name of his father. His 
 mother was of the Shepherd family, of Vermont. 
 His grandfather, though a lad when the revolu- 
 tionary war broke out, served in some capacity. 
 
 John Hall, senior, moved with his family to Ver- 
 mont, when the son was about nine years old, there, 
 as in Massachusetts, cultivating a farm. In 1846 
 the whole family immigrated to Fond du Lac, Wis- 
 consin. While in New England, the son had only 
 the educational privileges afforded by the common 
 school. At twenty years of age he went into a 
 cabinet and chair shop with an older brother, at 
 Sheboygan Falls, and worked at that trade until 
 i860, most of the time in Waushara county. Four 
 years afterward Mr. Hall went into the Wisconsin 
 pinery, manufacturing lumber for two years. On the 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 235 
 
 iith of July, 1866, he removed to Eldora, where he 
 has successfully prosecuted the lumber trade. He is 
 one of that class of men who, whatever the traffic in. 
 which they engage, oversee all the details of their 
 business, and do not hesitate to put their hands to 
 the work when the occasion demands; hence his 
 prosperity. 
 
 In i860 he was elected treasurer of Waushara 
 county, Wisconsin, and filled the office two years. 
 He was elected county judge two years later, and 
 resigned that office when he went into the pinery. 
 At the same time he vacated the editorial chair of 
 the Waushara county "Argus," which he had filled 
 two years, disposing of the paper to A. P. Lockerby. 
 He was chosen mayor of Eldora in August, 1869, 
 
 and served one year. In 1875 Mr. Hall was elected 
 to the lower house of the general assembly, and the 
 office of representative he now holds. In the ses- 
 sion of 1876 he was on the committees on claims, 
 highways and bridges, fish and game, appropriations 
 and reform school, and did good service on them 
 all. His industrious habits and practical good 
 sense made him a valuable member of that body. 
 
 Mr. Hall has been a republican since there was 
 such a party. He is not a member of any church. 
 
 He belongs to the Masonic order, and is high 
 priest of Evergreen Chapter, No. 55. 
 
 On the 14th of April, 1854, he married Miss 
 Mary E. Maxson, of Waushara county, Wisconsin, 
 and has five children. 
 
 CHARLES HENDRIE, 
 
 COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch was born on the 3d 
 of February, 1814, at Stamford, Fairfield county, 
 Connecticut. 
 
 He received a good common-school education, 
 and while yet a boy manifested quite a mechanical 
 genius. He was employed for two years as clerk 
 in the post-office at Stamford, it being the distribut- 
 ing office for the western part of the state, and at 
 the age of fifteen went to Danbury, Connecticut, 
 with a view to learning' the trade of pattern making 
 and of becoming a machinist. 
 
 In 1837 he removed to Marietta, Ohio, and was 
 there employed in a foundry until 1842, when he 
 settled at Burlington, Iowa. There he built the 
 first foundry that was established in the territory. 
 The capacity of this was afterward largely increased 
 by the extension of the building and the addition of 
 a large amount of machinery. 
 
 In 1855 he took a contract for building the Bur- 
 lington and Missouri railroad from Burlington to 
 the Skunk river, a distance of thirty-four miles, and 
 finished his contract in July, 1857, it being the first 
 section of the road that was completed. 
 
 In 1858 and 1859 he erected the custom-house 
 and marine hospital at Galena, Illinois, and during 
 the last-named year removed to Council Bluffs, 
 Iowa, and built the Council Bluffs Ironworks. 
 
 In i860 he took a contract for building the Council 
 Bluffs and Saint Joseph railroad from Council Bluffs 
 to the state line, about fifty miles. After grading 
 
 a considerable distance, and supplying a large quan- 
 tity of ties and other material, the enterprise was 
 abandoned by reason of the civil war, which had 
 already opened, and he sold his interest to the city, 
 which afterward sold the same to a Mr. Phillips, of 
 New York, who completed and extended the road. 
 
 In 1862 Mr. Hendrie opened trade between Coun- 
 cil Bluffs and the mountain regions of Colorado, 
 by establishing lines of transportation ; and during 
 the first year transported to the mines three hun- 
 dred thousand dollars' worth of mills for crushing 
 quartz, the principal part of which was taken to 
 Central City and the adjacent country. The enter- 
 prise was at that time extremely hazardous by reason 
 of the depredations which were constantly occur- 
 ring at the hands of the Cheyenne, the Sioux and the 
 Arrapahoe Indians, and many thrilling adventures 
 were encountered ; a single instance will suffice to 
 indicate something of the dangers. Mr. Hendrie 
 had dispatched a train of seventy wagons with three 
 hundred and fifty mules, and about one hundred 
 men, from Plattsmouth to Denver, Colorado. When 
 the train reached the junction of the Nebraska 
 City and Atchison wagon road the men, hearing of 
 the ravages of the Indians in burning ranches, 
 plundering trains, massacring the teamsters, etc., 
 refused to proceed further. Mr. Hendrie, learning 
 from his wagon-master of the state of affairs, deter- 
 mined to go out to the plains. Arriving at the 
 place of rendezvous, he found besides his own train 
 
236 
 
 THET UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 another belonging to Mr. John Langley. The men 
 had all refused to advance further; but when Mr. 
 Hendrie decided that he would take the train 
 through, they agreed to accompany him. Starting 
 out, they experienced no difficulty till they reached 
 Julesburg, but there were surrounded by about 
 three thousand Indians, and for three days were 
 obliged to fortify their position, and keep the savages 
 at bay until the arrival of United States troops 
 under Colonel Livingston, of Plattsmouth. In 1862, 
 seeing the need of a foundry and machine shop at 
 Central City, Mr. Hendrie proceeded thither and 
 erected such an establishment, operating it chiefly 
 for repairing machinery which was taken to the 
 mines from Iowa. The business was first conducted 
 under the firm name of Hendrie and Butler ; later 
 the name changed to Hendrie and Brother, and at 
 the present time, 1877, is known as Hendrie, Brother 
 and Bolthoff. As-indicating something of the extent 
 of his operations in this line, it may be stated that 
 after the establishment of his foundry he took a 
 train with quartz mills from Council Bluffs by the 
 way of Fort Laramie and Fort Phil Kearney, and 
 thence by the way of the Powder River route, by the 
 base of the Big Horn Mountains, and by the Yel- 
 lowstone and Boseman, down the Gallatin Valley to 
 Virginia City, Montana Territory. He has also 
 transported large quantities of other machinery by 
 the way of Fort Benton, on the Missouri river, and 
 hauled overland thence to Helena, the freight bill 
 amounting to twelve thousand dollars. At one time 
 
 on his return from Denver to Council Bluffs laden 
 with passengers, men, women and children, his train 
 was snowed in, and he was obliged to pay eighty 
 dollars for firewood to cook breakfast. 
 
 In 1874 Mr. Hendrie, together with other citizens, 
 built the Council Bluffs paper-mill. This establish- 
 ment was soon afterward destroyed by fire, but 
 rebuilt in 1875, and is now in successful operation. 
 
 Such is an imperfect outline of the business ca- 
 reer of one who in the face of every difficulty has 
 steadily persevered in his work, and by the force of 
 his own native energy, enterprise and ability attained 
 to an honorable position among his fellow-citizens. . 
 His course throughout has been marked by fair and 
 generous dealing, and he now enjoys the respect 
 and confidence of all who know him. 
 
 In political sentiment he was formerly a whig. 
 He afterward took an active part in organizing the 
 republican party in Iowa, and has since been iden- 
 tified with that body. He took an active interest in 
 the Kansas struggle, and contributed toward it a 
 considerable amount of mon-ey. He is associated 
 with the Congregational church. 
 
 Of his three sons, one of them is engaged in busi- 
 ness in Colorado and the two youngest in California. 
 Charles F. is a graduate of Phillips Academy, And- 
 over, Massachusetts, as is also the second son, William 
 C. The youngest, Edward B., is a graduate of the 
 Philadelphia Polytechnic College. He also has one 
 daughter, who is a graduate-of Mount Holyoke 
 Seminary. 
 
 HARRISON S. HOWELL, 
 
 KEOKUK. 
 
 HARRISON SCOTT HOWELL was born in 
 Cleves, Ohio, near Cincinnati, on the 30th of 
 April, 1830, and is son of Daniel G. Howell and 
 Jean E. Howell nee Lyall. His mother was a native 
 of Charleston, South Carolina, and a descendant of 
 an old Huguenot family. His father was born in 
 a block-house in"North Bend, Ohio, and was the first 
 white male child born between the two Miamis. 
 He died a short time since. His mother is still 
 living, and to her loving counsel and pious life he is 
 much indebted. 
 
 His early education was acquired in the common 
 schools of the country, helping on the farm sum- 
 mers, and attending school in the winters til4 his 
 
 sixteenth year, when he entered Farmers College, 
 an institution of learning of much prominence at 
 College Hill, Ohio, graduating second in the class, 
 and taking the honors. He then returned to the 
 farm, where he remained about a year, part of which 
 he traveled. But becoming dissatisfied with farm- 
 ing, and having a decided taste for law, he determined 
 to make it his profession. But being without means, 
 and his father having a large family could give him 
 no aid, he resolved, therefore, to maintain himself 
 while engaged in studying. To this end he came 
 to Cincinnati, and entered the office of Pugh and 
 Pendleton, working in the clerk's office day-time 
 and studying nights, but finished his studies with 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 ^il 
 
 Adam N. Riddle, being admitted to the bar in 1854. 
 He practiced at the Cincinnati bar for nearly two 
 years, when he removed to Keokuk, Iowa. Of in- 
 dustrious habits, resolute and ambitious in spirit, he 
 was successful from the start, and soon built up a 
 large practice. In 1864, when city and county were 
 repudiating their railroad bonds, he was employed 
 by eastern capitalists, who had their money invested, 
 for their collection, and obtained the first judgments 
 in Iowa, in their interests, in the United States 
 courts of Iowa, and also in the supreme court of the 
 United States. He was attorney and collector of 
 assessment for the Republic Insurance Company of 
 Chicago (for four states, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and 
 Nebraska), and was particularly successful. Mr. 
 Howell has been very prominent as a temperance 
 man, working in its cause against the liquor traffic. 
 He is a member and elder in the Presbyterian 
 church, and for over twenty years continuously 
 superintendent of the Sunday-schools. 
 
 In politics, before coming to Iowa, he was a strong 
 democrat, but since has voted according to his 
 judgment for the best men on either ticket. His 
 practice is large in United States courts, extending 
 from Chicago, Illinois, to Topeka, Kansas. 
 
 He married in 1854 Miss Annie E. Redman, of Cin- 
 cinnati, who died in 1863. In 1867 he married Miss 
 Lucy S. Taylor, daughter of Colonel William H. H. • 
 Taylor, formerly postmaster at Cincinnati, and grand- 
 daughter of William Henry Harrison, President of 
 the United States. The faculty of Mr. Howell for 
 making and holding friends is one of his remark- 
 able characteristics. This is shown by the friendship 
 of the people for him, notwithstanding the litiga- 
 tions involving their interests in which he has so 
 long and often engaged. 
 
 As a speaker and writer, he is clear and argu- 
 mentative, arranging his subjects systematically, and 
 clothing his ideas in appropriate words, of which he 
 seems to have a ready command. 
 
 ELBRIDGE D. RAND, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 ELBRIDGE D. RAND, lumber dealer, Burling- 
 ton, Iowa, was born in Watertown, Massachu- 
 setts, on the 22d of July, 1814, and is the eldest son 
 of Samuel and Mary Rand n^e Carter. His father 
 died when he was quite young, leaving him to care 
 for himself, and he worked out for a living till the 
 age of fifteen years, when he went to Providence, 
 Rhode Island, and served an apprenticeship in the 
 soap and candle business. Meanwhile he acquired 
 a little education irregularly at the common schools 
 of the country, working nights and mornings for his 
 board. In 1835 he was employed by J. and N. 
 Fisher to superintend their pork-packing business at 
 Hamilton, Ohio. Here he remained two years, and 
 started west to engage with a brother of the Fishers 
 in the pork-packing business, but was deterred. He 
 then engaged at Quincy, Illinois, in farming, stock 
 raising and pork packing, but finding it a losing op- 
 eration, removed to what was then called the " New 
 Purchase," in Iowa. Not being contented here, he 
 decided to accept Mr. Fisher's proposition to en- 
 gage with him in pork packing at Lacon. 
 
 He started for that place, but owing to the lame- 
 ness of one of his horses he was detained for some 
 weeks, and not having the means to go on, nor 
 
 to meet his expenses should he .stay, decided to 
 look for employment, which he found with Bridge- 
 man and Parridge, in their pork-house at Burlington. , 
 In the winter, it being very dull in the pork busi- 
 ness, he with the help of a friend purchased a dray, 
 and being nearly the only one in town, it was in 
 great demand. He hired a man to run it during 
 the days, when he was otherwise engaged, and drove 
 it nights himself. This gave him a start, as he 
 made money at it, and putting his savings in real 
 estate, it proved a winning speculation. He re- 
 mained with this firm till 1843, when he went into 
 partnership with Peasley and Brooks in the lumber, 
 provision and packing business, and continued with 
 them three years, when he met with a heavy loss, 
 occasioned by following the advice of the senior 
 partner, which stripped him of everything but his 
 real estate. He then borrowed money and built a 
 packing house of his own; which he conducted with 
 marked success financially, and which was the foun- 
 dation of his present fortune. He carried on this 
 and the lumber business till 1850, when he went 
 into the lumber business exclusively, and now has 
 the largest trade of the kind in the state. Besides 
 the mammoth yards of E. D. Rand and Co., at 
 
238 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Burlington, they have branches in twelve different 
 places in the west, and handle annually twenty mill- 
 ion feet of lumber, besides immense quantities of 
 lath, shingles, etc., and employ an average force of 
 over a hundred persons, at an expense of over a 
 thousand dollars a week. They usually carry ten 
 million feet of lumber in stock, and their shipments 
 ■ reach throughout the entire western country. 
 
 He is a director in the First National Bank, and 
 of National State Bank, of which he formerly was 
 president. 
 
 He was married on the 6th of April, 1837, to Miss 
 Sarah A. Proud, of Centerville, Ohio, who died in 
 
 1850, and he was again married on the 13th of June, 
 1852, to Mrs. C. A. Roberts, of Burlington. 
 
 Mr. Rand is a firm believer in republican princi- 
 ples, though not a politician. In 1856 he was 
 elected to the legislature, and served one term, and 
 also several times as alderman. 
 
 He is a member of the Congregational church. 
 It will be seen from this brief record that he has 
 had a remarkable career. Impelled by worthy am- 
 bition he has made his way in the world, and achieved, 
 mainly by his own exertions, an enviable position 
 among the self-made and successful business men 
 of the day. 
 
 JAMES HAGERMAN, 
 
 KEOKUK. 
 
 TAMES HAGERMAN was born in Clark county, 
 •l^ Missouri, on the 26th of November, 1848. His 
 father, B. F. Hagerman, was born in Virginia, and 
 is of German descent, and immigrated to Missouri 
 when a boy. His mother was Ann S. Hagerman 
 nee Cowgil, of Kentucky. James was educated at 
 the Christian Brothers' College, at St. Louis, Mis- 
 souri. As a student, he acquired a taste for mathe- 
 matics and literature, and by close application to 
 . his studies he gained the prizes in every depart- 
 ment, numbering some fifteen or sixteen, and was 
 the acknowledged leader of all the games and 
 sports of the college. From his earliest youth he 
 took a lively interest in political and legal discus- 
 sions, and, fostered by his father and mother, who 
 had brothers that were lawyers and politicians, and 
 by meeting with members of the bar, who visited his 
 home on their circuit travels, he imbibed an early 
 taste for law, and took much pleasure in listening to 
 a political speech or learned plea. At college, in 
 the debating societies and at the exercises of the 
 college, he showed an aptitude as a declaimer and 
 debater, as well as a writer. These, taken together 
 with his desire for the legal profession and the 
 wishes of his parents, decided his course. He left 
 college in 1864, and removed with his parents to 
 Keokuk, Iowa, where he began reading law in the 
 office of Rankin and McCrary, and was admitted by 
 Chief Justice Wagner, of the supreme court of Mis- 
 souri, in December, 1866, to practice law in all the 
 courts of that state. He not being twenty-one years 
 of age, could not be admitted to the courts of Iowa, 
 
 but, there being no restriction by the laws of Mis- 
 souri on account of age, he was admitted there. 
 He remained with Rankin and McCrary till 1869, 
 when he removed to Palmyra, Missouri, and formed 
 a partnership with Colonel H. S. Lipscomb, a prom- 
 inent lawyer of that place. He remained at Pal- 
 myra only a year, but while there had a useful 
 experience in witnessing, and to a limited extent 
 taking part in, what is known as a circuit practice, 
 that is, going from county to county and trying 
 cases. Believing that the field was not large enough 
 at Palmyra, he determined to leave it, and being 
 persuaded by friends was prevailed upon to return 
 to Keokuk, which he did in September, 1870, and 
 formed a copartnership with Hon. John N. Irwin, 
 present member of legislature from Lee county, and 
 later formed the law firm of McCrary, Hagerman 
 and McCrary. He has been constantly and actively 
 engaged in the practice of his profession, and espe- 
 cially in the adjoining counties of Missouri, where 
 he had cases involving large amounts. He has 
 shown great aptitude in trial cases, displaying more 
 than ordinary ability. 
 
 In religion, he is liberal, the member of no sect, 
 yet having great faith in the vital truth and power 
 of the christian religion. 
 
 He was married on the 26th of October, rS?!, to 
 Miss Maggie M. Walker, of Palmyra, Missouri, who, 
 on her mother's side, is a direct descendant of the 
 Lees, of Virginia. 
 
 He has always taken an active interest in politics, 
 yet has firmly resisted the numerous requests of his 
 
£nyf-o}'-^.Ti.¥alUc'^'7nsl3E<urctcL<fStN^ 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 239 
 
 friends to become a candidate. He is a liberal 
 democrat, and, although not of age, stumped part 
 of Missouri in 1868 for Seymour and Blair, and later 
 was an ardent supporter of Greeley and Brown, and 
 during the campaign made a number of speeches. 
 
 Mr. Hagerman is one of the most promising 
 young members of the bar in Iowa; he is a gentle- 
 man of decided ability, and bids fair in the not far 
 distant future to stand at the head of his profession 
 in the state. 
 
 JOSEPH C. HUGHES, M. D., 
 
 KEOKUK. 
 
 JOSEPH C. HUGHES, ex-surgeon-general of the 
 J State of Iowa, was born in Washington county, 
 Pennsylvania, on the ist of April, 1821, and is a son 
 of John and Eliza Hughes. He completed his col- 
 legiate course at Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, 
 Pennsylvania, from which institution, after entering 
 his profession, he received the degree of A.M. He 
 was a member of the Franklin Literary Society, and 
 one of her contestants for the honors which he 
 received. Was a gradirate in medicine of the Uni- 
 versity of Maryland at Baltimore in 1845; was the 
 student of Joseph Perkins, M.D., of that city. His 
 tastes and early ambitions were for the profession of 
 medicine and surgerj^, and to this end he applied 
 himself. In the spring of 1845, after his gradua- 
 tion, he located at Mount Vernon, Knox county, 
 Ohio. Here he remained five years, enjoying a 
 lucrative practice, during, which he devoted much 
 of his time to the study of anatomy and surgery, 
 and the preparation of anatomical and surgical 
 appliances. In the fall of 1850 he was invited to 
 the demonstratorship of anatomy in the College 
 of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, Iowa, then 
 the medical department of the Iowa State Univer- 
 sity, which he accepted, moving to the state in 1850, 
 and settling at Keokuk, where he commenced prac- 
 tice, attending also to his duties in the college. The 
 professor of anatomy, N. Hard, M.D., of Aurora, 
 Illinois, having been called home on account of 
 sickness in his family, he delivered nearly half of 
 the course on anatomy during the sessions of 1850- 
 51. In the winter of 1851 he was elected 'to fill 
 the chair of anatomy, which he occupied for two 
 years. During the winter of 1852 he was elected 
 dean of the faculty, and in the spring of 1853 he 
 was elected to the chair of surgery, which posi- 
 tion, with that of dean of the institute, he has held 
 ever since. For three sessions, when the institute 
 was struggling into maturity and prominence. Dr. 
 Hughes performed double duty, lecturing twice and 
 -4 
 
 often three times a day, filling the department of 
 anatomy as well as surgery ; and to him, more than 
 any other individual, belongs the honor of having 
 built up and maintained one of the most flourishing 
 medical institutes of the west. The college build- 
 ing, which is one of the most substantial edifices in 
 the state, with its valuable museum and appliances 
 for teaching, is owned by him, and his efforts for 
 more than a quarter of a century have been devoted 
 to its success. The College of Physicians and Sur-, 
 geons occupies a prominent position among the 
 institutions of learning in the west, being patron- 
 ized by students from all sections of the country. 
 Hughes' Medical and Surgical Infirmary, and Eye 
 and Ear Institute, connected with the college, is an 
 enterprise of his own and under his entire manage- 
 ment, and is largely instrumental as one of the 
 elements of success in the growth of the college, 
 offering to the student from its numerous clinics 
 every advantage for observation and the study of 
 his profession. 
 
 At the outbreak of the rebellion Dr. Hughes was 
 appointed by Governor Kirkwood surgeon-general 
 of the state, which position he filled during the war. 
 He organized and had professional charge of the 
 army hospitals at Keokuk for several months. 
 These hospitals were among the largest in the west, 
 having as many as two thousand patients within the 
 wards at one time. He was also president of the 
 board of medical examiners of the state during the 
 war. In 1866 he was elected by the American 
 Medical Association as one of her vice-presidents, 
 also a delegate of the association as its representa- 
 tive to the British Association for the Promotion of 
 Science, the Provincial Medical Association of 
 Great Britain, the American Medical Society of 
 Paris, and such other scientific bodies in Europe 
 as may affiliate with said association ; and, accom- 
 panied by his wife, daughter and eldest son, spent 
 the summer of that year in an extended trip on the 
 
240 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL biCTIONART. 
 
 continent of Europe. He has been twice president 
 of the State Medical Society, and for a time editor 
 of the Iowa " Medical Journal," and has written a 
 number of articles upon medical and surgical sub- 
 jects for publication. He is the author of the new 
 mode of operating upon bones, by which straight- 
 ness as well as length may be secured. He has 
 operated by the bilateral method forty-six times for 
 lithotomy (stone in the bladder), with but four 
 deaths, and on one patient performed the operation 
 four times successfully, which is the only case on 
 record in this country. 
 
 He was married at Mount Vernon, Ohio, in 1848, 
 to Miss Amanda T. McGugin, only child of D. L. 
 McGugin, M.D., and Eleanor McGugin. Dr. Mc- 
 Gugin was a practitioner of medicine in Mount 
 Vernon, Ohio ; was surgeon in the Mexican war, as 
 also surgeon in the late war,. and for fifteen years a 
 professor in the College of Physicians and Surgeons 
 
 at Keokuk. He. died in June, 1865, aged fifty-eight 
 years. 
 
 Dr. Hughes never mingled in politics, although a 
 strong partisan, first a whig and then a republican. 
 
 In his religious belief he is a Presbyterian. 
 
 His family consists of four children, three sons and 
 a daughter. His eldest son, J. C. Hughes, junior, 
 M.D., was elected professor of anatomy in the Col- 
 lege of Physicians and Surgeons in the spring of 
 1876, and is now in Edinburgh, Scotland, attending 
 the University there, preparing himself for the posi- 
 tion to which he was elected. This is his second 
 trip to that country, having made it in 1866, accom- 
 panying his father. Dr. Hughes is a delegate from 
 Iowa to the National Medical Congress, which 
 meets in Philadelphia in September of the present 
 year. He is the leading surgeon of the west ; has 
 been successful financially, and his position and 
 practice yields him a handsome income. 
 
 EDWARD H. HAZEN, M. D., 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 EDWARD HAMLIN HAZEN was born at 
 Elyria, Ohio, on the 12th of April, 1834, and 
 is the son of Edward and Minerva C. Hazen n^e 
 Hamlin. His father was the author of " Technol- 
 ogy of Professions and Trades," published by 
 Harpers, also of a grammar and a number of school 
 books. He was a native of New York. He died 
 on the 24th of April, 1877, in his eightieth year. 
 
 Edward's early boyhood was passed in the east- 
 ern states in the quiet attainment of a rudimentary 
 education. Through home discipline he was led in 
 early childhood to form habits of observation, which 
 proved invaluable in later life. Lacking robustness 
 in early manhood, a collegiate course was aban- 
 doned, and for several years certain avocations 
 were followed with a view of acquiring physical 
 strength and a knowledge of the world. He com- 
 menced the study of medicine in Ohio, and attended 
 his first course of lectures at the Michigan Univer- 
 sity in Ann Arbor during the winter of 1860-61. 
 At the breaking out of the rebellion he joined the 
 first three-years regiment raised in Michigan, and 
 participated in the Bull Run battles of the i8th and 
 2ist of July. He remained one year in the volun- 
 teer service and was honorably discharged, when he 
 entered the regular army as hospital steward, serv- 
 
 ing three years in the general hospitals of Alexan- 
 dria under United States surgeons Porter, Summers 
 and Page, receiving his discharge on the 22d of 
 June, 1865. He was much favored by these officers 
 in the practice of medicine and surgery, often sup- 
 plying the place of contract surgeons in operations 
 and in the wards as physician. During the latter 
 part of his last year of service he was engaged in 
 compiling and arranging the history of cases for the 
 surgeon general's office and army museum, which 
 gave him valuable information. He resumed the 
 study of medicine at the Charity Hospital Medical 
 College of Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated in 1866. 
 After practicing one year in Buffalo, New York, he 
 concluded to make a specialty of diseases of the 
 eye and ear, and to try his fortune in the west. He 
 came to Davenport in 1867, and opening an office 
 attended to general practice, but gave special atten- 
 tion to these branches. He was for four years 
 lecturer in the State University on ophthalmology 
 and otology, and during that time built up the 
 most successful clinic in the university. He has 
 done everything for the purpose of improvement in 
 his specialty. The best written authorities have 
 had his attention, and he has received instruction 
 from those in our own country who are eminent in 
 
" iy lil'i L.aiT34 
 
 A^l 
 
 Y^<i^ 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 243 
 
 this profession. In 1872 he traveled in Europe and 
 attended the clinics of those highest in reputation 
 in the old world, and frequented the hospitals de- 
 voted to these diseases. Increased practice from 
 all parts of the west, demanding that facilities for 
 the accommodation of patients be provided, led 
 him to establish an infirmary. The institution is 
 delightfully situated, modern in its architecture, 
 comfortably fitted up, and the only institution of its 
 kind of any importance in the state. His practice 
 is large and constantly increasing, and much of his 
 success may be attributed to his careful attention to 
 the details of his profession, and his particular 
 adaptation to the branches to whicli he has devoted 
 himself. He has been president of the Scott County 
 Medical Society, vice-president of the Iowa and 
 
 Illinois Central District Medical Associations, presi- 
 dent of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sci- 
 ences, a member of the American Medical Associa- 
 tion, the International Ophthalmological and the 
 Otological Congresses. 
 
 He was an acceptable member of the Congrega- 
 tional church for five years, and withdrew; but still 
 believes in the religion of paying his debts and 
 living agreeably with his neighbors. 
 
 He is a Royal Arch Mason, having been a mem- 
 ber of that order for twelve years. 
 
 He was married, in 1874, to Miss Sallie Feeman, 
 of Lancaster, Ohio. 
 
 Dr. Hazen is of fine appearance, about medium 
 height, and of prepossessing manner. He is an 
 earnest worker and deserving of his success. 
 
 GEORGE BEED, 
 
 HAMPTON. 
 
 THOUSANDS of enterprising young English- 
 men have heard of tlie rising west, and, at- 
 tracted by its promising openings, have sailed for 
 the New World, ai)d proceeded directly to the land 
 of prairies. Here with their business habits, ac- 
 quired in the old country, they have cast them- 
 selves upon their own powers, and by industry and 
 prudent management secured a competency, or be- 
 come independent in a few years. To this class 
 belongs George Beed, the subject of this sketch. 
 He is the son of Thomas and Anne (George) Beed, 
 and was born at Colyton, in Devonshire, on the 
 25th of June, 1832. 
 
 He attended school most of the time until he 
 was sixteen years of age, and during the next ten 
 years was employed as a clerk in the importing 
 house of Ricketts, Boutcher and Co., in London. 
 Thus thoroughly educated in a business line, and 
 well read in American progress, and full of en- 
 thusiasm to visit the young west, and there select 
 a home, he sailed for the United States, and 
 reached Franklin county, Iowa, in the spring of 
 1856; purchasing a tract of land near the present 
 site of Hampton, the county seat, he spent two 
 years in its improvement. In 1858 and 1859 he 
 was engaged in a steam grist-mill and saw-mill 
 near Hampton, an enterprise which proved very 
 unfortunate, he losing all he had. 
 
 The following year Mr. Beed served as deputy 
 
 treasurer and recorder of the county, and a year 
 later was elected treasurer and recorder. By re- 
 peated elections he served eight consecutive years, 
 the last term of two years as treasurer only, the 
 two county offices having been separated. 
 
 In 1870 he engaged largely in the real-estate 
 business, to which he had previously given some at- 
 tention, and became, in a short time, a heavy dealer 
 in landed property. He owns a large quantity 0/ 
 improved lands, and has had over five thousand 
 acres broken during his residence in the county. 
 Indeed, very few-citizens, owners of real estate, have 
 done, more than he to develop the agricultural wealth 
 of Franklin county. 
 
 In September, 1875, Mr. Beed organized the 
 Citizens' Bank, of Hampton, he being one of the 
 principal stockholders, and the president. It has 
 already become a popular institution, and is doing 
 a thrifty business. 
 
 Mr. Beed has been a member of the Methodist 
 Episcopal church, and an officer in the same for 
 many years, and is known for his liberal support 
 of the gospel, and of every worthy benevolent enter- 
 prise. 
 
 In politics, he has always been identified with the 
 republican party. 
 
 On the i8th of August, 1857, he was married to 
 Miss Marinda Denman, of Erie county, Ohio, and 
 by her has had five children, four of whom are now 
 
244 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 living. Mrs. Beed died on the 2d of August, 1875. 
 On the 1 2th of April, 1876, he was married a second 
 time, to Miss Amelia Illingworth, of Hampton. 
 
 Mr. Beed is a leader in local enterprises. He 
 obtained the subscriptions by which the right of 
 way for the Central Railroad of Iowa was secured, 
 bringing the road to Hampton, the natural line 
 being about three miles east of town. He not only 
 gave much time but much money to accomplish 
 this end, and a failure would have been ruinous to 
 the place. 
 
 Mr. Beed has been for several terms one of the 
 school directors of the village, and cheerfully gives 
 more or less time, from year to year, to advance its 
 educational interests, and in many respects is one 
 of the most enterprising and useful citizens of Frank- 
 lin county. 
 
 Mr. Beed has eight brothers, seven of whom live ■ 
 in Eranklin county. William, the eldest, is one of 
 the most public-spirited men in his part of the state. 
 All are hard-working men, who by their industry 
 have placed themselves in easy circumstances. 
 
 JAMES P. GAGE, 
 
 L TONS. 
 
 TAMES P. GAGE was born on the loth of June, 
 •J 1810, at Stony Creek, Canada, a few miles east 
 of Hamilton. His father, James Gage, was a farmer, 
 and among the very first settlers in that section of 
 country, then a wilderness. His paternal grand- 
 father served as a soldier in the war for independ- 
 ence, and was killed on the Hudson river, some 
 forty miles above New York city. He was a man 
 highly esteemed and respected for his sterling integ- 
 rity and patriotism. His mother, an estimable and 
 worthy lady, was a native of North Carolina; and 
 his maternal grandfather, sympathizing with the 
 local prejudices of his neighborhood, espoused the 
 .cause of the tories during the American revolution. 
 At the close of the war he settled in Canada, re- 
 gretting sincerely his error of judgment that induced 
 him to commit this political blunder, the great folly 
 of his life. He died at an advanced age. His 
 mother's maiden name was Mary Davis, and the 
 middle letter in the name of the subject of this 
 sketch is derived from the maternal grandmother, 
 whose name was Phillips. 
 
 His parents were worthy and prominent mem- 
 bers of the Methodist Episcopal church, and being 
 wealthy and liberal, contributed largely to its sup- 
 port and welfare. In his parental home, the early 
 ministry of that denomination always found a 
 hearty welcome and christian hospitality. The 
 children of the family consisted of four sons and 
 six daughters, all of whom arrived to maturity. 
 The subject of this sketch recently assisted in cele- 
 brating the ''golden wedding" of one of the sur- 
 viving sisters, Mrs. L. D. Birely, residing in Canada. 
 
 In the schools of the neighborhood he received 
 
 the rudiments of an English education, and was 
 always iirst in his class among his school-fellows. 
 In these early years he obtained the elements of a 
 sound and practical education. 
 
 The children were early taught that industry is 
 essential to success in life, and hence the boys and 
 girls of the family were always engaged in some 
 household duty, or useful employment on the farm. 
 Hunting, trapping and field sports generally have 
 always been very attractive to him. Through life 
 his gun has afforded him the highest enjoyment and 
 greatest amusement. 
 
 In a biographical sketch of this nature, the trifling 
 incidents that enter into the life of an individual 
 should be briefly noticed, as essential to the full 
 and faithful delineation of character. 
 
 At the age of twenty-two, having been gener- 
 ously endowed by a gift from his father of a deed 
 of seventy acres of good land, together with a horse 
 ■and fifteen hundred dollars in cash, he left the 
 parental mansion, and, in company with his brother, 
 entered into the mercantile business in Wellington 
 Square, some ten miles distant. The enterprise was 
 conducted with prudence, and proved profitable. 
 The brother having withdrawn, the business was 
 continued by Mr. Gage with ability arid success. 
 Making his purchases principally in New York and 
 Montreal, his business increased, and, to a limited 
 extent, became the center of commercial transac- 
 tion for that locality. 
 
 In his various business relations he soon acquired 
 a reputation for financial ability and thoroughness 
 in business, having no recollection of ever contract- 
 ing an obligation that was not paid at maturity. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DJCTIONART. 
 
 245 
 
 He has never sought nor accepted ofifice, and 
 belongs to no society. When a boy he joined the 
 temperance movement, and, during the southern 
 difficulties, the "Union League." His travels have 
 been limited. Some thirty years since, hovifever, he 
 visited England, principally to improve his health. 
 In 1836 he rode from Schenectady to Albany, a dis- 
 tance of sixteen miles, on the only railway at the 
 time in America. 
 
 His first visit to Iowa was in 1853, with a view 
 to land investments. Having made a large invest- 
 ment of some twenty-two hundred acres, near Lon- 
 don, at one dollar per acre, he returned in the fol- 
 lowing year and made another large purchase in the 
 same vicinity. He found the country attractive, and 
 in 1855 settled on a farm of half a section (three 
 hundred and twenty acres) in Jackson county. His 
 experience, however, as a farmer, was not gratifying. 
 To use his own expression, " he found the sun very 
 hot, the acres very large, and good help very 
 scarce." 
 
 About this time he established a grocery store in 
 the city of Lyons, with Wm. Lyall as manager. He 
 also invested in other property in the same vicinity, 
 and finally, in 1858, moved hither with his family. 
 
 This enterprise is still in successful operation, 
 doing business in a commodious edifice erected 
 by himself Associating himself principally with 
 Messrs. Rands, he entered into the banking busi- 
 ness, and early, with few associates, established the 
 first national bank at Lyons, O. McMahon and he 
 being the principal owners. He has been the presi- 
 dent of the bank since its organization. In 1873 
 he erected in Clinton, Iowa, the building known as 
 the Farmers and Citizens' Savings Bank. He is the 
 owner of the building and nearly the entire stock 
 of the institution. It enjoys a fair business, and is 
 increasing in usefulness. 
 
 The extent and variety of his business relations, 
 and the admirable manner in which they have been 
 managed, furnish sufficient proof of his comprehen- 
 
 sive intellect and thorough business capacity. His 
 reputation for financial ability and integrity is so 
 extensive that he is made the custodian of impor- 
 tant trusts, not only in his own, but also in neigh- 
 boring communities. His financial career has been 
 characterized by remarkable success. He has proved 
 what a man can do who depends upon himself, and 
 is resolved to trust himself to the end. He did not 
 believe that man is the creature, but the lord, of 
 his circumstances. Those who hope for his success 
 must adopt his means. 
 
 His religious views are peculiar and somewhat in- 
 definite. He is neither a sceptic nor a sectarian; 
 he believes all religion relates to life, and that the 
 life of religion is to do good. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Gage is decidedly an independ- 
 ent thinker and actor, and has no sympathy with 
 the party hacks who make politics a trade. Al- 
 though not a partisan in politics, yet he is a firm 
 believer in the science of self-government, and 
 entertaining an abiding faith in the Demos-Krotos 
 principle. 
 
 He was married on the 24th of November, 1836, 
 to Mary Jane Davis, of Wellington Square, Canada. 
 This lady died on the 7th of February, 1857. In 
 1858 was again united in matrimony, to Helen Julia 
 Buck, of Palermo, Canada West. One son and two 
 daughters are the result of the latter marriage. Mr. 
 Bidwell Gage, the very efficient and gentlemanly 
 cashier of the Farmers and Citizens' Savings Bank, is 
 the only surviving issue of the former marriage. 
 
 Mr. Gage is a man of pleasing address ; his man- 
 ners are affable and courteous, yet manly and digni- 
 fied. He has been highly favored by nature, being 
 endowed with an active and comprehensive mind, 
 singularly keen perceptions, and the most untiring 
 energy. He is one of the most prominent and 
 influential men in that region of Iowa where he 
 resides, and, as a business man, has the confidence 
 of a wide circle of merchants and capitalists, who 
 find in him a prompt and trustworthy associate. 
 
 FREDERICK BECKER, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch, a native of West- 
 phalia, Prussia, was born on the i6th of De- 
 cember, [824, the son of Ignatz and Elizabeth 
 Becker. His father was a lawyer of considerable 
 
 celebrity in his country. Frederick received his 
 education at Coesfeld, Germany; and after com- 
 pleting a thorough classical course and graduating 
 with honor, he, at the age of fourteen years, entered 
 
246 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 a large manufacturing establishment for the pur- 
 pose of learning a trade, and remained until 1846. 
 He was next called to his military duties in the 
 army, but after seven months of service was dis- 
 charged by reason of ill health. After spending a 
 short time with his brother in the wine business, 
 he, in 1848, immigrated to America, and there found 
 himself in a strange land without a friend. He at 
 the first established a small hotel or boarding house, 
 which he conducted with good success for about 
 eighteen months, and at the expiration of that time 
 removed to Buffalo, New York, and there resumed 
 the same business, and continued it for nearly five 
 years. Selling out his establishment, he next opened 
 a wholesale liquor business, in partnership with his 
 brother-in-law, which was conducted under the firm 
 name of Funck and Becker. In 1857 he removed 
 to the west, and settling at Burlington, at once re- 
 
 sumed the liquor business, and by his native busi- 
 ness ability, energy, enterprise and fair dealing, has 
 accumulated a handsome fortune. During his early 
 life Mr. Becker traveled extensively throughout Eu- 
 rope, gaining an experience and a knowledge of 
 men and things that have been invaluable to him 
 in all his subsequent business career. 
 
 His early religious training was under Catholic 
 influences, b.ut he is now very liberal in his views, 
 belonging to no church organization. 
 
 In politics, also, he is very liberal, being boimd 
 by no party ties. 
 
 Mr. Becker was married on the 20th of June, 1848, 
 to Miss Bettie Altrenter, of Bavaria. 
 
 He has rare personal characteristics, a command- 
 ing presence, and most excellent social qualities, 
 and enjoys the highest confidence and esteem of all 
 who know him. 
 
 HENRY C. HUNTSMAN, M.D., 
 
 OSKALOOSA. 
 
 PROBABLY no man in the central part of the 
 state is more thoroughly wedded to his pro- 
 fession than Dr. Huntsman, who has been a phy- 
 sician in Iowa (except when in the army) since 1851. 
 He was born in Dayton, Ohio, on the i6th of Sep- 
 tember, 1826. His father, Howell Huntsman, a 
 farmer in early life, and subsequently a general busi- 
 ness man, was born in 1801, and is yet living at his 
 home in La Porte, Indiana. The grandfather of Dr. 
 Huntsman cam^ over from Prussia, settled in New 
 Jersey, and fought in the war during the adminis- 
 tration of James Madison. The wife of Howell 
 Huntsman was Sarah Rogan, whose ancestors were 
 early emigrants from England -to New England. 
 When Henry C. was about five years old the family 
 moved to Elkhart, Indiana, and a few years later 
 removed to La Porte county, settling near La Porte 
 city. There the son aided his father in cultivating 
 land, receiving such education as could be obtained 
 at a common school, and a few terms at Franklin 
 College, Indiana, where he paid especial attention 
 to the classics. He studied medicine at La Porte 
 with Professors Meeker and Higday, of the med- 
 ical college, which was then in its palmiest period ; 
 attended two courses of lectures at La Porte, another 
 at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and graduated ' from the 
 latter place in April, 185 1. 
 
 Dr. Huntsman then removed to Iowa, and prac- 
 ticed medicine at Lafayette, Polk county, — a town 
 since become extinct — about three years, and at 
 Pella, Marion county, from 1855 until after the civil 
 war had commenced. In the winter of 1861-62 
 he raised a company of volunteers, intending to 
 enter the service with the isth Iowa Infantry; but 
 at the solicitation of his family he relinquished the 
 idea of going into the line service, and substituted 
 the medical. 
 
 In the spring of 1862 he was appointed first as- 
 sistant surgeon of the sth Iowa Infantry, and joined 
 the regiment in front of Corinth in April ; in Au- 
 gust, 1863, he was appointed by the President, sur- 
 geon of United States volunteers, and had charge 
 of general hospitals, and did general staff duty for 
 three years, not being mustered out until the sum- 
 mer of 1866. By special order of the secretary of 
 war he was retained in the service the last year 
 to finish up the work of the field, and take care 
 of the medical supplies of the government. These 
 supplies he sold in Jackson, Mississippi, and upon 
 final settlement with the government was able to 
 account for every cent of the vast amount of public 
 property and funds for which he became responsible, 
 and received a full discharge. 
 
 Dr. Huntsman located at Oskaloosa in 1868, and 
 
THE UNITED STATES StOGRAPHICAL DICTrONART. 
 
 247 
 
 soon became the leading physician. He has a steady, 
 uniform and successful practice; attends to his pro- 
 fessional duties with the utmost attention, and his 
 kindly feelings and gentle and polished manners, 
 coupled with his skill, make him a very welcome 
 visitor in the sick room. He had much experience 
 in surgery during the rebellion, and makes this 
 branch a specialty, though doing general practice. 
 He is surgeon for the Oskaloosa branch of the Chi- 
 cago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Company. 
 The confidence of the community in him, both as 
 a citizen and physician, seems to be unlimited. 
 
 Dr. Huntsman pays some attention to conchology, 
 and has the finest collection in this branch of the 
 natural sciences in this part of the state. His scien- 
 tific studies, with this single exception, are given to 
 medicine and surgery. He is a careful economist 
 of time ; gives to his medical library and fresh peri- 
 odicals the hours which can be spared from pro- 
 
 fessional visits, and with his studious habits and 
 excellent means for growth in knowledge, is making 
 fine progress. 
 
 In politics, the doctor is a republican. 
 
 His religious connection is with the Baptists, he 
 having been a member of the church since twenty 
 years of age. He is quite active in religious matters, 
 and most emphatically a christian gentleman. 
 
 His wife was Miss Matilda Fulton, of Ohio ; they 
 were joined in wedlock on the 29th of September, 
 1856, and have five children. 
 
 Dr. Huntsman has been president of the Mahaska 
 County Medical Society; was the first president of 
 the Des Moines Valley Medical Association, and is 
 a member of the State Medical Society and of the 
 American Medical Association. His standing in 
 the profession is truly enviable. In all respects Dr. 
 Huntsman is a very useful and honored member of 
 society. 
 
 ROBERT HOLMES, 
 
 CEDAR RAPIDS. 
 
 THE oldest journalist in Linn county, Iowa, 
 Robert Holmes, is a native of Kentucky, and 
 was born in Shelby county, on the 29th of May, 
 1819. His father, Andrew Holmes, a farmer and 
 surveyor, died when Robert was two years old. The 
 mother, whp was a McCormick, moved to Mont- 
 gomery county, Indiana, eight years afterward. 
 From ten to fourteen years of age Robert spent 
 his time in school and aiding an elder brother on 
 a farm; he then went to Crawfordsville, the county 
 seat, and acted as clerk for another brother in a 
 drug store until he was about twenty, when he be- 
 came a partner in the business. In 1841 he moved 
 to Marion, Iowa, and opened a dry-goods store, still 
 in partnership with the brother, who followed him 
 to Iowa a short time afterward. At the end of two 
 years Robert bought out his brother, and continued 
 the mercantile business until 1857, when he took 
 possession of the " Linn County Register,'' this he 
 published until 1863, when he sold out, and did not 
 engage in business until the autumn of 1865, con- 
 tinuing it until 1867. 
 
 Three years ago Mr. Holmes moved to Cedar 
 Rapids, joined the editorial corps of the " Daily 
 Republican," and is now its political editor. He is 
 at his post early and late, applies himself with great 
 
 diligence to his task, and makes a good local reper- 
 tory of passing events. He looks well to the interests 
 of Cedar Rapids. 
 
 Mr. Holmes served two years as clerk of the board 
 of county commissioners, and one year as school 
 commissioner for the sale of public lands while Iowa 
 was still a territory. In 1854 he was elected to the 
 lower house of the general assembly, serving one 
 term. 
 
 In 1864 Mr. Holmes was appointed commissary 
 of subsistence, with rank of captain ; was sent to 
 Cape Girardeau, Missouri, as post commissary; re- 
 mained there until May, 1865, when he was sent to 
 Denver, Colorado, to occupy the same official posi- 
 tion. Late in the same year, when discharged, he 
 received a commission as brevet major for faithful 
 and meritorious services. 
 
 Mr. Holmes is a Mason, having received the blue 
 lodge, chapter and council degrees. 
 
 He was a whig until the dissolution of that party, 
 and in 1850 was the whig candidate for treasurer of 
 state. He has been a very active republican since 
 the party was organized, and is an earnest worker in 
 its interests at the present time. 
 
 On the 3d of .October, 1849, he married Miss 
 Eliza Keys, of Marion. They have had eight chil- 
 
248 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 dren, only four of whom are living. The eldest son 
 is a book-keeper in the " Republican" office. 
 
 When Mr. Holmes settled in Linn county thirty- 
 five years ago, Marion had about one hundred and 
 fifty inhabitants, Cedar Rapids a single cabin, and 
 
 the county between three and four hundred voters. 
 He has lived to see the population swell to more 
 than thirty thousand souls, and a city of ten thou- 
 sand inhabitants surround the site of the single log 
 cabin of 1841. 
 
 HON. MATTHIAS J. ROHLFS, 
 
 DAVENPORT. 
 
 AMONG the men who have taken a high and 
 ly. leading part in the Iowa legislature, none 
 deserves a more honorable mention than Hon. M. 
 J. Rohlfs. He was born at Tondern, Germany, on 
 the 19th of April, 1816, and is son of Augustus and 
 Mary Rohlfs, both natives of the above place. His 
 father was a professor in the University at Tondern, 
 and was much noted for his learning and his excel- 
 lence as a teacher. 
 
 Mr. Rohlfs received his education at the Univer- 
 sity at Tondern (which institute was devoted to the 
 training and culture of teachers), where he grad- 
 uated and commenced teaching, following this oc- 
 cupation for several years. In 1847 he immigrated 
 to the United States, and, coming west, located at 
 Davenport, Iowa, which has since been his home. 
 On his arrival he at once rented a farm, and as- 
 sumed the arduous duties of a farmer's life, until 
 1866, when he was elected to the state legislature 
 on the republican ticket by a large majority. He 
 was reelected to this office three times, and during 
 his last session was elected speaker, pro tempore, 
 in which position his impartial rulings were to the 
 
 satisfaction of both sides of the house. He left the 
 republican party and joined the liberals, and was 
 a delegate to the Cincinnati convention which nomi- 
 nated Greeley for President, and in the following 
 campaign stumped part of the state. In 1872 he 
 received the nomination for state treasurer, but was 
 defeated. In 1873 he was elected treasurer of Scott 
 county, to which position he was reelected in 1875. 
 
 He has been a member of the Independent Order 
 of Odd-Fellows for the past twelve years. His 
 travels have extended over much of northern Eu- 
 rope, and parts of the United States. 
 
 He is liberal in his religious opinions, and al- 
 though educated among very orthodox influences, 
 has changed his views very much. In politics, he 
 is a liberal, and earnestly advocates reform ; as a 
 speaker, he is earnest and eloquent. 
 
 He was married on the 29th of November, 1840, 
 to Miss Eliza Rode, a lady of high attainments, and 
 distinguished for her womanly virtues. 
 
 Mr. Rohlfs stands high in the community as a 
 useful and respected citizen, and fully merits the 
 confidence and respect of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 HENRY P. BUTTON, M. D, 
 
 IOWA CITY. 
 
 WHILE the lives of self-made men seldom 
 abound in incidents of a sensational char- 
 acter, there is yet an energy, a perseverance and 
 an underflow of character that lends to them a 
 charm,— an attractiveness and worth that merit 
 admiration and careful thought. Henry P. But- 
 ton began life a poor boy, and by his own efforts 
 has risen to an honorable position, both in his 
 profession and in social life. He was born in 
 Lower Sandusky, Ohio, on the 24th of October, 
 183s, and is the son of Elijah Button and Mary N. 
 
 nee Miner, both of whom were natives of New 
 York and of Scotch-Irish descent. Both his pater- 
 nal and maternal grandfathers were participants in 
 the war of 1812. Henry's early life was that of a 
 farmer-boy, and he was early taught those habits of 
 economy and industry which have marked his sub- 
 sequent life. His early education was gained at the 
 common schools, but later, from 1854 to 1857, he 
 attended an academy at Painesville, Ohio. He 
 early developed a great fondness for the study 
 of medicine, and having decided to enter the 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 249 
 
 medical profession, to the accomplishment of this 
 end he bent all of his energies. Being dependent 
 upon himself, he went through that course of 
 training so common to young doctors — teaching 
 school, — in the meantime, taking up the study of 
 medicine, working on a farm in the summer to pay 
 the expense of his medical schooling. Of such 
 material are our sturdy American reformers made. 
 In i860 and 1861 he was engaged in hospital prac- 
 tice at Louisville, Kentucky, under the auspices of 
 the sanitary commission ; and the experience gained 
 there was of constant service to him. *He after- 
 ward became the private pupil of Dr. Olmstead 
 at Painesville, Ohio, and finally, in 187 1, graduated 
 from Hahnemann College, Chicago. He had, five 
 years prior to this, removed to the west and settled 
 for the practice of his profession at Mount Vernon, 
 Iowa. After a short time of successful practice 
 there, being desirous of a wider field for the em- 
 ployment of his powers, he removed to Iowa City 
 and there made a permanent settlement, and though 
 meeting with great opposition from the old-school 
 physicians, has, step by step, fought his way to a 
 full vindication of the systems of Hahnemann, and 
 to such success in practice as to be the leading phy- 
 sician in his city and county. 
 
 His career has been remarkably eventful, and his 
 struggles and success form an interesting chapter of 
 his life history. Perhaps it is due to Dr. Button, 
 more than any other man, that homoeopathy was 
 established in the medical department of the Iowa 
 
 State University. Certain it is that he determined, 
 with the help of friends, to carry the project 
 through, and was eminently successful, and to-day 
 finds an equality of schools in that institution. 
 
 In his religious views, he is liberal, and holds the 
 golden rule as his rule of action. 
 
 He was raised in the republican school of poli- 
 tics, but has been so occupied in his profession as 
 to have no time to devote to political matters. 
 
 He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and 
 high priest of Iowa City Royal Arch Chapter, No. 2, 
 for past two years. 
 
 He was married in September, 1869, to Mrs. 
 Sarah L. Sill, of Mount Vernon, Iowa, an estimable 
 lady, who has indeed proven a helpmeet to him in 
 his great life work, and whose aid and encourage- 
 ment has smoothed the rough paths he has been 
 forced to tread. From this brief sketch it may be 
 seen that Dr. Button is an enthusiastic devotee of 
 homoeopathy, and his success as a physician may 
 be attributed to his earnest and exclusive devotion 
 to his profession, which was always placed above 
 every other consideration, he never allowing politics 
 or speculations to interfere with his duties. He has 
 by his exertions probably contributed as much, or 
 more, to the spread and popularity of homoeopathy 
 in the west than any other physician. 
 
 He is possessed of refined tastes and feelings, of 
 sterling integrity and fine social qualities, and is 
 highly esteemed, both as a man and physician, by 
 all who know him. 
 
 HON. SAMUEL L. ROSE, 
 
 ROSE GROVE. 
 
 ONE of the men of mark in Hamilton county 
 is Samuel I,. Rose, whose beautiful home is 
 at Rose Grove. He was born in Augusta, Oneida 
 county. New York, on the igth of December, 1818. 
 His father was Dr. Nathaniel Rose, and one of the 
 ancestors of his mother (whose maiden name was 
 Abigail Knowles) came over in the Mayflower. The 
 paternal grandfather of Samuel was a victim of the 
 Indian massacre at Wyoming, Pennsylvania. The 
 early years of young Rose were spent in school, he 
 entering the Augusta Academy at an early age, and 
 remaining in it until he was eighteen, excepting 
 one winter, when, at the age of sixteen, he taught 
 school at Kennett, Chester county, Pennsylvania. 
 
 Among his pupils that season were Bayard Taylor 
 and Mr. Wickersham, since state superintendent of 
 public instruction in Pennsylvania. 
 
 Mr. Rose began to study medicine before leav- 
 ing the academy, but at nineteen abandoned it for 
 the study of the law, reading at first with Judge 
 Beardsley, of Utica, and then with Hon. Timothy 
 Jenkins, of Oneida. He was admitted to the bar in 
 1841, and practiced in his native town until 1850. 
 During the last-named year he moved to Beaver 
 Dam, Wisconsin, where he rose to eminence as a 
 lawyer, he giving, meanwhile, part of his time to 
 railroad matters. 
 
 In December, 1857, he removed to Milwaukee, 
 
250 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 where he engaged more extensively in railroading, 
 and was at one time president of the Milwaukee 
 and Western Railway Company. 
 
 In 1862 he crossed the Mississippi, halting one 
 year at Fort Dodge, Iowa', and then locating at 
 Rose Grove, in the adjoining county of Hamilton, 
 fifteen miles from the county seat, where he now 
 has one of the loveliest homes in this part of the 
 state. A farmer's life has long been his choice. He 
 has six hundred acres under improvement, and raises 
 a great deal of fruit. 
 
 Mr. Rose was elected judge of Dodge county, 
 Wisconsin, before he was a voter in the state, and 
 served until 1856, when he resigned. He was a 
 member of the Wisconsin legislature four years, two 
 in each house, and was one of the most prominent 
 men in that body. 
 
 Mr. Rose was the first postmaster at Rose Grove, 
 and held the office six years. He was judge of the 
 circuit- court in the eleventh district of Iowa four 
 years, and made a dignified and impartial judicial 
 ofificer. He has been chairman of the board of 
 county supervisors six years. While a resident of 
 Wisconsin he was part of the time very active in 
 educational matters. He aided in founding Way- 
 land University, at Beaver Dam, and was the first 
 
 president of its board of trustees. For six years 
 he was one of the regents of the University of Wis- 
 consin. Mr. Rose belongs to the Masonic and Odd- 
 Fellows orders. 
 
 He was a democrat of free-soil proclivities until 
 1856, since which date he has been a republican. 
 He is a Congregationalist in religious sympathy, but 
 a member of no church. 
 
 On the 5th of August, 1846, he was married 
 
 to Miss Mary E. Norris,, of Augusta, New York. 
 
 She had one child, and both mother and child are 
 
 dead. MVs. Rose, who died on the 19th of August, 
 
 1872, was a woman of great goodness of heart, and 
 
 a model christian mother : 
 
 " None knew her but to love her; 
 None named her but to praise." 
 
 Few persons in Hamilton county have died more 
 lamented. The daughter, Mary Emma Rose, leav- 
 ing her earthly for her heavenly father at twenty-two, 
 was a rare and radiant maiden whose companionship 
 was sought by the angels all too early for the 
 widowered father's comfort. The Rose-Grove home- 
 stead, an Eden of rural charms, has lost its two lights, 
 and most emphatically Mr. Rose's house is left unto 
 ■him desolate. Death loves a shining mark, and 
 sometimes one does not suffice. 
 
 REV. WILLIAM EMONDS, 
 IOWA ciTr. 
 
 THE career of Father Emonds presents a suc- 
 cession of varied and interesting experiences; 
 in many respects very like others, yet marked by a 
 force of will and character well worthy of mention 
 in the lists of prominent and successful men. 
 
 He was born in Bielefeld, Prussia, on the 13th 
 of June, 1830, and is of French ancestry, they 
 having removed to Prussia in the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century. His father was an officer in the 
 Prussian army, and his mother a native of West- 
 phalia. His early education was gained at the gym- 
 nasium at Munster, from which he graduated in 
 1849. From youth he had a desire to study for the 
 church, which was prompted and fostered by the 
 counsels of his mother. 
 
 During the year of his graduation he immigrated 
 to America, and settled at Dubuque, Iowa' where 
 he was ordained in 1852 a priest in the Catholic 
 church, and for three years was pastor of the Ger- 
 
 ninan Catholic congregation. From 1855 until the 
 fall of 1856 he traveled all over Iowa, under the 
 direction of the bishop, in search of Catholics- and 
 the establishment of new missions. Near the close of 
 1856 he settled in Keokuk as pastor of Saint Peter's 
 Church, the then largest church edifice in the city. 
 At the close of the year he had the satisfaction of 
 assisting in its dedication, and its consecration to 
 the devotional and religious exercises peculiar to 
 the Catholic faith. In 1857 he visited Europe and 
 traveled extensively over the continent, gaining much 
 useful information. 
 
 Regaining his health, which from excessive study 
 was much impaired, he returned to America in 1858, 
 and settled in Iowa City, where he has since resided. 
 In 1869, through the efforts of Father Emonds, they 
 completed a large and neatly constructed church 
 edifice, being second in size in the state. The in- 
 terior is magnificently furnished, being superior in 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DlCTIONARr. 
 
 253 
 
 this respect to any church in Iowa. In 1861, under 
 his administration, the Saint Agatha's Female Sem- 
 inary was established. This has had a very success- 
 ful career, and occupies a large, three-story building 
 nicely arranged for its present use. He established 
 Saint Joseph's Institute, one of the best institutions 
 of the kind in the west. The chemical laboratory 
 and philosophical apparatus is large and costly, em- 
 bracing a valuable foreign collection. In an adjoin- 
 ing building there is a parish free school, under the 
 directions of the Sisters of Charity. It was the de- 
 termination of Father Emonds, and those in charge 
 of these schools, to make them equal to the State 
 University or any other educational institution in 
 
 the state, in which they have met with pleasing suc- 
 cess. In September, 1875, a community of twenty- 
 nine Franciscan sisters exiled by Bismark was re- 
 ceived in Iowa City, whose mother's house numbers 
 forty inmates; an orphan asylum under their guid- 
 ance for the diocese of Dubuque has been estab- 
 lished at Mount Saint Mary's, formerly Mr. Gower's 
 place, near the city. 
 
 Thus briefly have we written the sketch of a good 
 man. Other lives are more sensational, but a life 
 devoted to his people and the church over which he 
 presides challenges emulation. He is popular with 
 his congregation, possessing their love and esteem, 
 and is respected and honored by the community. 
 
 GENERAL CALEB H. BOOTH, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 AMONG the names of the early settlers of Du- 
 buque (1836), when upon the site of Iowa's 
 largest city was only a hamlet of a few inhabitants, 
 may be found that of C. H. Booth ; and among the' 
 affluent citizens of Dubuque of the year 1876 he 
 may still be found enjoying the memories of the 
 past, as well as the substantial results of a success- 
 ful life. If we shall seek the secret of his success 
 we shall find it in a firm perseverance and patience, 
 united with prudence, good management, quickness 
 of perception and prompt action. Caleb H. Booth 
 was born in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, Christ- 
 mas eve, 1814. His early experiences were those 
 of a farmer-boy, and he was early trained to habits 
 of economy and industry, which have had their 
 effect upon all his subsequent life. 
 
 At the age of twelve years he was sent to school 
 at a fine classical institution in Burlington, New 
 Jersey, where he studied mathematics, Latin and 
 French, and made a specialty of preparing himself 
 for an engineer. At the age of seventeen he had 
 an offer of a position as engineer on the Camden 
 and Amboy railroad, but, with regret, declined, 
 and, in keeping with his father's wishes, began the 
 study of law. He read in the office of Samuel 
 Edwards, Esq., in Chester, Pennsylvania, and on the 
 3d of May, 1836, was admitted to the bar. He re- 
 moved to the west and settled at Dubuque (then 
 in Michigan Territory) on the 3d of July, 1836, one 
 day before the act of congress establishing the new 
 territory of Wisconsin took effect. 
 
 In 1838 he engaged in the mercantile business as 
 a member of the firm of Booth, Townsend and Co., 
 and in mining, under the firm name of Booth and 
 Carter. 
 
 In 1839 he was elected to the legislature, and 
 served during the first session at Iowa City. In 
 1841 he was elected first mayor of Dubuque, and 
 has served in the council several times since. In 
 February, 1849, he was appointed by President Polk 
 surveyor-general of the land district embraced in 
 Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, having his office at 
 Dubuque, an office for which he was eminently fitted 
 by reason of his early education, and which he filled 
 with honor and to the satisfaction of all concerned. 
 So satisfactory was his administration of his duties, 
 that he remained under President Taylor, his ap- 
 posite in politics, during his term of office, and was 
 superseded under Fillmore by General George B. 
 Sargeant, of Davenport. In 1851 he engaged with 
 William J. Barney in buying and selling land war- 
 rants in various parts of the country, which grew to 
 be an enormous business. In 1853 the firm was 
 merged into Cook, Sargeant, Barney arid Co., whose 
 operations were the most extensive in the state until 
 the financial crash of 1857, which ruined their pros- 
 pects, as it did thousands of others in the west. In 
 1857 he was elected treasurer and one of the direct- 
 ors of the Dubuque and Pacific railway, in which 
 he owned a large amount of stock ; and from that 
 time to this he has been continuously engaged and 
 connected with railroads in various ways. General 
 
254 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Booth has been the pioneer of a number of the 
 industries of Dubuque. He built the first flouring- 
 mill in Dubuque in 1848. For a number of years 
 he gave his personal attention exclusively to mining, 
 and in 1843 struck one of the largest lodes ever 
 opened in Dubuque, from which were taken seven 
 million pounds of lead. In 1856 he was one of the 
 state commissioners to establish the State Bank of 
 Iowa, an institution which owed its origin and 
 establishment to him and his associates. 
 
 He is a prominent member of the St. John's Epis- 
 copal Church of Dubuque, and senior warden of the 
 same. 
 
 Prior to the war of the rebellion General Booth 
 
 was a democrat in political sentiment, but since that 
 time has been identified with the republican party ; 
 and in the fall of 1872 was elected on the republican 
 ticket to the fourteenth general assembly. 
 
 In the various changes of an active life General 
 Booth has gained the respect of a large circle of 
 friends, and the confidence of his business connec- 
 tions. He is a man of good sound judgment, of 
 large practical experience, -and of genial courtesy. 
 
 He was married in 1838 to Miss Henrietta Eyre, 
 a native of the same town where he was born in 
 Pennsylvania ; she is a lady of high attainments, 
 and distinguished for a m'arked excellence of wom- 
 anly and christian virtues. 
 
 ALBERT BOOMER, M.D., 
 
 DELHI. 
 
 THE father of Albert Boomer, the subject of this 
 sketch, was Allen Boomer ; he was a sailor in 
 his early life, but at the time of Albert's birth, on 
 the 3d of October, 1823, was in the employ of the 
 United States government on the Grenadier Island 
 in the St. Lawrence river, guarding the frontier from 
 smugglers. He was of English descent ; his father 
 participated in the revolutionary struggle, and he 
 himself was engaged in the war of 181 2. The 
 mother of our subject was Paulina (Snow) Boomer, 
 of German ancestry. Allen Boomer, with his family, 
 left the island, and settled on a farm in Jefferson 
 county. New York, when Albert w-as five years of 
 age, and about 1839 immigrated to Boone county, 
 Illinois, and settled on Garden Prairie, six miles 
 east of Belvidere. Prior to his nineteenth year 
 Albert received but little schooling, at no period 
 more than four months in a year, at the ordinary 
 common schools. He had, however, a great fond- 
 ness for study, and finally obtained the consent of 
 his father to attend an academy, if he would sup- 
 port himself Willing to make almost any sacrifice 
 for the sake of gratifying his thirst for knowledge, 
 in company with another young man of similar 
 tastes and aspirations, he erected on the outskirts of 
 Belvidere a rude hut six by twelve feet,, with a 
 fireplace in one end and a bed in the other, and 
 boarded himself there and attended the academy 
 nine months. He received some provisions from 
 home, and with but little outlay, except for tuition 
 and text-books, made very satisfactory progress. 
 
 He taught during the next winter, and attended 
 school the summer following ; then for about three 
 years he worked on the farm in summer and at- 
 tended the academy during the winters. While thus 
 engaged he employed some of his spare moments 
 in reading medical books, and, becoming interested 
 in the medical science, about 1849 began to give 
 the subject his chief attention. He read first in 
 the office of Dr. D. H. Whitney, and afterward with 
 Dr. Lake, both of Belvidere. 
 
 In the spring of 1853 he graduated from Rush 
 Medical College, Chicago, and during that same 
 year established himself in practice at Delhi, Del- 
 aware county, Iowa. At first, in connection with 
 his professional business, he conducted a drug store ; 
 but in about five years traded this for land, a por- 
 tion of which is now the large and beautiful farm 
 on which he now resides, one and a quarter miles 
 north of Delhi village. 
 
 In 1862 Dr. Boomer was appointed assistant sur- 
 geon of the 27th regiment Iowa Infantry, under 
 command of Colonel Gilbert, and served in that 
 capacity with great faithfulness until near the close 
 of the war. Part of 'the time he had the whole 
 charge of the regiment, Surgeon Sanborn having 
 medical charge of a brigade, and from exposure and 
 over-work, became impaired in health, and was com- 
 pelled to leave the army. He returned to Delhi, as 
 he and his comrades supposed, to die. His greatest 
 trouble was the chronic diarrhoea, which clung to 
 him for four years, and indeed has never fully left hira. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 255 
 
 Since his return from the army Dr. Boomer has 
 lived on his farm, and latterly has tried by degrees 
 to retire from medical practice, but his old neigh- 
 bors, whose family physician, in some cases, he has 
 been for more than twenty years, are reluctant to 
 dispense with Tiis valuable services, when he is at 
 home. 
 
 Aside from his professional duties, he has been 
 honored with positions of honor and trust. He was 
 for two years a member of the lower house of the 
 state legislature, and for six years a member of 
 the state senate. During his senatorial term in the 
 fourteenth and fifteenth general assemblies he was 
 a prominent member, and took a very decided stand 
 on the temperance question, being a strong pro- 
 hibitionist. 
 
 Dr. Boomer has been a republican since the party 
 was organized, and a member of the Methodist 
 church for more than thirty years. 
 
 On the 4th of July, 1846, he was married to 
 Miss Charlotte A. Brownell, of Boone county, Illinois, 
 and by her has had ten children, three of whom 
 
 are now living, and three having died in infancy 
 and childhood of diphtheria, under peculiarly melan- 
 choly circumstances. Dr. Boomer delayed joining 
 his regiment in 1862 to bury two of these children, 
 and the day after he left, obeying peremptory orders 
 from military headquarters, the third, the youngest 
 lamb of the fold, closed its eyes in death. Thrice 
 smitten in three consecutive weeks,- the mother went 
 the third time to the cemetery, with no husband 
 present on whom to lean, but with the Di\ ine Spirit 
 to comfort and strengthen her. It was a dark 
 hour, but she bore her burden with heroic firmness 
 and true christian resignation. The eldest living 
 child of the family is the wife of Dr. George H. 
 Fuller, surgeon by governmental appointment at the 
 Indian agency, Ross Fork, Idaho Territory. 
 
 Dr. Boomer is a well-read man, of independent 
 thought, and has very strong convictions of his re- 
 sponsibility as a citizen, never wavering in the dis- 
 charge of his duty in any of the relations of life. 
 He despises a political schemer or a mere policy 
 man of any class. 
 
 HON. EZEKIEL CUTLER, 
 
 DECORAH. 
 
 EZEKIEL CUTLER comes of good New Eng- 
 land stock, his parents belonging to the agri- 
 cultural class, whence four-fifths of our best and 
 most distinguished men have their origin. He was 
 born in Waterford, Vermont, on the 26th of April, 
 1827, and took the full name of his father. His 
 mother, who was an Atkins, and a woman of solid 
 christian character, died when her son was seventeen 
 years of age. Though working hard on the farm 
 three-fourths of each year, and having only ordinary 
 school privileges, yet, by close application to his 
 books, both in and out of school, at the date of his 
 orphanage he was prepared to teach a district 
 school. This vocation he followed for several win- 
 ters, at the same time fitting himself for college, by 
 attending a few terms at different academies. In 
 August, 1849, he entered the University of Vermont 
 at Burlington, and graduated in August, 1853. 
 While in college he taught three or four months 
 each year, and kept up with his classes, having, 
 however, to apply himself very closely to his studies. 
 Shortly after graduating, we find Mr. Cutler in 
 Erie county, New York, at the head of the Spring- 
 
 ville .Academy, thirty miles south of Buffalo. This 
 school he taught only one term, when he went to 
 Buffalo, and entered the law ofifice of Talcott and 
 Thompson, finishing his legal studies with J. D. 
 Husbands, of the same city. He was admitted to 
 the bar in October, 1855, and during, the same 
 autumn immigrated westward across the Mississippi. 
 .\fter prospecting in Iowa a few months he settled 
 at Anamosa, Jones county, in May, 1856. He there 
 practiced law, except when absent on civil or mil- 
 itary duty, until 1864. 
 
 In September, 1866, Mr. Cutler removed to Deco- 
 rah, and resumed the practice of law. Prior to this 
 for two years, he had been prostrated with sickness 
 contracted in the army. Latterly, on account of the 
 state of his health, he has not been able to attend 
 to the arduous labors of an attorney, and has given 
 his attention to business of insurance. 
 
 In September, 1862, Mr. Cutler was commissioned 
 major of the 31st regiment of Infantry, and served 
 until the following spring, when physical disability 
 compelled him to resign. 
 
 Soon after locating in Anamosa he was elected 
 
256 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTION ART. 
 
 prosecuting attorney, and served one term. In the 
 autumn after returning from the war he was elected 
 to the state senate, to fill a vacancy occasioned by 
 the death of Captain Carpenter, serving one session, 
 or until he left Jones county. 
 
 In the autumn of 1867 Major Cutler was elected 
 judge of Winneshiek county, and at the end of one 
 year was, by law; transferred to the office of auditor, 
 commencing its duties on the ist of January, 1869. 
 To this office he was twice reelected, and held it 
 five years. The duties of every position to which 
 
 he has been assigned he has discharged with fidelity, 
 and to the entire satisfaction of his constituents. 
 
 He has always been a firm adherent to republican 
 principles. His religious connection is with the 
 Congregational church, in which he bears office. 
 
 On the 30th of July, 1857, he married Miss Sarah 
 E. Brigham, of Keeseville, New York. They have 
 three children. 
 
 Major Cutler has not at all times had the physical 
 strength to do as much as he would like to, but 
 what he has done has been done well. 
 
 EDWARD P. GREELEY, 
 
 NASHUA. 
 
 MANY of the men who may well be called the 
 fathers of thriving young cities west of the 
 Mississippi river are still in their prime and en- 
 joying the fruits of their early privation and toil. 
 Twenty or twenty-five years ago, coming from the 
 east and selecting a home in. the wilderness, they 
 made the first important improvements and gath- 
 ered around them other enterprising men, and in a 
 few years found themselves the center of small but 
 lively and constantly growing towns. Of such men 
 is Edward P. Greeley, who for twenty-one years has 
 been a resident of Nashua, Chickasaw county, where 
 he settled in March, 1856, at which time not more 
 than half-a-dozen families resided there. The town 
 was then known as Woodbridge, so called for Enoch 
 D. Woodbridge, who was the pioneer settler. Mr. 
 Greeley changed the name to Nashua, he being a 
 native of Nashua, New Hampshire, where he was 
 born on the 27th of February, 1833. He is a 
 son of Colonel Joseph Greeley, a prominent citi- 
 zen of that city. The maiden name of his mother 
 was Hannah Thornton, a granddaughter 0/ the 
 signer of the " Declaration of Independence " of 
 that name. His paternal grandfather was among 
 the first to enlist in the war for freedom from the 
 British yoke, and was wounded at the battle of 
 Bunker Hill. 
 
 The subject of this sketch spent his youth in 
 school and at farming on the old homestead. At 
 sixteen he went to Boston, Massachusetts, and after 
 being nearly six years in the commission house of 
 Parker, Wilder and Co., came to Iowa, as before 
 mentioned. He built the first store in Nashua, and 
 spent one year in trade. He then bought the water- I 
 
 power on the Cedar river at this point, of Wood- 
 bridge and Sample, and milling has since been his 
 principal business. In 1862 he put up a merchant 
 mill, with granite foundation and frame above — a 
 substantial structure, with four run of stone and a 
 capacity for two hundred thousand barrels of flour 
 per annum. This marked an epoch in the history of 
 Nashua, making it a rallying point for business, and 
 guaranteeing for the place more than simply "a 
 local habitation and a name." Mr. Greeley early 
 saw that the Cedar valley must, at a not very remote 
 day, have a railroad, so he set a civil engineer to 
 work to survey the route, and a few years afterward, 
 in 1868, he enjoyed the pleasure of hearing the 
 rumbling of cars rushing into town. 
 
 With the exception of the work he did in getting 
 a railroad to this point, Mr. Greeley has attended 
 exclusively to his milling business, never holding 
 a political office. He seems to be contented with 
 being a first-class miller and the leading builder of 
 a beautiful little city. While we write he has a 
 brick dwelling-house and two or three stores under 
 way, and nearly every year has witnessed his enter- 
 prise in this direction. 
 
 Mr. Greeley lives in a Gothic frame house on a 
 rise of land overlooking the city from the west side, 
 with a profusion of shrubbery, shade trees and other 
 attractive surroundings, — the finest residence in this 
 immediate section of the Cedar valley. 
 
 In politics, he is an independent or liberal repub- 
 lican, and liberal also in his religious sentiments. 
 
 The wife of Mr. Greeley was Miss Mary A. Roby, 
 of Nashua, New Hampshire; married on the 12th 
 of May, 1859; he is the mother of three children, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 257 
 
 only two of them living. The varied qualifications 
 of his wife make her an ornament and a general 
 favorite in society. 
 
 At the celebration of our national independence^ 
 in 1877, at Nashua, Mr. Greeley was president of the 
 day, and in the opening speech indulged in the fol- 
 lowing reminiscences of the " day of small things " 
 in that now thriving young city : 
 
 The multitude here assembled demonstrates your con- 
 tinued appreciation of this great day, the anniversary of our 
 
 nation's birth. The first celebration of this kind in Nashua 
 happened twenty-one years ago, when the town was with- 
 out form or even a street, and when there was not a com- 
 pleted frame building to be seen. Two log palaces and a 
 few slab villas constituted the abode of her people. The 
 few settlers up and down the Cedar joined the villagers and 
 marclied behind the fife and drum to Highland Grove, situ- 
 ated on the bluff" or bank of the river, where a stand and 
 seats were rudely constructed. The late Deacon Wood- 
 bridge officiated as president of the day, and the late Elder 
 Babcock as chaplain. Hon. Moses Conger delivered an 
 eloquent oration and I read the Declaration. The office of 
 marshal was filled by Andrew Sample, and it required 
 every other man present to fill the rest of the offices. 
 
 HON. ELISHA RANDALL, 
 
 MASON CITY. 
 
 ONE of the earliest settlers in Cerro Gordo 
 county, and one of the most noteworthy men, 
 is Judge Randall, who was one of the thirty-four 
 voters that organized the county in the summer of 
 1855. Elisha Randall took the full name of his 
 father, who was one of the judges of the court of 
 Madison county. New York, for many years. The 
 son was born at Brookfield, in that county, on the 
 22d of September, 1818. His mother, Betsy Brown 
 Randall, was a daughter of one of the first settlers 
 in Madison county. 
 
 Judge Randall, senior, owned a clothing-mill, a saw- 
 mill and an oil-mill, and until he was twenty-two 
 years of age the son worked with his father, at- 
 tending a common school during part of his boy- 
 hood. In 1844 the son moved to Edmeston, Otsego 
 county, where he remained six years operating a 
 grist-mill and manufacturing hardware. He then 
 removed to Belmont, Allegany county, and spent 
 nearly four years in manufacturing lumber. 
 
 In the autumn of 1854 Mr. Randall immigrated 
 to Iowa, halting a short time at Waterloo, and the 
 next June took up his permanent residence in Cerro 
 Gordo county, one mile north of Mason City post- 
 office. On locating here he built a saw-mill on Lime 
 creek, in connection with Samuel Douglas, of Ben- 
 ton county, and a grist-mill two years later, running 
 both for several years. 
 
 In 1870. Mr. Randall built a lime-kilni in connec- 
 tion with other parties, and operated it a short time. 
 He made the business a study, and in July, 1872, 
 received a patent for the " Randall Perpetual Lime- 
 kiln." Two years ago he sold his interest in this 
 patent in Cerro Gordo county, and recently his mill 
 property, moving on a farm two miles from town. 
 
 Judge Randall, as his neighbors love to call him, 
 was the first supervisor of Mason township ; was 
 justice of the peace for several years after the county 
 was organized ; was county judge two years, and 
 while holding this office was elected recorder of the 
 county, serving one term. 
 
 He aided in getting the three railroads to Mason 
 City, and at one time was a director of the Central 
 Railroad of Iowa. He has doiie much to build up 
 Cerro Gordo county. 
 
 Judge Randall belongs to the Masonic fraternity. 
 
 He has been a member of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal church since he was seventeen years old, and 
 has lived a consistent christian life, leaving in this 
 respect a precious legacy to his family. 
 
 In politics, he was first a whig and then a repub- 
 lican, and adheres to the latter party. 
 
 On the 31st of October, 1838, he was married to 
 Miss Lucy M. York, of Brookfield, New York. They 
 have had twelve children, eight of whom are living. 
 Five of them, one son and four daughters, are mar- 
 ried. 
 
 When the rebellion broke out. Judge Randall 
 had no sons old enough to enlist, but sent three 
 sons-in-law ; one of them, Charles H. Huntley, ad- 
 jutant of the 32d Iowa Infantry, was killed at the 
 battle of Pleasant Hill. Another was a Virginian, 
 Henry Keerl, who promptly enlisted in the Union 
 army, while four brothers at the south fought in the 
 rebel army. He was a lieutenant in the 32d regiment, 
 and for his bravery at the battle of Pleasant Hill 
 was offered- the captaincy of the company, but he 
 refused to accept because of an impediment in his 
 speech. At that battle he received a ball in his can- 
 teen. The other son-in-law fought on the Indian 
 
258 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 frontier. His name was George W. Henderson. He 
 returned after serving three years and three months 
 in the 7th United States Cavalry. One of his 
 daughters, the widow of Charles H. Huntley, is 
 now the wife of L. L. Huntley, formerly United 
 
 States revenue assessor at Dubuque, and now of 
 the White Lime and Stone Company, Mason City. 
 
 Judge Randall is a modest, social and very pleas- 
 ant man, always hard-working, yet well preserved 
 and likely to live to enjoy a serene old age. 
 
 MARCUS C. WOODRUFF, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 JOURNALISM, long followed, is a Hberal educa- 
 -' tion. The biographical history of this country 
 abounds in instances of men who, educated at the 
 printer's case, or editor's desk, or both, have thus 
 found, the stepping-stones to eminence. A list of 
 the names only of this class would make a portly 
 volume. Among the rising men of Iowa, in middle 
 life, largely self-taught, and owing much in this 
 respect to journalistic pursuits, is Marcus C. Wood- 
 ruff, whose modesty shrank from appearing in a 
 work like this, but whose habits of industry, great 
 improvement in writing, and noble bearing, at the 
 head of one of the leading daily journals of Iowa, 
 embody a lesson worth perpetuating. 
 
 Mr. Woodruff was .born at Aurora, Erie county, 
 New York, on the 21st of March, 1831. He re- 
 ceived the rudiments of education at the common 
 school of his native village, and for a short time he 
 attended the Aurora Academy, a respectable insti- 
 tution of its class thirty years ago. At the age of 
 eighteen he taught school one season in his native 
 town, and then went to Buffalo and spent three or 
 four years in book-keeping in a wholesale house. 
 He then listened to the advice of an older jour- 
 nalist, Horace Greeley, and came west, halting in 
 Boone county, Illinois, and teaching school three 
 years. Not having a thorough relish for this pro- 
 fession, in 1855 he came farther west, locating in 
 Hardin county, Iowa, selecting • the picturesque 
 
 little village of Iowa Falls for his home. Here 
 he pursued the business of land agent for several 
 years. In February, 1856, he issued the first call 
 for a republican cenvention in that county, and in 
 compliance with the call a meeting was held, and 
 the party was formally organized on the 22d of 
 that month. 
 
 In 1863 Mr. Woodruff purchased the "Sentinel" 
 newspaper establishment at Eldora, the county seat, 
 and managed it there for two years, when he moved 
 it to Iowa Falls, enlarged the paper, and conducted 
 it with increased and marked ability. In May, 1870, 
 he disposed of the " Sentinel," and, in partner- 
 ship with Charles Aldrich, purchased the Waterloo 
 " Courier," of which he was the sole editor most of 
 the time for nearly four years. In February, 1874, 
 he disposed of his property in Waterloo, purchased 
 one-half interest in the Dubuque " Times," and has 
 been its chief editor to this time. Though an 
 ardent republican, h* is courteous to contemporary 
 journalists of the opposite party ; is dignified in tlie 
 tone of his leaders ; is a clear thinker and an able 
 writer. 
 
 Mr. Woodruff was chief clerk of the Iowa house 
 of representatives of the twelfth general assembly 
 in 1868, and postmaster at Iowa Falls when he left 
 Hardin for Black Hawk county. 
 
 On the 7 th of April, 1861, he was married to Miss 
 Eliza E. Weller, of Norwich, New York. 
 
 JOHN FOLEY, 
 
 NEW HAMPTON. 
 
 IF there is a self-made man in Chickasaw county, 
 Iowa, that man is John Foley. He came to 
 this state a poor boy twenty years ago; worked hard 
 on a farm, and educated himself largely by studying 
 during the evenings, fitting himself for a teacher 
 and for general business. 
 
 Mr. Foley is a native of Ireland, and was born in 
 the county of Galway on the 14th of August, 1840. 
 His parents were Thomas and Catherine (Lyden) 
 Foley, who immigrated to this country when John 
 was a child. His father died in Baltimore, Mary- 
 land, in 1852, and his mother in Iowa in the spring 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 259 
 
 of 1877. John came with her to this state in June, 
 1857, and settled on a farm in Jacksonville town- 
 ship, ten miles from New Hampton. There he 
 worked until 187 1, being very industrious in his 
 manual labor, and commencing to teach during the 
 winters as soon as he could fit himself. This he did 
 by giving to study hours which many young men 
 give wholly to amusements, and some to dissipation. 
 Six years ago he was nominated for the office of 
 treasurer of the county, and elected by a fair major- 
 ity. So well did he discharge his duties that he has 
 been three times reelected, each time by a vote which 
 showed that the people had an increasing knowledge 
 of his eminent fitness for the office. After he had 
 served the county nearly two years, the New Hamp- 
 ton "Courier" of the 4th of October, 1873, thus 
 spoke of his official work : 
 
 Attentive to the duties of this office, cordial in his inter- 
 course with the taxpayers, and correct in his business, he 
 has made scores of friends, and not a single enemy. It is 
 infinitely to his credit that, without fear, without favor, and 
 without prejudice, he has sought to perform the duties of 
 the place rather than to build up a clique who should con- 
 spire to keep him in office. A man of the people, he has 
 faithfully performed the people's work, with an eye single 
 to their interest. 
 
 He found the finances of the county embarrassed, its 
 credit depressed, and distrust of its financial condition and 
 
 management universal. When he took possession of the 
 treasurer's office county warrants had not been redeemed 
 over its counter for years, but had been hawked about the 
 streets, and peddled from hand to hand till they finally found 
 their way into the hands of the money brokers at a dis- 
 count, to the people, of from ten to thirty per cent. 
 
 His advent in the treasurer's office changed all this in a 
 single day. Public confidence rose as by magic. The 
 ability of the count3' to meet its obligations promptly was 
 no longer doubted. County warrants commanded their face 
 in gi'eenbacks on the street and in the treasurer's office. 
 They have continued to do so up to this hour. 
 
 The people of Chickasaw county owe Mr. Foley a debt 
 of gratitude. He has done their work ably, faithfully, and 
 for the compensation fixed by law. In his official capacity 
 he has known no friends, and no enemies. He has favored 
 no organized rings, and sought to build up no special inter- 
 ests; but with rigid impartiality has dealt honorably with 
 all. More than this, at the time of his election he was 
 perhaps the only man in the county upon whom all the 
 elements of opposition to treasury misrule could have been 
 concentrated. He accepted the office of treasurer at a posi- 
 tive sacrifice of his private business interests. 
 
 Prior to holding the oflSce of treasurer Mr. Foley 
 had been a member of the board of supervisors for 
 one term, and was for nine years connected with 
 the school board of his town. He is an ardent 
 friend of education, and labors assiduously for its 
 advancement. 
 
 Mr. Foley was reared in the Catholic faith, and 
 steadfastly adheres to the religious teaching of his 
 ancestors. 
 
 HON. JOHN D. HUNTER, 
 
 WEBSTER CIT1-. 
 
 AMONG the self-made men of Iowa, whose edu- 
 ^ cation was acquired largely at the printer's 
 case, and who have risen to considerable promi- 
 nence in the state, is John D. Hunter, of Hamilton 
 county. He was born at Knoxville, Jefferson 
 county, Ohio, his father being a farmer, and now 
 residing in Mahaska county, Iowa. His mother, 
 before her marriage, was Nancy Day. The son 
 spent his early youth on a farm, devoting but a 
 few months yearly to attendance at school. At 
 fifteen he became a printer's apprentice in Ashland, 
 Ohio, completing his education in the "art preserv- 
 ative " at Bryan, in the same state. On the day he 
 was twenty years of age he started a paper, in part- 
 nership with another man, at Angola, Indiana. That 
 town was then small; the paper was not well patron- 
 ized, and at the end of one year, without having 
 essentially replenished his exchequer, he returned 
 to Bryan. 
 
 In the autumn of 1856, Mr. Hunter came to 
 j6 
 
 Iowa, halting a few weeks at Marion, Linn courity, 
 and settling at Eldora, Hardin county, in Decem- 
 ber of that year. For a short time he worked as 
 a journeyman printer on the " Sentinel," then the 
 only paper in the county. He soon after pur- 
 chased a half interest in the office, and in about 
 two years owned the establishment. He con- 
 ducted the paper until the ist of January, 1864, 
 when he sold out to M. C. Woodruff, now of the 
 Dubuque "Times." 
 
 In 1865, in connection with other parties, he 
 opened a store in Iowa Falls. Eighteen months 
 later, in December, 1866, he removed to Webster 
 City and purchased the Hamilton " Freeman," a 
 paper which, with the exception of one year, he 
 has continued to publish, and wliich he has made 
 the leading journal in the Boone valley. 
 
 Mr. Hunter was chosen treasurer and recorder 
 of Hardin county in 1863, and, after serving eight 
 months, resigned to enter the military service. He 
 
26o 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 was in the commissary department of the seven- 
 teenth army corps, and served until the war closed. 
 
 In the autumn of 1867 Mr. Hunter was elected 
 to the lower house of the general assembly, and was 
 reelected two years later. During the four years 
 he was in that body he served on his fidl share of 
 committees, and shirked responsibilities in none. 
 During his second term he was chairman of the 
 committee on compensation of public officers. Mr. 
 Hunter originated the bill authorizing the governor 
 to appoint a special committee to visit the charita- 
 ble and other state institutions ; though the bill, 
 introduced very late in the session, did not pass 
 that year. 
 
 He has been postmaster since February, 1873. 
 He was appointed to the same office at Eldora in 
 
 1861, and resigned through inability to attend to 
 its duties while editing the paper. 
 
 He is not a member of any church, though he 
 attends the Congregational. 
 
 Mr. Hunter has always been a republican. 
 
 On the 23d of December, 1852, he married Miss 
 Sarah A. Gates, of Mansfield, Ohio. They have 
 had four children, three of whom are living. 
 
 During the ten years that Mr. Hunter has been 
 editor of the " Freeman," he has made it a powerful 
 agent in advancing the interests of Webster City 
 and Hamilton county, and it is gratifying to him to 
 know that the citizens of both fully appreciate his 
 valuable services. The political party, also, to 
 which he belongs is partially indebted to him for 
 its local strength. 
 
 ROBERT N. MATHEWS, 
 
 ROCKFORD. 
 
 ROBERT NELSON MATHEWS was a native 
 of New York, and was born in Clinton county, 
 on the 5th of May, 1809. He was the son of John 
 Mathews, a farmer and mechanic, who came from 
 England, and settled near the line of New York and 
 Canada. 
 
 Mr. Mathews spent his youth and early manhood 
 at the east; married Miss Caroline A. Horr in 1834, 
 and in that year settled in Kane county, Illinois, 
 building the first frame house on the site of Aurora. 
 He opened a farm, and continued in agricultural 
 pursuits until 1846, when, having read law at Aurora, 
 he was admitted to the bar and commenced practice 
 at Little Rock, Kendall county, continuing in his 
 profession there for eight or nine years. His prac- 
 tice was extensive and profitable. During four 
 years of his residence in Kendall county he served 
 as county judge, an office for which his sound judg- 
 ment and administrative talents admirably qualified 
 him. In 1853 he was elected to the legislature, and 
 was associated in that body with such men as John 
 M. Palmer, S. M. Cullom and John A. Logan. Mr. 
 Mathews introduced the first bill for the protection 
 of wild game. About this time he became interested 
 in government lands west of the Mississippi, partic- 
 ularly in Iowa and Nebraska, where he prospected 
 considerably, making entries, and finally selecting 
 his home at Rockford, on the beautiful Shellrock, 
 where he settled on the ist of January, 1857. Here 
 
 for twenty years he toiled hard to build up a town, 
 leading oft in every enterprise which tended in that 
 direction, up to the time of his death, which oc- 
 curred on the 31st of May, 1877. Judge W. B. 
 Fairfield, of Charles City, long an intimate friend, 
 pronounced his funeral oration, and thus spoke of 
 Mr. Mathews as a lawyer : 
 
 As a lawyer, Mr. Mathews was well read, thoroughly 
 versed in its principles, clear in his perception as to fact and 
 law and the relation of one to the other, lucid in statement, 
 logical in reasoning. Although he rarely in his later years 
 conducted the trial of a cause in court, he frequently 
 brought cases to the bar whose trial was intrusted to 
 younger members of the profession. In all these cases, 
 however, there was this that was noticeable — they were 
 prepared. Not only was the law clearly defined and the 
 authorities digested, but the preparation of the testimony in 
 significance and sequence was masterly. The introduction 
 of witnesses and testimony was so arrayed that as fact after 
 fact and incident after incident was developed they consti- 
 tuted, in the simple order of array, an argument at once 
 clear and logical. No man at the bar in this district under- 
 stood better the value and the weight of testimony. 
 
 The last eight or nine years of his life he was a 
 banker, and was successful in this, as in every other 
 enterprise in which he engaged. He left a large 
 property in the village of Rockford, a farm of eleven 
 hundred acres two miles south of town, another farm 
 sixteen miles away in the edge of Franklin coimty, 
 and other property scattered here and there. 
 
 Mr. Mathews was elected one of the supervisors 
 of Floyd county, when the law establishing such an 
 office first went into operation, and while in that 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 263 
 
 office was instrumental in freeing the county of very 
 heavy obligations in the form of railroad bonds. 
 He took pride in the accomplishment of this work, 
 and the taxpayers felt that they owed him a heavy 
 debt of gratitude. 
 
 In his oration already referred to, Judge Fairfield 
 thus spoke of the character of Mr. Mathews : 
 
 As a man, he was of large brain, large heart and gener- 
 ous impulses. He had a will that would have been imperi- 
 ous if there had not lain back of it a rare kindliness and a 
 quick sympathy. Little children liked him, and dumb ani- 
 mals never feared him ; both certain indices of a kindly and 
 sympathetic nature. He was a man given to hospitality in 
 its broadest sense, and while he was not munificent in his 
 giving, he was, according to his convictions of right, \ ery 
 generous. No person ever went hungering from his door, 
 and the waif and the wanderer found at his table food and 
 under his roof shelter cheerfully and unquestioningly given. 
 To the poor, and those who by force of untoward circum- 
 stances or the chariness of nature had been placed in posi- 
 tions inferior to him, he was kind and gentle; to his equals, 
 courteous, though sometimes brusque ; to his friend he was 
 sincere, reliable, unswerving; toward those who disliked 
 him he was independent and oftentimes defiant; as a neigh- 
 bor, kind and obliging ; as a creditor, lenient and forbearing, 
 and as a counselor, shrewd and safe. 
 
 Mr. Mathews was in feeble health for two or three 
 years before he died, and for five or si.\ weeks took 
 not enough food in the aggregate for an ordinary 
 meal. How he could live as long as he did is a 
 mystery even to the medical scientists. He was a 
 member of the Masonic order, and was buried ac- 
 cording to their ritual. The number of people in 
 
 attendance was so large that no church in town 
 could hold one-third of them, and the services were 
 held in the open air. Between one hundred and 
 fifty and two hundred members of the Masonic fra- 
 ternity were in attendance. It was by Mr. Mathews' 
 request that Judge Fairfield officiated. 
 
 The wife of Mr. Mathews died on the 29th of 
 August, 1853. She was the mother of three chil- 
 dren, only one of them now living. A daughter, 
 Anna R., died in infancy, and Oscar, when about 
 ten years old. Ralph C, the only surviving member 
 of the family, was born on the 13th of December, 
 1836, at Aurora, Illinois, and is consequently forty- 
 one years old. He was trained to business in his 
 father's office at an early day ; was in the mercantile 
 trade several years, commencing in i860. For the 
 last seven years he has been a banker, all but the 
 first few months in company with his father. He 
 has a wife and one child. His wife was Jennie E. 
 Lumley, daughter of Edward Lumley, of Michigan. 
 Their child, Oscar L., is fourteen years old. 
 
 Mr. Mathews is now of the firm of Mathews and 
 Lyon, his partner being O. H. Lyon, many years a 
 merchant in Rockford, and now a member of the 
 legislature. Floyd county has very few better busi- 
 ness men than Mr. Mathews, who inherits from 
 his father the elements of success, namely, honest, 
 energetic industry. 
 
 STEPHEN B. OLNEY, M.D., 
 
 FORT DODGE. 
 
 AMONG the medical pioneers of Webster county, 
 t\. Iowa, is Stephen Berry Olney, of Fort Dodge. 
 He has been in this city more than twenty years, 
 steadily attending to his professional duties, except 
 when in his country's service, and has a reputation 
 as a physician second to none in the upper Des 
 Moines valley. 
 
 Dr. Olney is a New Yorker by birth, and was born 
 in Moreau, Saratoga county, on the 13th of Octo- 
 ber> 1821. His father, Benjamin Olney, was a 
 farmer, and moved to Ohio when Stephen was about 
 thirteen years old. His mother was Mary Eliza- 
 beth Olney nie Berry. His grandfather, Stephen 
 Olney, was a revolutionary soldier. The grandson 
 worked on his father's farm from twelve to eighteen 
 years of age, attending a district school during the 
 winters; he then spent one year or more at the 
 
 Maumee City, Ohio, Academy, and at twenty began 
 to study medicine with Dr. Burritt, of Gilead, now 
 Grand Rapids, Ohio. He attended lectures in 
 Cleveland, and graduated in 1847. He practiced 
 the allopathic system until 1865, since then the 
 homoepathic. 
 
 Dr. Olney practiced medicine four or five years 
 at Damascus, Henry county, and Waterville, Lucas 
 county, Ohio, and in 1855 located in the Des Moines 
 ■valley, on the spot where his old sign, " S. B. Olney, 
 M.D.," hangs to-day. During the last twenty-one 
 years the doctor has traveled many thousand miles 
 up and down this valley, and over the bluffs on 
 either side, giving relief to the distressed, prolong- 
 ing many lives, and affording comfort in many ways. 
 The first time the author of this brief memoir met 
 Dr. Olney was in January, 1859, when he had just 
 
264 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL blCTIOtfAkY. 
 
 performed an operation on a man, now a lawyer at 
 Cedar Falls, by amputating the whole of one and 
 the half of another frozen foot. 
 
 While in the practice at Fort Dodge, Dr. Olney 
 acted a short time as first county superintendent of 
 schools, coroner of Webster county, a member of the 
 city school board, and is now chairman of the state 
 visiting committee for the insane hospitals. 
 
 In September, 1862, he was commissioned surgeon 
 of the 32d regiment of Iowa Infantry, and served 
 until January, 1865, when sickness compelled him to 
 resign. While in the field he was faithful and un- 
 tiring in the discharge of his duties, and overwork, 
 no doubt, contributed largely to his illness. As a 
 relic of war times. Dr. Olney retains the white horse 
 which he purchased in Dubuque in 1862, and which 
 
 he rode during all the time he was at the south, a 
 horse now twenty years old and in good order. 
 
 Dr. Olney is a member of the Masonic order,' in the 
 blue lodge, chapter and commandery. He has been 
 a republican since there was such a party, before that 
 time was a whig. He is a communicant of the Epis- 
 copal church, and, morally, a very exemplary man. 
 
 On the glh of November, 1849, Dr. Olney mar- 
 ried Miss Stella Badger, of Wood county, Ohio. 
 They have five children. The eldest child, Floyd 
 B. Olney, a printer by trade, is studying medicine 
 with his father. 
 
 Dr. Olney is much respected, alike for his skill as 
 a practitioner and his excellent qualities as a citizen. 
 His reputation as a surgeon extends far beyond 
 Webster county. 
 
 SAMUEL W. COLE, 
 
 FORT DODGE. 
 
 A CHRISTIAN landlord is neither an anomaly 
 nor a novelty. A landlord leading in chris- 
 tian enterprises is certainly a rarity, yet there is no 
 reason why it should be so. An inn-keeper, if so 
 disposed, can conduct his business to the glory of 
 God, as well as a person in any other respectable 
 calling. A bar is not a necessary adjunct to a 
 hotel, and every detail of business in a public 
 house is susceptible of being so conducted as to 
 develop more and more the qualities of the chris- 
 tian gentleman. The subject of this sketch, for 
 more than fourteen years a hotel-keeper, finds noth- 
 ing in his business to conflict with his religious pro- 
 fession, and is known for hundreds of miles around 
 as a model landlord and an earnest christian. 
 
 Samuel W. Cole was born on the 25th of Septem- 
 ber, 1822, in Panton, Vermont. His father, Samuel 
 Cole, a soldier in the war of 181 2, was suddenly 
 killed by falling under the wheel of an ox-cart, 
 when the son was only six years old, and at that 
 early age the child was sent to live with an uncle in 
 Westport, New York. He remained there until he 
 was nineteen years old, making the best use each 
 winter of the little time which he had for attending 
 school. He was studious, and became master of 
 all the branches ordinarily taught in a district 
 school thirty or forty years ago. 
 
 Commencing at the age of nineteen, for twelve 
 winters he taught in different parts of Vermont and 
 
 New York, meanwhile spending the summers on his 
 uncle's farm, of which, in 1846, he came into full 
 possession. Prior to owning this property he spent 
 four years on Lake Champlain and the Hudson river, 
 serving the first season as waiter on a steamboat, 
 working his way slowly upward, and in every posi- 
 tion promptly and faithfully performing his duties. 
 
 In 1855 Mr. Cole immigrated to Iowa, purchased 
 a hotel at West Union, Fayette county, and was its 
 proprietor for ten years. He then engaged in the 
 book and drug business, changing from it, two or 
 three years later, to the hardware trade, and having 
 afterward the misfortune to lose heavily by fire. 
 
 In January, 1868, he was appointed superintend- 
 ent of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home, at Cedar Falls, 
 and the following year removed to Tama City, where 
 he was in the hardware business for five years. 
 Again we find him in hotels at Vinton and Ackley, 
 and he is now the proprietor of the Duncombe 
 House, Fort Dodge, to which city he removed in 
 October, 1875. 
 
 Mr. Cole was the first superintendent of public 
 schools in Fayette county, holding the office seven 
 years, and performing its labors with great zeal. He 
 held the office of postmaster two or three years in 
 West Union ; was a regent of the State University 
 for four years, and assisted in organizing the Iowa 
 State Sunday School Association, being its presi- 
 dent for two years. 
 
THE UNITED STAT&S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 265 
 
 He is a member of the Independent Order of 
 Good Templars, and has held all the offices in the 
 lodge. He is an ardent, untiring worker in the 
 temperance cause, and has for years been engaged 
 in organizing " Bands of Hope " among the children. 
 
 In political principles, Mr. Cole is an unwavering 
 republican. 
 
 In religious belief he is a Baptist, and has been 
 an active member of the church since he was four- 
 teen years old. 
 
 On the 30th of March, 1847, he married Miss 
 Maria H. Lewis, of Lewis, Essex county. New 
 
 York, and has three children. Carroll, the only 
 son, is with his father in the hotel ; Clara, the eld- 
 est daughter, is the wife of A. H. Lawrence, an 
 attorney and land agent at Lemars, Iowa; the 
 youngest daughter is eight years old. 
 
 Although in his fifty-fifth year, Mr. Cole has been 
 so temperate, so regular and so careful in all his 
 habits, that he looks like a much younger man. He 
 has a spontaneity of cordiality which is truly re- 
 freshing, and his social qualities give him preemi- 
 nent fitness to preside over a public house, or to 
 , mingle with the young to do them good. 
 
 WILLIAM W. WALKER, 
 
 CEDAR RAPIDS. 
 
 WILLIAM WILLIAMS WALKER, son of 
 William Ames Walker and Sarah Williams 
 Ingalls Walker, is of strictly New England pedigree. 
 His paternal grandparents were natives of Vermont, 
 his maternal, of Connecticut. He was born in Mid- 
 dlefield, Otsego county, New York, on the 8th of 
 August, 1834, and reared on a farm until he was 
 fourteen years old. He then gave eight years exclu- 
 sively to study : three years at Cortland Academy, 
 Homer, New York; one year at Cherry ^'alley 
 Academy, New York; part of a year at Brown Uni- 
 versity, Providence, Rhode Island, and three years 
 at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New 
 York. He graduated from the last named school in 
 1856; when he was the valedictorian of his class, 
 and received the degree of C.E. He had this 
 pursuit in view during his educational course, and 
 hence his studies were mainly in the physical sci- 
 ences and mathematics. His history will show that 
 he has proved a thorough adept in this calling. 
 
 Immediately after graduating Mr. Walker started 
 for the west, with Wisconsin in his eye, but on reach- 
 ing Chicago changed his plans, and went to Clinton, 
 Iowa. He there obtained a situation as rodman in 
 a construction party on the Chicago, Iowa and Ne- 
 braska, now Chicago and Northwestern, railway. 
 He worked in that position, at a salary of one dollar 
 and fifty cents a day, about one year, until the grad- 
 ing of his division of the road was completed, his 
 headquarters being at Lisbon and Mount Vernon, 
 in Linn county. The financial crash early in the 
 autumn of 1857 suspended nearly all public works; 
 engineers had but little to do, and in September of 
 
 that year Mr. Walker accepted the editorship of the 
 Cedar Valley " Times," and removed to Cedar Rap- 
 ids. He made the paper a powerful agent in fur- 
 thering public enterprises. 
 
 In May, 1859, Mr. Walker and three or four other 
 enterprising men formed a plan for extending the 
 railway west of Cedar Rapids, which point the road, 
 approaching from the east, reached one month later. 
 The plan was to secure for the line west of Cedar 
 Rapids a land grant of about one million acres, then 
 claimed by the Iowa Central Air Line Railroad 
 Company, which had failed to comply with the con- 
 ditions of the grant. Mr. Walker started westward 
 with fifteen dollars in his pocket, all he could raise, 
 to hold meetings, present this project to the people, 
 and secure the appointment of delegates to a con- 
 vention, which was held in Cedar Rapids the fol- 
 lowing July. At that time the Cedar Rapids and 
 Missouri River Railway Company was organized, 
 and Mr. Walker was appointed its secretary. In 
 December of that year he went to Des Moines to 
 aid in securing the necessary legislation for the 
 transfer of the land grant. The contest was severe, 
 and is memorable in the history of Iowa legislation 
 in behalf of railroads. Mr. Walker went to the 
 seat of war, expecting to be absent about three 
 weeks ; he was gone just three months. His com- 
 pany won, and in May, i860, he was appointed its . 
 chief engineer. That position he held until the 
 road, two hundred and seventy-one miles long, was 
 completed to Council Bluffs, in February, 1867. The 
 last one hundred and fifty miles were built in about 
 ten months, in order to give the Union Pacific rail- 
 
266 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BTOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 way an eastern connection. During the year 1866 
 Mr. Walker had more than six thousand men sent 
 to the work from Chicago alone. The road was a 
 splendid piece of engineering in a double sense. 
 For a number of years, up to 1871, he was vice- 
 president, chief engineer, secretary and assistant 
 treasurer and land commissioner of that company 
 at the same time. During the years 1867 to 1869 
 he aided in building the Sioux City and Pacific rail- 
 way from Sioux City to Fremont, Nebraska, a dis- 
 tance of one hundred and fifty miles, and was chief 
 engineer, vice-president, general superintendent, sec- 
 retary and assistant treasurer for about five years. 
 From 1B69 to 1871 he was chief engineer of the 
 Iowa Falls and Sioux City Railway Company, and 
 built that line between those points, a distance of 
 one hundred and eighty-four miles. The road is 
 now a part of the Iowa line of the Illinois Central 
 road. During the same time Mr. Walker also built 
 the Fremont and Elkhorn Valley railway, fifty miles 
 long, in Nebraska, he acting as chief engineer of the 
 company. 
 
 In 1872 he dissolved his connection with these 
 several corporations, and spent most of his time for 
 eighteen or twenty months in Brooklyn, New York, 
 where his children were attending school. During 
 the year 1874 and part of 1875 he was chief engi- 
 neer and general superintendent of the Burlington, 
 Cedar Rapids and Minnesota Railway Company. 
 
 Though long and largely identified with railroads, 
 Mr. Walker has devoted some time to other impor- 
 tant enterprises. In 1864 .he was one of the organ- 
 izers of the First National Bank of Cedar Rapids, 
 and was its president for seven years. He is now 
 president of the Cedar Rapids Water Company, and 
 of the Cedar Rapids Building and Loan Association. 
 His heart is thoroughly enlisted in every enterprise 
 which will advance the interests of Cedar Rapids or 
 the great northwest. 
 
 Mr. Walker was educated a Presbyterian, and sees 
 no reason why he should change his religious senti- 
 ments. 
 
 He is a strong republican, and has gone two hun- 
 dred and fifty miles simply to vote, returning by the 
 next train. 
 
 On the 15th of October, 1857, he married' Miss 
 Mary A. Hitchcock, of Homer, New York. She 
 had three children, and two are living; she died in 
 April, 1862. On the 7 th of September, 1864, he 
 married Miss Laura Weare, daughter of John Weare, 
 of Cedar Rapids. 
 
 Although in making his frontier surveys years ago 
 Mr. Walker had much experience in roughing it, he 
 has retained all his early polish both of manners 
 and mind, and his fine culture and good conversa- 
 tional powers make him a very agreeable member 
 of society. His mind is fertile in projects, always 
 feasible for the good of the public. 
 
 JOHN G. HOUSE, M.D, 
 
 INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 THE subject of this brief memoir is of New- 
 England ancestry, both parents being natives 
 of Connecticut. He inherited the best traits of the 
 New-England character, and early laid the founda- 
 tion of an eminently useful life on the solid virtues, 
 industry, integrity and perseverance, in an upward 
 course. 
 
 John Gates House was born at Cazenovia, New 
 York, on the 2Sth of April, 18 16. His father was 
 John House; his mother, Sally Fuller House. The 
 former died near Independence two years ago, in his 
 ninety-first year, always having lived a temperate 
 and for many of his later years a strictly christian 
 life. In 1824 he moved with his family to a farm 
 near Springville, Erie county, New York, and the 
 son remained at home until he was sixteen, attend- 
 
 ing school part of the time each year, but having 
 in those early days only very ordinary school advan- 
 tages. About 1833 he entered Springville Academy, 
 an excellent institution, which elevated the moral as 
 well as literary tone of Springville society. Spend- 
 ing nearly four years at that academy. Dr. House 
 gratified, to a liberal extent, his strong love of 
 study. 
 
 At the age of twenty-one years he commenced 
 the study of medicine with Dr. Carlos Emmons, of 
 Springville, and spent one year in his office. He 
 then studied two years with Dr. Austin Flint, the 
 eminent medical author, then residing in Buffalo. 
 He attended one course of lectures at Jefferson 
 Medical College, Philadelphia, and another at Co- 
 lumbian College, Washington, District of Columbia, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 267 
 
 whence he graduated in 1841. He practiced medi- 
 cine about eighteen years in Clarence, Springville and 
 Buffalo, all in Erie county. Directly after leaving 
 Springville, and before going to Buffalo, he passed 
 eighteen months in St. Louis, Missouri, for the ben- 
 efit of his family, not intending to settle there. 
 
 On the ist of May, 1861, Dr. House removed to 
 Independence, Iowa, where he has followed his pro- 
 fession with great diligence, building up in northern 
 Iowa, as in western New York, an enviable reputa- 
 tion as a medical practitioner and an honorable citi- 
 zen. Some men excel in the practice of medicine, 
 others in surgery; Dr. House excels in both. His 
 rides are very extensive, — too extensive for a man 
 who has seen his sixtieth winter, — but the people 
 of Buchanan county are reluctant to relinquish his 
 valuable services. 
 
 Dr. House is a member of the Iowa Medical 
 Society, and presided at its meeting in 1875. He 
 was offered the presidency of the society for the 
 next year, but declined to accept it. He has been 
 a trustee of the Hospital for the Insane at Inde- 
 pendence, and secretary of the board since 1872, and 
 at times has rendered valuable services in this con- 
 nection as medical adviser. He has been examining 
 surgeon for pensions since 1863. 
 
 Dr. House has been a member of the Baptist 
 church nearly forty years. 
 
 On the 6th of July, 1841, he was married to Miss 
 Julia A. Pratt, of Buffalo, New York, a daughter of 
 Pascal Pratt, an early settler in that city ; she died 
 in 1863, leaving four children, two of them now liv- 
 ing. In November, 1864, he married Miss Rachel C. 
 Freeman, of Independence ; has one child by her. 
 
 JOHN F. ELY, M.D., 
 
 CEDAR RAPinS. 
 
 AMONG a number of citizens of Cedar Rapids, 
 . whose efforts in the interest of the city have 
 left a deep impress, is Dr. John Fellows Ely. He 
 has been a resident of the place nearly thirty years, 
 and during that time no plan for its improvement 
 has failed to enlist his warm support. 
 
 Dr. Ely was born in Rochester, New York, on 
 the 25th of June, 182 1, his parents being Elisha 
 and Hannah Dickinson Ely. His grandfather and 
 other ancestral relatives shared in the perils of the 
 first war with England. The mother of young Ely 
 died of cholera in 1832, and he was sent to a rela- 
 tive at Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He had been 
 kept at school from an early age, and having been 
 fitted for college, though only eleven years of age, 
 he never entered. After residing in Massachusetts 
 three years, he accompanied his father to Allegan, 
 Michigan, spending four or five years there in study 
 and manual labor. 
 
 In 1841 he returned to Rochester, and devoted 
 two years or more to studies under Professor 
 Dewey, mainly the physical sciences. Returning 
 to Michigan he commenced the study of medicine 
 with Dr. L. B. Coates, of Allegan; went to New 
 York city, and continued his studies for three years 
 with Dr. Willard Parker; attended lectures at the 
 College of Physicians and Surgeons, and graduated 
 in the spring of 1848. 
 
 In October of the same year we find Dr. Ely at 
 Cedar Rapids, where his brother, A. L. Ely, had 
 recently died. The young town was full of promise 
 because of its excellent water privileges, and was 
 gradually being reinforced with men of unusual en- 
 terprise. Dr. Ely opened a medical office, but from 
 the start paid some attention to milling, real estate 
 and the development of the water-power. He con- 
 tinued the general practice of medicine for five or 
 six years, and after that period did little more than 
 consultation practice. 
 
 The real-estate business he made a specialty for 
 several years, being successful in his operations, 
 and continuing them until the south rebelled 
 against the Union. 
 
 In 1862 Dr. Ely was appointed surgeon of the 
 24th regiment Iowa Infantry; served until June, 
 1863, and then resigned on account of disability. 
 Much of the time while in the service he was med- 
 ical director of the divisions under Generals C. B. 
 Fisk and A. P. Hovey, and his excellent medical 
 skill, his cool judgment and great executive abili- 
 ties were called into requisition, and with deep 
 regret General Hovey signed his papers of dis- 
 charge. 
 
 Dr. Ely has never fully recovered from the effects 
 of his military service. Of late years he has spent 
 more or less time in travels. When at home he 
 
268 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 gives his time largely to the furtherance of local 
 enterprises. His magnetic influence has been felt 
 by every railroad which has found its way into 
 Cedar Rapids. Religious and educational interests 
 have always found in him a true friend. He has 
 freely given time and money to aid in founding and 
 building up literary institutions. 
 
 Dr. Ely is a Presbyterian, and has been an elder 
 in the first church of the city for many years. He 
 is a liberal contributor, not only to religious enter- 
 
 prises, but to many other benevolent and charitable 
 objects. 
 
 Dr. Ely was a warm friend and ardent admirer of 
 Stephen A. Douglas, and a democrat until 1861, 
 since then he has voted with the republican party. 
 
 In January, 1853, he was united in marriage with 
 Mrs. Mary A. Ely, of Cedar Rapids. They have 
 had three children ; two are living. Mrs. Ely is a 
 woman of noble impulses, an inspiration to her hus- 
 band in every line of duty. 
 
 S. p. POND, 
 
 KEOKUK. 
 
 SP. POND was born at Wrentham, Massachu- 
 • setts, on the i6th of March, 1830, his parents 
 being A. A. and Henrietta (Cobb) Pond. His father 
 was a farmer, and the son's opportunities for educa- 
 tion were limited to the common schools of the 
 state, which he attended only during the winters, his 
 summers being devoted to assisting his father on 
 the farm. At the age of twenty years he removed to 
 Troy, New York, where he engaged in the grocery 
 business, which he continued very successfully for 
 about three years, when he sold out his stock and 
 went to Detroit, Michigan. Here he opened a hotel 
 known as the Garrison House, which at that time 
 was one of the best and most popular houses in the 
 place. He remained in the business in Detroit 
 until 1857, when he removed to Keokuk, Iowa, and 
 again engaged in the grocery trade, but only con- 
 ducted it for one year, when he commenced the 
 business in which he now remains, and in which he 
 has met with such marked success. Few people are 
 aware that Keokuk is one of the largest depots for 
 
 the shipment of eggs in the United States, and that 
 its preeminence in this respect has been gained 
 almost entirely through the business sagacity and 
 untiring energy of Mr. Pond. When he commenced 
 this business in 1858 he did all his own packing and 
 shipping; now he employs fifty men in his estab- 
 lishment in Keokuk ;• has branch houses at both 
 Burlington, Iowa, 'and Quincy, Illinois, and eggs 
 packed in his establishments always bring from one 
 to two cents per dozen more than other brands. 
 His present yearly shipments are about six hundred 
 car loads, each car load being ten thousand dozens, 
 in all about six million dozens per year. 
 
 Mr. Pond is an active member of the Baptist 
 church, having been connected with it for a number 
 of years. 
 
 He is a republican in politics, and has served as 
 alderman for four years. He is also a director in 
 the Keokuk National Bank. 
 
 He was married on the 22d of October, 1853, to 
 Miss Lydia A. Rickards, of Troy, New York. 
 
 HON. LEWIS B. DUNHAM, 
 
 AMONG the best business men and successful 
 bankers of eastern Iowa is Lewis Brigham 
 Dunham, a native of Connecticut. He was born 
 on the 6th of October, 181 2, his parents being Lewis 
 Dunham, merchant, and Mary Brigham. His ma- 
 ternal grandfather was in the revolutionary army. 
 The Dunhams were from England, and the Brig- 
 hams from Massachusetts, Lewis spent his earlier 
 
 MA^UOKETA. 
 
 years in procuring an education, preparing for col- 
 lege at Monson, Massachusetts, under the instruc- 
 tion of Rev. Simeon Colton ; was graduated from 
 Union College in 1829. He read law at Utica, 
 New York, with Judge Beardsley; traveled through 
 most of the states of the Union and Canada, and 
 was admitted to the bar in Brookfield, Jefferson 
 county, Pennsylvania, in 1836. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 269 
 
 Mr. Dunham practiced at Brookfield, the county 
 seat, twelve years, and during four years of that 
 time, when David R. Porter was in the gubernatorial 
 chair, was deputy state's attorney. In 1845 he came 
 as far west as Rock Island, Illinois, and spent two 
 years in prospecting. Returning to Pennsylvania, 
 he practiced in Jefferson county until the spring of 
 1856, when he returned to the west, this time cross- 
 ing the Mississippi river and settling at Maquoketa, 
 Iowa. Here, in company with O. Von Schrader, 
 ■ he started a private bank, which was subsequently 
 merged into the State Bank of Iowa, and still later 
 into the First National Bank of Maquoketa. 
 
 In 1872 Mr. Dunham sold his interest in this in- 
 stitution, and started a bank of his own, the Ex- 
 change Bank of Maquoketa, of which he is vice- 
 president, D. M. Habbell president, and his son, L. 
 H. Dunham, cashier. It is a prosperous institution. 
 
 While a resident of Pennsylvania in 1842 and 
 1843 Mr. Dunham was a member of the state legis- 
 lature, representing Jefferson, Warren and McKean 
 counties. He was in the senate of Iowa in the ses- 
 sions of 1868 and 1870, he being on the committees 
 on banking and constitutional amendments. He is 
 
 a thoroughly practical business man, and his mature 
 judgment and solid common sense made him a highly 
 serviceable member of the Iowa general assembly. 
 
 Mr. Dunham was reared in the Jeffersonian school 
 of politics ; was a Jackson boy and a Van Buren 
 man, casting his first presidential vote in 1836, and 
 never voting any but the democratic ticket. 
 
 He has a third wife: was first married in 1831 to 
 Miss Mary Stewart, of Hartford, Connecticut, she 
 dying in 1842. His second wife was Miss Techla 
 Von Schrader, of Clearfield, Pennsylvania; married 
 in 1844, and died in 1846. His present wife was 
 Miss Mary B. Sloane, of Wooster, Ohio ; they were 
 married in 1856. Mr. Dunham has two sons now 
 living, both by his first wife, both married and both 
 first-class business men. Frederic Stewart, the elder, 
 is a merchant in Monticello, Iowa, and Lewis Hamil- 
 ton, as has already been intimated, is a banker. 
 
 Mr. Dunham has been a ge-nerous encourager of 
 the railroads which connect Maquoketa with the 
 metropolitan cities of the northwest ; lends a prompt 
 and liberal hand in local enterprises generally, and 
 takes great pride in the growth and prosperity of his 
 adopted home. 
 
 GENERAL JAMES C. PARROTT, 
 
 KEOKUK. 
 
 TAMES C. PARROTT, a native of Easton, Talbot 
 ■J county, Maryland, was born on the 21st of May, 
 
 181 1, and is the fifth child of Thomas Parrott and 
 Elizabeth nee Corner. His father was a commis- 
 sioned officer under General Perry Benson during 
 the war of 181 2. 
 
 James attended the public schools of his native 
 place till he was twelve years of age, and then 
 pursued a course of study in Easton Academy. His 
 fondness for study developed at an early age, and 
 he always took the highest stand in his classes. He 
 left school i.i his fourteenth year, and served an 
 apprenticeship, learning the mercantile business, and 
 at its expiration accepted a clerkship in the well- 
 known shipping and commission house of James 
 Corner and Sons, of Baltimore, where he remained 
 till he attained his twentieth year. Having resolved 
 to remove to the west, he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, 
 in the fall of 1831, but finding navigation closed, 
 returned to Wheeling, Virginia, and spent a short 
 time with an uncle. Soon after he enlisted as a 
 27 
 
 private in the ist regiment of United States Dra- 
 goons ; was afterward made first sergeant, and in 
 this capacity served during three years, declining 
 several offers of commissions. His time of service 
 was spent mostly on the frontier under Colonel 
 Dodge and Stephen W. Keaney, afterward governor 
 of Wisconsin. At the close of his term of enlistment, 
 in the spring of 1837, he formed a partnership 
 with Captain Jessie B. Brown, and engaged in the 
 mercantile trade at Fort Madison, Iowa, then a 
 promising town of one hundred and fifty inhabitants. 
 He conducted a successful business there for six- 
 teen years, and during that time served as county 
 treasurer, and also as mayor of the city. In 1853 
 he removed to Keokuk, and engaged in business 
 with the large firm of Wolcott and Co., and after 
 two years formed a partnership with Arthur Wolcott, 
 under the firm name of J. C. Parrott and Co. The 
 financial crisis that swept over the country in 1857 
 caused them to suspend payment, but having native 
 energy and a determination to succeed, Mr. Parrott 
 
270 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAlfT. 
 
 bravely met liis misfortune, and in 1859 was again 
 doing a successful dry-goods business. At the 
 opening of the war, under a commission from Gover- 
 nor Kirkwood, he raised a company of volunteers 
 for the 7th regiment Iowa Infantry, and entered 
 the service. In November of that year he was pro- 
 moted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of his. regi- 
 ment. At the battle of Belmont he was severely 
 wounded, and while in the hospital at Cairo received 
 the following special order : 
 
 Headquaktees Dist. S. E. Mo. 
 
 Cairo, November 9, 1861. 
 Special Order No. — -. Leave of absence is hereby 
 granted Capt. J. C. Parrott, 7th Iowa Volunteers, to repair 
 to his hontie until he has recovered from severe wounds 
 received whilst gallantly leading his company in the engage- 
 ment of the 7th at Belmont, Mo. ° 
 U. S. Grant, Brig.-Gen. Com. 
 
 He recovered to participate in all of the noted 
 battles of the army of the Tennessee, including 
 Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Resaca, Shiloh and 
 Corinth ; and although again severely wounded, he 
 joined in General Sherman's " March to the Sea," 
 and only after the grand review of the troops in 
 Washington, at the close of the war, returning to 
 his home rejoiced, in the face of all his hardships 
 and trials, that it had been his lot to engage in the 
 struggle for freedom and equal rights. In honor of 
 his gallant service, by a special act of congress 
 
 Colonel Parrott was promoted to the rank of brig- 
 adier-general. 
 
 In early life he was a whig in his political views, 
 but has been identified with the republican party 
 since its organization. 
 
 Aside from his active business relations. General 
 Parrott has been honored with many positions of 
 public trust. In 1867 he was appointed postmaster 
 by President Johnson, a position which he still (1876) 
 holds. He was also at one time division commander 
 of the Grand Army of the Republic. 
 
 He was married on the 4th of September, 1838, 
 to Miss Henrietta Buchhalter, of Fort Madison, to 
 whom much of his success is due, .she being a lady 
 of fine native endowments, a devoted wife and fond 
 mother. They have three sons and two daughters,' 
 the eldest son being now a successful business man 
 of Varner, Ark. 
 
 During his entire career General Parrott has been 
 marked as a man of broad views, firm adherence 
 to avowed principles, quick perception and sound 
 judgment, which combined with his excellent busi- 
 ness tact has given to him an influence and success 
 well worthy of emulation. Generous and genial, 
 prompt and energetic, possessed of a commanding 
 presence and dignified bearing, he has endeared 
 himself to a host of warm friends. 
 
 SMITH G. BLYTHE, M.D., 
 
 NOR A SPRINGS. 
 
 SMITH GREEN BLYTHE, son of Rev. Joseph 
 W. and Ellen- H. (Green) Blythe, was born in 
 Middlesex county. New Jersey, on the 6th of No- 
 vember, 1841. His father was a Presbyterian min- 
 ister, and was a chaplain in the general hospitals 
 at Jeffersonville and Madison, Indiana, during the 
 late civil war. His mother was a sister of ex- 
 Chancellor Green, of New Jersey, whose grand- 
 father served in the revolutionary army. His pa- 
 ternal grandfather, like his father, was a Presby- 
 terian clergyman, and one of the pioneer ministers 
 in Kentucky. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was educated at Lafay- 
 ette College, Easton, Northampton county, Pennsyl- 
 vania, graduating in i860. He read medicine in New 
 Jersey, and attended a course of lectures at Jefferson 
 College, Philadelphia ; he was intending to pursue 
 his medical studies without intermission, but, the 
 
 civil war breaking out, he threw aside his med- 
 ical books and enlisted as a private in the ist New 
 Jersey regiment of Volunteers. He was appointed 
 commissary sergeant before the regiment left the 
 state, and in 1862 he was promoted to second lieu- 
 tenant, then to first lieutenant in November of that 
 year, and to captain during the same month. His 
 regiment was in the army of th-e Potomac, and 
 Captain Blythe was with the army from the first Bull 
 Run battle to the battle of the Wilderness, in which 
 he received a severe wound in the thigh, his fourth 
 wound in the service. On the 23d of June, 1864, 
 he was mustered out on account of disability from 
 this wound ; went to Hopewell, Indiana, to which 
 state his father had moved, and there taught a clas- 
 sical school, resuming his medical studies at the same 
 time. He attended lectures at the Ohio Medical 
 College, Cincinnati, in "the winter of 1866-67. In 
 
-^S'hj R.I)u,i5USIIlS,TJ^- 
 
2 74 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPMtCAL DICTION ART. 
 
 able for his fine physical framework, and for his 
 vigor of intellect even to old age; up to the time of 
 his last Illness he had enjoyed remarkable immunity 
 from sickness. A citizen of Muscatine for almost 
 forty years, his cheei-y disposition and hearty greet- 
 ing rendered him as popular as his person was well 
 known. He was a consistent member of the Bap- 
 tist church ; beloved as a father, venerated as a 
 patriarch, and esteemed as a citizen and neighbor. 
 
 His estimable wife, who preceded him to the 
 hither shore some eleven months, was born on the 
 3d of May, 1795, in Madison county, Kentucky, of 
 Scotch-Irish parents, and was a near relative of 
 Colonel Anderson, of Washington's staff, and of 
 General Anderson, of Fort Sumter celebrity. She 
 was married on the 7th of February, 1814, and was 
 the mother of five sons and three daughters. In 
 early life she gave her heart to God, and was bap- 
 tized into the communion of the Baptist church, 
 and her whole after life was a beautiful illustration 
 of the faith which she professed. She was a 
 " mother in Israel " in the fullest sense of the term, 
 universally esteemed, and the friend of all who 
 knew her. She died on the 4th of January, 1874. 
 Four generations, numbering over fifty relatives, 
 comprising all of her descendants save five grand- 
 children, were present at her funeral. How much 
 they owe to God for such a mother! Faithful and 
 true in every relation of life, her holy example is a 
 legacy of priceless value to them. 
 
 CHAMBERS BROTHERS. 
 
 Having devoted so much space to the parents, we 
 will now take up the history of the sons, "The 
 Chambers Brothers," as they are popularly termed, 
 who have perhaps contributed more to the material 
 prosperity of Muscatine than any other family asso- 
 ciated with its history. 
 
 Vincent Chambers, the eldest of the brothers, 
 was born in Washington county, Indiana, on the 30th 
 of November, 181 6. His schooling was bounded 
 by the log school-house which was built through his 
 father's influence, and which he attended a few 
 winters previous to the age of twenty, when he 
 removed to Muscatine, Iowa, in company with his 
 father, but soon after returned to Indiana, where he 
 pursued the business of a carpenter and joiner for 
 twenty years. On the 28th of November, 1854, he 
 came a second time to Muscatine, and joined his 
 father on the old homestead, where he remained till 
 
 1864, when he became associated with his brothers, 
 W. and A. Chambers, in business, where he con- 
 tinued till the spring of 1877, when he removed to 
 Indianapohs, where he is now engaged in operating 
 a stone saw-mill. 
 
 William, the second of the brothers, was born on 
 the 26th of November, 1818, in Washington county, 
 Indiaaa; enjoyed the same school facilities as his 
 brother; came to Muscatine, Iowa, in 1836; farmed 
 till 1849, when he formed a copartnership with his 
 brothers, Anderson and Isaac Chambers, for the 
 manufacture of lumber, which continues till this 
 day. 
 
 Anderson, the third of the brothers, named after 
 his mother's family, was born in Indiana on the 26th 
 of November, 1820; received less than one year's 
 log schooling all told; came to Muscatine at the age 
 of sixteen, on the nth of May, 1836; farmed on the 
 homestead for about ten years, and in 1847 united 
 with his brothers, William and Isaac, in the lumber 
 manufacturing trade. This was the first establish- 
 ment of the kind in Muscatine, and its early history 
 is well worth recording. 
 
 In the autumn of 1846 the brothers, accompanied 
 by six men, ten yoke of cattle, six horses, provisions 
 for six months, and a general outfit for logging, 
 started from Muscatine for Black river, Wisconsin, 
 and on arriving at their destination built a log cabin, 
 organized a camp, made sleds, and provided all the 
 appliances necessary for the forest campaign. They 
 spent the winter in cutting down the timber and 
 hauling it into the river, intending in the spring to 
 drive the logs down stream and into the Mississippi 
 river at La Crosse. But an unusual phenomenon 
 occurred at this period, whicli not only carried the 
 logs down stream, but came near extinguishing the 
 entire winter's work. A huge waterspout fell at the 
 head of Black river, which occasioned a rise in that 
 stream of twenty-five feet in less than twenty-four 
 hours, and carried everything before it. The broth- 
 ers, perceiving the danger which threatened them, 
 mounted their horses and galloped at full speed in 
 advance of the roaring torrent, threw a boom across 
 the river at White Oak Springs, at tire head of Black 
 river lake, which was secured before the flood and 
 the logs arrived. Had it not been for this timely 
 and energetic measure their whole winter's work 
 would have been carried into the Mississippi river, 
 scattered and lost. The river abated gradually 
 until the 19th of July, when the expedition left for 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 275 
 
 Muscatine with the first two rafts of logs ever taken 
 from the Black river country. The rafts, which 
 contained nine hundred thousand feet, arrived at 
 Muscatine on the 15th of August, 1849, the first ever 
 brought to Muscatine or to the State of Iowa. The 
 brothers rented two saw-mills which had been pre- 
 viously erected by John G. Deshler and Messrs. 
 Cadle and Reiley, which they operated for several 
 years; but in 1852 the business had so prospered 
 and increased that they were compelled to build a 
 mill of their own. In this year the firm was re- 
 organized, Messrs. Cornelius Cadle and D. Duns- 
 more being admitted as partners, the name of the 
 firm being changed to that of Dunsmore and Cham- 
 bers, under which title it carried on an extensive 
 and prosperous trade till 1862, when the partnership 
 was dissolved by mutual consent. In 1852 the 
 brothers connected with their extensive lumber 
 business a general mercantile house, which was also 
 conducted with success till 1862, when it was dis- 
 continued. 
 
 In 1862 the business was again reorganized, Mr. 
 Vincent Chambers being admitted, and a large pork 
 and grain establishment added, which increased 
 with such rapidity as to render the building of an 
 extensive packing house and grain elevator neces- 
 sary. The former was completed in 1864, and the 
 latter in i866. In the last named year they also 
 built an additional saw-mill on an improved plan. 
 The grain elevator, with a capacity of one hundred 
 thousand bushels, was the finest in the state, and 
 among the most complete to be found in the coun- 
 try, while the pork house had a capacity for the 
 handling of five hundred hogs per day, and during 
 the winter of 1864-5 disposed of twenty-seven 
 thousand three hundred head; but the sudden ter- 
 mination of the war in the latter year so reduced 
 prices as to entail a loss on the firm of one hundred 
 thousand dollars. In 1868 the elevator became a 
 total loss by fire, involving a net loss of twelve 
 thousand dollars. These reverses so discouraged 
 the firm that it was not deemed advisable to rebuild. 
 
 In 1870 Mr. John Servis, of La Crosse, was ad- 
 mitted to the firm, and the name varied to that of 
 Chambers Brothers and Co. The pork business was 
 discontinued in 1874, the saw-mill and pork house 
 having burned, causing a loss of seventy-two thou- 
 sand dollars. In 1875 Mr. Servis withdrew his in- 
 terest, and the firm is now known by the title of 
 Chambers Brothers. 
 
 But in the spring of 1876 a new and distinguish- 
 
 ing branch was added to the business of this emi- 
 nent and enterprising firm, destined to overshadow 
 their other enterprises, and to prove the most valu- 
 able and important "innovation" of the age — a 
 stone-sawing mill, the chief feature of which is a 
 circular saw, some sixty-six inches in diameter, 
 having some eighty-four diamonds inserted in its 
 periphery, and not inappropriately named " The 
 Stone Monarch," which rips up the hardest marble 
 with as much ease and speed as the ordinary circu- 
 lar saw will intersect an oak log. It is capable of 
 cutting at the rate of fifteen hundred feet per day, 
 or, to compare, it can do as much work at the same 
 expense in three hours as the old hoop-iron and 
 sand saw can do in thirty-six hours; and this being 
 the first saw of the kind ever invented, and the 
 principle still in its infancy, if it shall turn out to be 
 capable of the same improvements which have been 
 made in the rotary lumber saw, there is no esti-* 
 mating the value it will be to mankind, or the rev- 
 olution it is destined to accomplish in mechanics. 
 The facility which it affords for work enables the 
 proprietors to receive a bill of stone sufficient for 
 the water-tables, window-sills, caps, corbels, keys 
 and corner blocks of an ordinary house, and return 
 the same ready for setting on the following morning. 
 During the short time in which the " Monarch " has 
 been in operation it has sawed stones from the 
 quarries of eight different states of the northwest, 
 besides large quantities of marble from Vermont 
 and Italy. This most wonderful invention is the 
 work of Mr. J. W. Branch, of St. Louis, an English 
 gentleman, and like all really valuable inventions 
 and discoveries of the century, it had to encounter 
 at the outset not only indifference and apathy, but 
 actual opposition and hostility. It was laughed to 
 scorn by the stone men of St. Louis, Chicago and 
 other adjacent cities, not one of whom would even 
 afford it a trial. At last, knowing something of the 
 character of the Chambers Brothers, of Muscatine, 
 Iowa, for enterprise and intelligence, the inventor 
 applied to them to put its merits to the test, and 
 although they were not in the stone business, and 
 totally inexperienced in that line of industry, yet, 
 becoming strongly impressed with the feasibility of 
 the idea, they at once put the machine in operation, 
 with the results above stated. An improved saw of 
 the same pattern has since been put in operation 
 by Mr. Vincent Chambers at Indianapolis, Indiana, 
 with still greater results, every improvement seem- 
 ing to add to the speed and economy of the opera- 
 
276 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 tion. John Chambers, the fifth of the brothers, born 
 in 1829, is also a member of the firm. 
 
 Vincent Chambers was married on the jth of 
 November, 1840, to Miss Nancy Peck, of Leesville, 
 Indiana, who died in 1853, leaving two children, a 
 son and a daughter, both since deceased. He was 
 married again in 1854, to Miss Margaret K. Neely, 
 by whom he has eight children, all living. 
 
 William Chambers was married in 1840 to Miss 
 Cynthia Long, a native of Muscatine county, Iowa, 
 by whom he has had thirteen children, only six of 
 whom are now living. 
 
 Anderson Chambers was married in 1841 to Miss 
 Susan Pace, also of Muscatine county, a Virginian 
 by birth, by whom he has had seven children, all 
 living; she died on the 27th of February, 1874, and 
 on the 28th of June, 1875, he was married to Miss 
 Mary Prosser, of Muscatine. 
 * John Chambers was married in 1854 to Miss Mary 
 Lakin, also of Muscatine, by whom he has had three 
 children, two sons and one daughter, all living; she 
 died on the 26th of December, 1874. 
 
 Of the sisters, two are still living; the third died 
 at the age of sixteen by a fall from a horse. 
 
 Amanda, the eldest, is the wife of Mr. M. P. Pace, 
 a farmer residing nine miles east of Muscatine. 
 
 Nancy Jane is the wife of Mr. Wm. Bagley, a 
 farmer residing near Tipton, Cedar county, Iowa. 
 
 The brothers all belong to the Masonic fraternity. 
 Anderson is a Knight Templar, William a Royal 
 Arch Mason, and the others Master Masons. 
 
 William and Anderson are members of the Bap- 
 
 tist chtirch, Vincent of the Methodist, while John, 
 though a regular attendant, is not united to any 
 denomination. 
 
 All were raised in the democratic faith, to which 
 they have adhered through life. 
 
 We shall close the sketch of this remarkable fam- 
 ily with a few words of more general import. 
 
 In every enterprise that has had a tendency to 
 promote the interests of Muscatine they have always 
 been foremost. Their energy and activity have 
 passed into a proverb with their fellow-townsmen. 
 Possessed as they all are of tempers under perfect 
 control, no disaster or reverse has ever dismayed or 
 dispirited them ; but always looking forward with a 
 hopeful eye on the future, they have never let their 
 industry or zeal flag for a moment. Their spirit of 
 public enterprise is only equaled by their quiet and 
 unobtrusive private benevolence ; their charities are 
 innumerable ; neither want nor distress has ever 
 appealed to them in vain, and it is a matter of some 
 notoriety that they have frequently kept in their 
 employment, at their usual wages, men with families, 
 for whom they had no work, rather than see their 
 children suffer for want of bread. 
 
 Dickens presents us with the picture of a happy 
 household in the "Cheeryble Brothers." He could 
 have found in the Chambers Brothers living illustra- 
 tions of the virtues which his fertile pen has given 
 to us in the pages of fiction. Wealthy, as the term 
 is now understood, they are not, for wealth cannot 
 remain with men of such broad and generous natures 
 as the Chambers Brothers. 
 
 GEORGE D. WOODIN, 
 
 SIGOURNEY. 
 
 GEORGE D. WOODIN, attorney and coun- 
 selor- at-law, was born in Warren county, Penn- 
 sylvania, on the 27th of February, 1827, and is the 
 eldest of a family of seven children of David Woodin 
 and Parthenia nie Cobb, natives of Monroe county. 
 New York. 
 
 The Woodin family in America are descended 
 from Puritan stock, the original ancestor having 
 come over with the Massachusetts Bay Company 
 in 1628. The family does not seem to have been 
 prolific, nor to have produced many distinguished 
 men They have been mainly tillers of the soil, of 
 quiet, practical habits, virtuous and law-abidmg 
 
 citizens. The mother of our subject was of Irish 
 ancestry ; a smart, intellectual woman, of great en- 
 ergy and force of character, and from whom our 
 subject inherits some of the most valuable traits of 
 his character. 
 
 George D. worked on his father's farm, attending 
 the district school in winter, until the autumn of 1844, 
 when he attended one term at the Waterford, Penn- 
 sylvania, Academy, and the next winter taught a 
 district school. The next two summers were spent 
 at Jamestown Academy, New York, and the winters 
 were spent in teaching. In 1847 he entered Alle- 
 gheny College, at Meadville, Pennsylvania, with one 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 277 
 
 term of studies in the preparatory course yet to 
 complete; that institution very benevolently regu- 
 lating its curriculum of studies for the convenience 
 of those who had to support themselves by teaching 
 in the winter. The full course of one term in the 
 preparatory department and four years in college 
 was completed in four years, while at the same time 
 he taught school for three months each winter, and 
 made one year in law studies with A. B. Richmond, 
 Esq., of Meadville, Pennsylvania. He was gradu- 
 ated with honors, at the head of his class, in 1851, 
 having defrayed the entire expense of his education 
 by teaching, except ten dollars given him by his 
 mother. 
 
 After leaving college he taught in the academy at 
 Warren, Pennsylvania, for one year, reading law at 
 the same time in the office of L. D. Wetmore. He 
 was admitted to the bar in 1852, and for one year 
 tliereafter practiced his profession with his preceptor, 
 developing at the same time rare powers and genius 
 as a practitioner. 
 
 In 1853 he resolved to cast his lot with the young 
 State of Iowa, then coming prominently into notice, 
 and offering great inducement as a home to young 
 men of energy and enterprise in every capacity, and 
 after due inquiry he selected the then incipient town 
 of Iowa City as his future home. His entire stock 
 in trade consisted, on arrival, of a few books, a suit 
 of clothes, and four dollars in money. He soon fell 
 into practice, however, and was not long in establish- 
 ing a reputation. At that time the bar at Iowa City 
 was one of the ablest in the state, with Oilman, Fol- 
 som and W. Penn Clark at its head, the supreme 
 court then holding its entire session at that place. 
 Besides questions at issue incident to a new state, 
 there were many preemption cases tried, the United 
 States land office then being located at Iowa City. 
 
 In 1854 he became prosecuting attorney of John- 
 son county, and in 1855 was elected mayor of Iowa 
 City, and during the period of his mayoralty issued 
 fifty thousand dollars' worth of railroad bonds, levied 
 by an almost unanimous vote of the electors of the 
 city, to aid in constructing the Mississippi and Mis- 
 souri railroad, now the Chicago, Rock Island and 
 Pacific. 
 
 It is worthy of note that at that time Mr. Woodin 
 had serious doubts as to the validity of the security, 
 and was strongly inclined to refuse to issue the 
 bonds. His views in this regard, however, were 
 shared by but one man in the community, James H. 
 Gower, so merging his own opinions in the all but 
 
 universal sentiment of the community, he issued the 
 bonds. These were of the same class of securities 
 out of which grew the celebrated conflict between 
 the state and federal courts, the former holding them 
 to be illegally issued, and the latter to be valid. 
 The case was finally decided by the federal courts 
 in favor of the bonds. 
 
 In 1856 he was elected to the legislature from 
 Johnson county, and served one term, with distinc- 
 tion. In 1857 he moved to Sigourney, Keokuk 
 county, which has since been his home, and in 1858 
 was elected district attorney for the old sixth judi- 
 cial district, and served four years, during which 
 period he earned for himself the reputation of being 
 one of the most skillful, accomplished and successful 
 criminal lawyers of the state. Since his removal to 
 Sigourney he has been engaged on one side or other 
 of almost every case tried in the circuit or district 
 courts of the county ; and during a period of over 
 twenty years he has not been absent from the 
 court-house one full hour at any one time during a 
 session of court,— a fact well worthy of record, as 
 indicating his habits of industry and close attention 
 to business. 
 
 Mr. Woodin has had great success as an attorney. 
 He throws his whole soul and being, so to speak, 
 into his cases, and stands for the time being in the 
 shoes of his client. His addresses to the jury are 
 quick, pungent and exceedingly earnest, and he 
 rarely fails of success with either judge or jury. He 
 is a man of great penetration, forecasting things 
 almost by intuition, and seeming to know a client's 
 case before it is half stated. As a practitioner, he 
 has long since attained to the highest rank at the 
 bar of his county and district. 
 
 In politics, he has always been a republican, and 
 had he consented to serve, would have been in con- 
 gress years since ; but refusing all offices, save those 
 named above (which were mainly in the line of 
 his profession), he has sedulously devoted himself 
 to the duties of his profession, and may be emphat- 
 ically termed a man of one work. 
 
 As a citizen, his word is a synonym of certainty, 
 and he commands the respect of all classes of men 
 with whom he comes in contact. He is somewhat 
 cautious in avoiding misplaced benevolence, but has 
 a most generous heart when the subject is known to 
 be deserving. With strangers he is taciturn at first, 
 and does not open himself freely to new acquaint- 
 ances until he first discovers either moral worth or 
 mental wealth in them ; but when once secured as a 
 
278 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 friend, he is found to be all that the word implies. 
 He loves a dry joke, and knows how to perpetrate 
 one with imperturbable gravity, always keeping the 
 expectation of the listeners at the highest tension 
 of excitement until the climax is reached in the last 
 word. 
 
 In July, 1859, he was married to Miss Mary E, 
 daughter of Dr. Skillman, of Keokuk county, Iowa,' 
 formerly of Huron county, Ohio. At the date of 
 their marriage her age bore the same proportion to 
 his that eight does to sixteen; now their ages ap- 
 proximate as nearly as six does to nine. They 
 have three children, Link, Guy and Grace. 
 
 Mr. Woodin has in many respects a remarkable 
 history. During his whole life he has never been 
 sick enough to refrain from work a single day ; and 
 by diligence and success at his profession he has 
 accumulated a competence of this world's goods. 
 
 While practicing at Iowa City Mr. Woodin was 
 the partner of W. E. Miller, afterward judge of the 
 supreme court of the state. On the return of Col- 
 onel E. S. Sampon from the army in 1864 he formed 
 a law partnership with that gentleman, which con- 
 tinued until his elevation to the bench in 1869. In 
 1872 his present partnership with E. W. Mcjunkin, 
 Esq., was formed. 
 
 GENERAL WILLIAM VANDEVER, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 WILLIAM VANDEVER was born in Balti- 
 more, Maryland, on the 31st of March, 1817, 
 his parents being on a temporary sojourn in that 
 city. Their residence was in Philadelphia, Pennsyl- 
 vania, to which city they returned a few years after- 
 ward. The subject of this sketch was educated in 
 the latter place, at private schools, and there grew 
 to manhood. His father, William Vandever, a na- 
 tive of the State of Delaware, descended from a 
 Holland ancestor, who came with the first emigra- 
 tion to New Netherlands, and removed to the shores 
 of the Delaware about the time of the Swedish emi- 
 gration in 1635. His mother was a Ten Eyck, of 
 New Jersey. On both the father's and mother's side 
 his ancestors served in the army of the revolution, 
 and his father was a soldier of the war of 1812. 
 
 In the spring of 1835, being eighteen years of age, 
 he accompanied his father upon a trip to the west, 
 and spent about six months in Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 The following winter he spent in Baltimore, and then 
 returned to Philadelphia. From this time till his 
 permanent removal to the west he was engaged most 
 of the time in study and teaching. He taught a 
 school for about a year in Chester county, Pennsyl- 
 vania, within five or six miles of Valley Forge. 
 
 His first settlement in the west was at Rock Island, 
 Illinois, in the spring of 1839. Here for a short 
 time he was employed as a clerk in a store; .but he 
 soon abandoned that business and commenced read- 
 ing law, diversifying this occupation with that of 
 land surveying. He executed public land surveys in 
 Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin at various times until 
 
 1844, when he was appointed clerk of the county 
 court of Rock Island. This office he held for a lit- 
 tle more than two years, then, in 1846, he assumed 
 the proprietorship of the Rock. Island "Advertiser," 
 and continued its publication for several years. 
 While editing that paper he was an ardent advocate 
 of public improvements, and was the first man to 
 move in organizing a company for building a rail- 
 road between Chicago and Rock Island. A charter 
 was first obtained from the legislature to construct a 
 road from Rock Island to La Salle, the southern 
 terminus of the Illinois and Michigan canal. Gen- 
 eral Vandever became one of the first corporators, 
 and contributed much to the success of the enter- 
 prise. The charter was amended at a subsequent 
 session of the legislature, and authorized the road 
 to be extended to Chicago. 
 
 In 1847 General Vandever was married to Miss 
 Williams, of Davenport, Iowa, and four years later 
 removed to Dubuque. Here for a year or two he 
 was employed in the surveyor-general's office. He 
 then turned his attention to the law, forming with 
 the Hon. Ben. M. Samuels a partnership, which con- 
 tinued several years. Uporr the reorganization of 
 the supreme court of Iowa, in 1855, he assumed the 
 duties of clerk of that court; but finding that atten- 
 tion to the duties of that office interfered with his 
 law practice, he resigned the following year. 
 
 In 1858 he was nominated by the republican party 
 of the second congressional district, and elected by 
 about three thousand majority; and in i860 he was 
 renominated and elected by a greatly increased ma- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 279 
 
 jority. His opponent on the second race was his 
 whilom law-partner, Hon. Ben. M. Samuels, the 
 leading democrat of Iowa. The whole northern 
 half of the state was still in the second district, and 
 the canvass was very extensive, very laborious, and 
 very brilliant. The overwhelming majority of votes 
 which Gen. Vandever received was an indication of 
 his strength in debate. 
 
 Immediately on the breaking out of the war he 
 abandoned his seat in congress, at the commence- 
 ment of his second term, and in a short time entered 
 the army in command of the 9th Iowa Infantry, a 
 regiment recruited in his own district, and largely 
 by his own exertions. By his valor at the battle of 
 Pea Ridge, Missouri, and on other bloody fields, he 
 was, in 1862, made a brigadier-general, and toward 
 
 the close of the war was breveted a major-general 
 of volunteers. He served in the field until the close 
 of the war, and participated in many important en- 
 gagements. At its close he returned to private life. 
 He performed important and very valuable services 
 in the organizing of the companies which subse- 
 quently built the line of railroad from Clinton to 
 Dubuque, and effected the first negotiation that 
 secured the funds for the construction of the whole 
 road from Clinton to La Crescent. He then pro- 
 jected the Iowa Pacific railroad, and was one of the 
 chief promoters of that enterprise. In 1873 Presi- 
 dent Grant tendered him the appointment of Indian 
 inspector, and that position he still holds. His 
 recent reports have thrown valuable light on the 
 Indian question. 
 
 HON. JEROME S. WOODWARD, 
 
 INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 ONE of the surest roads to success is industry 
 in a single direction. The man whose ener- 
 gies are thus put forth, who loves his calling or pro- 
 fession, and gives it his best days, rarely fails, unless 
 overtaken by misfortunes, or his health early breaks 
 down. The life of Hon. J. S. Woodward beautifully 
 illustrates what industry and integrity, aiming at a 
 single point, can accomplish in a few years. When 
 admitted to the bar he determined to know less of 
 everything else than of the law, and to know law as 
 perfectly as the closest application would enable 
 him to do it. Consequently, in his profession he has 
 achieved eminent success, and his life has its lesson 
 too valuable to be lost. 
 
 Jerome Southwick Woodward was born at Mid- 
 dlebury, Scoharie county. New York, on the 5th of 
 February, 1830. His father, Stephen Woodward, 
 was teaching there temporarily, his home being in 
 Hanover, New Hampshire. The mother's name was 
 Ethelinda Ely Woodward. The father of Jerome, 
 who was a farmer, but accustomed to teach school 
 in the winters, moved to Tunbridge, Orange county, 
 Vermont, when the son was seven years old. ' The 
 lad worked on the farm and attended school until 
 he was fifteen, when Jie fitted for college at Kimball 
 Union Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire, but 
 never entered. 
 
 Mr. Woodward came to the west in 1850, and 
 taught school and read law in Janesville, Wisconsin, 
 
 38 
 
 for three years. He was admitted to the bar in 
 Rock county in 1853, and removed to Independ- 
 ence, Buchanan county, Iowa, in September of the 
 same year, his entire capital consisting of six law 
 books and twelve and a half cents. To-day he is 
 perfectly independent. He has practiced law, most 
 of the time alone, for twenty-three years, rarely 
 turning aside from legal pursuits, even for a few 
 months. The very few offices he has held he was 
 strongly urged to accept. When he settled in Iowa 
 there was a prosecuting attorney in every county, 
 instead of one, as now, for each judicial district, 
 and Mr. Woodward held that office for Buchanan 
 county the second year that he was in the state. In 
 the autumn of 1857 he was elected to the lower 
 house of the general assembly, and took a prominent 
 part in its discussions and more solid work. He 
 was a delegate to the national convention which 
 renominated Mr. Lincoln in 1864. He has been 
 solicited to accept the nomination for different 
 offices, but has firmly withheld his consent. His 
 tastes are for the legal profession, and in that he is 
 second to no man in the district. 
 
 Mr. Woodward is an Odd-Fellow, but has never 
 aspired to position in the order. 
 
 He is a member of no church, but has a prefer- 
 ence for the Universalist doctrine. 
 
 He was a whig, then a republican, to which party 
 he still adheres. 
 
28o 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 On the 6th of December, 1855, he was united in 
 marriage to Miss Caroline A. Morse, of Independ- 
 ence, a woman held in high esteem by her neighbors. 
 They have had five children, two of whom are dead. 
 
 Mr. Woodward is of medium height and good 
 proportions, has a dark complexion, black eyes, a 
 
 kindly expression, and a pleasant smile for all. His 
 disposition is social, and he is a man in whom 
 society finds a rich entertainer. He has one of the 
 best houses in the interior of Iowa, with delightful 
 surroundings, and with his little family has an Eden 
 of comfort. 
 
 JOSHUA M. RICE, 
 
 L rONS. 
 
 TOSHUA MOODY RICE, son of Elijah and 
 J Mary (Prescott) Rice, was born in New 
 Hampshire on the 12th of -July, 1807. Both his 
 paternal and maternal ancestors were of English 
 origin, and were among the earliest settlers of 
 New Hampshire. The paternal grandfather was 
 a soldier in the revolutionary war, and served 
 under Washington during the whole of that pro- 
 tracted struggle. When our subject was nine years 
 of age the family removed from New Hampshire 
 to Manlius, New York. The son having acquired 
 at the common school a rudimentary English edu- 
 cation, was at an early age apprenticed to learn the 
 carpenter's trade; he also learned the cabinetmaker's 
 trade, at which he worked during the winter, when, 
 owing to the inclemency of the weather, out-door 
 work was impossible. He continued laboring with 
 his father until 1829, when he was married to Sarah 
 Ann, only daughter of Eleazer Gudney, and early 
 in the same year located at Phoenix, Oswego county, 
 New York, in the building up and improvement of 
 which village he took an active part. Having met 
 with an accident which incapacitated him from 
 physical labor, he, some three or four years later, 
 entered into the mercantile business, in which he 
 was constantly engaged for the following sixteen 
 years, and was not only burdened with the duties 
 of his own extensive affairs, but at the same time 
 held several public offices of trust and responsi- 
 bility. 
 
 About this time, his brother having become some- 
 what involved pecuniarily, Mr. Rice purchased all 
 his interests and started him in business in Lyons, 
 Iowa, which business during the following year he 
 took in his own hands, employing his brother as a 
 clerk. 
 
 In 1856, having established himself permanently 
 in Lyons, Iowa, he closed up his mercantile busi- 
 ness in his former residence, and soon after entered 
 
 upon several enterprises in different localities. He 
 established one mercantile house in Fulton, another 
 in Rochelle, Illinois, and still a third one in Thomp- 
 son, Iowa. In all these various and extensive busi- 
 ness enterprises he was remarkably successful, and 
 the extent and variety of his transactions, and the 
 admirable manner in which they were managed, 
 furnish sufficient proof of his comprehensive intel- 
 lect and thorough business capacity. 
 
 During the rebellion his business was greatly en- 
 larged and extended, and he was enabled to reap 
 immense benefits from his mercantile and also from 
 other investments. Through the financial crisis of 
 1857, his sterling integrity, and indomitable energy 
 and industry, carried him successfully and triumph- 
 antly, with his financial reputation unimpaired, and 
 his business operations uninterrupted. 
 
 In 1861 he disposed of his several interests in 
 the adjacent localities, and purchased the block 
 where his store is now located. Here he continued 
 doing business until his death, which event occurred 
 on the 6th of September, 1874, at the age of sixty- 
 seven years. 
 
 His widow, who has been an active and silent 
 partner in most of his business career, survives 
 him; and to her may be ascribed his first achieve- 
 ment in life. It was his wife's patrimony, and his 
 own limited. accumulations, that enabled him at the 
 beginning to embark in mercantile pursuits. 
 
 Mr. Rice was emphatically a self-made man. He 
 relied upon his own energy and industry for suc- 
 cess; and in his life, as well as in his business 
 career, he has verified the maxim that honesty is 
 not only the best policy, but the only policy. Espe- 
 cially to the young men in his employ he has ever 
 been a true friend and benefactor, and they remem- 
 ber him with affection and veneration. 
 
 He was a man universally esteemed and respected 
 by all who knew him. In business transactions his 
 
V/c 
 
 '/■' 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 283 
 
 advice was sought by his neighbors, and his loss is 
 painfully felt in the entire community in which he 
 resided. He was a public-spirited citizen, taking 
 an active interest in every improvement calculated 
 to benefit society. Kind, sympathetic and benevo- 
 lent, he labored not only for himself, but equally 
 for the benefit of others, as many a young man can 
 testify who has been the recipient of his benefac- 
 tions. 
 
 In religious matters, he was a liberal supporter of 
 church organizations, although not a member of any 
 denomination. He was an active and esteemed 
 member of the fraternity of Odd-Fellows. 
 
 In politics, he was a decided republican, although 
 not a partisan; he believed and had faith in repub- 
 lican institutions, and entertained principles in har- 
 mony with that party. 
 
 He possessed a delicate physique, the result of 
 years of physical suffering. Yet, with all his lame- 
 ness and other ailments, he endured labor, and 
 rarely, if ever, failed to be attentive to the business 
 duties of his vocation. 
 
 His remains are interred in the family burying- 
 ground, in the cemetery at Lyons, Iowa, and his 
 grave is marked by an imposing monument, erected 
 to his memory by his disconsolate widow. 
 
 CYRUS HAWLEY, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 CYRUS HAWLEY was born at Norfolk, Con- 
 necticut, on the 16th of October, 1808, and is 
 the son of E. P. Hawley and Irene nde Frisbie. His 
 father was a farmer, a man of plain manners, vir- 
 tuous and industrious habits, a strict member of the 
 Congregational church, a good citizen, and a civil, 
 obliging neighbor. He lived respected and died at 
 a good old age, leaving the legacy of a good name 
 and a good example to his children, and which was 
 nearly all he had to bequeath. 
 
 Mr. Hawley is descended from English ancestors, 
 who settled in Farmington, Connecticut, about two 
 hundred years ago, and where a colony of the 
 descendants still reside, though large numbers of 
 them have immigrated to all parts of the Union. 
 Many have become .distinguished in the different 
 professions, while a still greater number have suc- 
 cessfully followed commercial pursuits. 
 
 The Frisbie family are also of English origin, and 
 settled in Norwich, Connecticut, about the same 
 time. They were generally men of education and 
 distinction. The Rev. Levi Frisbie, a grand-uncle 
 of our subject, was a Congregational clergyman of 
 considerable note during the latter part of the last 
 century, and an elder brother of his was a success- 
 ful surgeon, and served in the army during the 
 revolutionary war. Both the Hawleys and the 
 Frisbies were largely represented in the colonial 
 army during that memorable struggle. 
 
 Cyrus Hawley spent his youth after the manner 
 of most New England boys, working on the farm 
 in summer and attending the snow-drifted country 
 
 school-house in winter. The common school edu- 
 cation of the New England system in practice fifty 
 years ago, added to the liberal and polished course 
 pursued in the academy, so admirably fitted hun- 
 dreds of New England boys for the duties and 
 higher work which they have so signally performed, 
 and the rank they have sustained in every profession 
 and branch of industry in every state of the Union, 
 during the last half century, that it may well be 
 questioned whether the popular collegiate course of 
 to-day, with its larger expense and necessarily pro- 
 longed seclusion from the active affairs of life, has 
 proved a wise substitute. Suffice it to say that in 
 the common schools, and at one of the best of 
 Litchfield county academies, a county celebrated 
 for its educational facilities, Mr. Hawley received 
 his training for the business of life. For several 
 winters previous to the age of nineteen he taught a 
 district school, but in 1827 he entered the employ- 
 ment of the celebrated Collins (axe) Manufacturing 
 Co. of Hartford, and traveled for that firm over six 
 years, and at the age of twenty-three he had by 
 economy and prudent management saved the large 
 sum of fifteen hundred dollars out of his salary. 
 Out of this sura, with a liberality that became a life 
 characteristic, he contributed twelve hundred dollars 
 toward the education of his sisters, an investment 
 which he has been heard to describe as the most 
 satisfactory of his whole life. It served imme- 
 diately and indirectly to qualify them for distin- 
 guished places as teachers, fitted them for the 
 higher walks of life, as the wives of men of educa- 
 
284 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTION AR 
 
 tion and influence; and as accomplished christian 
 women they still wield a powerful influence for good 
 m the respective circles in which they move. 
 
 During his connection with this firm Mr. Hawley 
 traveled over twelve thousand miles in the south- 
 west for his employers, mostly in stages and canal 
 boats. 
 
 In 1834 he began business on his own account 
 as a book merchant in Louisville, Kentucky, but in 
 1837 the wave of financial embarrassment, which 
 traveled in that era of canal boats and stage coaches 
 at the rate of one hundred miles a day, approached 
 Louisville, and precipitated all business into a gen- 
 eral ruin. It required until 1840 to close up his 
 business, when he joined his brother-in-law, Dr. 
 William Wilson, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in in- 
 vestments at Muscatine, Iowa. This speculation, 
 involving three thousand dollars, proved disastrous, 
 and left him to the resources of manual labor. 
 Pluckily he faced the situation. We find it recorded 
 in his diary that for five years he worked sixteen 
 hours a day, fighting the vulture at every turn of 
 the wheel. In 1850, having accumulated a few hun- 
 dred dollars, he engaged in the manufacture of 
 brick, which he continued until 1863, when he 
 established in Muscatine his justly celebrated and 
 successful fire and life insurance agency, which is 
 continued till this day. In this business he has had 
 associated with him Messrs. J. P. Dawson, Henry 
 Hoover and M. W. Griffin; the two last named 
 gentlemen, together with our subject, constituting 
 the present firm of Hawley, Hoover and Co. This 
 agency, under its able management, has grown to 
 be one of the largest and most popular in the coun- 
 try, its transactions covering a wider territory and 
 greater values than that of any similar concern in 
 the same region. 
 
 In September, 1835, Mr. Hawley was married at 
 Louisville, Kentucky, to Miss Martha J. Wilson, of 
 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who died in September, 
 1850. Of this marriage there were issue seven chil- 
 dren, five girls and two boys. Four of the daugh- 
 ters survive, and are now the wives of the following 
 named gentlemen : Ellen M. is the wife of Franklin 
 E. Humphrys, Esq.; Theodosia I. is the wife of 
 Frank L. Woodward, Esq. ; Louisa Blanch is the 
 wife of Captain W. E. Clarke, and Martha Jeff'rey is 
 the wife of Edward E. Homes, Esq. One of the 
 sons died at the age of thirteen, and the other, 
 William, entered the Union army at the outbreak of 
 the late rebellion, and was killed at the battle of 
 
 r. 
 
 Kenesaw Mountain on the 4th of July, 1864, at the 
 age of seventeen years. He fills the grave of one 
 of the youngest and noblest martyrs to the cause of 
 freedom who fell during that sanguinary struggle. 
 
 In March, 1852, he was married to Miss Elizabeth 
 Meteer, of Bluegrass, Scott county, Iowa, by whom 
 he has had five children, two only of whom survive, 
 Frances E. and Cyrus W. 
 
 Although brought up according to the strictest 
 tenets of New England Congregationalism, and 
 under the most pious and zealous teachers, yet it 
 was not until 1851 that he made a profession of 
 religion, and then he united with the Congregational 
 church at Muscatine, not because he found in its 
 creed a response to all his religious longings, but its 
 high standards pleased him, and he had come to 
 think more of the spirit of a religious profession 
 than of its letter. 
 
 In politics, he delighted in the name of a Henry 
 Clay whig, and cast his vote for that gentleman 
 when a candidate for President. He subsequently 
 voted for Taylor, Fremont, Lincoln, Grant, .Greeley 
 and Tilden. He now indorses the policy of Presi- 
 dent Hayes. We do not know that he ever held an 
 office. It is his distinction that he has remained in 
 the ranks, satisfied with the editorials of the New 
 York " Tribune," and the speeches of Henry Clay, 
 and proud to be of the constituency of Sumner. It 
 will be a grand day for the American republic when 
 her people shall, in military parlance, " dress " to 
 the personal honor and christian patriotism of Cyrus 
 Hawley. 
 
 Physically he is a man of .slender and wiry 
 framework, rather above middle height, of fair 
 complexion, bright eye and' pleasant expression; 
 benevolence and honesty beaming from every angle 
 of his countenance. He has been a man of great 
 endurance under many forms of exposure. His 
 temperament was elastic, his will firm and perse- 
 vering. Despising all hardships and dangers, he 
 was willing to make any personal sacrifice to make 
 an honest and an honorable record for himself and 
 family. 
 
 In the foregoing brief outline we have done but 
 little toward sketching a portrait of Cyrus Hawley, 
 or measuring his influence upon his day and gener- 
 ation. He died on the 23d of October, 1877, in the 
 seventieth year of his age. Through life he was a 
 close student of men and things, and in whatever 
 circle he moved the influence of a liberal culture 
 and of a cosmopolitan experience has been felt. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 285 
 
 His opinions have been sought after and received as 
 the convictions of a catholic nature, thoroughly in 
 sympathy with the best thoughts and the most desir- 
 able works of his time. 
 
 And who that has passed an hour in hib presence, 
 so gentle and refined, will question his claim to the 
 grand old title of gentleman, while they mourn the 
 loss of an upright man ? 
 
 WASHINGTON F. PECK, M.D., 
 
 DAVENPORT. 
 
 WASHINGTON FREEMAN PECK, pro- 
 fessor of surgery and clinical surgery in the 
 medical department Iowa State University, and a 
 practitioner of much prominence in the state, was 
 born in the town of Galen, Wayne county. New 
 York, on the 22d of January, 1841, and is the son 
 of William H. and Alida (Hawes) Peck, natives of 
 the same place ; the former of Scotch descent, some 
 three generations previously, while the latter is of 
 Dutch lineage, the Hawes family having emigrated 
 from Amsterdam to New York city previous to the 
 revolution, where the maternal grandfather of our 
 subject, Simon Hawes, served as a captain in the 
 revolutionary army. 
 
 His father was a farmer in easy circumstances, 
 and our subject received a good common-school 
 education. He had from an early age manifested a 
 decided taste and aptitude for that particular branch 
 of learning which relates to the heajing art, which 
 determined him in the choice of a profession, and 
 accordingly in 1859 he commenced the study of 
 medicine and surgery, entering the Bellevue Hospi- 
 tal Medical College, New York, where he graduated 
 in the session of 1862-3 ^'^h the highest honors, 
 and was the first student who matriculated' in the 
 first medical school in this country which success- 
 fully achieved the experiment of combining inti- 
 mately clinical with didactic teaching. His aptness 
 as a student and his especial talents for the pro- 
 fession which he had chosen may be inferred from 
 the fact that after attending one course of lectures 
 he was received as a cadidate by the board of ex- 
 aminers for the position of house surgeon in Belle- 
 vue and Blackwell's Island hospitals ; and notwith- 
 standing the fact that the rules had hitherto re- 
 stricted applications for this honorable and important 
 place to such candidates as had already obtained 
 the degree of M.D., yet after a searching compet- 
 itive examination, in which a large number of much 
 older men participated, Washington F. Peck, the 
 first undergraduate, was awarded the position. In 
 
 this capacity he served with unflagging diligence 
 and marked success for two years' without com- 
 pensation, except in the wealth of experience and 
 the incalculably valuable discipline which the posi- 
 tion afforded him — undoubtedly the most useful and 
 practical lessons of his life, largely influencing him 
 in selecting that branch of the profession in which 
 he has become especially proficient. After leaving 
 Bellevue Hospital he served as surgeon in the United 
 States army for a period- of eighteen months, prin- 
 cipally at Lincoln General Hospital, District of Co- 
 lumbia, where he was a prominent and very suc- 
 cessful operator. 
 
 In 1864 he removed to the west, and located at 
 Davenport, Iowa, where he immediately entered 
 upon a large and lucrative practice, his talents and 
 attainments naturally placing him in the front ranks 
 of the profession. In 1868 he was elected professor 
 of surgery and clinical surgery in the medical depart- 
 ment of the Iowa State University, which position 
 he has since filled with the highest satisfaction and 
 benefit to the institution, also filling the position of 
 dean of the faculty during the same period. Has 
 been visiting surgeon to the Mercy Hospital, Daven- 
 port, since its organization, consulting surgeon of the 
 Mercy Hospital, Iowa City, and for eight years surgeon 
 of the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home. On the ist 
 of January, 1875, he was appointed surgeon-in-chief 
 of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad, 
 in which capacity he has rendered excelle'nt service. 
 During the year 1874 he was president of the Scott 
 County Medical Society, and is now (1876) president 
 of the Iowa State Medical Society. He delivered 
 the centennial address to the last-named organiza- 
 tion at its annual meeting held at Des Moines on 
 the 26th of January, 1876. The records of that 
 society bear evidence of yearly papers from him con- 
 nected with the art of surgery. 
 
 He has passed through the various orders of 
 Masonry, and is a distinguished craftsman of that 
 order. 
 
286 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 He is not an active politician, but is known to be 
 in sympathy with the principles of the republican 
 party. 
 
 On the i8th of September, 1865, he married Miss 
 Maria Purdy, daughter of the late Merritt Purdy, of 
 West Butler, Wayne county, New York, a most esti- 
 mable and gifted lady. They have three children, 
 Jessie Allen, Mary Alida, and Robertson Irish. 
 
 Dr. Peck is of Scotch ancestry on the male side, 
 and in his qualities shows perhaps as noble a type 
 of the Scottish ideal as has ever been seen. He 
 brings to his profession a very high order of talents, 
 giving him an almost intuitive correctness in diag- 
 nosis, and a large fund of resource in treatment of 
 diseases, and in many instances a rare originality, 
 which would challenge a wide admiration did he 
 possess leisure and disposition to write his views and 
 experience in such cases. He is likewise character- 
 ized by rare enthusiasm, wielding immense power 
 over the minds and wills of others, while his singu- 
 lar personal magnetism attracts to him friends of 
 the most diverse character. He has an indomitable 
 will, and an energy that never tires. In his vo- 
 cabulary there is no such word as "fail." To all of 
 which may be added a large fund of ready wit and 
 native shrewdness, which makes him an apt judge 
 
 of human character. As a friend, he is staunch and 
 unflinching, and as an opponent, uncompromising 
 and inexorable. With him there is no neutral ground 
 in any of the relations of life. His literary and 
 professional works, when he does find time to ap- 
 pear in print, are of the very highest order, always 
 original and eminently practical. His address above 
 alluded to was a complete resume of the march of 
 progress of the profession during the century just 
 closed, and as a history of the various discoveries 
 and triumphs of science for the benefit of the race, 
 and its enumeration of the stale and mouldy theories 
 that have been distanced and dropped altogether 
 from the practice during the lifetime of the republic, 
 it deserves to take a very high rank, and might be 
 profitably read by every medical student and intelli- 
 gent citizen in the land. 
 
 It is seldom that a man so young in the pro- 
 fession attains to the same distinction. He has 
 performed successfully some of the greatest opera- 
 tions in surgery hundreds of times ; his reputation 
 in this respect extending far beyond the limits of 
 the commonwealth, and being justly high among his 
 professional brethren. 
 
 Socially, there are few more generous, warmhearted 
 and faithful friends than Dr. W. F. Peck. 
 
 SUEL FOSTER, 
 
 MUSCATINE.. 
 
 SUEL FOSTER, horticulturist, was born in the 
 town of Hillsboro, New Hampshire, on the 
 26th of August, 1811, being the eighth child of 
 Aaron Foster and Mehetable nee Nichols. The 
 family is of English origin, the great-grandfather of 
 our subject, with two brothers, having emigrated to 
 Massachusetts previous to the revolution, where a 
 large colony of the descendants still remain. Sev- 
 eral of them fought in the war for independence, 
 and were subsequently conspicuous in the councils 
 of the state and nation. 
 
 The mother of our subject was descended on the 
 female side from Bancroft stock, and was a full 
 cousin to the distinguished American historian and 
 diplomatist, George Bancroft. His father was a 
 farmer, and had eight sons and two daughters, all of 
 whom were brought up in habits of industry and mo- 
 rality. Like many New England farmers, with large 
 families, his means were limited, and the education 
 
 of his children was confined mainly to the public 
 schools, at that time greatly inferior to what they 
 now are; yet notwithstanding the difficulties alluded 
 to, three of the sons succeeded in obtaining educa- 
 tions qualifying them for professions, one being a 
 clergyman of the Congregational church, another a 
 physician, and the third a West Point cadet. 
 
 When a boy Suel used to rejoice in a rainy day, 
 in which he and his brothers were wont to go fish- 
 ing for pike, trout, pickerel, horn-pout, and other 
 members of the finny tribe, with which the moun- 
 tain streams abounded, or go a bathing in the pure, 
 limpid streams, or boating or rafting on the bosom 
 of the crystal lake ; or, during the long winter even- 
 ings, when the ground was covered with snow, to 
 participate in the sport of sliding down hill, or 
 skating on the ponds, or competing for the prize in 
 the village "spelling bee," or the "speaking" of 
 pieces, etc. These are the days and the scenes 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 287 
 
 which memory holds dear, and which our subject 
 loves to talk about. 
 
 When Suel was ten years of age his father ex- 
 changed his farm for one located some twenty-seven 
 miles farther west, in the town of Unity, Sullivan 
 county, New Hampshire. This was a sad and sor- 
 rowful period in his history. The scenes and play- 
 mates of his youth were unspeakably dear to him, 
 and bitterly did he weep at parting with them ; so 
 deep was the impression made upon his youthful 
 mind by this sad change, that he has since his ma- 
 turity often counseled parents of families to fix upon 
 a home for life in the outset if possible, and not 
 part with their homestead on any consideration, but 
 encourage in their children a love of home, with all 
 the happy feelings and moral associations that be- 
 long to that blessed place. 
 
 At the age of twenty years he bid farewell to the 
 parental roof and removed to Rochester, New York, 
 where he worked one year as a farm-hand at a sal- 
 ary of eleven dollars per month. At the end of the 
 year he took his surplus earnings and bought a 
 small stock of goods, and peddled them in the sev- 
 eral towns and counties west and south of Roch- 
 ester, the country known as the " Genesee Valley." 
 He followed this business for three years with re- 
 markable success, nor was any period of his life 
 more pleasantly and profitably spent ; for, although 
 he did not accumulate money very fast, as the 
 phrase is now understood, yet he was daily receiv- 
 ing a practical and useful education, learning how 
 people lived and how they ought to live. The peo- 
 ple of the Genesee country, although humble, were 
 nevertheless intelligent, faithful and well-to-do farm- 
 ers. Many of the pioneers of that forest country 
 were still dwelling in their log-cabins, but most of 
 them had built good farm-houses and barns. With 
 unflagging interest he heard the oft-repeated tale 
 of the pioneer settler. Here he imbibed a love of 
 agricultural pursuits, and conceived the idea of im- 
 migrating to the west, and of making a new farm in 
 the "Valley of the Mississippi." Accordingly, as a 
 preparatory step, he resolved to spend a few months 
 at the Middlebury Academy, that he might acquire 
 a knowledge of bookkeeping and surveying, etc. 
 His older brother. Dr. John H. Foster, had been a 
 few years in Illinois previous to this period, and had 
 returned to the east on business in 1836, and on his 
 return to his western home was accompanied by our 
 subject, the journey being made in the early spring 
 of that year, via New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, 
 
 the Ohio river and St. Louis, where the brothers 
 parted, the doctor going to Chicago and our subject 
 to Rock Island. In August of the same year the 
 doctor made a visit to Rock Island, and the broth- 
 ers proceeded down the river to Bloomington, now 
 Muscatine, Iowa, where they jointly purchased an 
 undivided one-sixth of the town site, as it then 
 laid off, from Captain Benjamin Clark, of " Clark's 
 Ferry," for which they paid the sum of five hundred 
 dollars. This included a tract of land half a mile 
 square. The town had been surveyed but a few 
 weeks previously, and at that time consisted of but 
 two log-cabins, though farmers were in that year 
 making rapid settlements in the adjacent country. 
 In February, 1837, he removed to Bloomington 
 (Muscatine), where, in 1842, he engaged in the 
 wholesale and retail grocery business in partner- 
 sliip with Mr. J. W. Richman, since deceased, 
 which continued until 1846. 
 
 On the 8th of October, 1847, he married Miss 
 Sarah J., daughter of Robert Collins Hastings, of 
 St. Lawrence county. New York, and sister of Hon. 
 S. C. Hastings, elsewhere sketched in this volume, 
 and continued his residence in Muscatine. Early in 
 1849, soon after the discovery of gold in California, 
 Judge Hastings made the overland trip to the Pacific 
 coast; and in the winter following, at his request, 
 our subject accompanied the wife and three children 
 of the judge, by way of the Isthmus, to the city of 
 San Francisco, arriving there in April, 1850, after an 
 arduous journey of three months. 
 
 Mr. Foster spent the suminer of 1850 as clerk in 
 the Sacramento post-ofiice, and in the autumn of 
 that year was appointed to take the census of the 
 east half of Butte county, California, embracing all 
 the mountainous country of Feather river to the 
 top of the Sierra Nevada mountains. He num- 
 bered some twenty-five hundred men engaged in 
 ■'digging" for gold, all operating upon the sur- 
 face and in the bed of the streams, no blasting 
 of quartz rocks then being done. He found some 
 of the miners realizing from twenty dollars to one 
 hundred dollars per day, but the average of their 
 earnings did not exceed one dollar and a half, 
 and the cost of living was about one dollar per 
 day, so that the labor of mining gold in California 
 at that time did not pay as well as the same 
 amount of labor in the farms of Iowa, nor did he 
 consider the condition of the people of Califor- 
 nia, or other prospects, as equal to those of the 
 people of Iowa, and accordingly returned to the 
 
288 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Valley of the Mississippi in the winter of 1850-1. 
 The journey to and from and his seven months' 
 stay in California was one of the most interesting 
 periods of his life. The sea-voyage from New Or- 
 leans to Chagres, on the steamer Georgia, com- 
 manded by Commodore D. D. Porter; the horse- 
 back ride across the isthmus with the women and 
 children; the four weeks' stay at Panama awaiting 
 the steamer to come around the " Horn," and his 
 experience with the miners on Feather river, were 
 all thrilliiig and very instructive experiences. 
 
 On rejoining his family in the spring of 1851 he 
 settled down to the business of farming, and soon 
 drifted into the nursery business, horticulture and 
 fruit raising, in which he has been engaged success- 
 fully for the past twenty-five years. He has accom- 
 plished much good by the promotion of tree-plant- 
 ing, both shade and ornamental, orchards and small 
 fruits of all kinds, and has been instrumental in in- 
 troducing and disseminating many new and im- 
 proved varieties of fruit trees. He is a member of 
 the state and county horticultural societies, also of 
 the Illinois Horticultural Society, and a frequent 
 and very valuable contributor to the various pub- 
 lications and periodicals of the country printed in 
 the interest of horticulture and agriculture. He 
 was the first in Iowa to move in the matter of estab- 
 lishing and endowing an agricultural college for the 
 state, and for a number of years fought the battle 
 single-handed. In 1847 he became acquainted with 
 some intelligent Germans, who had been educated 
 at agricultural schools in their own country, and 
 who were much surprised to learn that there were 
 no similar institutions in America. He became 
 favorably impressed with their account of these in- 
 stitutions in Germany and other European coun- 
 tries,, and immediately commenced agitating the 
 question of establishing an agricultural college for 
 the State of Iowa, by articles in the public papers. 
 He made it the subject of public addresses at. agri- 
 cultural meetings, and, in short, made it a hobby for 
 years. At the outset he met with but little encour- 
 agement ; on the contrary, his views were generally 
 opposed as Utopian. About the year 1852, how- 
 ever, some western writers, among whom were Pro- 
 fessor J. B. Turner, of Jacksonville, Illinois, and 
 Hon. Adna Williams, of Michigan, began to adopt 
 similar views, and Judge Buel, editor of the Albany, 
 New York, "Cultivator," had long been a strong 
 advocate of agricultural education. In this way a 
 gradual change of sentiment was wrought, and in 
 
 1856 he found friends enough in the legislature to 
 introduce a bill providing for the establishment of 
 an agricultural college for the State of Iowa, to be 
 endowed and supported as other state institutions; 
 but there was not strength enough in that session to 
 enact it. Early in the succeeding session of 1858, 
 however, it became a law, Iowa being the second 
 state in the Union to provide an institution of this 
 kind, Michigan being about a year in advance of her. 
 The main feature of the discipline of the institution 
 contended for by Mr. Foster was a more thorough 
 education in the sciences pertaining to agriculture, 
 requirement of a certain amount of daily labor on 
 the part of the students. The reasons urged being 
 labor for health, for economy, for practical illustra- 
 tion of the studies, and for the great moral prin- 
 ciple of the dignity of labor. After seeing the 
 successful realization of the travail of his soul for 
 many years, he had the further satisfaction of serv- 
 ing as a director of the institution for six years, five 
 of which he was president of the board. The 
 United States land grant for the support of the in- 
 stitution was an after consideration, earnestly advo- 
 cated and promoted by our subject. 
 
 It will thus be seen that Mr. Foster has been a 
 large benefactor to his race, and when it is consid- 
 ered that he has no children to reap the benefit of 
 his efforts in the matter of education, he must stand 
 prominently forward in the character of a philan- 
 thropist. He is a plodding and industrious man, 
 but enthusiastic in his business, in which he has 
 acquired large practical knowledge, being recog- 
 nized as an authority on subjects coming within the 
 scope of his observation. He is a voluminous 
 writer for agricultural and horticultural periodicals. 
 He is also much interested in weather statistics, and 
 makes- regular records of the atmosphere and its 
 various phenomena. He is very tenacious of his 
 views and opinions, and pursues a matter to the end, 
 regardless of the consequences to friend or foe, 
 although he is by no means vindictive. He is also 
 something of a reformer, and considering it his 
 duty, some few years since, to endeavor to bring 
 about a reform in the practice of the courts, he 
 wrote several articles for the daily papers, showing 
 that cases should be disposed of in some plain, sim- 
 ple manner without the aid of "lawyers' papers," as 
 he called them; and once he appeared in court and 
 read a petition to the judge urging more prompti- 
 tude and less delay in the disposition of cases, for 
 all of which he was ridiculed by others, precisely as 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 289 
 
 when he commenced agitating the agricultural col- 
 lege innovation ; but, in nowise disconcerted, he con- 
 tinues to advocate what he terms " law reform," and 
 in consequence " lawyers' papers '' have come to be 
 a byword in Muscatine. We could fill pages with 
 interesting reminiscences and anecdotes of the life 
 and manners of our subject, but shall close our 
 notice of him by copying the following maxims 
 which his own career has aptly illustrated : " Let it 
 not be said of us that the world is none the better 
 for our having lived in it "; "All essential labor is 
 equally honorable"; " To know how and where we 
 obtain the necessaries of life is more important than 
 all other earthly knowledge"; "There is nothing 
 worth our attention which does not tend to improve 
 our own condition, or that of others, in this life or 
 the life to come." 
 
 His marriage with Miss Hastings was blessed 
 with an increase of two children ; the eldest, 
 Charles, died in infancy, and the youngest, Miss 
 Adele, a most amiable and accomplished young 
 
 lady, died in her seventeenth year, in December, 
 1870. The following lines, written by D. C. Rich- 
 man, Esq., are a slight tribute to her worth and 
 memory : 
 
 " Tenderly, lovingly lay her away, 
 
 Beneatii the cold earth, with the dead ; 
 
 Trustfully, prayerfully leave there the clay 
 
 From which the sweet spirit hath fled. 
 
 Ye loved her, and fondly ye cherished the gift, 
 
 The dearest that heaven bestows, 
 To gladden and cheer the brief hour of life, 
 
 Whate'er be its griefs and its woes. 
 
 Too frail was the bud to blossom and flower 
 
 In earth's uncongenial clime; 
 But transplanted in heaven 'twill sweetly expand 
 
 And bloom with a splendor sublime. 
 
 Removed from the evil and care of the world, 
 
 Unfettered by weakness or pain, 
 The soul with its Savior, Redeemer and Guide, 
 
 Will never know sorrow again! 
 
 Then tenderly, tearfully, lay her away 
 
 In quiet beneath the cold sod ; 
 Hopefully, prayerfully leave there the clay, 
 
 And trust the sweet spirit with God ! " 
 
 LUCIUS FRENCH, M.D., 
 
 DA VBNPORT. 
 
 AMONG the many self-educated professional men 
 /X of Iowa none has made a more honorable 
 record, or in a short space of time attained to 
 greater eminence in his profession than the subject 
 of this sketch ; born at Chenango, Broome county. 
 New York, on the 2d of February, 1832, his par- 
 ents being Ebenezer S. and Anna (Seward) French, 
 natives of New England, but among the earliest 
 settlers in that section of New York. He is of 
 English extraction (both parents being of that stock), 
 and descended from some of the early colonists 
 of Massachusetts. His mother was a connection of 
 the Sewards of Auburn, New York,, the late Hon. 
 William H. Seward being related to her. His 
 father was a farmer in moderate, but easy, circum- 
 stances, who gave his children the benefit of the 
 best schools which the country at that early day 
 afforded. 
 
 Our subject was educated at the Binghamton 
 Academy, a literary and scientific institution located 
 at the county seat of Broome county. New York. 
 From his earliest recollections he desired to be a 
 physician. This was the one and only aim of his 
 life, and toward this end his reading and studies 
 29 
 
 were all directed. His father, however, was strongly 
 opposed to his plans, and desired him to follow 
 the business of agriculture, refusing to furnish him 
 the means to obtain a professional education, and 
 he was consequently thrown upon his own resources 
 at the age of fifteen years, at which period he left 
 the parental roof and launched out in support of 
 himself For several years his experience was va- 
 ried, and sometimes rough. He worked as a hand 
 in a saw-mill, as an agricultural laborer, learned the 
 art of daguerreotyping, which he carried on for two 
 or three years, and which afforded him not only 
 leisure for study, but means to defray his expenses. 
 He read the usual medical works, and studied the 
 science of healing under the direction of his uncle, 
 S. H. French, M.D., who was then and is still a dis- 
 tinguished practitioner in the town of Lisle, Broome 
 county. New York. In 1853 he entered the Berk- 
 shire (Massachusetts) Medical College, from which 
 he graduated with honors the same year, after which 
 he located in Hyde Park, Pennsylvania, where for 
 five years he piirsued the practice of his profession 
 with very satisfactory results. At the end of this 
 period his uncle, whose practice had grown to be 
 
290 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAliT. 
 
 quite large, offered him an equal partnership, which 
 he accepted, and accordingly returned to the town 
 of Lisle, where he had pursued his medical studies, 
 and continued there in active and successful prac- 
 tice for three years. In the autumn of i860 he 
 was induced to remove to the west, and located 
 at the town of Anamosa, then a rising village, in 
 Jones county, Iowa, where he soon built up a large 
 and lucrative practice, and took high rank as a 
 skillful and reliable physician. Soon after the out- 
 break of the late rebellion he joined the army as 
 surgeon in the 31st Iowa Volunteers, in which he 
 served with fidelity and great usefulness, part of 
 the time on the operating staff of the division, till 
 the 2oth of June, 1863, when a serious attack of 
 illness brought on by the incessant drudgery of his 
 position, obliged him to resign his commission, nor 
 did he recover sufficiently to reenter the service 
 during the remainder of the war. In 1863 he was 
 appointed, by the President, examining surgeon for 
 pensions for the district in which he then lived. 
 In 1865 he removed to the larger and more desir- 
 able city of Davenport, which has since been his 
 home, and where his merits as a practitioner have 
 brought him ample recompense. After the organ- 
 ization of the board of medical examiners for ap- 
 plicants for pensions in Davenport, he was elected 
 president of that organization, a position which he 
 still fills with ability and credit. The doctor has 
 
 never given himself to specialties, or taken up any 
 particular branch of the profession, but is a phy- 
 sician in the broadest acceptation of the term, treat-, 
 ing successfully the various ailments and accidents 
 to which fallen humanity is heir. He is, moreover, 
 a gentleman of great amiability of character and 
 urbanity of manners ; prompt in responding to the 
 calls of duty, irrespective of the social position of 
 the patient, his first and main concern being the 
 relief of suffering. He loves the profession for its 
 own sake, and the opportunity for doing good to 
 his fellow-men which it affords. He is a gentle- 
 man of high social position, enjoying the confidence 
 and esteem of all who know him. 
 
 He was brought up under Methodist influence, but 
 of late years has been an attendant upon the services 
 of the Protestant Episcopal church. In politics, he 
 has always been a republican. He joined the Ma- 
 sonic order in 1856, and continues his membership, 
 having passed through the master's degree. 
 
 In 1854 he was made a member of the Broome 
 County Medical Society, New York, and in 1865 
 became a member of the Scott county, Iowa, Med- 
 ical Society, of which he was president during the 
 years 1868-9. ^^ '^ ^^^^ ^ permanent member of 
 the State Medical Society. 
 
 On the 15th of April, 1868, he married Miss 
 Agnes Norval, of Iowa. He has one child, a daughter, 
 the result of a former union. 
 
 JOSEPH L. REED, 
 
 WILTON. 
 
 JOSEPH LAUGHREY REED, for many years 
 J the first business man of Wilton, was born at 
 Blairsville, Pennsylvania, on the 29th of December, 
 183 1, and was the son of James Reed and Hannah 
 nde Pomeroy, both natives of Pennsylvania, the lat- 
 ter of German origin. His parents removed to 
 Wayne county, Ohio, in November, 1832, and soon 
 after to Holmes county in the same state, where the 
 father died in 1841 and the mother in 1843, leaving 
 Joseph L. an orphan at the tender age of ten years. 
 The paternal grandfather of our subject was a na- 
 tive of the north of Ireland, of Scotch ancestry, and 
 emigrated in early life to Pennsylvania, where he 
 married and pursued the business bf farming until 
 his death. A few of his descendants still reside in 
 the Keystone State, where they are mostly tillers of 
 
 the soil. They are a superior race of men, of strong 
 religious convictions, — generally attached to the 
 Presbyterian faith — highly moral and industrious. 
 
 After the death of his parents our subject was 
 taken charge of by an elder brother, George, under 
 whose care he remained until the age of sixteen 
 years, when he placed him in a store in Nashville, 
 Ohio. Meantime he had received a common-school 
 education, and was a bright and promising boy. 
 After remaining a short time in Nashville he re- 
 moved to Dalton, in Wayne county, Ohio, where he 
 learned the saddler's trade, at which he worked in 
 Coshocton and various other places until 1854, 
 when he went into partnership with his brother 
 George in the stock business for about a year. 
 
 On the 2d of January, 1855, he arrived in the 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAIiT. 
 
 293 
 
 State of Iowa, first stopping with his sister, Mrs. 
 McKinley, in Cedar county. From thence he re- 
 moved to Iowa City, and worked at his trade in the 
 shop of Mr. J. B. Daniels, of that place, for about 
 eighteen months. In the spring of 1857 he re- 
 moved to the town of Wilton, then an incipient 
 village of but a few houses, and commenced the 
 harness business for himself, with a very small capi- 
 tal, in a little frame shanty; but in a short time he 
 accumulated sufficient means to purchase a lot and 
 build a more commodious shop for himself. In the 
 new quarters he remained about seven years, pros- 
 pering and accumulating. Meantime he branched ; 
 out into other departments of trade, bought and [ 
 shipped large quantities of grain, provisions, cattle 
 and hogs to Chicago; dealt in stocks and United ' 
 States securities, and was for a number of years one i 
 of the heaviest operators on the stock exchange of 
 that city ; all his transactions eventuating success- 
 fully. In 1866 he built a large grain elevator on 
 the railroad at Wilton, and in 1867 he erected a 
 large brick building on Cedar street, in which he 
 organized a bank, — the first in the place, — which 
 was set in operation on the 20th of July of that 
 year, and continued with great success for about 
 nine years. Subsequently he added two additional 
 stores, which, with the bank, were burned to the 
 ground on the 20th of August, 1874. This great 
 disaster, which piled in ruins the business center of 
 the town, and paralyzed for a time its commercial 
 activity, produced but little effect upon Mr. Reed. 
 The next day his banking business was transferred 
 to a grocery store, and he received grain at the rail- 
 road warehouses ; and while the embers were still 
 glowing, his plans were matured for rebuilding on 
 a larger and greatly improved scale, and to-day the 
 beautiful brick block on Cedar street, the pride of 
 Wilton, remains as a monument of his indomitable 
 perseverance and liberal enterprise. During a period 
 of eighteen years his success as a business man was 
 uninterrupted; every enterprise which he undertook 
 brought a large return, and he amassed a fortune 
 estimated at one hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 On the 28lh of May, i860, he married Miss Maria 
 Herr, daughter of Christian and Susan (Stiver) Herr, 
 of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, her father be- 
 ing of Swiss origin some four generations since, and 
 her mother of English ancestry. Mrs. Reed is a 
 lady of culture and refinement, a member of the 
 Presbyterian church, and a leader in every good 
 and noble work inaugurated in the community. 
 
 They have two sons, Charley L., born on the nth 
 of April, 1861, and Harry J., born on the 21st of 
 March, 1863; both young men of bright intellects 
 and large promise. The former is being trained for 
 the pursuit of business, and the latter for the medical 
 profession. 
 
 Mr. Reed was accidentally thrown from his buggy 
 on the 4th of November, 1875, and received inju- 
 ries from which he died on the morning of the 5th, 
 universally regretted. His death cast a gloom over 
 the entire community, and his funeral was attended 
 by an immense concourse of citizens, the procession 
 reaching all the way from the house of deceased to 
 the cemetery, a distance of a mile. He had been a 
 member of the Odd-Fellows society, which was 
 largely^epresented at his funeral. 
 
 In politics, he had been a Jefferson democrat 
 through life, but had never sought or held office, 
 except that of city treasurer of Wilton, of which he 
 was the incumbent at the time of his death. 
 
 He had never connected himself with any cor- 
 porations other than his bank, but had become the 
 owner of two large stock farms in Muscatine county, 
 numbering about six hundred acres, and also large 
 tracts of land in Nebraska, which remain in posses- 
 sion of the family. 
 
 Mr. Reed possessed rare business talents, was 
 gifted with a shrewd and far-seeing mind, which 
 seemed able to forecast the future with remarkable 
 accuracy, so that he rarely made a mistake in trade, 
 added to which was a character of unswerving in- 
 tegrity. He was never known to break his word or 
 violate a trust. He kept but few accounts, and was 
 wont to make all his calculations mentally, rarely 
 employing a pencil, and generally more acc'Urately 
 and expeditiously than th^most experienced ac- 
 countant. But while careful in business, and scru- 
 pulously exact in all his transactions, he was a man 
 of the greatest benevolence and generosity. His 
 gifts to the cause of religion and charity were noble, 
 while he was continually relieving the wants of the 
 poor and unfortunate, and so unostentatiously were 
 his benefits bestowed that sometimes years elapsed 
 before the donor became known. He was piously 
 educated, and continued through life to entertain 
 the highest respect for the cause of religion, his 
 preference being for the church of his fathers, the 
 Presbyterian. He was a very liberal supporter of 
 the Wilton church and Sabbath school of that de- 
 nomination, giving in a way characteristic of his 
 generous nature, without parade or display. He 
 
294 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 generally contributed one-half to the current ex- 
 penses of the church, and time and again has 
 doubled his contributions to the Sabbath school, for 
 libraries, periodicals, etc.; and mainly through his 
 instrumentality was the beautiful and commodious 
 parsonage of the Presbyterian church built. Nor 
 were his liberal gifts confined to the church of his 
 choice, the other evangelical churches of the place 
 were likewise liberally aided by him. New facts 
 every day coming to light show the greatness of his 
 
 generosity and the multiplicity of his acts of benev- 
 olence. His loss was regarded as a public calamity. 
 While reticent to the outside world, yet to his inti- 
 mate friends he revealed a depth of religious feel- 
 ing that was but rarely suspected. His deeds of 
 benevolence were wrought not for show, but for the 
 love of doing good, not letting his left hand know 
 his right hand's doings. His acts of kindness will 
 be lastingly remembered by the citizens of Wilton, 
 while his loss to the community seems irreparable. 
 
 THOMAS C. HOLYOKE, M.D., 
 
 GRIN NELL. 
 
 THOMAS CHAMBERLAIN HOLYOKE, a 
 pioneer settler and physician in Poweshiek 
 county, Iowa, was born and reared in the town of 
 Brewer, opposite Bangor, Maine, dating his birth on 
 the 1 6th of March, 1818. He was educated at the 
 Bango'r Seminary ; read medicine and attended 
 lectures in the medical department of Harvard 
 University, there graduating in 1847 ; practiced two 
 years at Surry and five at Searsport, Maine, and in 
 March, 1854, found his way to the wild prairie on 
 which the city of Grinnell now stands. At that 
 date there was no shanty, not even a wigwam, on 
 the site of the place. He came in company with 
 Hon. J. B. Grinnell, late member of congress, H. 
 M. Hamilton and three or four others, to found a 
 Congregational town, the parties purchasing next 
 month several thousand acres, including all the 
 business part of the present city. 
 
 There was a small grove west of town, and Dr. 
 Holyoke felled the firS tree for a rude cabin, which 
 was erected in great haste as a shelter from the 
 March winds, so searching in a prairie country. He 
 was soon made county surveyor, and laid out the 
 town and fixed the boundaries of the farms. His 
 hand was in every important work until the popu- 
 lation had so largely increased as to demand his 
 whole time in his profession. Up to the day of his 
 death, which occurred on the loth of February, 
 1877, he was very busy in his regular calling. His 
 rides were often long and tedious, the families in 
 the country, having been accustomed to test his 
 skill, being unwilling to exchange for a younger 
 man their old family physician. He found comfort 
 in obliging them, though the exposure to which he 
 was sometimes subjected was not unlikely delete- 
 
 rious to his health. > He was stricken with paralysis 
 of the left side just after rising one morning, and 
 died before midnight. Physicians attributed the 
 immediate cause of his death to cerebral hemor- 
 rhage. 
 
 The usefulness of Dr. Holyoke, as a citizen as 
 well as physician, and his solid character and influ- 
 ence, can be best told in the language of parties 
 who knew him best, and whose sad duty it was 
 to pay the last rites to his mortal remains. Mr. 
 Grinnell paid a touching tribute to his memory at 
 the funeral, and from his remarks we make the fol- 
 lowing extracts : 
 
 Who so near to a community as he who administers 
 medicine to body and soul, faithful to allay the burning 
 fever, or, when the grim messenger has claimed his victim, 
 closing the eyes of our beloved in death, and commending 
 the bereaved to the God of the widow and fatherless.' 
 Such were the ministries of our friend, who for twenty 
 years met the blinding snow-storms and drenching rains 
 far out in the country, attending the poor who had no 
 reward to bestow but the " God bless you 1 " and at last 
 worn out by attendance and anxiety at the bedside of your 
 friends so justly confiding in his fidelity and professional 
 skill. We mourn for an eminent professional career closed, 
 unclouded by one suspicion, and there is the fit acclaim, 
 " Well and faithfully done." . . For the young, he was a 
 Sabbath-school superintendent, an instructor and leader of 
 the church choir. Education had no warmer or more intel- 
 ligent friend than he. He was for years president of the 
 board of the literary fund of Grinnell University; a trustee 
 since the removal o"f' Iowa College to Grinnell ; for years at 
 the head of the executive committee, and an able lecturer 
 on physiology and health before the students. . . His 
 opportunities were numerous and well improved. With a 
 naturally conservative mind he was abreast wilh e.\ery im- 
 provement, and a full sharer in the labors of moulding a 
 community. The county had his service as an officer, the 
 State Agricultural College as a trustee, and honorable ser- 
 vice was performed in the state legislature. 
 
 He donated the right of way for a railroad from the east 
 through his homestead, and gave his thousands, the largest 
 subs-cription, to build the Central railroad of Iowa. In tree 
 planting and fruit growing, making long, weary journeys 
 for the rarest standards, he was the pioneer, and an example 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 295 
 
 in home decoration, as evinced by his tasteful residence and 
 grounds, where for him there shall never be again the early 
 bloom of flowers and the sweet spring carol of birds, their 
 owner and protector having gone to walk in the Paradise 
 gardens above. 
 
 He was an humble man, often tremulous in speech, and 
 with a subdued utterance which we shall no more hear, but 
 mav gratefully remember the spirit and words of him whose 
 life was a gospel, and whose voice is now hushed in death. 
 
 On the same occasion President Magoun, of Iowa 
 College, thus spoke of his connection with that 
 institution : 
 
 He had been a trustee for more than sixteen years, hav- 
 ing been elected the year after it was resolved to remove 
 the college, in view of commencing the college work here. 
 He had also been .all that time a member of the executive 
 committee. They had asked him to share their trust not 
 merely because he was prominent and held in high esteem 
 in the town which he had aided to plant and to build, but 
 because of his excellent professional education and acquire- 
 ments, his interest in general education, his superior intel- 
 ligence, his unquestionable integrity, and because he was 
 thoroughly a christian man. They found him in this duty 
 and trust what he had always been in other things, a man 
 
 who never came forward unless called forward, a man of 
 few words, but possessed of great soundness of judgment, 
 sagacity, plain sense, honesty, conscientiousness and fidel- 
 ity. He was ordinarily in the board retired, quiet and 
 silent; but its records and those of the executive committee 
 show how largely he was called to act in the transaction of 
 business, and the confidence reposed in his intentions and 
 his wisdom. He was a man to be intrusted with difficult 
 business, a man to be trusted, utterly. He was untiring 
 in respect to the interests of the college, vigilant against 
 cost, loss and mistakes, patient and attentive to minute 
 affairs, thoroughly faithful to this trust as to others. He 
 was the only trustee who had been at the same time an 
 instructor, gi\'ing gratuitously lectures to successi\'e classes 
 on the application of physiology to the care of health. 
 
 On the 2d of October, 1849, Miss Nancy C. 
 Clark, of Searsport, Maine, became the wife of Dr. 
 Holyoke, and they had four children, all sons, three 
 surviving hirn. Frederic S. died in early infancy; 
 William Pond, the eldest son, is a medical student; 
 Edgar Loomis is in the sophomore class of Iowa 
 College, and Robert Ames is in the preparatory 
 department of the same institution. 
 
 CHARLES E. WITHAM, M.D., 
 
 WILTON. 
 
 CHARLES EMERSON WITHAM, eldest son 
 of Ebenezer Withara and Susannah nee Hop- 
 kinson, was born at New Sharon, Franklin county, 
 Maine, on the 21st of October, 1830. 
 
 The name is of English origin : the family tradi- 
 tion is that three brothers of that cognomen came 
 from England about the beginning of the seven- 
 teenth century and settled in Massachusetts. From 
 one of these brothers our subject claims descent. 
 The towns of Withamsville, in Massachusetts, and 
 in Clermont county, Ohio, derive their names from 
 members of this lineage, by whom they were founded. 
 Colonies of Withams are still in New England, while 
 detachments of them have found their way into 
 Ohio and other western states. The great-grand- 
 father of our subject was a soldier of the revolution- 
 ary war, was wounded at Bunker Hill, and died a 
 prisoner of war at Halifax, Nova Scotia, while his 
 grandfather served through the war of 1812. The 
 mother of Ur. Witham was a sister to the late 
 Hon. Thomas Hopkinson, of Cambridge, Massa- 
 chusetts, and a descendant of Francis Hopkinson, 
 one of the signers of the declaration of independ- 
 ence. Thomas Hopkinson was a graduate of Har- 
 vard University, in the same class with Charles 
 Sumner, and subsequently an eminent lawyer of 
 
 Boston, and at one time president of the Boston and 
 Worcester Railroad Company. Mrs. Witham was a 
 lady of high literary attainments, having been in early 
 life a teacher ; she was, moreover, a devout member 
 of the Baptist church, in which faith she educated 
 her children, impressing upon them all a deep rever- 
 ence for the bible and the institutions of Christianity, 
 and to her influence is mainly due whatever of suc- 
 cess in life may have been achieved by her children, 
 all of whom have the liveliest memories of her 
 motherly care and holy influence. She died at 
 Mainville, Ohio, in 1867, at the age of sixty-two. 
 
 The father of our subject, Ebenezer Witham, was 
 a natural-born mechanic, with a special talent for 
 mill machinery, the details of which he seemed to 
 acquire by intuition. He removed to Farmington, 
 Maine, when our subject was but four years old, 
 where he erected a flour-mill for himself on an im- 
 proved plan of his own devising. He afterward 
 erected other mills in different parts of the state, 
 in several of which he retained an interest, and was 
 supposed to be among the wealthy men of his day. 
 He was a man of great physical strength, large 
 framework and iron constitution. Had never been 
 known to complain of ill-health during his lifetime 
 until he was smitten down with typhoid fever, of 
 
296 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 which he died in 1840, at the early age of thirty-two 
 years. Like many men of genius, his financial affairs 
 were loosely conducted, and for much of his property 
 held in copartnership he had no writings, and when 
 his estate was settled up, instead of being amply 
 provided for it was found that his widow and eight 
 children were virtually penniless, and thrown entirely 
 upon their own resources. 
 
 Charles E. Witham received his juvenile educa- 
 tion partly in the public schools, but chiefly at the 
 knee of his excellent mother, and although he was not 
 in early age a bright scholar, yet he possessed an in- 
 tense desire for an education. His days were usually 
 spent at such manual labor as he could procure, 
 and the proceeds were sacredly devoted to the main- 
 tenance of the family, of which he was for many 
 years the chief support, while his nights were de- 
 voted to reading. His early years were thus fraught 
 with toil and privation, and void of most of the 
 enjoyments which generally render the season of 
 youth the most happy period of life. Notwithstand- 
 ing these hardships and difficulties he had attained 
 his maturity at the age of sixteen years, when he not 
 only passed for a man, but received the wages of a 
 man, and often extra wages for extra work. Like 
 his father, too, he possessed a peculiar mechanical 
 genius, which also brought its reward. He spent 
 the years between sixteen and eighteen in the starch 
 factory of Abiel Abbott, Esq., of Farmington, and 
 was soon made foreman of the works. In 1848 he 
 sold out the little property which the family still 
 owned, and with his mother and seven younger 
 children immigrated to Mainville, Warren county, 
 Ohio, where the mother had some relations. On 
 arriving at their destination their entire capital 
 amounted to two hundred dollars, most of which 
 they invested in a cabin and patch of ground, 
 while Charles E. entered a manufacturing establish- 
 ment, where he earned fair wages, and by his heroic 
 exertions not only kept the family in food, but com- 
 fortably clothed. 
 
 About the year 1853 certain circumstances tended 
 to bring the lightning-rod industry into great de- 
 mand. Our subject was employed as agent by a 
 firm who had entered largely into the manufacture 
 of those articles, to make contracts with house- 
 holders and superintend the erection of those pro- 
 tectors on their houses. The enterprise proved 
 profitable,- and young Witham soon accumulated 
 capital enough to embark in the business on his own 
 responsibility ; success followed, he became all intent 
 
 on money-making, which was then the one aim of 
 his life : a few years and he should be rich and able 
 to devote his time to the acquisition of knowledge. 
 In the midst of these pleasing reveries he was smit- 
 ten down with Asiatic cholera, and for days his life 
 hung by a thread. Then he remembered that there 
 was something else to live for besides riches; that 
 his Creator and his fellow-men had some claims on 
 him. He learned to sympathize with suffering, to 
 feel another's woe, and during convalescence he 
 resolved to educate himself for a physician and de- 
 vote the remainder of his life to the alleviation 
 of human suffering. But on his recovery he was 
 destitute of means, and the way seemed dark and 
 hedged up. He had, however, established a rep- 
 utation for wisdom and integrity which now stood 
 him in the stead of capital. He resolved to make 
 a- trip, on his own account, to the southern states, 
 with his enterprise, and in this way endeavor to 
 obtain means to prepare for the profession to which 
 he had resolved to devote his life. Kind friends 
 indorsed him, and his guardian-angel mother encour- 
 aged him. He left Ohio in the fall of 1853, traveled 
 over the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, South and 
 North Carolinas, and returned in the spring of 1854, 
 having netted by the trip the handsome sum of 
 two thousand dollars. This loosened his hands. He 
 attended three courses of lectures in the Eclectic 
 Medical Institute of Cincinnati, and pursued his 
 studies in the office of Dr. C. H. Cleveland, one of 
 the professors of the institution, and was graduated 
 with honors in the spring of 1856. He subsequently 
 attended another course of lectures at the College 
 of Medicine and Surgery, Cincinnati. He located 
 at Mainville, Ohio, his old home, and immediately 
 entered upon the practice of his profession. He was 
 skillful, enthusiastic, and of course successful. 
 
 Soon after the' outbreak of the late war Camp 
 Denison was established some twelve miles from his 
 residence. Squadrons of troops had been sent there 
 in advance of surgeons or regimental organizations. 
 Disease broke out in the camp. The doctor volun- 
 teered his services, and for weeks, without fee or 
 reward other than the prayers and thanks of sick 
 men, and the" sweet pleasure derived from benevo- 
 lence, he doctored, nursed and attended the sick 
 night and day, until he was himself smitten down 
 with a contagious disease under which he lingered 
 for months, and in the summer of 186 1 was obliged 
 to make a trip to the eastern seaboard and spend 
 the season in recruiting his own health. But his 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 297 
 
 constitution had received a shock past perfect res- 
 toration. 
 
 In the summer of 1862 Dr. Withani was one of 
 the volunteer surgeons, without pay, on the hos- 
 pital boat Glendale, which was sent out by the State 
 of Ohio to bring home such of the sick and disabled 
 soldiers of the state as could be reached by water. 
 The vessel, after visiting various cities along the 
 Mississippi and its tributaries, ascended the Ten- 
 nessee as far as Pittsburgh Landing, and brought 
 away from the battlefield at that point some three 
 hundred wounded men, who were tenderly cared 
 for, the doctor serving with great zeal and success 
 in the surgical ward of the boat. 
 
 In October, 1862, he volunteered his services to 
 the war department, and was immediately employed as 
 acting assistant surgeon in the United States army, 
 and ordered by General Grant to report at Jackson, 
 Tennessee. From this he was ordered by special 
 telegram to repair to Lebanon, Kentucky, where he 
 was placed on duty at " Hospital No. 2," which had 
 been filled with mangled human beings from the 
 battle of Perryville, Kentucky, and was without a 
 surgeon. Here he found ample employment not 
 only for his professional powers, but also for his 
 executive abilities. He organized the institution, 
 and worked with such zeal for seven months as 
 gained for him the highest commendation of the 
 medical director of the post. Here he saved the life 
 of many a poor soldier-boy who but for his skill 
 and indomitable energy would inevitably have died. 
 Having brought the hospital out of chaos and placed 
 it under excellent discipline, in the spring of 1863 
 he was ordered to Louisville, Kentucky, where he 
 remained two years (acting as executive officer when 
 not in charge of hospitals). Here there were no less 
 than twenty-one general hospitals. The doctor was 
 first placed in charge of " No. g," but was soon after 
 transferred to the " Clay General Hospital," with 
 five branches, located in as many college and public- 
 school buildings of the city, one of which was an 
 officers' hospital, elegantly fitted up in one of the 
 mansions on Broadway, taken for the purpose. He 
 was instructed to make branch " C " of this institu- 
 tion the model hospital, and to say that he carried 
 out these instructions to the letter would not do 
 him full justice. All his talents were placed under 
 contribution, executive, mechanical and surgical, 
 and every department went like clockwork. More 
 thorough discipline had not been previously seen in 
 any hospital. The wards had the air and comfort of 
 
 a palace. He had the esteem and unqualified con- 
 fidence of all his subordinates. During a whole year 
 of this period he was not out of sight of this institu- 
 tion. Such arduous and incessant labor would have 
 broken down a man of iron, much more one of flesh 
 and bone. At last the doctor was obliged to suc- 
 cumb, and in the spring of 1865 requested a leave 
 of absence, which was granted. Meantime the sur- 
 render of Lee brought the war to a close. The 
 doctor closed his contract with the government, and 
 resumed his practice at Mainville. 
 
 We have space for but a single one of the many 
 flattering testimonials and souvenirs of which he was 
 the recipient during and after -his connection with 
 the last-named hospital. It speaks for itself: 
 
 Louisville, Ky., Sept. 22, 1864. 
 Doctor Witham, — The attendants and patients of 
 branch " C, " Clay General Hospital, in admiration of the 
 unswerving fidelity and patriotism shown in the execution 
 of the duties assigned you by the government, in apprecia- 
 tion of the marked ability and sound judgment which has 
 crowned your profession.il labors with noted success, and 
 especially for the constant care, kindness and benevolence 
 you have exhibited toward us, herewith present you, as 
 an expression of our unqualified esteem and devotion, the 
 case of surgical instruments on which your respected name 
 is inscribed. Your sincere friends, 
 
 Daniel Webster, 
 William Chaplin, 
 and one hundred others. 
 
 Besides his incessant labors as surgeon, he was 
 also called upon to serve on boards of examination 
 for discharging and furloughing soldiers, and to dis- 
 charge other functions connected with the service 
 which occupied much time. 
 
 After his return from the army he remained two 
 years in his old home at Mainville, where his 
 practice soon became burdensome, his health being 
 still delicate. In order to gain some needed relax- 
 ation and change of air, and with a view to retiring 
 from the practice, he removed to Wilton, Iowa, in 
 the autumn of 1867. The intermission, however, 
 was but short. 
 
 He soon took a leading position in Wilton, not 
 only as a physician but as a citizen. 
 
 He has always been a staunch advocate of free 
 schools and popular education, and was in 1870 
 elected a member of the school board of Wilton, 
 upon which he served with zeal and effect for seven 
 years. In 1875 he was one of the leading advocates 
 of the erection of the high school building of the 
 town, which was made an issue before the electors, 
 and was hotly contested at the polls, the measure 
 being strenuously opposed by the only class of the 
 community who could possibly derive benefit from 
 
298 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 it, — those who had large famiUes of children to ed- 
 ucate, and yet were not liable to taxation for school 
 purposes, — while it was favored and carried by men 
 who, Hke Dr. Withara, had no children to educate, 
 and yet were liable for the full burden of taxation. 
 Here we have the anomaly of one class of men 
 voting taxes on themselves for the education of their 
 neighbors' children, while with a bitter and unani- 
 mous emphasis the other class vote against receiving 
 the bounty, in favor of ignorance and against educa- 
 tion. After the measure had been carried by a 
 small majority at the polls, Dr. Witham took the 
 corporation bonds, and advanced the money — thir- 
 teen thousand dollars — to build the school-house; 
 the securities were soon after, however, taken off his 
 hands by an eastern capitalist. He was one of the 
 original incorporators of the Farmers and Citizens' 
 Bank of Wilton in 1874, and has since remained 
 a director. 
 
 The doctor was brought up under Baptist in- 
 fluence, but was too large-hearted and liberal to 
 remain a member of a denomination which would 
 exclude from the Lord's table a brother believer 
 simply because he had been baptized by another 
 form, and consequently has been for some years a 
 member of the Congregational church, of which he 
 is one of the trustees, and one of the largest contrib- 
 utors. His private charities are also munificent. 
 
 He was an abolitionist at the age of ten years, 
 and has fought it out on that line ever since. 
 
 In 1872 Dr. Witham formed a partnership with 
 Dr. A. A. Cooling, a graduate of Miami Medical 
 College, Cincinnati, a most excellent and highly- 
 esteemed physician, which partnership still exists. 
 The doctor had about three years' experience in 
 the army hospitals of Nashville during the war. 
 
 In the same year incessant professional labor had 
 so impaired the health of Dr. Witham as to render 
 a season of rest and recreation imperative. Accord- 
 ingly he spent the summer of that year in a tour 
 through Mexico, United States of Columbia, — by 
 way of the Isthmus of Panama — California and the 
 Rocky Mountains. Passed through the old gold 
 mines, the groves of mammoth trees in Calaveras 
 county, and the picturesque and indescribable Yo- 
 semite Valley. With the matchless beauty of the 
 last-mentioned region he was charmed and spell- 
 bound. After his return home he put the results 
 of his observations and impressions into a series 
 of five lectures, which in the winter of 1874-5 he 
 delivered in behalf of the grasshopper sufferers of 
 
 Kansas. It is hoped that he will give the whole to 
 the public in book form at an early day. It would' 
 prove a highly important addition to the standard 
 literature of the country, and would doubtless tend 
 in some measure to divert the tide of summer travel 
 from countries beyond the ocean, at least on the 
 part of those who have never seen the wondrous 
 beauties and awful grandeur of their own land. 
 
 He has a taste for public' speaking, and displays 
 considerable talent as an elocutionist. 
 
 During the centennial year of the republic he 
 visited the great exposition at Philadelphia, and 
 made its wondrous collection of the arts and indus- 
 tries of the world the subject of a series of highly 
 valuable letters to the western press, which demon- 
 strated a grasp of thought and a,n acuteness of judg- 
 ment of rare occurrence. 
 
 He has been an earnest temperance advocate all 
 his lifetime, and has recently delivered a scientific 
 lecture on " The Action and Power of Alcohol on 
 the Human System," showing its baneful influence 
 on future generations. The lecture bristled with 
 figures and statistics showing the appetite to be 
 transmissible, and the most fruitful cause of idiocy, 
 and insanity in the world. 
 
 The doctor is a man of massive framework, over 
 six feet high in stature, and weighing about two 
 hundred pounds; has an intellectual brow and pleas- 
 ing countenance; graceful and dignified manners; is 
 an earnest student of nature, feeling his way up from 
 nature to nature's God. He is modest and reticent 
 except to his most intimate friends, to whom he re- 
 veals a depth of feeling and an intensity of thought 
 seldom suspected by the outside world. He seems to 
 grapple with the infinite ; and the scintillations of 
 light which sometimes flash upon his inner being, 
 revealing to him glimpses of the transcendental, 
 are but dimly shadowed by the half-spoken sen- 
 tences in which he sometimes essays to express the 
 unutterable thoughts that well up in his soul. 
 
 The doctor will probably retire from the practice 
 in a short time and devote the balance of his days 
 to study and travel. 
 
 On the loth of September, 1855, he married Miss 
 Martha, daughter of Moorman Butterworth, of Main- 
 ville, Ohio, of Quaker stock, noted for integrity of 
 character and strong abolition principles. Mrs. 
 Witham is a lady of high literary and social attain- 
 ments ; is also a great student of nature and art, and is 
 noted as a mathematician. In early life she studied 
 the sciences of medicine and botany, and still de- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DfCTIONARY. 
 
 299 
 
 votes some time to, and derives much pleasure from, 
 investigations in both sciences. During the winter 
 of 1862-3 she volunteered her services as nurse at 
 " Hospital No. 2," Lebanon, Kentucky, and for five 
 
 months superintended the cooking and nursing in 
 that institution, doing most effective service, which 
 was both appreciated and complimented by the 
 medical authorities. 
 
 ALEXANDER B. IRELAND, M.D., 
 
 CAMANCHE. 
 
 ALEXANDER BAIRD IRELAND, for twenty- 
 l\. five years a practicing physician in Camanche, 
 is a native of ''Tennessee, and was born at Sevier- 
 ville, Sevier county, on the 12th of March, 1818. 
 His parents were Thomas L. and Hannah Wood 
 Ireland. The Irelands were from Maryland. His 
 mother was the daughter of the Rev. Richard Wood, 
 a Baptist clergyman prominent in Tennessee forty 
 or fifty years ago. In 1836 Thomas • L. Ireland 
 moved with his family to Schuyler county, Illinois, 
 and two years later to Tazewell county. He was 
 a farmer, and his son followed that business until 
 eighteen years of age, when he commenced teach- 
 ing, following that profession five years. During 
 this time he studied medicine more or less; fin- 
 ished these studies at Jacksonville, Illinois, and there 
 graduated from Illinois College in 1846. 
 
 Dr. Ireland settled in Andrew, Jackson county, 
 Iowa, and with the exception of one year (1850) 
 spent in California, practiced there until June, 1852, 
 when he settled in Camanche. Here he has at- 
 tended very closely to his profession, in which he 
 has a high standing in the vicinity. He is a member 
 of the Clinton County Medical Society, the Iowa 
 State Medical Society, and the American Medical 
 Association, and is one of the reading, thinking, pro- 
 gressive men in medical knowledge. 
 
 In 1857, when Camanche became a city. Dr. 
 Ireland was elected mayor, and again in 1859. 
 He was a member of the county board of super- 
 visors one year, and of the upper house of the 
 general assembly from 1870 to 1874. While a state 
 senator he was chairman of the committee on state 
 universities and normal schools, and was on the 
 committees on charitable institutions, congressional 
 districts, and one or two others. He made a judi- 
 cious legislator. 
 
 Dr. Ireland is a Royal Arch Mason, and belongs to 
 the encampment of the Independent Order of Odd- 
 Fellows. 
 
 In politics, he was a democrat until 1861, since 
 which time he has been a firm republican. 
 
 He is a member of the Baptist church. 
 
 On the 8th of July, 1854, he married Miss Mary 
 E. Cady, of New Berlin, New York. They have had 
 five children, and have lost one of them. She died 
 on the 9th of May, 1873. She was a devoted chris- 
 tian woman and a true mother. 
 
 The eldest child living, Jennie, is the wife of 
 Le Roy Heilman, of Camanche. The other three 
 children, Fannie A., Mary Antonette and Lewis A., 
 are living at home. Dr. Ireland is looking well to 
 the education of his children. He has an excellent 
 mind, and is also very much polished in manners. 
 
 HON. JOHN L. DAVIES, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 THE life of Hon. John Lodwick Davies (de- 
 ceased) presents one of those numerous ex- 
 amples to be found in the United States of rapid 
 personal progress from humble beginnings to a sub- 
 stantial and honored position. He was born in the 
 parish of Llangeithoe, Cardigan county, Wales, on 
 the 22d of August, 1813. He received his edu- 
 cation at the parish school of Tiefilan, in his native 
 30 
 
 county ; his early training developing an obedient, 
 studious boyhood, on which the life of a useful man 
 and honored citizen was reared. 
 
 He learned a trade in Bath, England, and became 
 a skillful workman in the weaving of gold and silver 
 lace for coach trimmings. This he left before com- 
 ing to his majority, owing to his having early im- 
 bibed a constantly-strengthening radicalism which 
 
300 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 rebelled against " making gewgaws for the pampered 
 aristocracy." He devoted his attention to a more 
 sturdy industry and became a skillful carpenter and 
 joiner, and as such emigrated to the United States, 
 settling at Cinoinnati, Ohio. From that city, down 
 the Ohio and on to Louisiana, a winter's work on a 
 plantation sufficed to settle deep in his breast that 
 uncompromising hatred of human slavery that made 
 him thenceforward one of the most consistent and 
 zealous among the early abolitionists. 
 
 Returning to Cincinnati, he there married, in 
 1840, Miss Margaret Jones, who still lives, honored 
 by fidelity as a wife, her devotion as a mother, 
 and her charities as a true christian woman. 
 
 They at once set out for a home in Iowa, but 
 reaching Keokuk were driven back by the ice, and 
 wintered in St. Louis, terminating their journey to 
 Davenport in March, 1841. Here he worked at his 
 trade for ten years, and in 1851, in connection with 
 B. F. Cotes, completed and put in operation the 
 first wood-working machinery in Davenport. In 
 August, 1859, with Hon. G. H. French, he pur- 
 chased the large saw-mill owned by himself and 
 son, L. S. Davies, Esq., at the time of his death. 
 Besides this mill he had two mills in Wisconsin, 
 one at Wausau and one at Pine River, Marathon 
 countv. 
 
 Mr. Davies filled many positions of honor and 
 trust, though always unsought by him : alderman 
 of the ward in which he lived, director and vice- 
 president of the school board, member of the Scott 
 county board of supervisors, and for two terms 
 mayor of the city ; formerly a director of the First 
 National Bank, and at his death director in the 
 Davenport National Bank, as also director of the 
 Davenport and St. Paul Railroad Company, of which 
 he was one of the originators, and also one of its 
 unfaltering supporters until it was successfully es- 
 tablished. His counsels, financial ability and recog- 
 nized worth contributed largely to the establish- 
 ment of the First National at a time when such sup- 
 port was necessary to the success of institutions. of 
 that character. In 1868 he was made trustee at 
 large of the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home, was 
 president of the board, and served as a member of 
 the executive committee until his death. He died 
 on the 28th of March, 1872, surrounded by an un- 
 usually large circle of friends and acquaintances. 
 
 Mr. Davies was a warm admirer of republican 
 institutions, a temperance man, and a christian, hav- 
 ing been a member of the Sons of Temperance and 
 of the Congregational church. He won honor by 
 resolute fidelity to principle, and patriotism and be- 
 nevolence were his distinguishing characteristics. 
 
 REV. JOEL S. BINGHAM, D.D., 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 JOEL SMITH BINGHAM was born at Cornwall, 
 Vermont, on the i6th of October, 1815, and is 
 eldest son of Deacon Asahal Bingham and Laura 
 nh Smith, of English origin. His father, a promi- 
 nent man in his community, served several years in 
 the Vermont legislature as representative, and was 
 also colonel of militia. He was a strong abolitionist, 
 and advocated that doctrine when to do so was 
 considered almost a crime. A man of great gen- 
 erosity and benevolence, he was called the poor 
 man's friend. His mother was an earnest christian 
 woman, and from her Joel very early received re- 
 ligious impressions, and to the influence of her teach- 
 ings and example is largely due the steadfastness 
 of his religious convictions, one of his strongest 
 characteristics. The habits of economy and indus- 
 try acquired in his early life have proved invaluable 
 to him in all his subsequent life. 
 
 He received his primary education in the com- 
 mon school, making diligent use of his time. At 
 the age of seventeen he was converted, and united 
 with the church, and at that time determined to 
 devote his life to the gospel ministry. In the fol- 
 lowing year he left home inspired with an ambition 
 for a career of usefulness, entirely dependent for 
 support upon his own resources. He began a pre- 
 paratory course of study at Marietta, Ohio, under 
 the instruction of Dr. Henry Smith, now president 
 of Lane Seminary, and at the expiration of two 
 years, in the fall of 1835, entered college. In the 
 spring of 1836, leaving this school, he entered Middle- 
 bury College, where he remained until in his junior 
 year, when, by reason of ill health, he was forced 
 to abandon his studies. For seven years thereafter 
 he was engaged as preceptor in an academy, and 
 employed his leisure hours in the study of theology, 
 
THR UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 303 
 
 and also at times supplied feeble churches with ser- 
 mons, lectures, etc. In 1846, in response to an earnest 
 call from Charlotte Church, he took charge of their 
 religious service as a layman, and in May of the 
 same year was licensed to preach by the North- 
 western Association of Vermont, and was ordained 
 and installed on the 20th of the following October. 
 He had charge of two or three churches prior to 
 1863, and at that time accepted a call to the Maver- 
 ick Church, Boston, Massachusetts, where he labored 
 until 1870. Finding the climate incompatible with 
 his health, and wishing for a change, he accepted a 
 call from the Congregational Church of Dubuque, 
 Iowa, where he still continues. Here Dr. Bingham has 
 been eminently successful ; under his leadership the 
 church has been greatly revived, and become the 
 largest and wealthiest Protestant church in the city. 
 He was married on the 2 2d of August, 1838, to 
 
 Miss Jane Robbins, daughter of Rev. S. B. Rob- 
 bins, of Marietta, Ohio, and a direct descendant of 
 Chandler Robbins, one of the first ministers of 
 Plymouth Church. Mrs. Bingham is a lady of high 
 attainments, and distinguished for her womanly and 
 christian virtues. 
 
 Dr. Bingham has pursued his chosen course with 
 untiring zeal, and with a success which has earned 
 for him no inferior rank among the distinguished 
 preachers of the land. He is a man of strong, sharp 
 intellect, untiring ambition, and as a pulpit orator 
 has few equals. If his chief characteristic as a 
 preacher and pulpit orator were to be expressed in 
 one word, that word would be momentum. The 
 growing prosperity of the church over which he 
 presides, and the prominence into which it has sprung 
 while yet young, is a monument which might satisfy 
 any ordinary ambition. 
 
 COLONEL JOHN H. KEATLEY, 
 
 COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 JOHN HENRY KEATLEY was born at Boals- 
 -' burg. Center county, Pennsylvania, on the ist of 
 December, 1838. His parents' names were James 
 Gregg and Emily Keatley. His grandfather, Chris- 
 topher Keatley, emigrated from Antrim county, Ire- 
 land, on account of political" troubles in which he 
 took part, and in which Roland Curtin, the father of 
 ex-Governor A. G. Curtin, of Pennsylvania, also 
 participated. The paternal grandmother of our 
 subject was a Gregg; and a cousin of Andrew Gregg, 
 who was United States senator from Pennsylvania 
 shortly after the organization of the federal govern- 
 ment, and who was the maternal grandfather of ex- 
 Governor Curtin. The ancestry of Mr. Keatley on 
 his father's side is Scotch-Irish. His maternal an- 
 cestors settled in Berks county about the middle of 
 the eighteenth century, having emigrated from Sax- 
 ony in Germany. His maternal great-grandfather 
 moved west of the Susquehanna when only a lad, 
 and took an active part in repelling the attacks made 
 on the settlements by Logan, the celebrated Mingo 
 chief and was also a soldier in the Pennsylvania line 
 during the war for independence. 
 
 The religious faith of the paternal ancestry of Mr. 
 Keatley was the Presbyterian, while his mother's 
 family were believers in the Lutheran form of wor- 
 ship. His parents were from his earliest recollection 
 
 in humble circumstances, his father having been a 
 sober and industrious millwright, wholly dependent 
 upon his daily exertions for the support of his little 
 family, and consequently having little means to de- 
 vote to their education, the facilities for which were 
 confined to the traditional log school-house with 
 rough benches, in charge of persons wholly incom- 
 petent for the profession. At the age of eight years 
 our subject could read, cipher and write a little, but 
 owing to lack of opportunity his early education 
 was sadly neglected. The circumstances of his 
 parents were such that at ten years of age he was 
 obliged to commence earning his own living by such 
 work among neighboring farmers as he was able to 
 do, his school-days ending at this period. An occa- 
 sional newspaper which fell in his way early excited 
 an interest in political subjects, which has never left 
 him, and he has taken a warm interest in all the 
 great political events of the last thirty years. About 
 this time he became possessed of a torn copy of Sir 
 Walter Scott's " Tales of my Landlord," and this fas- 
 cinating book aroused in him an ambition to become 
 acquainted with English literature. Odd volumes 
 of Hume's " History of England " falling in his way 
 only served to increase his appetite for knowledge, 
 and whHe working hard all day as a farm hand, a 
 large part of the night was spent in study. He felt 
 
304 
 
 THE UNITED SJ'ATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 that if he could fit himself for a teacher the avenue 
 to knowledge would become more open to him, and 
 with that view alone he undertook the task, and in 
 1856 received the coveted certificate permitting him 
 to become an instructor. He then resolved to gradu- 
 ate at some college, and taking a college catalogue 
 for his guide, and with no other helps than those 
 furnished by text-books, with some occasional assist- 
 ance from D. C. Boal, a classical scholar, he entered 
 upon a preparatory course. In this way he acquired 
 some knowledge of the Latin and Greek classics, 
 the higher mathematics, and moral and intellectual 
 philosophy. During this time he worked as an or- 
 dinary farm laborer in the summer, teaching in the 
 winter, and having only odd moments and even- 
 ings to devote to study. In 1858 he was advised 
 by Hon. A. G. Curtin to study law, but his earnings 
 being necessary for his own and his parents' support 
 he was unable to enter the office of Mr. Curtin, but 
 .was obliged to pursue his legal studies only in lei- 
 sure moments during winters of teaching and sum- 
 mers of farm labor. In August, i860, he was 
 examined for admission to the bar at Bellefonte, 
 Pennsylvania, and duly admitted to practice. 
 
 During the following winter, which was spent in 
 teaching, he was married to Margaret J. Fleck, of 
 Sinking Valley, Blair county, Pennsylvania, and in 
 April, 1 86 1, they removed to Hollidaysburg, the 
 county seat of Blair county, reaching there on the 
 same day on which the news of the bombardment 
 of Fort Sumter was received — the most gloomy 
 period of the war. Arriving there without acquaint- 
 ances or business, and almost without money, he 
 determined to earn a living for himself and his little 
 family by the practice of his profession. The out- 
 look was very dark. The courts were closed, busi- 
 ness was almost stagnant, and the chief occupation 
 of the people was in the preparation for war. He, 
 however, opened an office and did what he could 
 until fall, when he became a half-owner in the " Blair 
 County Whig," a new.spaper published in Hollidays- 
 burg, in the interests of the republican party and 
 the administration of President Lincoln. It was 
 uphill business to keep above water, but by frugal 
 living he managed to do so without going in debt, 
 and gradually made some headway in legal business ; 
 but when, through the exigencies of the war, Presi- 
 dent Lincoln called for more troops in the summer 
 of 1862, he felt it his duty to enlist, and did so in 
 the 125th regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. On 
 the 28th of August, 1862, just two weeks after his 
 
 enlistment, he participated in the second battle of 
 Bull Run, and on the 14th of September was with 
 his regiment in the battle of South Mountain, where 
 General Longstreet was driven from his strong posi- 
 tion in the mountains and compelled to fall back 
 toward Hagerstown. On the 17th of September he 
 was in the battle of Antietam, and saw General Mans- 
 field, of the twelfth corps, fall mortally wounded. 
 All his company officers being disabled in this en- 
 gagement, he, being then a sergeant, was left in 
 command of the company. In December, 1862, he 
 was in the fight at Ocqua river ; was in the rear of 
 the line at Stafford Court House, in February, 1863, 
 and was with the twelfth corps in the battle of Chan- 
 cellorsville, in May, 1863. During the Gettysburg 
 campaign, in July, 1863, he was detached and sent 
 to assist in the defense of the line of the Pennsyl- 
 vania Railroad Company, by the erection of earth- 
 works in the South Mountain region west of Cham- 
 bersburg, and to defend the bridges over the Juniata 
 river west of Harrisburg. At this time he was act- 
 ing assistant adjutant-general with Colonel Jacob 
 Higgins, who was in command of the troops assigned 
 to this duty. This detachment repulsed an attempt 
 of the rebel general Imboden to cut the railroad 
 bridges, and at the same time assisted in covering 
 the retreat of General Milroy's command from Win- 
 chester. In the fall of 1863, while still in the ser- 
 vice, he was elected district attorney of Blair county, 
 Pennsylvania, the duties of the office being dis- 
 charged, however, by 1D. J. Neff. He took part in 
 the siege of Petersburg during the winter of 1864-5, 
 led an attack on the works on the morning before 
 the surrender of General Lee, after which he was 
 sent with his command to Norfolk, Virginia. By 
 special order of General Terry, of the department 
 of Virginia, he was detailed to take charge of the 
 bureau of negro affairs for southeastern Virginia, and 
 to organize civil courts for five counties in that sec- 
 tion, which he did. For six months after the sur- 
 render of General Lee the only attempt to administer 
 justice in the five counties of southeastern Virginia, 
 including the city of Norfolk, was through the mili- 
 tary court sitting in Norfolk, of which he acted as 
 judge. He was present during the month of May, 
 1865, when the grand jury of the United States court, 
 sitting at Norfolk, returned indictments against Jef- 
 ferson Davis and Robert E. Lee for treason. In 
 September, 1865, he was honorably discharged from 
 the service, and upon his return to Blair county, 
 Pennsylvania, resumed the practice of his profession 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 305 
 
 and the discharge of his duties as district attorney. 
 He was reelected to the same office in 1866, on the 
 republican ticket, and served until November, 1867, 
 when he resigned for the purpose of removing to 
 Iowa, locating at Cedar Falls, where he remained 
 until August, 1868, when he went to Council Bluffs 
 and became local editor of the " Daily Nonpareil," 
 of wliich he took entire editorial charge on the ist 
 of April, 1869, and continued to do all editorial work 
 until April, 1870, when he resigned. In May, 1870, 
 he' was appointed by Secretary Boutwell to the law 
 department of the third auditor's office at Washing- 
 ton, but declined to act, and resumed the practice of 
 law at Council Bluffs, where he has since remained. 
 In October, 1870, he was appointed assistant assess- 
 or of internal revenue, and discharged the duties of 
 that office until July, 1871. In the spring of 1872 
 he was elected chairman of the republican county 
 committee of Pottawattamie county, but taking part 
 
 in the liberal republican movement of that year, 
 promptly resigned this position, and at the liberal 
 republican state convention held at Des Moines in 
 August, 1872, was elected chairman of the state 
 central committee. At the state convention held in 
 August, 1874, he was nominated for attorney-general, 
 and carried his county by seven hundred majority, 
 while the balance of the ticket was defeated by two 
 hundred majority. In April, 1876, he was elected 
 mayor of Council Bluffs, on an independent ticket, 
 beating his competitor by three hundred and thirty- 
 eight votes. 
 
 Colonel Keatley has four children : three daugh- 
 ters, Mary Virginia, Emily Frances and Margaret 
 Louisa ; and one son, Thomas Francis Meagher. 
 
 He is a prominent Royal Arch Mason, a firm be- 
 liever in the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, and has 
 always made the '' golden rule " his guiding principle 
 in life. 
 
 WILLIAM C. CHAMBERLAIN, 
 
 JJUBU>:>UB. 
 
 WILLIAM CLARK CHAMBERLAIN is of 
 strictly New England pedigree. His father, 
 John Chamberlain, a merchant, was of Puritan stock, 
 and his mother. Amy Perkins Chamberlain, belonged 
 to Rhode Island. The Chamberlains are a mercan- 
 tile family, noted for their association with enter- 
 prising and successful business. 
 
 William was born in Brookfield, Madison county, 
 New York, on the i8th of February, 1834. When 
 he was three years old his father moved to Virgil, 
 Cortland county. The intention was to send the 
 son to college, but owing to commercial revulsions, 
 at fifteen he was placed in one of the leading stores 
 in Utica. He began at the bottom, and in five years 
 became the chief clerk. During this time he had 
 access to the public library, and made good use of 
 his opportunities for mental training. When bus- 
 iness hours were over he usually remained in the 
 store and read till bedtime. During the last two or 
 three years that he was in Utica he was fortunate in 
 being connected, by invitation, with a scientific and 
 literary club, of which Governor Seymour, Dr. M. 
 M. Bagg and others were leading members, and he 
 finally became its secretary. He was a constant 
 attendant, and appreciated to the fullest extent its 
 literary privileges. 
 
 When about twenty years of age Mr. Chaijiberlain 
 was taken up by the westward floating tide of immi- 
 gration, and made a landing in Chicago early one 
 morning in March, 1854. He came well recom- 
 mended, and though among strangers found no dif- 
 ficulty in securing a situation the first day. He had 
 not been in Chicago twenty-four hours before he 
 commenced work as a salesman in one of the largest 
 commercial houses in the city. A year later his 
 attention was turned to Iowa, and in looking over 
 the several points decided that Dubuque was the 
 most important as a commercial center, and located 
 there in November, 1855. In connection with F. A. 
 Doolittle, he started the first store for the sale of 
 agricultural implements exclusively west of the 
 Mississippi and north of St. Louis. When this bus- 
 iness was commenced, few, if any, of the improved 
 implements and machines of this class now in gen- 
 eral use, and which have revolutionized the methods 
 of labor on— the farm, had come into use, excepting 
 the reapers of McCormick and Manny. It has been 
 the mission of Mr. Chamberlain to search out new 
 inventions of merit for farmers' use, and a large 
 number of the now well-known and successful 
 farming implements and machines have been made 
 known to the public west of the Mississippi through 
 
3o6 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 his instrumentality, no other person having done so 
 much in that way ; and it is a fact that nearly every 
 new article that has received his indorsement has 
 proved successful. Mr. Chamberlain's business has 
 had a steady, healthy growth, and-he is probably the 
 leading merchant in his line in this section of the 
 state. He has trade in nearly every town in north- 
 ern Iowa, southern Minnesota and portions of Wis- 
 consin. His business is unique, and partakes of his 
 own characteristics. He has recently identified him- 
 self with the manufacturing interests of Dubuque, 
 by establishing in that city a plow factory in which 
 he owns an important interest, and to which he is 
 now giving his chief personal attention. 
 
 Mr. Chamberlain has quite a taste for inventing, 
 arid has taken out several patents. He has deemed 
 it wise to restain in a measure the propensity in this 
 direction, usually devoting his skill only to the 
 modifying and improving of articles connected with 
 his trade. One article of his manufacture has be- 
 come a household word, and is sold literally from 
 ocean to ocean, and even in foreign countries. 
 
 Mr. Chamberlain was united in marriage with 
 Miss Harriet A. Palmer, a native of Utica, New 
 
 York, on the 27th of August, 1857. Her father 
 was one of the early citizens and leading business 
 men of that city. She has four children living, and 
 has lost one child. Mrs. Chamberlain possesses 
 many eminent social qualities, and is known among 
 her acquaintances as a woman of rare attainments, 
 and as a faithful wife and mother. 
 
 Mr. Chamberlain has taken great interest in the 
 progress of the state and city, and was one of the 
 foremost men in several important local enterprises. 
 The present very efficient board of trade was sug- 
 gested by him, and of which he is an officer and an 
 energetic and influential member. 
 
 Mr. Chamberlain is one of the most active mem- 
 bers of the Congregational church, and has been 
 superintendent of its Sunday school for thirteen 
 years. He is intimately associated with the relig- 
 ious enterprises of the state, and a cordial, untiring 
 worker in them. He has lived a faithful life accord- 
 ing to his idea of man's mission, and while energeti- 
 cally carrying on a business endless in its details and 
 exacting in its requirements, he has paid much atten- 
 tion to'mental culture, and has never lost sight of the 
 interests of his country and of his fellow-men. 
 
 JAMES H. REYNOLDS, 
 
 FORT MADISON. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch, a native of Fair- \ 
 field county, Connecticut, was born on the 9th 
 of June, 1822, the son of Abel Reynolds and Anna 
 nh Mead. 
 
 He is descended from a sturdy, vigorous and 
 long-lived family of Scotch origin ; his grandfather, 
 Timothy Reynolds, was a native Scotchman, and at 
 an early age became a soldier in the British army. 
 
 Being ordered to America, he took an active part 
 in the French and Indian wars, and being captured 
 by the Indians, was kept a prisoner for three years. 
 Upon gaining his freedom he settled in Fairfield 
 county, Connecticut. Here Abel Reynolds, the 
 father of our subject, was born. He was married in 
 the year 1800, and was a prominent man in his 
 community, and three times elected to the general 
 assembly of Connecticut. 
 
 James H. is the youngest of a family of six sons 
 and six daughters, all of whom lived to be over fifty 
 years of age. 
 
 He received a fair education in the public schools 
 
 of his native place, but by reason of ill health was 
 prevented from fitting himself for a profession, as his 
 parents had intended. 
 
 Going to New York city in 1843, he entered the 
 wholesale flour house of Herrick Brothers, and for 
 several years continued there, acting in the capacity 
 of shipping clerk. By the practice of industry and 
 economy, to which he had been trained in his early 
 life, he accumulated a small capital, and in 1853, 
 forming a copartnership with Mr. T. L. Wing, opened 
 and conducted an extensive flour and feed establish- 
 ment in the upper part of New York. 
 
 Three years later he removed to the west and 
 settled at Fort Madison, Iowa, intending to turn his 
 attention to farming. His plans, however, were 
 changed; being off"ered the position of deputy war- 
 den in the Iowa State Penitentiary, he accepted the 
 same, and proved himself so peculiarly fitted for 
 that position that he has been continuously reap- 
 pointed, and has acted as deputy under four diff'er- 
 ent wardens. He resigned in 1869, but was reap- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 307 
 
 pointed by S. H. Craig in 1872, and retains that 
 position at the present time (1877). During the 
 seventeen years in which he has filled this office 
 he has performed his duties in a manner most 
 creditable and satisfactory; and it is but due to him 
 to say that as a criminal officer he has no superior. 
 
 Mr. Reynolds has always been interested in educa- 
 tional matters, and as a member of the school board 
 of Fort Madison, has labored earnestly and zeal- 
 ously in the interests of the public schools. 
 
 In politics, he was formerly a whig, and cast his 
 first ballot for Henry Clay in 1844. After the or- 
 ganization of the republican party he became iden- 
 tified with it, and although not a politician, he has 
 firmly supported its principles. 
 
 Mr. Reynolds has taken a prominent stand as 
 an Odd-Fellow, having been a member of that or- 
 
 der for a period of more than thirty years, and has 
 been honored with many offices by the craft. 
 
 He was at one time noble-grand of Continental 
 Lodge, New York, and has several times filled that 
 office in Empire and Fort Madison Lodges. He 
 is now an active member of the encampment, and 
 a member of the Grand Lodge of Iowa. 
 
 In his religious views, he inclines strongly toward 
 the belief of the Universalists, though he has never 
 been identified with any religious organization. 
 
 He is a man of great energy and pleasing address, 
 and is gifted with rare social qualities ; upright and 
 fair in his dealing, he enjo5's universal confidence. 
 
 He was married on the 20th of April, 1848, to Miss 
 Catharine T. Bates, a lady of fine talents and ac- 
 complishments. Of the nine children who have 
 been born to them, six daughters are now living. 
 
 ,REV. ZEPHANIAH D. SCOBEY, 
 
 FA rETTE. 
 
 ZEPHANIAH DRAKE SCOBEY, the present 
 postmaster at Fayette, is a native of New Jer- 
 sey, and was born in Morris county, on the isth of 
 December, 1817, his parents being David and Con- 
 tent (Wilkinson) Scobey. During the war of 18 12 
 his father was an officer in the Troy ''Invincibles." 
 He died when Zephaniah was nine years old, and 
 the orphan son lived with an uncle until he was of 
 age, with but limited opportunities for education. 
 He had, however, a strong desire for knowledge, 
 especially after he was eighteen, at which time he 
 was converted at a camp meeting. From twenty- 
 one to twenty-seven years of age he taught just 
 enough to supply him with the means for attending 
 school, going, most of the time, to the Amenia Sem- 
 inary, Dutchess county. New York, and devoting the 
 last year to especial preparation for the ministry. 
 Prior to this he had paid considerable attention to 
 " the classics." 
 
 In 1845 he entered the New York conference of 
 the Methodist Episcopal church, and preached reg- 
 ularly for ten years, his appointments being West 
 Point, Glenham, Durham, and one or two other 
 places in New York, and Falls Village, Connecticut. 
 He was a zealous advocate of his Master's cause, and 
 perhaps too earnestly, for, at the end of this period, 
 he had to leave the circuit on account of the heart 
 disease, with which he has been troubled since 1855. 
 
 He still holds his connection with the New York 
 conference. He taught school more or less until 
 1859, when he immigrated to Iowa, settling on a 
 farm near Sand Spring, Delaware county, hoping to 
 improve his health. 
 
 In i860 Mr. Scobey was elected a member of the 
 board of supervisors, and was made its chairman, 
 and the next year was elected treasurer and recorder 
 of the county. This office he held four years, and 
 at the expiration of that time he was appointed 
 assistant state agent of the American Bible Society, 
 his field being thirty-five counties in the northwest- 
 ern and least settled part of Iowa. His was largely 
 frontier and truly hard work, but he loved it and 
 prosecuted it faithfully, though the labors were some- 
 what trying on his constitution. At the close of this 
 agency, in 1869, he became the financial agent of 
 the Upper Iowa University, located at Fayette, con- 
 tinuing to hold this position for three years, and 
 doing good service. For nine years he was a trus- 
 tee of this institution. 
 
 During the four years that Mr. Scobey was treas- 
 urer and recorder of Delaware county he read law, 
 continuing his studies at intervals subsequently. In 
 1870 he was admitted to the bar, and has since had 
 quite an extensive practice, mainly in cases of real- 
 estate tax titles, in which he has been quite success- 
 ful. He assumed the duties of postmaster on the 
 
3o8 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 nth of January, 1873, and is prompt and careful 
 in this, as he has been in every other office which he 
 has accepted. 
 
 Prior to the organization of the repubhcan party 
 he was a whig, always holding his political, as he 
 did his religious principles, with a strong conviction 
 of their rectitude. Sincerity and candor mark his 
 whole career. 
 
 On the roth of May, 1848, he married Miss 
 Eleanor E. Anderson, of Glenham, New York, a 
 most estimable woman, who died on the 19th of 
 January, 1875. On her tomb-stone, placed there 
 by order of her bereaved husband, is the truthful 
 inscription : " Most loved where best known." She 
 had five children, all of whom survive her. Three 
 of them are graduates of the Upper Iowa Univer- 
 
 sity. The eldest daughter, Sarah B., is the wife of 
 Mr. A. J. Duncan, a real-estate agent, in Fayette; 
 the eldest son, George P., is a merchant here; the 
 second son, John O'Brien, is editor of the Adams 
 county "Union," Corning, Iowa; the third, Charles 
 R. A., is route agent on the Davenport and North- 
 western railroad; and Carrie, the youngest child, a 
 faithful daughter, is living at home, assuming the 
 household duties of her departed mother. 
 
 Considering the state of his health during the last 
 twenty years or more, the amount of work which 
 Mr. Scobey has done is astonishing. Idleness is no 
 part of his composition. He likes the old adage : 
 "Better to wear out than to rust. out," and is never 
 more happy than when at work in the plain line of 
 duty. 
 
 JACOB M. ELDRIDGE, 
 
 DAVENPORT. 
 
 THE subject of this biography, a native of 
 Haddonfield, New Jersey, was born on the 
 20th of November, 1824, the son of D. C. Eldridge 
 and Rachael nde Brown. His great-grandfather was 
 a native of Edinburgh, Scotland. His great-grand- 
 mother, a Quaker preacher, was born in Haddon- 
 field, New Jersey, of which place his grandmother 
 also was a native. His grandfather, Josiah Eldridge, 
 was born at Woodbury, New Jersey, in 1777, and 
 there also his father was born in 1801. His father's 
 family consisted of four children by his first wife, 
 all of whom, except our subject, together with the 
 mother, died before he was four years old. After 
 the death of his mother Jacob was taken to live with 
 his grandfather, Daniel Brown, who had been a sol- 
 dier in the revolutionary war. and his father went to 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, where he married a second wife. 
 His grandfather dying when he was thirteen years 
 old, he soon afterward began life for himself by 
 driving a team for six dollars per month. He fol- 
 lowed this vocation during nine months of the year, 
 and during the remaining three months attended 
 school. At the age of seventeen he purchased a 
 team of his own, and continued teaming about two 
 years. He was next engaged in clerking in a store, 
 which he soon afterward purchased, and conducted 
 a successful trade until he attained his twenty-first 
 year, when he sold out and removed to the west. 
 At that time there were very few railroads, and 
 
 after a long, tedious and somewhat perilous journey 
 by stage he arrived safely in Davenport, Iowa, on 
 the 23d of December, 1846. There were then about 
 six hundred inhabitants in the town, and with that 
 foresight which has characterized all his dealings, 
 Mr. Eldridge decided to make it his home. Accord- 
 ingly he entered a tract of land three miles north- 
 east from the town, upon which he lived until 1868, 
 when he moved into the city. In 187 1 he sold his 
 farm for one hundred and twenty-five dollars per 
 acre, being one dollar for every cent of the original 
 cost of the land. Having a natural propensity for 
 trading, Mr. Eldridge, about 1853, established a 
 land agency, and since that time has been actively 
 and extensively engaged in real-estate operations, 
 probably having been the largest dealer in the state. 
 In 187 1 he was elected president of the board of 
 real-estate agents, and during that and the following 
 year handled over one hundred thousand acres of 
 land for himself and others. 
 
 Mr. Eldridge is a man of much public spirit, and 
 at the building of the Davenport and St. Paul rail- 
 road he purchased the Quinn farm, at the juncture 
 of the Maquoketa branch and the main road, and 
 laid out a town, naming it Eldridge. He at once 
 had a post-office established there, and during the 
 first year himself built twenty dwellings. The shops 
 of the road were located there, and from the first 
 the town has been a growing and thriving place. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 309 
 
 Mr. Eldridge has taken an active part in tem- 
 perance movements. He was one of the charter 
 members of Scott Division, No i, Sons of Temper- 
 ance, established in October, 1847. He joined the 
 division in the following November, and has never 
 severed his connection or broken his pledge, and 
 is now the oldest member of the Sons of Temper- 
 ance except Hon. Hiram Price in the State of Iowa. 
 He was a delegate to the National Division which 
 met at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, in 1876. 
 
 In January, 1846, he united with the Christian 
 church, of Davenport, Iowa, and since that time has 
 continued a worthy member of the same. 
 
 In political sentiments, Mr. Eldridge is a repub- 
 lican. He voted for General Cass in 1848 for the 
 presidency, and in 1855 was a delegate to the con- 
 vention which met at Iowa City to organize the 
 republican party. He is not, however, a politician, 
 and seldom takes any part more than to perform his 
 
 duties as a citizen. In 1872 he was a delegate to 
 the Cincinnati convention that nominated Horace 
 Greeley for the presidency. 
 
 Mr. Eldridge has been twice married : first, in 
 1848, to Miss Mary L. Woodward, who lived only 
 eighteen months thereafter. His second marriage 
 was in June, 1851, to Mary H. Williams. They 
 have had eight children, six of whom are living and 
 two married. 
 
 A leading characteristic of Mr. Eldridge has 
 always been his propensity for trading. He has 
 been known to go into a store, and in less than ten 
 minutes trade the proprietor out of his entire stock. 
 He is a man of wonderful self-control, and by his 
 frankness, cordiality and fair dealing has made him- 
 self universally esteemed and respected. He lives 
 now in the enjoyment of a liberal competency, sur- 
 rounded by the comforts of a happy home, and well 
 deserves a place among Iowa's self-made men. 
 
 WILLIAM C. SWIGART, 
 
 MAJ^UOKETA. 
 
 THE oldest journalist in Jackson county, Iowa, 
 is. William Christian Swigart, who has been for 
 twenty-three years the conductor of the Maquoketa 
 "Sentinel." He is a son of George Swigart, an 
 Ohio farmer, and Mary Gantz, both parents being 
 of German descent, and was born at Newark, Lick- 
 ing county, Ohio, on the 12th of December, 1824. 
 William spent most of his early years in educational 
 pursuits, supplementing common-school privileges 
 with two or three years' discipline at Granxille, 
 graduating from the academic department of Gran- 
 ville College, now Dennison University, in 1844. 
 On leaving that institution, he spent a bttle more 
 than a year in a store at Sandusky City, and then 
 made up his mind to be a journalist. Returning to 
 Newark, he entered the office of B. Briggs, publisher 
 of the Newark "Advocate,"' a democratic paper, and 
 began as a solicitor, after a short time writing more 
 or less for the paper. Thence, about 1852, he re- 
 paired to Bucyrus, in the same state, and assisted in 
 editing the "Forum" until 1854, in April of which 
 year he removed to Maquoketa, Iowa, where he is 
 still found. A younger brother, Stephen H., a prac- 
 tical printer, came with him, aided him in starting 
 the "Sentinel," and remained with him until his 
 demise in 1856. From that time Mr. Swigart was 
 31 
 
 alone in the publication of the paper until 1872, 
 when James T. Sargent became his partner, the firm 
 now being Swigart and Sargent. At first it was a 
 seven-column folio, assuming the quarto, its present 
 form, in 4872. It is the official paper of the city 
 and county, the organ of the democratic party, and 
 is a neat looking, well conducted sheet. 
 
 Mr. Swigart was postmaster at Maquoketa six 
 years during the administrations of Franklin Pierce 
 and James Buchanan. He has always advocated 
 the tenets of the democratic party, and is one of its 
 leaders in Jackson county. 
 
 He was married on the 6th of November, 1849, to 
 Miss Martha P. Gage, of Findley, Ohio, and they 
 have had nine children, two of whom they have 
 lost. The eldest sons, Philemon 1). and Josiah, are 
 married. The former is the publisher of the Wyo- 
 ming, Jones county, "Journal," the latter is foreman 
 in the " Sentinel " office. 
 
 Mr. Swigart is a shrewtl and sharp writer; attends 
 faithfully to his editorial duties, and makes a first- 
 class country newspaper. He has spent thirty years 
 in the editorial chair, and knows what will please 
 the public. 
 
 Physically, he is about the average height, arid 
 weighs two hundred and thirty pounds, His com- 
 
3IO 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 plexion is dark, inclining to ruddy ; he has a robust, 
 healthy appearance ; is social and pleasant, a good 
 converser, and a perfect gentleman. 
 
 It may not be out of place to here state that his 
 present partner, Mr. Sargent, is an old Iowa printer. 
 He learned the trade in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, 
 and came to Iowa in 1856, taking the place of 
 Stephen H. Swigart, who died in that year. In 1859 
 
 Mr. Sargent went to Iowa county, started the Iowa 
 Valley " Democrat," and conducted it until the 
 rebelHon broke out. In 1862 he went into the army 
 as first lieutenant of a company in the 28th Infantry ; 
 served two years, and returned to Iowa. He has 
 been a printer twenty-five years, and is at the head 
 of the mechanical department of a fine office. He 
 has a wife and one child. 
 
 HON. THEODORE S. PARVIN, LL.D., 
 
 IOWA CITT. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch is an illustrious ex- 
 ample of that class of men who, by the em- 
 ployment of brain and energy, have risen from 
 obscurity to a high and honored position. He was 
 born at Cedarville, Cumberland county, New Jersey, 
 on the 15th of January, 1817, and is the son of 
 Josiah and Lydia (Harris) Parvin, and is of Scotch- 
 Irish descent. His father participated in the war of 
 1812, and is still (1876) living at the home of his 
 son, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. His 
 mother died in 1875, aged seventy-five. She was a 
 lifelong member of the Presbyterian church, of 
 which her father was an elder. Owing to his lame- 
 ness (caused by an attack of rheumatism when five 
 years of age), Theodore was in boyhood thrown 
 much in his mother's society, and to the earnest 
 counsels and examples of that christian woman he 
 owes much. 
 
 In 1829 his father removed to Cincinnati, where 
 he spent two years in the public schools, and took a 
 full classical course in the Woodward and Cincinnati 
 colleges. After graduating he entered the law school 
 at Cincinnati, and graduated from it in 1837. He 
 read law in the office of Judges John C. Wright, of 
 the supreme bench, and Timothy Walker, of the city 
 courts, the latter of whom was chairman of the 
 board of examiners of the senior class at college, 
 and who induced him to study for the legal profes- 
 sion. After graduating from the law school he trav- 
 eled extensively through the east during 1837, visit- 
 ing the public schools and studying the system of 
 the eastern states, being sent by Samuel Lewis, 
 president of the board of trustees of Woodward 
 College, who had just been elected superintendent 
 of public schools of Ohio. Upon returning, wrote 
 in Mr. Lewis' office and assisted him in editing the 
 "Common School Journal," started by him to facil- 
 
 itate the introduction of a new organization of the 
 school system in Ohio. 
 
 Early in the summer of 1838 he was appointed by 
 Robert Lucas (former governor of Ohio, " and who 
 had just been appointed governor of the new Terri- 
 tory of Iowa,") his private secretary, and accom- 
 panied him to Iowa, arriving at Burlington on the 
 15th of August, 1838. In the following year he 
 removed to Bloomington (now Muscatine) and en- 
 gaged in the practice of his profession, and resided 
 there until the fall of i860, when he removed to 
 Iowa City and engaged in teaching, as professor of 
 natural science, in the State University. In 1870 
 he retired and devoted all his time to the secretarial 
 duties of the Grand Lodge of Iowa of Free and 
 Accepted Masons, editing and pubHshing its "An- 
 nals," of which six octavo volumes have been issued. 
 In April, 1839, ^^ "^^^ appointed by Governor Lucas 
 first territorial librarian, which he resigned to accept 
 the appointment of prosecuting attorney for the 
 second of the three districts of the territory. In 
 1 84 1 he was elected judge of the probate court of 
 Muscatine county, and reelected (save one year) till 
 the close of the territorial government in 1846. Dur- 
 ing that year, upon the adoption of the state consti- 
 tution and introduction of United States courts, he 
 was appointed clerk of the courts by Judge Dyer, and 
 held under Judge Love until 1857, when he resigned 
 upon being elected register of the state land office. 
 He was nominated for state auditor in i860, but be- 
 ing a democrat, and the state overwhelmingly repub- 
 lican, he was defeated, though receiving twelve. hun- 
 dred votes more than any man on his ticket. He has 
 since been nominated for secretary of state and su- 
 perintendent of public instruction, but declined each. 
 Mr. Parvin has been from the commencement of the 
 territorial government an active mover in all public 
 
■SWSamth.ri"''' 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 313 
 
 enterprises for general good, and was for many years 
 a director in the State Agricultural Society, a curator 
 in the State Historical Society, and was its corre- 
 sponding secretary and editor of its "Annals " for a 
 few years. He was the first, and several years later 
 again elected, president of the State Teachers' Asso- 
 ciation, and for twenty-five years superintendent of 
 sabbath schools, twelve of which in Iowa City ; was 
 for a number of years president of the school board 
 of Muscatine City, and later of Iowa City, and supeV- 
 intendent of schools in Johnson county, Iowa. 
 
 He was raised in the old Jefferson-Jackson school 
 of politics, casting his first vote in Iowa in 1838, and 
 ever since has been an able and earnest advocate of 
 its principles. 
 
 He became a Mason in March, 1838, and has held 
 the chief offices in all the state bodies subordinate 
 and grand. He has held the position of grand sec- 
 retary of the grand lodge from the organization of 
 this body, January 1844, save in 1852, when he was 
 grand master, until the present time. In 1859 he 
 was elected active sovereign grand inspector general 
 of the A. and A. rite for Iowa ; holds, and has held 
 for a number of years, the office of grand repre- 
 sentative of the supreme council of England and 
 Wales, and in 187 1 was elected grand recorder of 
 the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the 
 United States, and still (1876) holds that office by a 
 succession of reelections. 
 
 He has traveled extensively over the States and 
 Canadas, partially for pleasure, but mostly on scien- 
 
 tific and Masonic business, and has attended all the 
 great gatherings of Masonic national bodies since 
 1855. In religious views, he is a Presbyterian "of 
 the old school of the prophets," being brought up 
 as such from youth. 
 
 He was married on the 7th of May, 1843, to Miss 
 Agnes McCully, of Muscatine, Iowa. She is of 
 Scotch descent, and a: native of Pennsylvania. They 
 have six children, all living ; the eldest and young- 
 est are daughters, and four sons. 
 
 Mr. Parvin's works -are numerous, to enumerate 
 a list of the titles of which, literary, scientific and 
 Masonic, would far exceed our space. His lectures 
 and writings have been quoted in the journals and 
 works of this country, as well as in Europe, and 
 have thus brought his name prominently to the no- 
 tice of the world. Sufficient has been said to show 
 that he occupies a very distinguished position ; that 
 his life has been spent in a career of usefulness, and 
 that knowledge and honor have been more highly 
 valued by him than gain ; and his life presents a 
 wonderful example of how much may be done by 
 one man. 
 
 He is very popular among his fraternity, and is a 
 hard worker. Whatever he undertakes, he throws 
 into it his whole energy. As an ardent student he 
 has climbed the hill of knowledge, has been a suc- 
 cessful teacher, is eminent as a writer, and has done 
 much in the interest of his order. He ranks high 
 as a promoter of every good work, and has made a 
 record which might satisfy any ordinary ambition. 
 
 HON. NATHANIEL A. MERRELL, 
 
 DE WITT. 
 
 NATHANIEL ANSON MERRELL, twenty- 
 one years a resident of De Witt, Iowa, and 
 a leading attorney at this place, is a native of Lewis 
 county. New York, and was born in the village 
 of Copenhagen, on the 26th of June, 1829. His 
 parents, Seth and Mabel Sanford Merrell, were from 
 Connecticut. His paternal grandfather was in the 
 first war with England, and his father in the second. 
 When sixteen years of age Nathaniel began to 
 divide his time between farm and literary work, 
 attending some academy and teaching about half the 
 time until twenty-two. At that age he commenced 
 reading law with an elder brother, Eliada S., then 
 
 residing at Copenhagen, now a resident of Lowville, 
 and judge of Lewis county. He was admitted to 
 the bar at Watertown, Jefferson county, in July, 
 1855, and the next spring came to De Witt, here 
 building up a good reputation as an attorney, his 
 professional career being one of marked success. 
 He is a fluent speaker, quite persuasive withal, and 
 in any reasonably just cause carries the jury with 
 him. 
 
 Mr. Merrell went into the army in the autumn of 
 1862, as captain of company D, 26th Iowa Infantry, 
 and was wounded severely at the battle of Arkansas 
 Post, on the nth of January, 1863. 
 
314 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 He was mayor of De Witt two years ; was a mem- 
 ber of the lower house of the general assembly 
 during the fourteenth session, and of the senate 
 during the fifteenth and sixteenth sessions. In the 
 upper house he was chairman of the committee on 
 public lands, and was on the committees on consti- 
 tutional amendments, judiciary and agricultural col- 
 lege. In 1877 he was reelected to the senate for 
 the further term of four years, in all ten years. 
 
 Mr. Merrell has been a life-long democrat, but 
 does not " give up to party what was meant for man- 
 kind "; would not sacrifice his country for any polit- 
 ical body. He was an ardent supporter of the 
 
 national administration in its efforts to suppress the 
 rebellion. 
 
 He was married at Lowville, New York, on the 
 17th of July, 1855, to Mrs. Mary A. Moman Merrell, 
 then late of Richmond, Kentucky, and widow of his 
 brother. They have three children living, and have 
 lost two. 
 
 Mr. Merrell has gray eyes, a ruddy complexion, 
 stands perfectly erect, is six feet in height, and 
 weighs two hundred and fifty pounds. His physique 
 is impressive, his bearing commanding, his address 
 cordial, his manners are easy and pleasant, and his 
 conversational gifts excellent. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM W. WILLIAMSON, 
 
 DBS MOINES. 
 
 W'^ILLIAM WARWICK WILLIAMSON, a 
 native of Franklin, Kentucky, was born on 
 the 6th of September, 182 1, the son of Tucker 
 Woodson Williamson and Permelia nee Martin. His 
 paternal grandparents were Thomas and Elizabeth 
 (Reynolds) Williamson ; the former was a Methodist 
 minister and one of the pioneers of Kentucky. His 
 maternal grandfather, John Martin, was a Kentucky 
 farmer. 
 
 In 1828, when William was eight years old, his 
 mother died, and he lived with his grandmother 
 Williamson until 1834, when his father married his 
 second wife. Miss Caroline Depue, and removed to 
 Orleans, Indiana, and engaged in the mercantile 
 trade. Prior to this time William had attended 
 school at various places, but upon removing to In- 
 diana entered his father's store, where he was en- 
 gaged for two years. He afterward spent three 
 years on a farm in Orange county, and in 1840 en- 
 tered Asbury University at Greencastle, Indiana. 
 
 He continued his studies for three years, and in 
 the spring of 1843 taught a school for three months. 
 Going thence to Lawrence county, . he there had 
 charge of a seminary for more than a year, and at the 
 expiration of that time entered the office of George 
 G. Dunn, Esq., for the purpose of completing his 
 law studies which he had previously begun. 
 
 Being admitted to the bar in 1846, he began the 
 practice of his profession at Bedford, Indiana, and 
 continued it with good success until the spring of 
 1848, when he removed to Fairfield, Iowa. He had 
 intended to settle at Monroe City, the capital, hav- 
 
 ing been located there, but the legislature of that 
 year set aside the action locating the capital there, 
 and Mr. Williamson spent eighteen months at the 
 above-named place, Believing that the capital 
 would eventually be located at Fort Des Moines, 
 he removed thither in September, 1849, and estab- 
 lished himself in the practice of his profession. 
 
 He soon made for himself a fine reputation, and 
 in 185 1 was elected prosecuting attorney of Polk 
 county for a term of two years. In 1854 he was 
 elected on the whig ticket judge of the fifth judicial 
 district, which comprised all of western Iowa. After 
 his election had been reported, and his certificate 
 issued by the secretary of state, the election was 
 contested, the contesting board consisting of two 
 democrats and one whig. Pol) books were admit- 
 ted in a questionable, if not fraudulent, manner, and 
 the result was. that his election was set aside. 
 
 He continued his profession with marked success 
 until i860, when, by reason of his wife's ill health, 
 he removed his family to San Antonio, Texas. In 
 July, 1861, on account'of the civil war which had 
 already opened, he returned to Des Moines and 
 continued his practice until the fall of 1865, when 
 he again went to San Antonio. Such, however, was 
 the state of society, that he returned to Des Moines 
 in the following spring, and opened a law office, ad- 
 mitting into his business, as a partner, Mr. J. M. St. 
 John. By strict attention to business Mr. William- 
 son had accumulated considerable property, and at 
 this time was in good circumstances. Contrary to 
 his principles, he became surety for a friend who 
 
THE UNITED STAtES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 ^ '0 
 
 was engaged in the boot and shoe trade, and being 
 compelled to take an interest in the business, una- 
 voidably lost several thousand dollars. 
 
 As a result of the heavy drafts upon his finances 
 he failed in business in 1872, but closed up affairs to 
 the entire satisfaction of his creditors, none of whom 
 charged him with dishonest motives. In 1873 he 
 again opened an office and began the practice of 
 law alone, and continued until October, 1874, when 
 Manford E. Williams was admitted to the business, 
 which is now conducted under the firm name of 
 Williamson and- Williams. 
 
 In political sentiment. Judge Williamson was for- 
 merly a Henry Clay whig. In 1856 he voted the 
 conservative ticket. He supported Bell and Everett 
 in i860, and in 1864 voted for General George B. 
 McClellan. He supported Horace Greeley for the 
 presidency in 1872, and at the present time (1877) 
 believes that the salvation of our country rests with 
 the republican party. 
 
 From childhood "he has been a member of the 
 Methodist church ; but, being a man of liberal views, 
 he always grants to others that freedom of opinion 
 which he asks for himself. 
 
 He was married in September, 1847, to Miss 
 Clarissa A. McLane, daughter of Colonel William 
 McLane, a prominent merchant of Bedford, In- 
 
 diana. Mrs. Williamson was born at Orleans, Indi- 
 ana, on the 3d of May, 1824. She is a lady of good 
 sound judgment, quick at repartee, of active intel- 
 lect, and a devoted wife and fond mother. She has 
 been in poor health since 1859. They have had 
 five children: William Tucker, born on the 22d of 
 April, 1852, at Des Moines, and now living in Ar- 
 kansas; Charles Earnest, born the loth of March, 
 1854, at Des Moines, now a telegraph operator on 
 the Western Union line; Lillie, born on the loth of 
 April, 1857, and who died on the 8th of May, 1858 ; 
 Frank, born on the nth of March, 1859, a printer 
 by trade, and now a law student in his father's 
 office; and Clara, born on the 2d of July, 1861, is 
 now attending school. 
 
 Judge Williamson has always been a strong advo- 
 cate of temperance, and is also in favor of woman's 
 rights. 
 
 As a lawyer, he has a wide and worthy reputation 
 among his fellow practitioners, and is universally 
 known as an honorable, fair dealing man. In i860, 
 before he went to Texas, his was the leading law 
 business in Des Moines. 
 
 He has given close attention to his professional 
 duties, and lives now in the enjoyment of that re- 
 ward which follows patient, earnest and honorable 
 effort. 
 
 STEPHEN E. ROBINSON, M.D., 
 
 WEST UNION. 
 
 OF the younger class of physicians in Fayette 
 county, Iowa, Dr. Robinson stands at the 
 head. He is not only eminent as a medical prac- 
 titioner, but also as a surgeon. During the last few 
 years he has performed operations which require 
 and test the highest skill. He shrinks from no 
 task, however difficult, in this line, and has never 
 failed of success in any of his operations. He is, 
 however, the last man to boast of such things, for 
 his modesty equals his skill. 
 
 Stephen Eddy Robinson, a native of Indiana, was 
 born near La Porte, on the 7th of May, 1838. His 
 father, Thomas Robinson, was a farmer in early life 
 and afterward a merchant. An uncle on the mother's 
 side died in the war of 181 2. When Stephen was 
 eight years old his father moved on a farm in 
 Rock county, Wisconsin, and six years later pur- 
 chased a half interest in a store at Evansville, in 
 
 the same state, and settled in that village. Stephen 
 had only moderate means for education up to his 
 sixteenth year, when he went to the Lawrence Uni- 
 versity, Appleton, remaining there nearly two years, 
 and returned home to attend the Evansville Semi- 
 nary, then recently started. 
 
 He commenced studying medicine in the autumn 
 of 1857 ; attended two courses of lectures at Rush 
 Medical College, Chicago, and settled in West Union, 
 Iowa, on the 28th of April, i860, commencing prac- 
 tice on the day he was twenty-two years old. After 
 one year's ride he enlisted as a soldier in the 3d 
 Iowa Infantry, went to Keokuk with the regiment, 
 and was put on detached duty as a surgeon. Ac- 
 companying the regiment into Missouri as a soldier, 
 he was again detached, and had little more com- 
 pany service afterward. 
 
 Dr. Robinson was on hospital duty at the battle 
 
3i6 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 of Pittsburgh Landing, soon after which he was 
 mustered out as a soldier by special order of Gen- 
 eral Halleck, and appointed surgeon for army duty 
 of such an ofiicer in that department. He organ- 
 ized two or three brigades and division hospitals ; 
 was for a short time post surgeon on General Pope's 
 staff; acted a few weeks as surgeon of the 51st 
 Illinois Infantry, and was finally, for a short period, 
 one of the three inspectors of hospitals for General 
 Halleck's command investing Corinth, Mississippi. 
 
 In the autumn of 1862 Dr. Robinson was taken 
 sick, resigned his position, and in December re- 
 turned to the north. He had not been at home 
 but a few months before George Kirkwood, at the 
 request of the regiment, sent him a commission as 
 assistant surgeon of the 38th Infantry, but his health 
 and business were such that he had to decline. In 
 1866 Dr. Robinson attended a third course of lec- 
 tures at Rush Medical College, and received his 
 
 diploma at the close of the term. He is a close 
 medical student, and growing in skill and popularity 
 as well as knowledge. _ 
 
 Dr. Robinson is a Knight Templar in the Masonic 
 order, and a member of the fraternity of Odd- 
 Fellows. 
 
 In politics, he has always been a republican, ardent 
 and unwavering. His religious connection is with 
 the Methodist Episcopal church. 
 
 On the 26th of September, 1867, he was joined 
 in wedlock with Miss Sarah E. Artman, a native of 
 New York State. They have three bright little chil- 
 dren, two boys and a girl. 
 
 Dr. Robinson is one of the trustees of the Hospital 
 for the Insane at Independence ; is a member of the 
 American Medical Association, and of the Iowa State 
 Medical Society, and the North Iowa Medical So- 
 ciety. Few physicians in northern Iowa have a 
 better standing. 
 
 GEORGE W. CABLE, 
 
 DAVENPORT. 
 
 GEORGE WYATT CABLE, lumber merchant, 
 was born in Athens county, Ohio, on the 
 17th of June, 1831. His parents were Hiram and 
 Rachel (Henry) Cable, the former a native of Jef- 
 ferson county. New York, and the mother of Wash- 
 ington county, Ohio. The grandfather of our sub- 
 ject, James Cable, emigrated from England about 
 the year 1770 and settled in Massachusetts, whence 
 his descendants branched off to other states. His 
 mother was the daughter of Scotch-Irish parents; 
 a most excellent christian lady, to whose influence 
 are mainly due the better traits in the moral char- 
 acter of our subject. 
 
 Hiram Cable was a gentleman of considerable 
 local note in the State of Ohio, having been in the 
 early part of the century extensively engaged in 
 merchandising, and later in life actively connected 
 with public improvements and enterprises. He was 
 one of the projectors of the Piqua and Indianapolis 
 railroad, now a branch of the Pennsylvania Central, 
 one of the largest contractors for the construction 
 of the same, and for nine years a director of the 
 company. He was also the founder and builder 
 of the picturesque and thriving town of Cable, situ- 
 ated in Champaign county, seven miles from Ur- 
 bana, which was owned entirely by himself and his 
 
 brother, P. L. Cable. He represented his county 
 in the legislature during a number of years, and 
 was a man of great public spirit and energy, highly 
 esteemed and honored by all who knew him. 
 
 In 1857 he disposed of his Ohio interests and 
 removed to Scott county, Iowa, where for nine 
 years he was extensively engaged in farming, giving 
 especial attention to sheep-raising and wool-grow- 
 ing. The retirement and monotony of a farmer's 
 life were not, however, adopted to his tastes, nor 
 in harmony with his previous active public life ; he 
 pined for a more varied and enterprising sphere of 
 existence, and accordingly, in 1866, sold out his 
 farm and removed to the city of Davenport, where 
 in partnership with his son, the subject of this 
 sketch, he embarked in the coal and lumber busi- 
 ness, which is still in successful operation. Hiram 
 Cable is a brother .to the well-known P. L. Cable, 
 of Rock Island, Illinois, owner of the Coal Valley 
 mines of that county, and who in company with 
 his nephew, R. R. Cable, brother of our subject, 
 has recently built the Rock Island and Mercer 
 County railroad, which intersects a rich and popu- 
 lous farming district, bringing within easy reach of 
 market products hitherto valueless. 
 
 George W. Cable received a fair English and 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARl'. 
 
 2,^7 
 
 mathematical education in the excellent public 
 schools of Urbana, Ohio, and commenced life as 
 a farmer in Champaign county, Ohio, which he 
 continued for several years with success ; but fol- 
 lowing the example of his father, he sold out in 
 1857 and removed to Scott county, Iowa, where 
 for nine years" he steadily pursued the business of 
 husbandry. In 1866 he removed to Davenport, 
 and engaged with his father in the coal and lumber 
 trade, to which was . afterward added an extensive 
 lumber manufactory, which has since been con- 
 ducted with marked success, the establishment 
 giving steady employment to about one hundred 
 hands, and turning out about ten million feet of 
 lumber annually. In 1874 his father, Hiram Cable, 
 retired into private life ; and two years later our 
 subject associated with him in business Mr. John 
 Homby, and the business is now carried on under 
 the style of Homby and Cable. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Cable has always been averse to 
 the institution of human chattelage, and conse- 
 quently has allied himself with the republican party, 
 but in common with all good citizens he mourns 
 over party shortcomings. 
 
 He is a prominent aud consistent member of 
 the Congregational Church of Davenport, and in 
 all the relations which he sustains to his fellow- 
 citizens leads an honest and blameless life. 
 
 As a man of business, he is endowed with rare 
 good sense and a well-balanced mind, so that as 
 he may operate with more caution than others, his 
 mistakes are fewer. His business integrity is pro- 
 verbial, his character for honesty has never been 
 sullied by even a whisper. 
 
 He is an affectionate and true husband and 
 father, devoted to the interests of his family, and 
 yet a warm and active friend to the poor and 
 needy. As a churchman, he is earnest and zealous, 
 " fully persuaded in his own mind," and an un- 
 compromising antagonist of " the world, the flesh 
 and the devil." He is generous and even self- 
 sacrificing with his means for religious and be- 
 nevolent purposes ; and at the time of the erec- 
 tion of the beautiful edifice of the Congregation 
 Society, in Davenport, he is understood, to have 
 given a tenth of all his property to the enterprise. 
 He carries his religion into every-day life, ex- 
 emplifying in his character the principles of the 
 "golden rule," yet entirely free from cant or phar- 
 asaic ostentation. 
 
 On the iSth of October, 1854, he married Miss 
 Eliza E. Baldwin, daughter of Richard Baldwin, 
 Esq., an extensive farmer of Champaign county, 
 Ohio. They have had six children, five of whom 
 survive : Charles H., Nanny Kate, Mary Ellen, 
 Josephene, and George W., junior. 
 
 ANDREW J. FELT, 
 
 NASHUA. 
 
 AMONG the very few country journalists who 
 iA. have left the editor's chair to start a bank is 
 Andrew J. Felt, a native of the Empire State. He 
 was born at Victor, Ontario county, on the 27th 
 of December, 1833, his parents being Warren Felt, 
 merchant and farmer, and Cynthia Stowell. The 
 Felts were from Massachusetts. His grandfather 
 was a participant in the second war with England. 
 Andrew was educated at the Hamilton Academy, 
 Madison county ; at sixteen commenced teaching ; 
 followed that profession three winters ; at nineteen 
 commenced reading law with Thomas Frothingham, 
 of Rochester, finishing his legal studies with Judge 
 Nichols, of Sherburne, Chenango county, and being 
 seized violently with the western fever, came to Iowa 
 before being admitted to the bar. 
 
 Mr. Felt reached this state in the autumn of 1855, 
 
 and the following winter taught a school in a black- 
 smith shop upon the spot where Luana, Clayton 
 county, now stands. In 1856 he became connected 
 editorially with the " North Iowa Tiines," of Mc- 
 Gregor, published by A. P. Richardson, remaining 
 in that position till March, 1857. A short time after 
 this date he was admitted to the bar of Chickasaw 
 county, Judge Murdock presiding, but before com- 
 mencing practice he started, in the spring of 1857, 
 the "Cedar Valley News," at Bradford, running the 
 paper and a law office one year, when he sold his 
 interest in the newspaper and practiced law a year 
 in company with M. V. Burdick, of Decorah, Win- 
 neshiek county. In i860 he renewed his editorial 
 connection with the " North Iowa Times," and held 
 that position when the national flag was stricken 
 down at the south. His patriotic heart was instantly 
 
3i8 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 fired, and he enlisted as a private in the first com- 
 pany which was raised in Chickasaw county — Com- 
 pany B, 7 th Iowa Infantry. He was taken prisoner 
 at Belmont, Missouri, on the 7 th of November, 1861 ; 
 remained in the hands of the rebels one year less 
 twenty days ; was in the hospital at Annapolis, Mary- 
 land, from October, 1862, to February, 1863; joined 
 the regiment at Corinth, Mississippi ; was promoted 
 to sergeant, and returned to Iowa the next spring. 
 
 Mr. Felt went immediately to West Union, Fayette 
 county, and established the " Public Record," con- 
 ducting it until 1866, when he sold out to Judge 
 Edmonds. In the month of May of the following 
 year he started the Nashua " Post," and conducted 
 it until February, 1874, when he sold out to Grawe 
 Brothers, and purchased the interest of M. C. Wood- 
 ruff in the Waterloo " Courier. " In October, 1875, 
 he abandoned journalism and started a private bank 
 in Nashua. This course seemed to be regretted by 
 many of the editorial brotherhood of Iowa, for he 
 was a keen and pointed writer, and his journalistic 
 career was eminently creditable to the Iowa press. 
 
 Mr. Felt was postmaster at Nashua from 1869 
 to 1874, resigning the office to go to Waterloo. 
 
 In politics, he was a democrat until he saw the 
 
 old flag insulted in 1861, since which time he has 
 acted heartily with the republicans. He was a 
 delegate to the national conventions which nomi- 
 nated and renominated General Grant, being one 
 of the secretaries of the Chicago convention in 1868. 
 He was president of the congressional convention 
 which nominated N. C. Deering in August, 1876, 
 and without being a candidate before the conven- 
 tion, was suddenly brought out, and although per- 
 sisting that he was not a candidate, came within 
 seven votes of being nominated. He has sometimes 
 taken part in a political canvass, where he has 
 shown himself to be a fluent and effective off-hand 
 speaker. 
 
 Mr. Felt is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the 
 Congregational church, where he teaches a bible 
 class, and a man of very pure character. He has 
 a very small body, barely enough, Sydney Smith 
 would say, to cover his mind. 
 
 The wife of Mr. Felt was Miss Emily Rutherford, 
 of Fairfield, Ohio. They were married at Bradford 
 on the 2ist of February, 1858 ; have had five chil- 
 dren, and have two boys and one girl living. Mrs. 
 Felt is a true wife and mother, and a woman pos- 
 sessed of very excellent qualities of mind and heart. 
 
 DWIGHT W. CHASE, M.D., 
 
 ELKADER. 
 
 AMONG the physicians who located in Clayton 
 , county when it was sparsely settled is Dr. D. 
 W. Chase, who came to Iowa in 1855, and who has 
 made a commendable record both as a practitioner 
 and as a citizen. He is a native of New York, and 
 was born at Cohocton, Steuben county, on the nth 
 of November, 1819. 
 
 Dr. Chase's parents, Thomas C. and Melinda Butts 
 Chase, were plain farming people, and Dwight spent 
 his first eighteen years at home, aiding in tilling the 
 soil. He early cultivated a relish for books and 
 study, and although having but three or four months' 
 attendance on school annually, he was fitted, by 
 mental application at home, to teach a district school 
 at eighteen. During the next four years he attended 
 school at Lima eight months in the year, and taught 
 during the winters. At twenty-two years of age he 
 commenced studying medicine with Dr. W. W. Day, 
 of Eagle, Wyoming county. Attending lectures at 
 Berkshire Medical College, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 
 
 and Jefferson College, Philadelphia, he graduated 
 from the latter in March, 1845. Practicing ten years 
 at Sandusky, Cattaraugus county. Dr. Chase immi- 
 grated to Iowa, settling near Yankee Settlement, 
 now Edgewood, Clayton county. There he had an 
 extensive and remunerative practice, but the educa- 
 tional privileges in that farming district not being 
 very good, in 1866 he removed to Elkader, the 
 county seat. Here his travels have been no less 
 extended in geographical area, and his business in- 
 creased so much that he has been obliged to take 
 into partnership K. F. Purdy, M.D., a graduate of 
 Rush Medical College, Chicago. 
 
 Dr. Chase has made medicine his life study, and 
 is just as much of a student now as he ever was. 
 With the exception of the news of the day, hjs read- 
 ing is almost exclusively professional, and few physi- 
 cians in the county are better read in mediciiie. 
 He has tried to confine himself to the medical prac- 
 tice, but in two or three instances has been persuaded 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 319 
 
 to accept office for a short time. He was president 
 of the board of supervisors in 1859 and i860, and 
 a member of the ninth general assembly, represent- 
 ing his county in the lower branch. He was in the 
 regular session of 1862 and the extra session the 
 same year, and was elected without opposition. He 
 was very active on two important committees, char- 
 itable institutions and schools and state university. 
 He was offered the chairmanship of either of these 
 committees, thexhoice being left to himself, but he 
 was a new, inexperienced member, and declined. 
 
 During the second year of the rebellion he was 
 offered the position of surgeon of some Iowa regi- 
 ment, Governor Kirkwood giving him his choice of 
 four regiments, but he was then a member of the 
 legislature, and deferred the matter until December, 
 1864, when he accepted that responsibility of the 
 
 2ist Infantry. He served till June, 1865, when the 
 regiment was mustered out. 
 
 Dr. Chase belongs to Honorius Commandery, No. 
 8, of the Masonic order. In politics, he is one of 
 those republicans who never waver. 
 
 On the 17th of August, 1849, he married Miss Ellen 
 J. Lyon, of Eagle, New York, and has two daughters. 
 The elder, Kate, is the wife of Van E. Butler, of Del- 
 phos, Kansas ; the other, Ellen Lyon, lives at home. 
 
 Dr. Chase is a valuable citizen. Though his pro- 
 fessional duties are far from light, he finds sufficient 
 time to look after local interests, and aid in promot- 
 ing them. He is very kind to the poor, and has 
 traveled hundreds of miles to comfort the sick and 
 relieve the distressed, without any expectation of 
 reward except the satisfaction of restoring health, 
 prolonging life, or mitigating pain. 
 
 DANIEL F. ELLSWORTH, 
 
 BLDORA. 
 
 AMONG the early settlers in Hardin county is 
 1\. Daniel F. Ellsworth, better known as Colonel 
 Ellsworth. Though past sixty-five, his hair shows 
 none of the usual signs of age, he makes but a sorry 
 display of wrinkles, and stands as erect as when 
 shooting deer in the valley of the Iowa twenty-three 
 years ago. 
 
 Daniel Freeman Ellsworth is a native of New 
 York, but spent most of his youth and early man- 
 hood in Pennsylvania. He was born in Phelps, 
 Ontario county, on the 6th of October, 1811. His 
 parents were William and Sarah Parshall Ellsworth. 
 His father was a soldier in the second war with 
 England. When Daniel was about fourteen years 
 of age, the whole family moved to Tioga county, 
 Pennsylvania. Living a long way from a school 
 house in his early years, the son had very meager 
 opportunities for education. He worked with his 
 father, who was a carpenter and joiner, until he 
 was past twenty, when he went on a farm in Potter 
 county, Pennsylvania, and tilled it five or six years; 
 then moved to the county seat, in order to dis- 
 charge the duties of county commissioner, to which 
 office he had been elected, and which he held three 
 years. During this time he was chosen justice of 
 the peace, and held that office twelve years. 
 
 In the month of May, 1854, he started for Iowa, 
 and reached Eldora, Hardin county, on the 25th 
 33 
 
 of that month. Here he still resides in a very 
 pleasant home. He has witnessed great changes 
 in Hardin county. In the spring of 1854 there was 
 only one small store in Eldora, the only frame 
 building in the place. The dwelling houses were 
 built of hewn logs, and not half a dozen in num- 
 ber. The merchants were Edgington Brothers, who 
 are still in Eldora. Joseph Edgington being now 
 the postmaster, and Colonel Samuel R. Edgington 
 the proprietor of the Commercial Hotel. When 
 Mr. Ellsworth came to Eldora there were not fifty 
 voters in the county. The year previous Alexander 
 Smith was chosen first judge of the county, and had 
 twenty-eight votes. 
 
 Mr. Ellsworth bought land near town for his sons 
 to cultivate, but has himself always lived within 
 what is now the corporation limits, and has seen 
 the original "four corners" expand into a lovely 
 city of nearly three thousand inhabitants, with 
 large brick blocks, elegant churches, fine school 
 houses, and other indices of the highest christian 
 civilization. Soon after settling in Eldora Mr. 
 Ellsworth built a hotel of which he was the pro- 
 prietor for twenty years, and was known in early 
 days there as " the model landlord." During the 
 first two years of his residence in Iowa he devoted 
 his leisure to the study of law, to which he had 
 paid some attention while he was justice of the 
 
320 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 peace in Pennsylvania, and in 1856 he was ad- 
 mitted to the bar, but never opened an office. At 
 the present time he is a mail contractor, and owns 
 a daily line of stages from Eldora to Grundy Center. 
 Mr. Ellsworth was appointed sheriff of Hardin 
 county to fill a vacancy in 1855, the fees in those 
 days amounting to something like two hundred dol- 
 lars. He was the democratic candidate for register 
 of the state land office in 1868, and ran ahead of the 
 party ticket. He was appointed United States com- 
 missioner by the United States district court nine or 
 ten years ago, and still holds that office. In 1875 he 
 was a delegate to the national democratic convention 
 held at St. Louis, of which he was the Iowa vice- 
 president. He has always been a democrat. 
 
 In religious sentiment Mr. Ellsworth is a Meth- 
 odist, but is not a member of the church. 
 
 On the 23d of November, 1831, he married Miss 
 Rhoda L. Babcock, of Bath, New York. She was 
 the mother of six children, all of whom survive 
 her. She died in i86i. Two of the sons, Le Roy 
 and Daniel V., are merchants in Eldora ; the eldest 
 daughter, Mahala, married Hon. S. G. Winchester, 
 a resident of Eldora for more than twenty years; 
 and another daughter, Dianthia, -is the wife of 
 James St. John, a wealthy farmer, living near El- 
 dora. The other children live out of the county. 
 On the ist of September, 1862, Mr. Ellsworth mar- 
 ried Miss Elsie Harriott, of Eldora, and by her has 
 had three children, only one of whom is living. 
 
 HON. THOMAS W. NEWMAN, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 THOMAS W. NEWMAN was born in Somerset 
 county, Maryland, on the 23d day of January, 
 1829, of Isaac Newman and Harriet nee Batson. 
 Both were members of the Methodist Episcopal 
 church, and used every means in their power for 
 the moral training of their four sons and two 
 daughters. 
 
 The father died in 1840 at the age of forty-one 
 years, leaving an estate valued at thirty thousand 
 dollars. Five years later the mother removed to 
 Baltimore, Maryland, with her family, and there 
 died in 1846, leaving her children to the care of 
 Thomas, the eldest son, through whose careful 
 efforts they received a good education and attained 
 to respectable positions in society. Thomas, after 
 closing his primary studies, entered Washington 
 Academy, in Princess Anne, Somerset county, Mary- 
 land, and, with the exception of Greek, pursued the 
 studies of the regular academic course. 
 
 Aside .from his studies he enjoyed many advan- 
 tages, and in the management of his father's estate 
 and the care that naturally devolved upon him from 
 his position, received an experience which has been 
 invaluable to him in all his subsequent life. 
 
 His associations in a large city like Baltimore 
 brought him into contact with many fine speakers 
 in. the courts and of the best actors on the stage, 
 and naturally developed in him an excessive fond- 
 ness for oratory, to gratify which desire he decided 
 to enter the legal profession. Beginning his studies 
 
 soon after leaving school, he was admitted to the 
 bar in 1850, and with a view to finding a wider field 
 for action at once removed to the west, and with a 
 capital of about four thousand dollars established 
 himself in his profession at Burlington, Iowa. Find- 
 ing himself among strangers in a strange city, he cast 
 himself upon his own energies, and although during 
 the first years of his practice progress was slow, he 
 struggled on hopefully, gaining public confidence 
 with every new advance, and receiving at length the 
 reward that inevitably comes from honest, faithful 
 and persistent effort. Positive in his character, he 
 has always fearlessly maintained his opinions, and 
 of course has not failed to make some enemies in 
 life's contests. 
 
 At the opening of the late civil war his whole 
 heart became deeply in sympathy with the Union 
 caiise, and in August, 1861, through the influence 
 of Senator Grimes, of Iowa, he was commissioned 
 by President Lincoln a captain in the nth United 
 States Infantry. Accepting the position, he at once 
 entered upon the duties of recruiting officer and 
 military commander at Burlington. In 1862 he was 
 sent to Indianapolis, Indiana, on mustering and dis- 
 bursing duty under General H. B. Carrington, and 
 in the fall of that year was appointed commander 
 of that post, a position which he held until the 
 spring of 1863. It was while here that he came in 
 contact with Judge Perkins, of the supreme court 
 of Indiana, by refusing to surrender men (arrested 
 
^^Jij-aiJ-udETui^''''"^' 
 
 C^^~i^^a>zy7y 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 for desertion) under writs of habeas corpus issued 
 by him. Acting under advice of the President and 
 Secretary of War he declined to surrender himself 
 to the sheriff under a writ of attachment for con- 
 tempt, stating that he would resist with all the mili- 
 tary power at his command any violence or force 
 offered by civil authority. Judge Perkins said that 
 the writ must be executed if the streets should run 
 with blood, but when he found that Captain New- 
 man was in readiness with several regiments of in- 
 fantry and two batteries of artillery, and that Gov- 
 ernor Morton would not furnish him a military 
 force, he was obliged to withdraw the writ, which 
 ended the matter. 
 
 About this time, by reason of exposure and un- 
 tiring activity, he experienced a very severe attack 
 of rheumatism, and, obtaining leave of absence, he 
 was for a time at home receiving medical treatment. 
 While here Captafn Newman was ordered to Wash- 
 ington, District of Columbia, when able to travel, 
 and on his arrival received further treatment from 
 the best army surgeons, but after some weeks of 
 suffering, and finding from medical examination that 
 he would be unable to endure the exposure and 
 labor of the field, he resigned at the end of nearly 
 three years of service, being unwilling to draw pay 
 when unable to render efficient service. 
 
 His military career, though short, was of much 
 service to the country. After his return to his home 
 he spent some six months in recuperating, and then 
 resumed his profession. Aside from his profes- 
 sional work he has been honored with many posi- 
 tions of honor and trust. From 1855 to 1857 he 
 held the office of judge of Des Moines county, and 
 in the fall of 1874 was appointed by Governor Car- 
 penter to fill a vacancy in the office of district judge 
 of the first judicial district of Iowa. At the Octo- 
 ber election he was elected for the unexpired term 
 ending January i, 1875, and for a full term of four 
 years from that date. In this position he has gained 
 new honors, given entire satisfaction, and, by his 
 ability, shown himself most eminently fitted for his 
 work. His recent sentence of E. J. Bruce, con- 
 victed of murder in the first degree, was by reason 
 of its perspicuity and tenderness, coupled with rare 
 judicial qualities, the occasion of much comment, 
 and pronounced the most beautiful and effective ever 
 delivered in the district. 
 
 In 1855-6 he was a director of the Burlington 
 and Missouri River Railroad Company, and at the 
 present time (1876) is a director of the Merchant's 
 
 National Bank of Burlington. Since the orga 
 tion of Burlington University in 1852, he has 
 one of its trustees, and either treasurer or seen 
 and is now one of its chief benefactors. 
 
 Politically, Judge Newman, formerly a demc 
 has, since the organization of the republican \ 
 been closely identified with the interests of 
 body. At the time of the " Kansas-Nebraska 
 in 1854, he held to the views of Mr. Douglas res 
 ing the doctrine_jof popular sovereignty as a sol 
 for the then existing slavery agitation in the te: 
 ries, and so continued to believe until convi 
 that the whole purpose of the bill was a pretes 
 the extension of slavery, and thereby to enabli 
 democratic party to hold the balance of p 
 under the name of popular sovereignty. Livii 
 the state adjoining Nebraska, he was in a fair 
 tion to watch the operation of the new law, 
 seeing the sectional controversy, the political 
 and the domestic violence which it engendered 
 seeing that the purpose of the democratic part) 
 to force slavery against the will of the peopL 
 though born and bred in a slave state, and hii 
 at one time the owner of slaves (which, howeve 
 manumitted), his native love of liberty and ju 
 revolted against the outrage and led him to abai 
 the party. Joining the republican party, which 
 then coming into existence, he supported, for 1 
 ernor of Iowa, James W. Grimes, through w 
 powerful influence the state, previously democi 
 gave a large republican majority. In i860 J 
 Newman gave his best efforts, on the stump 
 otherwise, to secure the election of Mr. Lin< 
 Recognizing in him an honored instrument ir 
 hands of God for the accomplishment of a | 
 purpose, he remained his firm supporter, an 
 1864 threw his whole soul into the work of hi 
 election. He was a vigorous supporter of Gei 
 Grant during both campaigns, and although he 
 many faults in the republican party, believes tha 
 highest interest of the government depends upc 
 success. He believes that it has power to p 
 itself of its dishonest men and inflict upon then 
 just punishment for their crimes. He holds tl 
 prosperous government must rest upon a hard m 
 basis; that specie redemption should be govt 
 by the necessities of the people and not by arbi 
 legislation ; that necessity caused the " Legal 
 der Act," and when that necessity ceases it sli 
 be repealed as soon as practicable. He fav( 
 tariff for revenue and not for protection, and 
 
324 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 lieves that what is needed beyond this for the sup- 
 port of the government should be raised by direct 
 taxation. He looks with disfavor upon further land 
 grants to railroads or other private or quasi-private 
 enterprises, and holds that private capital should 
 meet the public demands. He believes that public 
 officers should be held to a strict account for all 
 their duties and conduct, and when found guilty of 
 crime, exposed and punished, the punishment being 
 regulated by the responsibility of the office. Feel- 
 ing that the officers are the mouth, hands and 
 brains of the government, to be wise and strong, 
 mouths should speak well, hands should work well, 
 and brains should think and control well. 
 
 In his religious communion Judge Newman is 
 connected with the regular Baptist church, to whose 
 faith he has been strongly attached since early man- 
 hood. During two years past he has held the office 
 of president of the Baptist State Convention of Iowa. 
 He takes a deep and active interest in all matters 
 pertaining to the welfare of his fellows, and is al- 
 ways ready to further with his sympathies, his hands 
 
 and his money, all worthy and benevolent enter- 
 prises. 
 
 He was married on the 3d of November, 1852, to 
 Miss Sarah A. Warren, of central New York, a dis- 
 tant relative of General Warren, of revolutionary 
 fame. Of the six children which they have had, 
 five are now living. Nellie, a daughter of fifteen 
 years, died in the spring of 1873. She was a child 
 of more than ordinary promise, and only six days 
 previous to her death had been converted under 
 the preaching of the Rev. E. P. Hammond. From 
 the deep interest taken in her by reason of her con- 
 version, her funeral was the occasion of a larger 
 attendance and more wide-spread feeling than had 
 ever before been witnessed in the city. In life she 
 was beloved, and left every evidence of a bright and 
 happy future. 
 
 Such, in brief, is an outline of the life-history of 
 one of Iowa's successful men. His great aim has 
 been to make the highest use of his powers, and so 
 to employ all his resources as to honor God and 
 better his fellow-men. 
 
 HENRY M. MIXER, M.D., 
 
 NEW HAMPTON. 
 
 DR. MIXER is of patriotic blood, both of his 
 grandfathers having been soldiers in the rev- 
 olutionary war. He is a son of Julius U. Mixer, 
 an Ohio farmer, and Belinda Simmons, and was 
 born in the town of Madison, Lake county, on the 
 25th of April, 1828. His paternal grandfather was 
 one of the early settlers on the "Western Reserve," 
 and his father occupied part of the original home- 
 stead until his death. During the war of 181 2-15 his 
 father, concealed in some bushes, saw a small num- 
 ber of British soldiers come ashore on Lake Erie, 
 kill one of his oxen and carry it off. They left 
 two sovereigns done up in a rag and stuck up on 
 a pole, with some writing inside^ stating that if that 
 was not enough for the ox they would pay the rest 
 when they came again ! 
 
 Henry was educated at Grand River Academy, 
 a manual labor school, in Ashtabula county. At 
 nineteen went to Lake Mills, Jefferson county, Wis- 
 consin, and taught a select school two years ; com- 
 menced reading medicine at that place with Dr. 
 Joslyn ; finished with Dr. Lorenzo A. Hamilton, of 
 Chardon, Geauga county, Ohio ; attended lectures 
 
 in the medical department of the Western Reserve 
 College, Cleveland, and graduated at Pittsfield, Mas- 
 sachusetts, in the autumn of r854. 
 
 Dr. Mixer practiced at Chardon until the autumn 
 of 1859; was in the drug business one year at 
 Painesville. In the spring of 1861 went to Colum- 
 bia county, Wisconsin, entered the service in August 
 of that year as assistant surgeon in the navy and 
 served three years, two-thirds of this time on the 
 famous United States gunboat Lexington. He was 
 surgeon of the Indianola when it was captured be- 
 low Vicksburg, and was in the hands of the rebels 
 for three months, acting as surgeon in one of their 
 hospitals at Vicksburg. 
 
 In October, 1865, Dr. Mixer located at New 
 Hampton, the seat of justice of Chickasaw county, 
 Iowa, where he is still found, the leading practi- 
 tioner of the village and the county. His experi- 
 ence during the war was of great service to him, 
 and he has an excellent and well-merited reputation 
 both as a surgeon and general practitioner. His 
 consulting business far exceeds that of any other 
 physician in this part of the state. His rides ex- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 tend into adjoining counties. The doctor is quite 
 public-spirited, and interests himself in matters out- 
 side of his profession, though he has not much time 
 to attend to them. He is descended from a long 
 line of farmers, and is himself a lover of agricultural 
 pursuits. He has been president of the Chickasaw 
 County Agricultural Society several years, and has 
 done very much to develop the resources of the 
 county of his adoption. He has had, from the start, 
 great faith in New Hampton, and has -aided es- 
 sentially its prosperity. He was twice elected mayor 
 of the city by a unanimous vote, and was very efifi- 
 cient as an executive officer. 
 
 Dr. Mixer is a republican in politics, but very in- 
 dependent ; is a member of the Masonic and Odd- 
 Fellovvs orders; a communicant in the Congrega- 
 
 tional church, and a man of unquestionec 
 of life. His intellectual and social qualities 
 cellent. 
 
 His wife was Miss Mary Phelps, of C 
 Ohio, their union taking place on the 6th 
 tember, 1854. She is a daughter of Judge 
 Phelps, many years an honored citizen of C 
 and a sister of Seth L. Phelps, twenty year; 
 United States navy, and now chairman of tl 
 missioners of the District of Columbia. S 
 christian woman, of most excellent mind anc 
 cultivated manners. 
 
 Dr. Mixer has light blue eyes, and a ligl 
 plexion ; is five feet and eight inches tall ; 
 two hundred and fifteen pounds, and has 
 usually good physique. 
 
 JOHN S. STACY, 
 
 AXAMOSA. 
 
 JUDGE STACY was born on the 13th of May, 
 J 1833, at De Kalb, St. Lawrence county. New 
 York. His parents were Pelatiah and Jerusha Tan- 
 ner Stacy. The paternal ancestors were from Mas- 
 sachusetts, thence to Otsego, New York, and his 
 grandfather was one of the first settlers in De Kalb. 
 His father served a short time in the war of 1812, at 
 Ogdensburgh. His maternal ancestors were settlers 
 in the vicinity of Cooperstown, New York, and the 
 remains of many of them rest in the cemetery in 
 that town. 
 
 In boyhood John Seeley Stacy had a great taste 
 for reading, but was accustomed to the hard work 
 of a farm, with only a few months at school each 
 year until he was sixteen, when he attended an 
 academy at Gouverneur, New York, there preparing 
 for college. He attended one term at Oberlin, Ohio, 
 then entered the sophomore class of Union College, 
 and graduated in 1857. It was during President 
 Nott's administration that Mr. Stacy was at Union 
 College, and his class recited to that great and good 
 man during the course, and was often addressed by 
 him. From a natural taste for engineering Mr. Stacy 
 pursued a partial course in it, under that eminent 
 and scholarly man, Professor Gillespie, using the 
 notes of several of the works which he afterward 
 published. 
 
 He taught school a few terms, studying law at the 
 same time and during vacations. Immigrating west- 
 
 ward, he spent a short time in teaching at 
 Bureau county, Illinois, and in the spring 1 
 located at Anamosa, Iowa. He entered 1 
 office of Hon. E. Cutler, and was admitted 
 bar in the autumn of the same year. He ai 
 an invitation to become a partner of Mr. 
 and the law firm of Cutler and Stacy comi 
 business on the 1st of January, 1859, which 
 nated in the autumn of 1862 by Mr. Cutler e 
 the military service. 
 
 In 1864 Mr. Stacy engaged in banking, in 1 
 tion with the practice of law, continuing u: 
 autumn of 1873, when the panic compelled 
 surrender. He was actively engaged in the 
 ing of the Iowa Midland railroad as at^orr 
 director. He was also president of the lo 
 Minnesota Railway Company, which had so 
 ceeded as to secure the preliminary negotia' 
 London for a loan that would doubtless have 1 
 in the success of the enterprise but for thi 
 just alluded to, which put a stop to a grea 
 important enterprises. Nothing but a deteni 
 on Mr. Stacy's part not to let the enterprise i 
 ried it as far as it went. Under the convicti 
 it was a practicable scheme and one that o 
 succeed, he risked largely, and lost. In 
 times it would have been otherwise, and h( 
 have had credit for sagacity and energy ir 
 ing forward a noble work to completion. 
 
326 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 In 1874 Mr. Stacy visited California, and spent 
 two months there. He returned to that state again 
 in 1875, and remained nearly two years, practicing 
 law with success in San Francisco. 
 
 Mr. Stacy was elected judge of Jones county in 
 1 861, and served one term. He has been repeatedly 
 invited to accept the candidacy for other offices, 
 but has uniformly declined. He was tendered the 
 office of state senator for Jones county about 1863, 
 but urged the nomination of his former partner, 
 Major Cutler, whom he aided in electing. 
 
 Judge Stacy has always been an ardent and active 
 republican, doing much more for the elevation of 
 others in office than for himself. He was a delegate 
 to the national convention which renominated Mr. 
 Lincoln in 1864, and was one of his most hearty 
 supporters. At one time he was offered the circuit 
 judgeship, but declined on account of the press of 
 duties. 
 
 In 1858, while in Dover, Illinois, Judge Stacy 
 united with the Congregational church, and on set- 
 
 tling in Iowa he transferred his membership to the 
 Anamosa church. He is an active christian worker, 
 and foremost in all philanthropic measures. 
 
 On the i6th of. November, 1862, he married Miss 
 Charlotte A. Kellogg, a daughter of Rev. E. W. Kel- 
 logg, who for forty years was a congregational min- 
 ister in Vermont. She is a lineal descendant of 
 William Bradford, second governor of the Plymouth 
 Colony; is a woman of fine mental culture and 
 exalted christian character, a worthy representative 
 of the best Puritan stock. She has three children, 
 who feel daily the moulding hand of a christian 
 mother. 
 
 Judge Stacy has always been strictly temperate in 
 his habits ; has in all respects taken the best care of 
 himself; is a little below the average height and 
 compactly built, and presents as fine a physique, 
 perhaps, as any man in Jones county. He is true 
 to his honest convictions, carries his conscience into 
 all his business, and belongs to the highest type of 
 American citizens. 
 
 WILLIAM M. WELLS, 
 
 OSKALOOSA. 
 
 WILLIAM MOBLEY WELLS was a native of 
 Abingdon, Washington county, Virginia, and 
 was born on the 8th of June, 1825, the son of An- 
 drew Wells and Mary n^e Mobley. His great-grand- 
 father was a sea captain. His grandfather, Richard 
 Wells, was stolen when a child, by his uncle, Dr. 
 George Wells, and taken from Pennsylvania to 
 Georgia. When sixteen years old he went with the 
 revolutionary soldiers to Virginia, and there settled 
 and engaged in farming. He died in Floyd county, 
 Kentucky, aged about sixty-three years. He mar- 
 ried Miss Eliza Huchinson. Dr. George Wells, liv- 
 ing in those days of chivalry, fought five duels, in 
 the last of which both he and his opponent fell. 
 
 The maternal grandparents of our subject were 
 William and Mary (Braughton) Mobley. His grand- 
 father was a Virginian farmer, and reared his family 
 in Washington county. He died in Jefferson county, 
 Iowa, in 1846, aged about ninety years. 
 
 His father, a gunsmith and whitesmith by occupa- 
 tion, died when William was two years old, leaving 
 him to the care of his mother, with whom he re- 
 mained until he was twelve years of age. Going 
 then to Kentucky, he lived with his uncle, John 
 
 Wells,' assisting him in his farm work, and attending 
 school. After five years he returned to Virginia, 
 and for a time attended a select school taught by 
 Mr. John Lowery. His purpose was to prepare for 
 college, but he afterward changed his plans, and in 
 1845 removed with his step-father, Henry Hite, to 
 Fairfield, Jefferson county, Iowa. There he worked 
 upon the farm about four years, and in 1849 began 
 clerking in a dry-goods store at Fairfield. In Decem- 
 ber of that year he accepted a clerkship in the dry- 
 goods store of Wise and Mathews, at Oskaloosa, re- 
 maining until March, 1852, when he formed a part- 
 nership with Dr. S. E. Reinhart, and conducted a drug 
 trade for one year, under the firm name of Wells 
 and Reinhart. The partnership then being dis- 
 solved, he conducted the business alone until March, 
 1862, when he formed a partnership with Mr. T. T. 
 Wright, which continued about seven years, the firm 
 name being Wells and Wright. He purchased his 
 partner's interest in 1869, and since that time has 
 conducted the business in his own name. 
 
 Being a man of fine executive ability, enterprising 
 and public-spirited, Mr. Wells has been called to 
 many positions of honor and trust. He has been 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 327 
 
 an earnest friend of education, and for a number of 
 years has been connected with the school board as 
 director and treasurer. For three years he was a 
 trustee of Oskaloosa College. Hfe served one year 
 as a member of the city council, and about ten 
 years as city treasurer. 
 
 In political sentiment, he was formerly a whig, 
 and is now a republican. 
 
 He has been especially active as a member of the 
 Masonic fraternity. He joined the order in 1852, 
 and has held nearly all of the minor offices. In 
 1864 he was grand king in the chapter; in 1865 he 
 served as deputy grand commander of the state, 
 and in 1866 received the thirty-second degree. In 
 1869 he was elected treasurer of the grand consis- 
 tory of the state, and is still serving in that capacity 
 (1876). In the fall of 1872 he was elected treasurer 
 of the grand chapter of the state, and served one 
 year. 
 
 About 1862 he began serving as high priest of 
 Hiram Chapter, No. 6, and continued in that office 
 for ten years. 
 
 He was especially active in the organization of 
 De Payens Commandery, and was largely instru- 
 mental in securing its location at Oskaloosa, and 
 has served as generalissimo of the same since its or- 
 ganization in 1865. In 1863 he was elected, for one 
 
 year, right illustrious grand master of the Grand 
 Council of Royal and Select Masters of the State of 
 Iowa, and has served two years in Oskaloosa Coun- 
 cil, No. 7, as most puissant grand master. 
 
 Mr. Wells has been for thirty-five years actively 
 connected with the Methodist church, and for fifteen 
 years has been a member of the board of trustees, 
 and has also served in other minor capacities. 
 
 He was married on the 7th of September, 1852, 
 to Miss Elvira A., daughter of James L. and Eliza 
 (Beeks) Hogin. 
 
 Of the seven children 'who have been born to 
 them, Leona T. was born on the 22d of June, 1853 ; 
 James H., born on the i6th of May, 1855, died on 
 the 7th of February, 1856 ; Charles L. was born on 
 the 7th of December, 1856; Mary E. was born on 
 the 14th of May, 1859 ; William A. was born on the 
 3tst of August, 1861; Edward M., on the 30th of 
 June, i8'64, and Leonard H., on the 6th of May, 
 1868. 
 
 In business, Mr. Wells has been eminently suc- 
 cessful, and in all his dealings has rigidly adhered 
 to the strictest principles of honor and uprightness. 
 
 He is a man of fine personal appearance, being 
 six feet and one-half inches in height, with dark hair 
 and eyes and a full flowing beard, and weighs one 
 hundred and fifty pounds. 
 
 JOHN M. PHILLIPS, 
 
 COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 THE life history of John Milton Phillips, while 
 it has many phases in common with that of 
 many other men, is yet marked by an individual- 
 ism, and has an identity peculiarly its own. He is 
 preeminently a self-made man, and by his own inde- 
 fatigable effort has risen from comparative obscurity 
 to a position of high standing among his fellow- 
 citizens. 
 
 A native of Rowley, Essex county, Massachusetts, 
 he was born on the 15th of March, 1820. His father 
 was a farmer by occupation, and in this same occu- 
 pation John passed his early life, receiving a com- 
 mon-school education. Finding farm life ill suited 
 to his tastes, he, while yet a boy, learned the shoe- 
 maker's trade, and later engaged in the manufacture 
 of shoes at Peabody, remaining there until 1858, 
 conducting at the same time a leather and shoe 
 store. 
 
 Meeting with fair success in his business enter- 
 prise, Mr. Phillips accumulated a small capital, and 
 with a view of improving his financial condition re- 
 moved to the west, and after a long and somewhat 
 tedious journey and considerable prospecting, finally 
 selected Council Bluffs, Iowa, as his future home, 
 and established himself in business at that place. 
 His business career has been one of success, and by 
 fair dealing and persistent and honorable effort he 
 has accumulated a liberal competence. His is now 
 (1877) the oldest business in Council Bluffs, and he 
 is the oldest merchant in that city. 
 
 In all his intercourse with his fellow-citizens Mr. 
 Phillips has maintained a regard for uprightness and 
 for generous and fair dealing that has given to him 
 a character and reputation of the highest standing 
 and secured to him the unlimited confidence of all 
 with whom he has had to do ; and in consideration 
 
328 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 of his fitness for official positions he has been made 
 the recipient of various trusts and honors at the 
 hands of his fellow-citizens. In i86o he was elected 
 alderman, and was continued in that office during a 
 period of ten years. 
 
 In public enterprises, and matters pertaining to 
 the growth and welfare of the city, he has taken an 
 active interest, and to his executive ability and good 
 judgment is largely due much of her prosperity. 
 During the time the court-house was building he 
 was chairman of the building committee. He is 
 actively connected with the paper-mill and a stock- 
 
 holder of the same. With a view to encouraging 
 manufacture, he formed one of a company which 
 erected the building used for the manufacture of 
 agricultural implements, a building which was after- 
 ward destroyed by fire. 
 
 At the present time Mr. Phillips is vice-president 
 of the Council Bluffs Savings Bank. 
 
 On the 4th of December, 1845, he was married to 
 Miss Olive N. Cressey, of Rowley, Massachusetts, 
 and by her has three sons and three daughters. 
 Mrs. Phillips is a lady of intelligence, and to her 
 influence is due much of her husband's success. 
 
 BENJAMIN F. MONTGOMERY, 
 
 COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch, a native of Berlin, 
 Huron county, Ohio, was born on the 28th of 
 February, 1835, the son of Abel Montgomery and 
 Sarah ne'e Burgett. His, father, who is still living at 
 the age of eighty-six years, was formerly a black- 
 smith by trade, but for the most part followed the 
 occupation of farming. He had a family of nine 
 sons and three daughters, of whom five sons and one 
 daughter are now living. Of these, our subject is 
 the youngest son living. His paternal grandfather 
 immigrated from Virginia in 1801, and settled on 
 the present site of Olivesburgh, in Richland county, 
 Ohio. 
 
 Benjamin's purpose was to pursue a regular course 
 of college studies, and preparatory to this, after 
 closing his studies in the district schools, he spent 
 one year in the higher department of the union 
 schools of Ashland, Ohio. However, before he was 
 prepared to enter college his plans were broken up 
 by the financial embarrassments of his father, and 
 he was thrown wholly upon his own resources. He 
 subsequently engaged in teaching until 1857, and 
 contributed liberally to the support of his parents. 
 Although his early life was mainly spent in hard 
 physical labor, he had an ardent longing for mental 
 improvement, and early determined that he would 
 devote his life to the legal profession. With such a 
 purpose in view, he turned his attention toward the 
 study of law, and was admitted to the bar by the 
 supreme court at Columbus, Ohio. 
 
 After beginning life for himself, he settled at 
 London, Ohio; but leaving that place in i860, he 
 established himself in the practice of his profession 
 
 at La Crosse, Wisconsin. He continued there with 
 good success until 1868, when he removed to his 
 present home in Council Bluffs, Iowa. He soon 
 afterward connected himself with the " Daily Times," 
 and continued its political editor for four years, and 
 at the same time attended to the duties of his pro- 
 fession. 
 
 Mr. Montgomery has never confined himself ex- 
 clusively to the practice of law, but since 1856 has 
 been to a greater or less extent engaged in political 
 matters. In political sentiment, he has always been 
 a democrat, but he has never allowed party preju- 
 dices to bias him. He supported Abraham Lin- 
 coln for the presidency, and during the civil war 
 warmly supported the Union cause. In 1866, while 
 a resident of Wisconsin, he was a candidate from 
 La Crosse county for the state legislature. His 
 opponet was the Hon. Mr. Cameron, now United 
 States senator, who was elected by a small majority. 
 During the administration of Andrew Johnson he 
 held the office of receiver of public moneys at La 
 Crosse. In 1872 he was the democratic candidate 
 for congress from the fifth district of Iowa, against 
 F. W. Palmer, now postmaster at Chicago, but the 
 district being largely republican, defeat was, of 
 course, inevitable. In the fall of 1875 he was de- 
 feated for the office of state senator by a majority of 
 ninety votes in favor of Hon. George F. Wright, the 
 present incumbent. He was a district delegate in 
 1872 to the Baltimore convention which nominated 
 Horace Greeley for the presidency, and again in 
 1876 was one of the four delegates at large from 
 Iowa to the St. Louis convention which nominated 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 329 
 
 Messrs. Tilden and Hendricks, and was appointed a 
 member of the committee from Iowa to inform the 
 candidates of the action of the convention. 
 
 In local enterprises, Mr. Montgomery has been an 
 active participant. In the winter of 1874-75 he was 
 president of a joint delegation from different points 
 in the Missouri valley, whose purpose was to visit 
 the State of Texas with a view to opening traded 
 relations, and thus reaching the sea- coast through 
 that section. The enterprise has proved a success, 
 and resulted in much trade being directed through 
 that channel. 
 
 Throughout his varied career Mr. Montgomery 
 has maintained a high character, and as a lawyer 
 has attained to an honorable standing among his 
 fellow-practitioners. His desire, however, during 
 recent years has been to retire from his profession 
 
 and from public life, and devote his time and atten- 
 tion to stock raising. 
 
 In his religious training, he was brought under 
 Presbyterian influences during his early life. Upon 
 attaining to manhood, however, he espoused more 
 liberal views, and now his religious sentiments are 
 more nearly allied to those of Unitarianism than to 
 any other creed. 
 
 Mr. Montgomery was married in the fall of 1857 
 to Miss Edetha Riddle, at Mitford, Union county, 
 Ohio. Mrs. Montgomery was a devoted wife and 
 mother, and contributed no small amount to the 
 success of her husband, and her death, which oc- 
 curred on the ist of Januar)', 1865, was mourned by 
 a very large circle of friends. Of the two sons who 
 were born to them the elder is now eighteen and the 
 younger sixteen years of age. 
 
 DAVID JOYCE, 
 
 L TONS. 
 
 DAVID JOYCE, lumber merchant and capitalist, 
 was born in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, 
 on the 26th of February, 1825. He is the son of 
 John D. and Jerusha Jones Joyce, and came of the 
 old Puritanical stock of New England. His father 
 was an enterprising and successful business man, 
 engaged in conducting a blast furnace, foundry and 
 machine shop. His mother was a lady of great moral 
 worth, of amiable disposition and benevolent char- 
 acter. His paternal grandfather was a soldier in 
 the revolutionary war, throughout its entire dura- 
 tion, and in his day was highly, esteemed for his in- 
 tegrity of character and exalted patriotism. 
 
 The subject of this sketch had only the usual 
 advantages of education presented by our common 
 schools, and at the age of fifteen assumed the entire 
 charge and control of the books in the office of 
 his father's extensive business. His tastes being 
 decidedly mathematical as well as mechanical, he 
 acquired a knowledge of the machine and foundry 
 business during his minority in his father's establish- 
 ment. The science of mathematics being his favor- 
 ite study, he pursued unaided and unassisted its 
 several branches, and having constructed with his 
 own liands the necessary instruments, became one 
 of the best practical sur\eyors in that region, and 
 enjoyed the reputation of a first-class expert in civil 
 engineering. On attaining his majority he con- 
 33 
 
 tinned his connection with his father without any 
 definite understanding or arrangement, taking an 
 active part in all his business transactions until he 
 was thirty years of age. In 1848 he had embarked 
 in the mercantile business, and though still retain- 
 ing his connection with the parental establishment, 
 devoted himself almost exclusively to his mercantile 
 enterprise. In 1857 he purchased his father's entire 
 business, united all the various departments under 
 one head, and continued in charge of the same till 
 i860. 
 
 In the fall of the same year, having disposed of 
 all his mercantile and manufacturing interests east, 
 and believing that the west afforded better facilities 
 for a business man, he decided to migrate thither ; 
 and after casting his vote for Abraham Lincoln, 
 he departed the same day for Lyons, Iowa. The 
 first two years after his arrival he devoted largely 
 to dealing and operating in live stock, principally 
 in buying and fatting cattle for market. In 1861 
 he embarked in the lumber business, having in- 
 vested in the property known as the " Stumbaugh 
 Mill," holding it for the time being as mortgagee, 
 and afterward purchaser. Here he took his first 
 lessons in that business, which afterward he has so 
 extensively and successfully carried on. This estab- 
 lishment is now one of the most extensive of its 
 kind in Iowa, manufacturing over ten million feet 
 
330 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 of lumber annually, and giving employment to up- 
 ward of eighty-five men the year round. A con- 
 siderable portion of the timber used is cut on lands 
 belonging to the firm, which affords employment 
 to many men during the winter. The entire estab- 
 lishment, including saw-mill as well as door, sash 
 and planing departments, cover an area of four 
 blocks of ground. Besides his regular business, he 
 is a director and large stockholder in the largest 
 bank in the county, located at Lyons, and has been 
 one of its most efficient officers since the second 
 year of its organization, contributing largely by his 
 energy and judgment to its success. He took the 
 first five-twenty bonds issued by the government 
 that came to Lyons, and by his personal character, 
 material aid and influence, greatly advanced the 
 interests of the national cause. A public-spirited 
 citizen, he has ever taken an active interest in every 
 improvement calculated to benefit his community. 
 His contributions for church edifices and the sup- 
 port of religious institutions exceed in the aggregate 
 five thousand dollars during the past few years. 
 He was president of the board of trustees of the 
 Lyons Female College while it was under the super- 
 vision of the Presbyterian church, besides taking an 
 active interest in the public common schools in his 
 vicinity. He was the most liberal subscriber for 
 the Lyons Masonic Temple, and was president of 
 the joint stock company and chairman of the build- 
 
 ing committee during its erection, although not a 
 member of that fraternity. He organized and con- 
 structed the horse railroad between Lyons and 
 Clinton, and has been its principal stockholder and 
 president of the company since its organization. 
 He was for the first three years of its existence 
 president of the Citizens' Association, the object of 
 which is to build up manufactures and to assist 
 strangers coming to the neighborhood in selecting 
 judicious localities, and in every laudable way to 
 adva,nce the general interests of the town. With 
 his employes he is very popular, and takes much 
 interest in their general welfare. Many young men 
 in his employ have been raised by him from menial 
 occupations to those of trust and responsibility. 
 
 Although constitutionally adverse to office, he has 
 held several public positions, having been elected 
 mayor of the city of Lyons without one dissenting 
 vote. 
 
 He has always been closely identified with the 
 republican party in this state, vindicating its prin- 
 ciples, and a firm advocate of its institutions. 
 
 In his dealings, being always prompt, he has ac- 
 quired a reputation for financial ability and business 
 capacity unsurpassed by any one in his locality. 
 
 He married Elizabeth F. Thomas, of Genesee 
 county. New York, in 1858. Himself, wife and one 
 child only, a son, are the sole surviving members 
 of his family. 
 
 HORACE S. WEISER, 
 
 DBCORAH. 
 
 AMONG the early settlers and most valued 
 L citizens of Decorah was Horace Spangler 
 Weiser, deceased, who was a native of Pennsyl- 
 vania, being born at York, on the 22d of October, 
 1827. His parents were Charles Weiser, merchant 
 and banker, and Anna Spangler Weiser, daughter 
 of General Spangler, a prominent citizen of Penn- 
 sylvania fifty years ago. 
 
 The subject of this sketch had excellent oppor- 
 tunities for mental culture when young; fitted for 
 college at New Haven, Connecticut, he entered Yale 
 in September, 1845, but was obliged to leave before 
 completing his graduating course on account of poor 
 health. 
 
 Horace studied law in his native town in 1850 
 and 185 1; was admitted to the bar at York, and 
 
 began practice there in 1852. He was a reader of 
 the newspapers, became interested in the prospects 
 of the young country beyond the Mississippi, made 
 a trip to Iowa, was pleased with the opening which 
 Decorah, Winneshiek county, presented, and here 
 located in 1855. He immediately established a 
 private bank, united with it the business of real 
 estate, and continued both branches until his de- 
 mise. The Winneshiek County Bank, which he 
 started, and which became so popular and so emi- 
 nently successful under his management, is still 
 in operation, and is said to be the oldest bank con- 
 tinuing under the same name in the state. In his 
 business, to which he gave his undivided attention, 
 Mr. Weiser was very accommodating ; he would often 
 long before regular hours open his bank, and re- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 333 
 
 open after hours if by so doing he could oblige any 
 person. Few people were ever more attentive to 
 their calling, or more punctual and prompt in the 
 discharge of obligations. So wedded was he to 
 business, that he paid little attention to politics 
 except to vote, and more than once refused to ac- 
 cept office. He acted with the democrats until the 
 rebellion broke out, after that with the republicans. 
 
 He was a member of the blue lodge in the Ma- 
 sonic fraternity, but rarely met with the order. 
 
 Mr. Weiser was a communicant in the Protestant 
 Episcopal church, and much of the time an officer 
 in that body, and maintained an unblemished and 
 exalted christian character. 
 
 On the 14th of July, 1859, he was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Louise M. Amy, daughter of John 
 and Cynthia (Smalley) Amy, of Fort Atkinson, Iowa. 
 She has three children : Amy Spangler, aged fifteen ; 
 Charles J., aged twelve, and Anna Louise, aged seven, 
 all bright and promising children. They became 
 
 fatherless on the 19th of July, 1875, while their 
 mother was absent from the state. Though not in 
 good health for three or four years, Mr. Weiser was 
 as well as usual that day, was quite cheerful in the 
 evening, retired at a late hour, and soon afterward 
 was found dead in his bed, the cause supposed to 
 be apoplexy. 
 
 Mr. Weiser early identified himself with the in- 
 terests of his beautiful Iowa home, took pride in 
 the growth and material progress of the place, now 
 a city of nearly five thousand inhabitants, and lent 
 his aid in every enterprise tending to develop the 
 wealth of the county. Few men more public- 
 spirited ever lived in Winneshiek county, and no 
 man here ever accumulated such a fortune. He 
 was thoughtful and considerate, lenient toward his 
 debtors, never taking advantage of their necessities; 
 heedful of the wants of the poor and destitute ; 
 kindly in his feelings toward all ; social and cheer- 
 ful in disposition. 
 
 EDWARD RUSSELL, 
 
 DAVENPORT. 
 
 AMONG the successful men of Iowa may fairly 
 . be placed the name of Edward Russell, Suc- 
 cess brings honor in every honest occupation, and 
 where is it better earned than by the earnest, honest 
 journalist and editor? 
 
 Edward Russell was born in London, England, on 
 the 6th of October, 1830. His parents, William and 
 Elizabeth Russell, were from good Scotch families, 
 and were both eminent in their circle for earnest 
 religious faith and activity in christian labor. His 
 father was an early adherent of the temperance 
 cause, and prominent in its advocacy among English 
 reformers, and was for several years the secretary of 
 the order of Rechabites, a temperance secret and 
 benevolent organization, strong in numbers and in- 
 fluence. From them Mr. Russell very early received 
 religious impressions, and the steadfastness of his 
 convictions, which is one of his strongest character- 
 istics, is largely due to the influence of the examples 
 and teaching he received during his youth. 
 
 His early education was obtained in England, at 
 the grammar school in London, and at Hill House 
 Academy, in Northamptonshire; subsequently only 
 such as could be obtained from evening and home 
 studies in New York and elsewhere in the United 
 
 States. He developed early a taste for solid read- 
 ing, was studious, and much interested in politics 
 and public affairs. His father's family removed to 
 the United States in September, 1845, and from 
 financial reverses which his father met with soon 
 after their arrival he was under the necessity of 
 laboring in aid of the support of the family. All of 
 his earnings up to the day he was twenty-one were 
 given to his father. After leaving school he engaged 
 as errand boy in a store, and after a short service 
 was apprenticed to a carpenter and joiner, on his 
 own choice. In the fall of 1847, his father having 
 bought a tract of native forest land in Callicoon, 
 Sullivan county, New York, he removed with them 
 there, with the intention to help make a farm there- 
 on. He assisted until March, 1848, aiding in build- 
 ing a small house and the clearing off of several 
 acres of land, when he went to New York, and be- 
 gan to travel through several states, selling goods as 
 a peddler for a mercantile house in that city. Al- 
 though young he was very successful, and gained 
 much knowledge of localities and men, and an 
 experience very useful in after life. Continuing his 
 travels he turned westward, and first placed foot on 
 Iowa soil on the 7th of September, 1848, at Le 
 
334 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 Claire, Scott county, with the purpose of visiting an 
 old friend of his father's, Rev. W. Rutledge, having 
 been joined on his way there by his father and 
 younger brother. They were so well pleased with 
 the state that they resolved to make it their home. 
 To this end the New York land was sold, and the 
 family removed to Le Claire. After working a few 
 months on the farm he returned to his trade, and 
 continued, with a single intermission, until the fall 
 of 1858. About seven months were spent in 1850 
 in traveling through south and west. This added 
 greatly to his stock of experience and information. 
 He was much interested in the active discussions 
 of political affairs, resulting from the repeal of the 
 Missouri compromise in 1844 and 1845, and this led 
 to his first contribution to the press, which appeared 
 in the columns of the Iowa "True Democrat," 
 an anti-slavery paper then published at Mount 
 Pleasant, Iowa, after which he was a frequent con- 
 tributor to the " National Era," the anti-slavery 
 paper of Washington, District of Columbia. Mean- 
 while he labored at his trade by day, studying and 
 writing at night. In 1856 he- began to write for the 
 Davenport " Gazette," first as correspondent, then 
 as contributor of political articles, both over the 
 nom de plume of "Agricola." In 1859 and i860 he 
 began and continued to be an occasional contribu- 
 tor of editorial political articles for the same paper. 
 In the fall of 1858, on urgent request of friends, he 
 assumed his first editorial position as editor of the 
 Le Claire " Express," which was soon changed to Le 
 Claire "Republic." This he left in 1859, on finding 
 that the enterprise did not pay, and returned to his 
 trade. In November, 1859, he removed to Daven- 
 port, and took a position as clerk in the office of the 
 county recorder, remaining till the ist of May, 1861, 
 when he was appointed assistant postmaster at Dav- 
 enport, which office he resigned in September, 1862, 
 and became editor and one of the proprietors of the 
 Davenport daily and weekly "Gazette." In August, 
 1871, by advice of his physician, and in consequence 
 of nervous prostration and threatened congestion of 
 the brain resulting from excessive labor, he sold his 
 interest in the " Gazette," and retired from the edi- 
 torship, but resumed this relation on the 4th of 
 November, 1875, by repurchase of his former inter- 
 est in the "Gazette." He held the position of assist- 
 ant postmaster from the ist of May, 1861, till the 
 31st of August, 1862; was appointed postmaster and 
 entered upon the duties of the oifice on the ist of 
 May, 1864, from which position he was removed by 
 
 President Johnson, for political offenses, in October, 
 1865. He was the first official in the United States 
 removed by Johnson on political grounds. The 
 reason of his removal was that he had gained prom- 
 inence as a radical republican, by early taking 
 ground against Johnson's reconstruction policy, the 
 "Gazette" being the first paper in the west to do so, 
 and by introducing into and carrying through the 
 Iowa republican convention of 1865 what was known 
 as the negro-suffrage amendment to the fourth reso- 
 lution of the platform. This occasioned much dis- 
 cussion in the party at the time. He was appointed 
 postmaster by General Grant, taking the office on 
 the ist of May, 1869, and was again appointed four 
 years thereafter. He is secretary of the county re- 
 publican organization, formed through his efforts in 
 the years i860 and 1861. 
 
 He is an earnest worker in the Sabbath-school 
 cause, and was president of the Sunday School Union 
 from 1865 to 1871, as also president of Scott County 
 Sunday School Association in 187 1, which office he 
 still holds, and has been for three years treasurer of 
 the Scott County Bible Society. He has perhaps 
 done more in the aid of the Young Men's Christian 
 Association in Iowa than any other one man in the 
 state. He was president of the Davenport Young 
 Men's Christian Association in 1873, 1874 and 1875, 
 and of the State Young Men's Christian Association 
 in 1874 and 1875. He is now chairman of the state 
 executive committee, and the corresponding member 
 for Iowa of the National Young Men's Christian 
 Association. He has been superintendent of the 
 sabbath schools most of the time since 1856, and is 
 at present superintendent of the Bethlehem Sunday 
 School. 
 
 He is a member of the Masonic order, having 
 joined in 1865 ; also a member of the Sons of Tem- 
 perance. 
 
 Mr. Russell has ever been prominent in the ad- 
 vancement of all enterprises for the benefit of the 
 city and country. He is a member of the board of 
 trade, and very active therein. 
 
 He is a member of and an elder in the Presby- 
 terian church, although he . was educated in the 
 Congregational church, and was a member thereof 
 from 185 1 to 1872. He is a firm believer in evan- 
 gelical Christianity. 
 
 He was raised in the republican school of politics, 
 has always been a radical anti-slavery man, an abo- 
 litionist and opponent to caste, and is now president 
 of the county republican organization. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 335 
 
 In 1868 he made a short visit to Europe for his 
 health, visiting many points of interest. 
 
 He was married in April, 1852, to Miss Lydia R. 
 Rutledge, daughter of Rev. W. Rutledge. 
 
 Mr. Russell stands high as an editor, a very useful 
 and respected citizen, and one of the most promi- 
 nent of those who helped build up the press of the 
 
 great west. He has pursued his chosen course with 
 untiring zeal, and with a success which has already 
 earned for him no inferior rank among the editors 
 of the country. The growing prosperity of the 
 paper over which he presides, and the prominent 
 position into which it has sprung, might satisfy any 
 ordinary ambition. 
 
 JOHN S. DAVIS, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 A MONG the enterprising manufacturers of the 
 £\. northwest we find the name which heads this 
 sketch. John S. Davis occupies a prominent posi- 
 tion and has taken an active part in the mercantile 
 community of Davenport for the past twenty years. 
 He has worked shoulder to shoulder with other 
 public-spirited citizens in various enterprises for the 
 development of the city and country. 
 
 He was born in Gloucester county. New Jersey, 
 on the i2th of November, 1816, and is son of Charles 
 and Mary Davis nSe Fisher, both natives of that 
 state. He commenced life as a farm boy, and was 
 reared, as boys of that day were, to habits of econ- 
 omy and industry. His opportunities for education 
 were limited, confined as they were to the common 
 schools and the ordinary branches. After leaving 
 school in 1838 he went to Cincinnati, engaging in 
 the store of William Resor, manufacturer of stoves, 
 where he remained till 1855, when he removed to 
 Indianapolis, Indiana, and engaged in the leather 
 business, under the firm name of Fishback and Da- 
 vis. He continued there only one year, when he 
 sold out and removed to Davenport, Iowa, and es- 
 tablished the firm of Davis, Watson and Co., manu- 
 
 facturers of threshing machines and agricultural im- 
 plements. This firm was very successful, building 
 up for themselves an enviable name as manufact- 
 urers. In 1864 Mr. Davis took the business in his 
 own hands, and has continued the same to this time. 
 Much of his success may be attributed to his habits 
 of industry, perseverance and business energy, which 
 have acquired for him a competence. Notwithstand- 
 ing his success, he gives his personal attention to 
 the superintendence of his works. 
 
 He is not a member of any church, though brought 
 up in the Methodist faith. 
 
 He was educated in the republican school of pol- 
 itics, although never taking any active part in polit- 
 ical matters. 
 
 He was married on the 24th of February, 1848, 
 to Miss Eliza J. Hasselman, daughter of Lewis Has- 
 selman, Esq., a prominent manufacturer at Miamis- 
 burgh, Ohio. 
 
 Mr. Davis is emphatically a self-made man. Com- 
 mencing life in straitened circumstances, by his own 
 energy and perseverance he has made for himself an 
 honored name, and gained the confidence and es- 
 teem of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 SAMUEL H. SHOEMAKER, 
 
 DB WITT. 
 
 THE present postmaster at De Witt is a fair 
 representative of the Iowa journalists who have 
 had a printing-office education. He never went to 
 school a day after he was sixteen years old, and 
 when he joined the list of compositors he took little 
 with him but good moral habits, and a settled deter- 
 mination to succeed in his new undertaking, if faith- 
 fulness and industry would do it. He began aright, 
 and his course has led on steadily to success. 
 
 Samuel Henry Shoemaker, son of Samuel and 
 Sarah Long Shoemaker, is a native of the Empire 
 State, and was born at Millport, Chemung county, 
 on the 19th of July, 1840. The Shoemakers are a 
 patriotic race, some of them having fought against 
 the mother country in both wars. Two uncles were 
 taken prisoners by the British in 181 2-15. In 1847 
 Samuel Shoemaker moved with his family to Will 
 county, Illinois, and settled on Rock creek, where 
 
336 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY 
 
 he died the next year. Left with a family of seven 
 children, the widow removed to Joliet in order to 
 obtain better school privileges. Three years later 
 she removed to Monmouth, where she married 
 Judge Daniel McNeil. 
 
 In 1853 Samuel cameto De Witt with the family, 
 and in 1856 entered the office of the De Witt 
 " Clintonian," O. C. Bates, editor and proprietor, 
 remaining there two years. With slight interrup- 
 tions, he worked at printing until the rebellion broke 
 out, enlisting three days after the president's first 
 call, in a company whose services were not then re- 
 quired. In June, 1862, he again enlisted, this time 
 in the i8th Iowa Infantry, going to the front two 
 months later as second sergeant in company A, and 
 returning the following January completely broken 
 down in health. It was a long year before he recov- 
 ered sufficiently to resume business. 
 
 In July, 1864, he started the "Observer," an out- 
 spoken republican paper, of which he is still the 
 editor and proprietor. It is a good county as well 
 as political paper, looks well to all local interests, 
 and has a good support. Thoroughly appreciating 
 his services to the national administration, in 1872 
 President Grant appointed Mr. Shoemaker postmas- 
 ter, and so faithfully did he discharge his duties that 
 at the end of four years he was reappointed for an- 
 other term, which he is now serving. He is and 
 always has been very industrious, and both as post- 
 master and newspaper conductor gives excellent 
 satisfaction. He is a member of the Ancient Order 
 of United Workmen, and of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal church. 
 
 He has a wife and two children, a son and daugh- 
 ter, having married Miss Rette Ferree, of De Witt, 
 on the 4th of September, 1866. 
 
 HON. GEORGE F. WRIGHT, 
 
 COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 GEORGE F. WRIGHT stands prominent among 
 the leading lawyers of Iowa ; his firm pur- 
 pose from the beginning of his legal career has 
 been to honor his profession ; and his success in 
 this regard is best attested by the high esteem in 
 which he is held by the members of the bar. 
 
 He is a native of the town of Warren, Washing- 
 ton county, Vermont, and was born on the 5th of De- 
 cember, 1833. His father, Franklin A. Wright, of 
 English descent, was a farmer by occupation, and a 
 man of decided character, who exerted no small 
 amount of influence in the community where he 
 lived. 
 
 George received a good academic education, and 
 designed to pursue a course of collegiate studies. At 
 the age of seventeen, however, he engaged in teach- 
 ing, and continued that vocation for four years; 
 at the expiration of that time, in the spring of 1855, 
 he settled in Keosauqua, Van Buren county, Iowa, 
 and there began the study of law in the office of 
 Messrs. Knapp and Wright. He was admitted to 
 the bar in 1856, and became a partner in the firm 
 with whom he had studied, taking the place of Mr. 
 George G. Wright, who retired from the firm for 
 the purpose of assuming his duties on the bench 
 of the supreme court of Iowa. 
 
 Continuing in practice at Keosauqua until 1868, 
 
 with good success, Mr. Wright then removed to 
 Council Bluffs, his present home, and resumed his 
 profession as a partner with Judge Caleb Baldwin, 
 whose sketch appears in another part of this volume. 
 This partnership continued until the death of Judge 
 Baldwin, which occurred in the winter of 1876, and 
 since that time until the present (1877) Mr. Wright 
 has conducted the business in his own name. 
 
 During the said partnership connection Messrs. 
 Baldwin and Wright acted as attorneys for the Chi- 
 cago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad, and also 
 for the Burlington and Missouri, and the Union 
 Pacific railroads. His fellow-citizens recognizing 
 in Mr. Wright a peculiar fitness for official positions, 
 have honored him with various responsible trusts. 
 
 While a resident of Keosauqua he was solicited 
 to become a candidate for the legislature, but by 
 reason of business engagements was compelled to 
 decline the honor. In the year 1874 he was elected 
 to represent in the state senate the district compris- 
 ing Mills and Pottawattamie counties, for a term of 
 four years. In public enterprises he has been espe- 
 cially active, and has been instrumental in organ- 
 izing several corporations of prominence in the state, 
 being owner of a large portion of their stock, and 
 acting as their attorney. 
 
 Among these may be mentioned the Broadway 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Street Railway Company, of Council Bluffs, organ- 
 ized in July, 1868; the Council Bluffs Gas Light 
 Company; the OttumwaGas Light Company, organ- 
 ized in October, 187 1; the Mount Pleasant Gas 
 Light Company; the Elgin Gas Light Company, 
 organized in November, 1871; the Cedar Rapids 
 Gas Light Company, organized in January, 1872; 
 and the Sioux City Gas Light Company, which he 
 organized on the 22d of February, 1872. 
 
 While in the state senate he acted a prominent 
 part, and to his efforts is due the securing of the 
 appropriation for building the west wing of the insti- 
 tution for the deaf and dumb at Council Blufls. 
 
 During the civil war he rendered very efficient 
 
 service to the state in raising troops, and through 
 his efforts the necessity of a draft in Van Buren 
 county was prevented. Upon the first call for 
 volunteers by President Lincoln he was commis- 
 sioned by Governor Kirkwood, and, raising a com- 
 pany, repaired to the rendezvous ; but the call being 
 already filled, his company was disbanded. 
 
 Personally, Mr. Wright is a man of admirable 
 qualities, and possessing a wide range of experience 
 and fine conversational powers, is a most excellent 
 social companion. 
 
 He was married in 1865, to Miss Ellen E. Brooks, 
 of Northfield, Vermont, and by her has two sons and 
 two daughters. 
 
 GEORGE H. WRIGHT, 
 
 SIOUX CITY. 
 
 IF there is a self-made man in Iowa it is the pres- 
 ent register of the land office at Sioux City. He 
 never spent three weeks in a school-room, yet suffi- 
 ciently improved his mind as to be deemed worthy 
 of a place in the councils of the state of his adop- 
 tion and an important office under the United States 
 government. It was not his fault that he had no 
 school education. Even as late as his nineteenth 
 year he entered an academy in Livingston county. 
 New York, but the very first day he was taken sick 
 and remained so until the end of the winter term, 
 when, being a sailor, his services were required on 
 the lakes. What education he has he picked up at 
 odd intervals, both on the land and water. 
 
 George Henry Wright was born on the 3d of No- 
 vember, 1829, in Troy, New York, his parents being 
 Allen M. and Abigail Valentine Wright. He lost 
 his father when four years old. A few years later 
 his mother married Daniel Morgan, and the whole 
 family went, in 1838, to Black Rock, now a part of 
 Buffalo. In 1843 the family moved to Grand Island. 
 George worked with his step-father at the cooper's 
 trade from eleven to fifteen years of age, but did not 
 like the business, and went on the Niagara river and 
 subsequently on the lakes, starting as a wheelsman 
 on the steamboat Commerce, running on the river, 
 and working his way up to the master of a vessel on 
 the lakes at twenty-one. 
 
 Mr. Wright piloted the first vessel that went into 
 the port of Tonawanda, the top-gallant-rig schooner 
 Hudson, owned by Wlnslow and Co., of Cleveland, 
 
 Ohio. • During his sailor life he had some dangerous 
 adventures. In the spring of 1857 he swamped his 
 vessel off Buffalo in a fearful squall. His wife was 
 with him with an infant son, and for twenty minutes 
 he held- to a ring-bolt with his left hand and to his 
 wife with. the right hand, she, meanwhile, holding 
 the child in her arms, with the sea rolling over them 
 all the time. 
 
 Two years later the steam-tug Jenny Lynd was 
 wrecked in the Niagara rapids between Chippewa 
 and the head of Goat Island, and Mr. Wright was 
 persuaded by her owner to superintend the perilous 
 work of taking her off. It required a man of much 
 aquatic experience and strong nerve to do it. Mr. 
 Wright succeeded in two days, sleeping one night on 
 the wreck with the waves foaming round him. He 
 received two hundred dollars for his two days' work. 
 
 Like landsmen, sailors have their financial ship- 
 wrecks. In the summer of 1857 Mr. Wright had 
 seven thousand dollars, all of his own earnings, in- 
 vested in the Lake Navigation Company, and the 
 hurricane of that season sank every dollar of it. 
 
 In July, 1859, Mr. Wright removed to the west, 
 spending one year in Wisconsin, three years in Des 
 Moines and Fort Dodge, Iowa, and eight years at 
 Grant City, Sac county. He sold fruit trees and 
 agricultural implements at Des Moines, bought furs 
 at Fort Dodge, and sold goods and built and oper- 
 ated a flouring mill at Grant City. He was also an 
 internal revenue assessor in Sac county in 1868 and 
 1869. 
 
338 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTION ART. 
 
 On the i2th of July, 1871, he came to Sioux City 
 under appointment of the United States government, 
 and one week afterward assumed the duties of reg- 
 ister of the land office. He has proved himself so 
 competent and faithful an officer, so prompt and en- 
 ergetic, that he is now holding under a second ap- 
 pointment. 
 
 Mr. Wright was a member of the lower house of 
 the general assembly during the thirteenth session, 
 1870, representing Sac, Beuna Vista, Cherokee and 
 Clay counties; acted on five committees, and was 
 chairman of the committee on domestic manufac- 
 tures. He aided in drafting the herd law, and the 
 best powers of his active mind were used while in 
 the legislative body. 
 
 A democrat until 1855, he has since voted with 
 the republicans. He is connected with no church. 
 
 Mr. Wright is a prominent member of the Ma- 
 sonic order, having taken thirty-two' degrees. 
 
 On the 24th of October, 1854, Mr. Wright took to 
 wife Miss Sarah Smith, of Penfield, New York, and 
 they have six children. He is giving them a good 
 education. 
 
 Mr. Wright has quite a taste for numismatics, and 
 has gathered more than a thousand pieces of coin, no 
 two of them alike. He has several coins older than the 
 christian era. One of them is Roman, representing 
 Romulus and Remus suckled by the wolf This 
 coin was found by an officer in the French army, 
 George Scheuster, now a resident of Sioux City. 
 He presented it to Mr. Wright. The subject of this 
 sketch has also a fine collection of postage stamps, 
 gathered from more than a hundred and twenty-five 
 nations and provinces. He has also a great many 
 stuffed birds, common to the Missouri valley, col- 
 lected, however, mainly by his boys. He likes to 
 encourage them in any pursuit that will enlarge 
 their knowledge. 
 
 He cultivates fruit and has an extensive nursery, 
 giving the few leisure hours at his command, at cer- 
 tain seasons of the year, to horticultural pursuits. 
 He is a busy man. He started out for himself a 
 little more than thirty years ago, with twenty-five 
 cents in his pocket, and not even the education 
 of experience, and to-day has a competency and 
 stands among the honored men of the state. 
 
 MYRON UNERWOOD, M.D., 
 
 ELDORA . 
 
 AMONG the thoroughly educated physicians of 
 /\. Hardin county, Iowa, and one whose life 
 record is second in purity to none in that section, 
 is Myron Underwood, a native of Ohio. He was 
 born at Montville, Geauga county, on the 7th of 
 August, 1833. His father was Jonas Underwood, 
 a farmer. His mother, before her marriage, was 
 Mary Vorse. Some of the ancestors on both sides 
 of the family participated in the revolutionary strug- 
 gle. When Myron was twelve years old his father 
 immigrated to McHenry county, Illinois, and settled 
 on South Prairie, on the west side of Coon creek: — 
 the pioneer in that immediate locality. There the 
 son passed the remainder of his youth. He and a 
 younger brother, David, used to travel three miles 
 to attend the winter school, the summers being 
 given to work on the farm, until he was twenty. 
 Of his schoolmates in those days, a few years subse- 
 quent to his father's settlement on that prairie, were 
 five who afterward graduated from Rush Medical 
 College, Chicago, two who are now lawyers, and 
 three who are ministers of the gospel. An elder 
 
 brother of Myron represents Grundy county, Iowa, 
 in the general assembly. 
 
 The years 1853 and 1854 Myron gave to study 
 in the seminary at Mount Morris, Ogle county. He 
 attended three courses of lectures in Rush Medical 
 College, and graduated in February, 1859. On the 
 20th of the following May Dr. Underwood reached 
 Hardin county, Iowa, and opened an office at Steam- 
 boat Rock. After practicing there between one and 
 two years he moved to Eldora, where he has prac- 
 ticed constantly except when in the army. 
 
 On the 19th of August, 1862, he was commis- 
 sioned assistant surgeon of the 12th regiment of 
 Iowa Infantry, and was in the field three years. 
 The surgeon, Sanford W. Huff", M.D., was detached 
 from the regiment most of the time, and Dr. Under- 
 wood had full charge of it more than two years. 
 The 1 2th was in a great many battles, among them, 
 at Corinth, Jackson, two engagements, Vicksburg 
 during the whole campaign, and in all the battles of 
 the sixteenth army corps subsequent to the surren- 
 der of "Vicksburg, and Surgeon Underwood often had 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 3.S9 
 
 very laborious duties, yet he was off duty scarcely a 
 day during the whole three years' service. It was 
 the wonder of his comrades how he could accom- 
 plish so much work. 
 
 On being discharged, in September, 1865, he re- 
 turned to Eldora, and after a very brief rest resumed 
 practice, and has continued it to the present time, 
 with a gradually increasing reputation. Ordinarily 
 he has all the business any one man ought to do. 
 
 Dr. Underwood is a member of the blue lodge 
 and chapter of Masons in Eldora, and also a promi- 
 nent Odd-Fellow, having passed all the chairs of 
 the subordinate lodge. 
 
 He always votes with the republicans. 
 
 Dr. Underwood has been a member of the Meth- 
 
 odist Episcopal church more than twenty years, and 
 has constantly held an official position in it since a 
 resident of Iowa. 
 
 On the 6th of April, 1861, he married Miss Sophia 
 A. Ellis, of Steamboat Rock, and has had six chil- 
 dren, only half of them now living. 
 
 Dr. Underwood was a member of the Eldora 
 board of education six or seven years, and has lost 
 none of his interest in educational matters. Like 
 other leading citizens of the place, he gave time, 
 labor and money to get the Reform School located 
 at Eldora and under way, lent a hand in securing 
 the completion of the railroad from Ackley to El- 
 dora, and is found in the front ranks in all beneficial 
 enterprises. 
 
 JUDSON E. CARPENTER, 
 
 CLINTON. 
 
 T UDSON E. CARPENTER, silent partner in the 
 •J firm of Cu"Vtis, Brother and Co., sash, door and 
 blind manufacturers, was born at Oxford, Chenango 
 county, New York, on the igth of May, 1835. His 
 father, when he was nine years old, removed from 
 Rhode Island and settled on a farm in the neighbor- 
 hood. He came of good old Saxon stock, his an- 
 cestors on both sides being among the early settlers 
 of New England. The religious faith of his family 
 is derived from Roger Williams, the founder of the 
 Baptist denomination in this country. At home and 
 in the common schools he received the usual amount 
 of education bestowed upon farmers' sons. Subse- 
 quently, however, he pursued in the Oxford Acad- 
 emy a thorough course of study, with the design to 
 qualify himself as a teacher. His natural taste in- 
 clined him to literary and scientific pursuits, and his 
 original intention was to prepare himself for early 
 admission to the university, but several causes in- 
 tervened to prevent the ultimation of this design. 
 This disappointment turned the channel of life into 
 another direction, and led him to relinquish his idea 
 of professional life. At an early age, however, as 
 an occupation to obtain a livelihood, he became a 
 teacher, devoting his winters to this vocation, and 
 his summers to farm employment. 
 
 In 1855, his attention having been turned west- 
 ward, he left home and took up his abode tempo- 
 rarily in Rochelle, Illinois. In this vicinity he opened 
 up a farm, and with fair profits and moderate suc- 
 34 
 
 cess devoted one season to its cultivation. The 
 following spring, through the influence of a relative, 
 he was induced to purchase a large farm, consisting 
 of two hundred and forty acres, in the vicinity of 
 Rochelle, Illinois, at twelve dollars per acre, payable 
 in installments. 
 
 He continued on this farm till 1861, and then 
 returned to Rochelle. Having disposed of all his 
 interest in this estate in 1862, the following three 
 years were occupied in shipping stock to the Chi- 
 cago market. In this enterprise he was successful. 
 In 1865 he embarked in the fuel trade, with like 
 results. Up to this time his business career had 
 been single-handed and alone. 
 
 In 1866 the firm of Curtis, Brother and Co. was 
 first started. It originated from a very small begin- 
 ning : Charles Curtis, the younger of the brothers, 
 having in exchange for a grocery secured a small 
 and insignificant sash factory in Clinton, Iowa, 
 thereby laid the foundation for a business estab- 
 lishment unsurpassed in its line in this section of 
 country. In 1867 the elder brother, George Curtis, 
 united with him in this limited enterprise, and a few 
 years later, in 1869, the subject of this sketch like- 
 wise became a member of the establishment. These 
 three gentlemen constitute the present firm. 
 
 A brief biographical sketch of the Curtis brothers 
 personally may not be inappropriate in this connec- 
 tion : George Curtis, the elder, was born in Oxford, 
 Chenango county, New York, on the ist of April[ 
 
340 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 1844; his brother, Charles, on the 3d of April, 1846. 
 Their mother, a sister of the subject of this sketch, 
 is a native of Rhode Island. In common with other 
 boys they enjoyed the benefits of a common-school 
 education, and subsequently pursued a more thor- 
 ough course of study in institutions of higher grade. 
 Having left home at an early age, their success and 
 business achievements have been most remarkable. 
 The extent and variety of their transactions, and 
 the admirable manner in which they have been man- 
 aged, furnish sufficient proof of their comprehen- 
 sive intellect and thorough business capacity. 
 
 Although very young men, both have attained to 
 high degree in the Masonic institution. Both are 
 also married to estimable and highly accomplished 
 ladies. Gentlemanly and courteous in their social 
 relations, and active and energetic in their business 
 callings, they justly enjoy the good-will and respect 
 of the entire community in which they reside. 
 
 The business of the firm has continued to increase 
 since its first organization. During the past eight 
 years its financial affairs have been so prudently 
 managed that its entire loss will not exceed two dol- 
 lars per thousand. 
 
 The firm continued its business successfully 
 through the panic of 1872, and is annually enlarg- 
 ing and extending its usefulness. As an illustration 
 of its prosperity, its business in 1869 amounted to 
 sixty-five thousand dollars only: in 1875 its busi- 
 ness was two hundred and fifty-eight thousand eight 
 hundred and eighty dollars. At this time the entire 
 number of employes is one hundred and sixty. The 
 respective members of the firm are public-spirited, 
 and take an active interest in the growth and pros- 
 perity of their town and its vicinity, contributing 
 liberally for all and every public enterprise. 
 
 In politics, the members of the firm are decidedly 
 republican, but not partisan. 
 
 Mr. Carpenter was married in 1861 to Miss Olevia 
 Detwiler, of Rochelle, Illinois. The family circle 
 comprises himself and wife, together with five chil- 
 dren. They have lost one child. 
 
 His personal address is pleasing and agreeable, 
 denoting a kind heart and a benevolent disposition. 
 He is eminently a self-made man, and has carved 
 out for himself an honorable distinction among his 
 fellow-citizens. He also enjoys th^ esteem of the 
 entire community. 
 
 SAMUEL M. POLLOCK, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 SAMUEL M. POLLOCK, the subject of this 
 sketch, was born in the State of Ohio, in the 
 year 1829. He received a good academic educa- 
 tion, and having pursued the study of law for several 
 years, was admitted to practice in that state. About 
 the year 1855 he removed to Dubuque, Iowa, and 
 entered upon the practice of his profession ; being 
 a young man possessed of a fine legal mind, ren- 
 dered acute by constant study and practice, he soon 
 acquired considerable distinction in his profession, 
 and in the spring of 1859 was elected judge of the 
 city court, which had concurrent jurisdiction in 
 civil cases with the district court. He discharged 
 his duties as judge of this court with ability, fidel- 
 ity and impartiality, until by legislative enactment 
 and operation of law the court was shorn of most 
 of its powers, when Judge Pollock resigned the po- 
 sition. 
 
 About this time, the war of the rebellion coming 
 on soon after. Judge Pollock abandoned his profes- 
 sion temporarily, and in the year 1862 enlisted in the 
 
 6th Iowa Cavalry, and was appointed by Governor 
 Kirkwood lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, and 
 on the 31st of January, 1863, he was mustered into 
 the service of the United States. The regiment was 
 sent upon the northwestern frontier to fight the 
 Indians, and Colonel Pollock participated' in several 
 severe conflicts with the savages, and distinguished 
 himself as a good officer and gallant soldier. Colonel 
 Wilson having resigned his commission to go to San 
 Francisco, California, to enter upon the practice of 
 his profession, Lieutenant-Colonel Pollock was ap- 
 pointed colonel of the regiment, and continued in 
 command until 1865, when the regiment was mus- 
 tered out of the service. Colonel Pollock was con- 
 ceded to be one of the best volunteer officers sent 
 out by the State of Iowa ; he was a good disciplin- 
 arian, active and energetic in the discharge of his 
 duties, gallant on the field of action, and universally 
 respected both by officers and men. 
 
 After the close of the war Colonel Pollock returned 
 home to Dubuque, and again embarked in the prac^ 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTION ART. 
 
 343 
 
 tice of his profession, taking into partnership with 
 him James H. Shields, and the firm of Pollock and 
 Shields have by years of industry, and close attention 
 to business, aided by recognized legal attainments, 
 built up a large and lucrative law business, and are 
 to-day regarded among the ablest and most success- 
 ful law firms in the city of Dubuque and northern 
 Iowa. 
 
 In 1872 Colonel Pollock was united in marriage to 
 Miss Hughlet, of Galena, Illinois, a lady possessed 
 
 of mental, physical and worldly attractions. They 
 have two children, and reside in a beautiful man- 
 sion at the head of Julien avenue, from which point 
 they command a magnificent view of the city of 
 Dubuque, the mighty Mississippi rolling its waters 
 to the Gulf, and three giant states offering up their 
 wealth of scenery for their enjoyment. Here in this 
 beautiful spot, surrounded by all the comforts and 
 luxuries of life, they reside, esteemed by their neigh- 
 bors and respected by all their fellow-citizens. 
 
 SAMUEL F. SMITH, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 SAMUEL FRANCIS SMITH, lawyer, was born 
 at Waterville, Maine, on the sth of Septem- 
 ber, 1836, and is the son of the Rev. Samuel Fran- 
 cis Smith, D.D., a distinguished Baptist clergyman, 
 of Boston, Massachusetts, and Mary (White) Smith. 
 On both sides he is descended from Puritanic an- 
 cestors, who settled in Massachusetts early in the 
 seventeenth century, from whom have sprung some 
 of the noblest names that adorn the annals of their 
 country. His father, who still lives in the enjoy- 
 ment of health and honor, is the author of the 
 national hymn of the republic, " My country 'tis of 
 thee," an ode which has found a merited response 
 in every christian patriot heart, not only in this 
 " sweet land of liberty,'' but throughout the globe, 
 which has been rendered into the dialect of almost 
 every civilized country in the world, and which is 
 sung as fervently in the Alpine valleys and on the 
 slopes of the Himalayas as in the fair land that 
 gave birth to its venerated author. To be the writer 
 of that hymn is glory enough for one man and one 
 lifetime. A brother of our subject, the Rev. D. 
 A. W. Smith, D.D., is president of the Baptist Theo- 
 logical Seminary at Rangoon, India, a gentleman of 
 rare literary attainments, and of the highest mental 
 endowments, whose name is known and honored 
 in all the churches. Nor is his ancestry on the 
 female side less distinguished, his maternal grand- 
 father, the Rev. Hezekiah Smith, D.D., having been 
 an indefatigable chaplain in the revolutionary army 
 during the memorable struggle for liberty, while 
 many others of the same line have occupied con- 
 spicuous places in sundry departments during the 
 intervening century. 
 
 Samuel Francis Smith was fitted for Harvard 
 
 College and carried through the freshman year by 
 his father, but failing health, superinduced by ex- 
 cessive application, obliged him to discontinue study 
 for several years. From the earliest period of his 
 recollection he desired to be a lawyer, this was the 
 grand aim of his ambition ; his tastes ran in the 
 direction of books and studies in that line, and 
 all his intermediate efforts were but so many steps 
 toward the attainment of his cherished aim. When 
 he could no longer study he resolved to earn his 
 own living, and eaSt his father of the burden of his 
 support, and for two years he served as clerk in 
 various capacities. At the age of nineteen he made 
 up his mind to go west for the benefit of his health, 
 and as likely to afford him better facilities for the 
 pursuit of his favorite studies. He halted for a 
 few months in Chicago, and afterward settled in 
 Davenport, Iowa, which has since been his home. 
 He found employment in the law office of the Hon. 
 James Grant, where he assiduously devoted his 
 leisure moments to study, the library of his employer 
 having been kindly placed at his disposal ; in this 
 way he completed the college course commenced 
 under the direction of his father. In 1857 he com- 
 menced in earnestness the practical study of the 
 law, and in the following year was admitted to the 
 bar, thus attaining the end he so earnestly desired 
 and so eagerly sought. Two years later he went 
 into partnership with his preceptor, Judge Grant, 
 which still continues. The firm engaged largely in 
 the collection of repudiated corporation bonds, and 
 has been eminently successful, this branch of the 
 business being the specialty of Mr. Smith. During 
 the first year of his connection with the firm his por- 
 tion of the earnings amounted to two hundred and 
 
UA 
 
 THE UJStlTBD STATJBS BlOGRAPtilCAL DlCTIONART. 
 
 forty dollars, but under the steady and persistent 
 growth of business his emoluments increased also, 
 and during the last year of his active partnership 
 his share of the proceeds amounted to over fifty 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 In 1873 his health gave way under a nervous at- 
 tack, and relaxation and change being necessary for 
 his restoration, he made a visit to Europe in that 
 year with his family, and remained two and a half 
 years absent, visiting the principal cities in that 
 part of the globe. Since his return he has engaged 
 in banking operations in connection with the Daven- 
 port National Bank, of which he is an officer and 
 large stockholder. 
 
 Mr. Smith is still in the prime of life, a most 
 amiable and accomplished gentleman, courteous. 
 
 benevolent and modest. As a financier, he has few 
 superiors, while all his transactions are governed by 
 probity and wisdom. 
 
 He has been a member of the Baptist church 
 since his fifteenth year, and is one of the most suc- 
 cessful workers and generous contributors in its 
 ranks. 
 
 In politics, he has always been republican. 
 
 On the 17th of August, 1863, he married Miss 
 Mary, daughter of the Rev. Julius A. Reed, of Daven- 
 port, Iowa, a graduate of Yale College, who came 
 west in 1831, and who for nearly twenty-five years 
 has been connected with the Congregational Home 
 Mission Cause in Iowa. They have a child, a daugh- 
 ter named Anna Reed Smith, born on the isth of 
 September, 1870. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM G. THOMPSON, 
 
 MARION. 
 
 OUR recollections of William George Thompson, 
 of Linn county, Iowa, extend back nearly 
 twenty years, when he had opened a law office at 
 Marion, the county seat. It required but a short 
 acquaintance to discover his briluancy, and the other 
 elements likely to lead to success in his profession 
 to eminence in the judicial district. His career 
 has not disappointed the expectation of his friends. 
 
 William G. Thompson is a native of Pennsylva- 
 nia, and was born in Butler county, on the 17th of 
 January, 1830. His parents, William H. and Jane 
 McClandess Thompson, were of Highland-Scotch 
 descent. His father was a farmer, and young 
 William spent the first eighteen years of his life at 
 home aiding in tilling the soil during the summers 
 and attending a district school two miles away dur- 
 ing the winters. He had a strong desire for knowl- 
 edge, and made the best progress possible under 
 the circumstances. When about nineteen he went 
 to Witherspoon College, in Butler county, and spent 
 two years there, pursuing such studies as he thought 
 would be of most service to him, he having the 
 legal profession in view. In 1851 he entered the 
 law office of William Timblin, of Butler, and was 
 admitted to the bar on the 15 th of October, 1853, 
 being examined by Hon. Daniel Agnew, now of the 
 supreme bench of Pennsylvania. 
 
 With an independent spirit, and full of ambition, 
 Mr. Thompson struck out for himself with more 
 
 enthusiasm in his heart than money in his pocket. 
 On the 27th of November, the month following his 
 examination, he started for Iowa, and pitched his 
 tent in Marion, one of the most lovely rural towns 
 in the state. He opened an office without delay, 
 and had a good practice almost from the start, and 
 for twenty years has been one of the leading law- 
 yers at the Linn county bar. 
 
 In 1855/ and 1856 he edited the Linn county 
 " Register," displaying good abilities as a writer. 
 
 In August, 1862, he went into the army as major 
 of the 20th regiment of Iowa Infantry ; was in the 
 service two years, and had command of the regi- 
 ment no inconsiderable part of the time. In the 
 battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, on the 7th of 
 December, 1862, Major Thompson was severely 
 wounded, but soon recovered, and in six weeks was 
 again in the service. He was at the siege of Vicks- 
 burgh ; in all the Missouri and Arkansas campaign ; 
 then in Texas, where he had command at Aransas 
 Pass for eight months. Few officers in Iowa regi- 
 ments had more dash, bravery and coolness than 
 Major Thompson. He was held in the warmest 
 esteem by the heroic 20th. 
 
 Major Thompson has been the recipient of re- 
 peated honors at the hands of the people, and has 
 been proffered more offices than he would accept. 
 In 1854 he was elected prosecuting attorney, serving 
 two years. He was member of the state senate in 
 
THn UNITBD ST ATMS BIOGRAPHICAL DICTION ART. 
 
 345 
 
 i8ss and 1856, and though the youngest member 
 ever in that body, he was very active, advocating 
 important measures with a good deal of logical 
 force, and receiving the warmest congratulations of 
 fellow-members of the senate and of his constituents. 
 For eight years, up to January, 1875, Major Thomp- 
 son was district attorney for the eighth judicial dis- 
 trict, and so popular that he was urged by both 
 political parties to stand for another renomination, 
 but peremptorily declined. * 
 
 Major Thompson is a Knight Templar in the Ma- 
 sonic order, also an Odd-Fellow. 
 
 He has the ancestral regard for the Presbyterian 
 faith, and attends that church. 
 
 He has always been an earnest advocate of the 
 principles of the republican party, and is one of the 
 
 ablest stump speakers in central Iowa. In 1864 he 
 was one of the electors at large, and did very effect- 
 ive work during the canvass. 
 
 On the i2th of June, 1856, he married Miss Har- 
 riet J. Parsons, of Marion, previously of Syracuse, 
 New York. They have one child. 
 
 With no friends and not much money. Major 
 Thompson opened an office in Marion twenty-three 
 years ago. He made friends rapidly, and money at 
 first with moderate speed ; both he has continued 
 to accumulate. He has long had a host of friends, 
 and a competency. He is a generous-hearted man, 
 ready to help the needy, and does not believe in 
 anybody's living wholly for himself. The major is 
 known all over the state, is a pet of the legal fra- 
 ternity, and much respected by all classes. 
 
 HON. LORING WHEELER. 
 
 DB WITT. 
 
 IORING WHEELER, son of Jonas and Sarah 
 ^ Boynton Wheeler, was born on the i6th of 
 July, 1799, the place of his nativity being West- 
 moreland, Cheshire county. New Hampshire. His 
 grandfather, John Wheeler, fought for American in- 
 dependence, beginning on the 17th of June, 1775, 
 and spending his fortune in that grand struggle. 
 His father, Jonas Wheeler, was a farmer, and Loring 
 followed that occupation at home until about 1816, 
 after which date he spent two years at an academy 
 in Chesterfield, making good use of the precious 
 opportunity ; then returning to Westmoreland he 
 became a clerk in a store. 
 
 On the 2ist of April, 1821, with three other en- 
 terprising young men, Mr. Wheeler started for the 
 west in a two-horse buggy, going by the way of 
 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There they purchased a 
 flat-boat, took their team down the Ohio river as 
 far as Shawneetown, Illinois, at which place they 
 disposed of the boat, and struck across the country 
 to Alton, Illinois, where they had friends. 
 
 Mr. Wheeler soon went to Green county, Illinois, 
 whence, after clerking two years, he repaired to 
 Exeter, Morgan county, and worked for Colonel 
 Enoch C. Marsh, an extensive trader and flour man- 
 ufacturer. While thus employed he was often sent 
 to New Orleans with various kinds of stock and 
 provisions, he acting at different times in almost 
 every official capacity on the boat, including the 
 
 positions of mate and captain. A writer in the 
 Clinton county "Advertiser" states that Mr. Wheel- 
 er's was the first flat-boat that ran out of the Illi- 
 nois, and that he saw the first steamboat that ever 
 ascended that river. 
 
 Interested in the reports of lead at Galena, Illi- 
 nois, in 1827 he went there, and mined until 1834, 
 when he crossed the Mississippi river to Dubuque. 
 On the 26th of December of that year he was com- 
 missioned chief justice of the county court for Du- 
 buque county, which was then in Michigan territory, 
 and embraced the northern half of what is now the 
 State of Iowa. After holding one term of the court 
 he resigned. He sold goods two years in Dubuque 
 in company with Hiram Loomis, and in the sum- 
 mer of 1836 came to Round Grove, near where De 
 Witt now stands, made a claim on the 4th of July, 
 and there, with his brother-in-law, Alva G. Harrison, 
 erected a cabin, and then returned to Dubuque. 
 The next winter he was a member of the legislature 
 of Wisconsin territory, to which Iowa then belonged, 
 the session being held at Belmont, on the east side 
 of the river, near Dubuque, and was also a member 
 of the next legislature, which met at Burlington, on 
 the west side of the river. In the spring of 1841 
 he settled on his farm at Round Grove, and in the 
 autumn of that year was appointed clerk of the 
 court for the new county of Clinton, holding that 
 office during the territorial history of Iowa. In 1846 
 
346 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 he was elected to the state senate for the term of 
 four years, the legislature meeting at Iowa City. 
 
 In 1849 Mr. Wheeler, with several of his neigh- 
 bors, went to California by the overland route, and 
 returned by the Nicaragua route in 1853. The next 
 year he was elected clerk of Clinton county, Tiolding 
 the office steadily until the close of 1862. Since 
 that date he has been on the county board of super- 
 visors four years, and was chairman three-fourths 
 of the time. He is a stockholder in the Clinton 
 National Bank, and until recently was one of its 
 directors. He has lost the sight of his right eye by 
 inflammation, and has suffered a year with dry 
 
 gangrene in his right foot, and is rarely seen on the 
 streets of De Witt, which has been his home since 
 March, 1877. Mr. Wheeler has acted with the re- 
 publicans since the dissolution of the whig party. 
 
 His wife was Susan R. Harrisdn, a sister of Jesse 
 M. Harrison, of Dubuque, and Alva G. Harrison, 
 of De Witt. They were joined in wedlock on the 
 8th of February, 1837, and have had nine children, 
 only four of them now living. George Loring is 
 constabte of De Witt; Thomas Wilson is deputy 
 clerk of the court of Clinton county; Lloyd B. re- 
 sides in Mendota, Illinois, and Martha Frances is 
 the wife of Frank W. Cottrell, of Chicago. 
 
 SHELDON G. WINCHESTER, 
 
 ELDORA. 
 
 ONE of the early settlers and early honored men 
 of Eldora, Iowa, is Sheldon Greenleaf Win- 
 chester, who was born in Chautauqua county. New 
 York, on the 17 th of July, 1830. His father, Arnold 
 Winchester, was a farmer; his mother before her 
 marriage was Maria Ward, of New York State. The 
 Winchester family are distantly related to General 
 Winchester, and near relatives of General Jonas and 
 Ebenezer Winchester, noted book publishers in New 
 York city thirty years ago. \ 
 
 Arnold Winchester moved with his family, first to 
 Pennsylvania, and then to Ohio, while Sheldon was 
 quite young. He spent eight years with his father 
 in Washington county, Ohio, and at sixteen years of 
 age, with eight dollars in his pocket, started alone 
 for the far west, beyond the Mississippi. He went 
 down the Ohio on a flatboat ; up the Mississippi as 
 a deck passenger on a steamboat to Keokuk, Iowa, 
 and thence walked to Des Moines, now the capital 
 of the state, reaching there with two dollars in his 
 pocket. That was in November, 1846. The gar- 
 rison buildings and soldiers' barracks, vacated by 
 the military the previous spring, were all the places 
 of shelter for the few inhabitants of Des Moines. 
 That section of the state was thrown open that 
 year for preemption, the year Iowa assumed its 
 sovereignty. 
 
 In 1847 young Winchester went to Fairfield, Jeffer- 
 son county, and spent a few months in a store ; then, 
 drifting eastward, he landed in the Burlington " Ga- 
 zette " office, engaging as an apprentice. His lungs 
 were weak ; the work was hard for him ; he went 
 
 to Memphis, Tennessee, and there spent the summer 
 of 1848, returning to Iowa the autumn following. 
 
 In the spring of 1849 we find him in Winterset, 
 Madison county, building the first house there after 
 the county seat was located. He sold goods there 
 one year, went to California across the plains in 
 1850, and spent five years, part of the time mining, 
 part superintending a quartz mill and a saw-mill, 
 and for some time running a drug store. Return- 
 ing again to Iowa, he selected a home in Eldora, 
 Hardin county, in 1855, and has never abandoned 
 it. Most of the time for twenty years he has been 
 a merchant and real-estate dealer. He has been 
 successful in both branches, but has never been a 
 strong, robust man, and latterly has assumed no com- 
 mercial responsibilities, and only light labors. 
 
 Mr. Winchester was in the constitutional conven- 
 tion of 1857, being the youngest man of that body, 
 and was chosen when barely eligible to that office. 
 He represented eleven counties, the northern part 
 of the state being sparsely settled, particularly west 
 of the river counties and those adjacent. In that 
 convention were the wise men of Iowa. Among 
 them were judges J. C. Hall, E, Johnston and Fran- 
 cis Springer, and J. F. Wilson, W. Penn Clark, R. L. 
 B. Clark, George Ells and J. A. Paskin ; and owing 
 to his comparative youth and modesty Mr. Winches- 
 ter rarely participated in debate ; but he was a good 
 listener, and diligent in the committee, and rendered 
 important service to the state in that body. 
 
 In 1 86 1 he was a candidate for the lower house of 
 the general assembly, and defeated on a local issue. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 347 
 
 Ten years later he ran for state senator, to repre- 
 sent Hardin and Marshall counties ; but there was a 
 quarrel between the two counties ; both candidates 
 were republican, and Marshall county having much 
 the larger number of voters, Mr. Winchester again 
 failed of an election. 
 
 In religious sentiment, he calls himself liberal. 
 
 He has always voted the republican ticket, and 
 
 has stumped the county and other parts of the state 
 more than once during an exciting canvass. 
 
 On the 4th of October, 1846, he married Miss 
 Mahala E. Ellsworth, of Eldora, and they have had 
 seven children ; only four are living. 
 
 Mr. Winchester has been identified with the public 
 enterprises of the town and county, and is one of 
 the truly valuable citizens of Eldora. 
 
 BENJAMIN K. WALKER, 
 
 NORTHWOOD. 
 
 BENJAMIN KNIGHT WALKER is a native 
 of Maine, and was born at Limington, York 
 county, on the i6th of May, 1833. His father 
 Ebenezer Walker, was a farmer, and Benjamin spent 
 his first sixteen years at home. He fitted for col- 
 lege at the Limington Academy, entered Waterville 
 College in 1854, and left at the close of the sopho- 
 more year. Failing health was the occasion of his 
 abandoning his studies, and he came west in 1857 
 to improve it, settling at Bristol, Worth county, Iowa. 
 The county was organized the following year, and 
 Bristol was the seat of justice until 1863, when 
 Northwood became the county seat. 
 
 Mr. Walker was in the surveying and land business 
 at Bristol until 1862, when he returned to Maine, 
 and taught select school in Sanford, Lebanon and 
 Newfield. Two years later he returned to Bristol, 
 resuming the business of surveying and land deal- 
 ing, and teaching a district school during the 
 winters. 
 
 In 1870 Mr. Walker moved to Northwood, still 
 
 continuing the real-estate business, since 1871 with 
 his brother, Andrew C. Walker. 
 
 In the fall of 1857 Benjamin Walker was elected 
 county clerk, and served from 1858 until he returned 
 to the east. In 1870 he took the office of county 
 auditor, and held it six years. 
 
 Mr. Walker is a church-goer, but has no connec- 
 tion with a religious organization. 
 
 He has always been a republican. 
 
 On the loth of August, 1859, he married Miss 
 Abbie Merrill, of Sanford, Maine. They have no 
 children. 
 
 One of the organizers of Worth county, one of its 
 officers for many years, and a leading man in the 
 county, Mr. Walker has had much influence, and 
 that influence has uniformly been in a right direc- 
 tion. His private character and his public record are 
 alike untarnished. He is one of the most worthy 
 men in the country. The same is true of his brother 
 and partner in business, Both are honorable dealers, 
 and thrift follows their industry and prudence. 
 
 ALBERT W. MORGAN, M. D., 
 
 DE WITT. 
 
 ALBERT WOODS MORGAN, son of Isaac 
 . Morgan, farmer and merchant, and Cynthia 
 Westfall, is a native of Indiana, and was born at 
 Thorntown, Boone county, on the i6th of January, 
 1840. His great-grandfather was in one or two 
 battles of the revolution, and his grandfather and 
 father were in the second war with England. The 
 Morgans were from Wales, the Westfalls from Ger- 
 many. 
 
 Albert spent his earlier years on his father's farm, 
 
 and then in his father'^ store, finishing his literary 
 education in the high school at Moline, Illinois. In 
 i860 he commenced reading medicine with Dr. A. 
 S. Maxwell, of Davenport, Iowa; he attended two 
 courses of medical lectures at Keokuk, and opened 
 an office at De Witt, Clinton county, Iowa, in the 
 summer of 1863. Here he practiced one year, fol- 
 lowing it with a year's practice at Springfield, Keo- 
 kuk county. In April, 1865, he went into the army 
 as assistant surgeon of 'the j2th Illinois Cavalry, 
 
348 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 soon afterward becoming surgeon of the 37th Illinois 
 Infantry, with which he served until May, 1866, 
 when the regiment was mustered out. Although the 
 war was nearly over when Dr. Morgan went into 
 the service, he had considerable field practice, and 
 it was a good school to him. While a student at 
 Keokuk, where there was a general hospital during 
 the civil war, he had excellent opportunities for 
 hospital duties, and did not neglect them. He has 
 since reaped the benefits of such opportunities. 
 
 In the summer of 1866 we find Dr. Morgan once 
 more at De Witt, where he continues to practice 
 with increasing skill and a growing reputation. In 
 1870 he spent a short time at the medical college at 
 Keokuk, brushing up his knowledge and receiving a 
 diploma. He is United States examining surgeon, 
 
 and has an excellent standing both as a medical 
 practitioner and surgeon. 
 
 Dr. Morgan is a Freemason, an Odd-Fellow, and 
 a member of the Ancient Order of United Work- 
 men, but giyes to such organizations no time that 
 would interfere with his profession. He is a mem- 
 ber of the county and state medical societies, has 
 read several papers before the former body, and 
 avails himself of every opportunity to improve in 
 medical knowledge. In politics, he is a republican. 
 
 On the 6th of June, 1866, Miss Eliza Reed, of 
 Mingo, Champaign county, Ohio, became his wife, 
 and they have had three children, only two of whom 
 are now living. Mrs. Morgan was educated at the 
 high school at Marion, Ohio, and is a woman of 
 more than ordinary intelligence. 
 
 JESSE WASSON, M. D., 
 
 LAPORTE CITT. 
 
 THE founder of Laporte City, Black Hawk coun- 
 ty, Iowa, Jesse Wasson, was the son of Jehiel 
 and Lydia Wasson, and was born in Richmond, Indi- 
 ana, on the 21st of October, 1821. Both parents were 
 Friends, and early instilled into the mind of Jesse 
 and the nine sisters whom he had the noblest prin- 
 ciples of virtue and rectitude. Jehiel Wasson was 
 a blacksmith, with very limited means, and as his 
 son had to enter the shop at an early age to aid 
 his father in supporting the family, he enjoyed but 
 scanty educational privileges, so far as attending 
 school furnished them, but he made the best use of 
 all spare time, and at the age of eighteen prevailed 
 on his father to take him into partnership, with the 
 understanding that the son should work ten hours a 
 day and have the rest of his time for study. With- 
 out any one to teach him he did the best he could, 
 giving every leisure moment to books, scientific and 
 historical. At the age of twenty he took up law 
 books, but at the end of Qne year, in compliance 
 with the wishes of his mother, who always had great 
 influence over him, he exchanged them for medical 
 works. He pursued his studies until his twenty- 
 fifth year, and graduated at the Indiana Medical 
 College, in February, 1847. He practiced in New 
 Buffalo, Michigan, and La Porte, Indiana, until 1853, 
 when he removed to Iowa and resumed practice in 
 Vinton, Benton county. The next year Dr. Wasson 
 purchased the land on which Laporte City now 
 
 stands, and which he laid out in June, 1855. He 
 put up a store and filled it with a general variety 
 of merchandise. He continued the mercantile busi- 
 ness four or five years, in connection with medical 
 practice, and then sold the store, continuing his pro- 
 fession. 
 
 Dr. Wasson is the publisher of the Laporte City 
 " Progress," which he started in November, 1870, and 
 which is devoted to the interests of the town and 
 county. 
 
 In 1862 Dr. Wasson was appointed assistant sur- 
 geon of the 32d regiment of Iowa Infantry, serving 
 in that capacity about nine months, when he became 
 surgeon of the 9th regiment of Cavalry. After serv- 
 ing for eighteen months, owing to sickness, he was 
 sent to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, and in Febru- 
 ary, 1865, owing to physical disability, he was hon- 
 orably discharged from the service. 
 
 Dr. Wasson was the first postmaster at Laporte 
 City, and served four years, from June, 1855. He 
 was the first supervisor of the township under the 
 old system, and has since held the same office at 
 different times. He represented Black Hawk county 
 in the lower house of the general assembly in 1870- 
 71. For the last two years he has been mayor of 
 Laporte City. 
 
 Dr. Wasson is a member of the Masonic lodge in 
 his place. He was a whig, then a republican, and 
 since 1872 has voted the liberal and reform ticket. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 349 
 
 He belongs to no church', but has a strong predilec- 
 tion for the religion of his parents. 
 
 On the 31st of May, 1855, he was married to 
 Miss Junia Haun, of Benton county. They have 
 had six children, five living. 
 
 Dr. Wasson is a "solid man." He weighs about 
 three hundred and twenty pounds, yet his height 
 
 is only five feet and eleven inches. He has ren- 
 dered good service to the country in the army, 
 good service to the state in the legislature, good 
 service to the county in various capacities, and 
 good service to Laporte City in giving it a local 
 habitation and a name, a newspaper, and a good 
 reputation for intelligence. 
 
 COLONEL TRISTRAM T. DOW, 
 
 DAVENPORT. 
 
 TRISTRAM THOMAS DOW, president of the 
 First National Bank, Davenport, was born on 
 the 2d of November, 1825, in Canterbury, New 
 Hampshire, and is the son of Tristram C. and Sus- 
 annah (Lyford) Dow, natives of the same state. 
 On the paternal side our subject is descended from 
 English stock, who settled in Canterbury about the 
 beginning of the last century, and on the maternal 
 side from Scotch ancestors, who came to reside in 
 Massachusetts about the same period. His father 
 was a farmer in good circumstances, a gentleman 
 who stood high in the estimation of the community, 
 and in which he exercised considerable influence. 
 He was a captain in the war of 181 2, and served 
 throughout that campaign under command of Gen- 
 eral John A. Dix, of New York. His parents set a 
 good example to their children, and are remembered 
 by them with feelings of deepest reverence and 
 admiration. They died in the fall of 1875, ^^ 
 father aged eighty-four and the mother seventy-eight 
 years. 
 
 Tristram T. Dow was educated at the common 
 schools of Boscawen and Franklin, New Hampshire, 
 where he received a liberal education. His youth 
 and early manhood were passed on his father's farm, 
 where he obtained a practical knowledge of hus- 
 bandry, as well as a taste for agricultural pursuits. 
 
 From the age of eighteen to twenty years he was 
 clerk in a country store, where every variety of goods 
 needed for the economy of house, person or farm 
 was sold, so that ere he had attained his majority 
 his mind had undergone a most thorough discipline, 
 fitting him for almost any sphere of industry which 
 in after life he might desire to adopt. 
 
 In the year 1854 he moved west with his parents, 
 
 and settled in Bureau county, Illinois, where his 
 
 father purchased a large farm, in the management 
 
 of which he aided till 1854, when he opened a large 
 
 35 
 
 country store in Anawan, Henry county, Illinois, 
 which was conducted with marked success for a 
 period of thirteen years, and discontinued in 1867. 
 
 In August, 1862, he, feeling that he could no 
 longer disregard the call of his country, then in the 
 throes of a gigantic and causeless rebellion, enlisted 
 as a private in the 112th Illinois Infantry, and on 
 the organization of the regiment was elected to the 
 command of company A, and commissioned as cap- 
 tain by Governor Yates. In the month of February 
 following he was promoted to the rank of major, and 
 from that period till the ist of April, 1865, he was 
 generally in command of the regiment, the original 
 commander, Thomas J. Henderson, having been 
 promoted to brigadier-general, and the lieutenant- 
 colonel being on detached duty. At the last named 
 date he was transferred to the regular army by the 
 president, and placed on duty as inspector-general 
 of the twenty-third army corps. General J. D. Cox, 
 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, in which ca- 
 pacity he served till the 20th of June, 1865, when 
 he resigned his commission and returned to Illinois. 
 Soon after he received, unsolicited and without any 
 previous intimation, from the war department, a 
 commission as first-lieutenant in the 44th United 
 States' Regular Infantry, but declined it, on the ex- 
 alted ground that he would never make a profession 
 of arms, to which only principle could call him. 
 
 Colonel Dow's military record is not less brilliant 
 and honorable than any of the distinguished soldiers 
 furnished by the State of Illinois. He did his whole 
 duty, and his services will be remembered by a 
 grateful country, and cherished as a precious souve- 
 nir by his children and children's children. He led 
 his regiment through all the campaigns of General 
 Burnside and General Sherman. Fought on the 
 bloody fields of Knoxville, Campbell's Station, and 
 Philadelphia, in East Tennessee, and at Resaca, 
 
350 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Nashville, Kenasaw Mountain, Atlanta, Fort Fisher, 
 and particip?,ted at the capture of Fort Anderson 
 and Wilmington, having been all through the march 
 from Atlanta, Georgia, to the sea; was present at 
 the surrender of the rebel general, Joe Johnson, at 
 Goldsboro, North Carolina, and paroled one of his 
 army corps. He also participated in the famous 
 Gilmore scout, and was captured by the rebel John 
 Morgan at Winchester, Kentucky, where he remained 
 a prisoner for three months, having as one of his 
 companions in duress the celebrated Colonel Robert 
 G. Ingersoll. At the battles of Franklin, Tennessee, 
 and Atlanta, Georgia, his gallantry, courage and 
 soldierly qualities were especially conspicuous, and 
 received the highest commendation in the official 
 reports of the commanding general. 
 
 On leaving the army he settled in Chicago, where 
 for a year he was extensively engaged in the lumber 
 trade. Thence he moved to Davenport, Iowa, in 
 the spring of 1867, and built a large flouring mill 
 and elevator, taking into partnership with him S. H. 
 Hancock, Esq., president of the Davenport Board of 
 Trade, and S. F. Gilman, Esq., his son-in-law, and 
 since then has become one of the most extensive 
 mill and elevator owners in the west, being also the 
 proprietors of large grain elevators at Anawan, Illi- 
 nois, and at Wilton, Annita and Atlantic, Iowa. In 
 addition to his other interests. Colonel Dow is one 
 of the largest farmers in the west, owning some fif- 
 teen thousand acres of the finest prairie lands in the 
 States of Illinois and Iowa, one of his farms in 
 Henry county, Illinois, consisting of four thousand 
 acres, all securely fenced and in a high state of cul- 
 tivation. He has been a director of the First Na- 
 tional Bank of Davenport since 1872, and its presi- 
 
 dent since the spring of 1876. This is one of the 
 soundest monetary institutions in the country, and 
 was the first in the nation to open its doors under 
 the national banking law. 
 
 His politics have always been republican, and he is 
 to-day -as keenly alive to the importance of a sound, 
 loyal administration of the affairs of the govern- 
 ment as when traitors and treason held the country 
 by the throat. He served his fellow-citizens for six 
 years in the city council of Davenport with ability 
 and fidelity, presiding over the street committee. 
 
 His religious proclivities lean toward the Baptist 
 church, of which he is a regular attendant and gen- 
 erous supporter, though not in communion. 
 
 He was married on the ist of June, 1859, to Miss 
 Mary Stevens, daughter of Thomas Jefferson Ste- 
 vens, of Canterbury, New Hampshire. They have 
 had four children, only one of whom survives : Susan 
 Amanda, wife of S. F. Gilmore, of Davenport. 
 
 As a man of business. Colonel Dow combines the 
 highest principles of morality with the most consum- 
 mate wisdom and foresight. His transactions, which 
 are large and numerous, are all characterized by a 
 far-reaching intelligence, which seems to forecast 
 the future with an instinct that is almost infallible. 
 Quickness to adapt himself to unexpected events, 
 prompt and decisive in action when he has made up 
 his mind, are among the qualities that have contrib- 
 uted to his great success, added to which is that push 
 and energy which characterize so many prosperous 
 western men. He possesses a genial and affable 
 temperament, is one of the most devoted and un- 
 changeable of friends, and is a man of whom it may 
 be emphatically said, " His word is as good as his 
 bond." 
 
 HON. HENRY L. STOUT, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 THE State of Iowa owes much of her prosperity 
 to the spirit of enterprise and characteristic 
 energy of her business men. While we recall with 
 gratitude and admiration the achievements of our 
 fathers of the past generation, in laying the foun- 
 dations of civilization on our prairies and mines 
 against the protest of the native inhabitants, who 
 contested every foot of their hunting-ground, we 
 should not undervalue the work of to-day. By 
 keen perceptibility and shrewd financiering, our 
 
 workers and thinkers have carried forward the en- 
 terprises put in progress by them beyond the limit 
 of their expectation. Among this class of men 
 Hon. Henry Lane Stout may properly be num- 
 bered. He was born in Huntington county. New 
 Jersey, on the 23d of October, 1814. His father, 
 William Stout, and his mother, Ellen nee Lane, were 
 both natives of New Jersey. His grandfather was 
 a participant in the early history of our government, 
 and fought in the revolutionary war, and at its close 
 
•r"** 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 353 
 
 was a member of the New Jersey legislature for 
 several years. 
 
 Our subject's early boyhood was spent on a farm, 
 where he was reared to habits of economy and in- 
 dustry, which have been of great value to him in all 
 his subsequent life. His educational advantages 
 were confined to those afforded by the common 
 schools of the country, and about one year at an 
 academy. In his sixteenth year he determined to 
 begin life for himself, and accordingly served an 
 apprenticeship to the carpenter's trade until twenty 
 years of ag6. He worked one year in Philadelphia 
 at his trade, and in the spring of 1836 removed to 
 the west, and settled at Dubuque. His object was 
 to grow up with the country, and his whole capital 
 was his trade, his good health, and a hopeful heart. 
 Upon his arrival he took contracts for building, and 
 also engaged in mining, in both of which occupa- 
 tions he was moderately successful. In 1852 he 
 bought an interest in the firm of Knapp, Tainter 
 and Co., dealers in lumber, etc., at Dubuque, which 
 afterward changed to Knapp, Stout and Co., a firm 
 which to-day, without exception, the largest lumber 
 firm in the west, if not in the country. They have 
 everything at first hands, owning their pine lands, 
 steam mills, steamboats, etc. Much of their pros- 
 perity is due to Mr. Stout's enterprise, whose patient 
 endeavors have been successfully rewarded. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that for more than twenty 
 years there has not been any change in this firm 
 by death or otherwise, and their business has been 
 carried on with the greatest harmony during the 
 entire time. 
 
 Mr. Stout was twice elected mayor of Dubuque, 
 and has filled many local offices of honor and trust. 
 He is vice-president of the Commercial Bank, and 
 also vice-president of the Bridge Company, and has 
 been director and stockholder in most of the rail- 
 roads coming to Dubuque, and takes great interest 
 in the development of the enterprises of the city 
 and vicinity. 
 
 He is a member of no church, but attends the 
 Congregational, to which his wife belongs. 
 
 In politics, he is a republican, but his business 
 has engrossed his time, and left none for political 
 matters. 
 
 He was married on the 23d of October, 1844, to 
 Miss Evaline Deming, of Syracuse, New York. Mr. 
 Stout is emphatically a self-made man : commencing 
 life in straitened circumstances, he has, by his own 
 unaided ability, gained for himself an honorable 
 reputation. 
 
 There are lives that are more sensational in their 
 career, but none confer greater benefit on society, 
 or is more honored, than the successful self-made 
 man. 
 
 JAMES B. REEVE, 
 
 MArSVILLTi. 
 
 JAMES B. REEVE, the first settler in FrankHn 
 county, Iowa, was born in Lyme, New London 
 county, Connecticut, in 1817. His parents, Rumsey 
 Reeve and Mary Ann (Baldwin) Reeve, were most ex- 
 emplary people, and instilled into the minds of their 
 children the loftiest sentiments of human freedom 
 and brotherly love. James was the eldest of a fam- 
 ily of ten children. In 182 1 he removed with his 
 parents to New Lyme, Ohio, where he helped his 
 father clear a large farm. 
 
 In 1852 James immigrated to Iowa, settling in 
 Franklin county, near the present site of Maysville. 
 He was the pioneer farmer; selected an excellent 
 tract of land, and in a few years had a well fenced, 
 well improved farm, for a long time second to none, 
 probably, in the county. He was a very unselfish 
 man, and would discommode himself and jeopard- 
 
 ize his financial interests for the sake of helping 
 others., 
 
 During the long and unusually severe winter of 
 1856-57 there was a scarcity of provisions in the 
 county; he went to Iowa City with teams and pur- 
 chased a large quantity of flour. This he freely 
 dealt out to the heads of families, whether they had 
 the means to pay or not, trusting most of them. 
 Some never paid, others were very dilatory in doing 
 it. He lost heavily, and came very near ruining 
 himself financially. 
 
 Mr. Reeve aided in organizing Franklin county; 
 was elected its first judge, and served several years, 
 discharging his duties with great satisfaction. 
 
 In 1862 he went into the army as captain of 
 company H, 32d regiment Iowa Infantry, and it is 
 doubtful if a braver soldier ever left the state. 
 
354 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 He died in 1863, at Fort Pillow, of disease con- 
 tracted at the south, and was buried near the Na- 
 tional Hospital at Memphis. 
 
 When the rebellion broke out, two of his sons 
 preceded him in enlisting, and when the news of his 
 death reached his family, a third son, hardly seven- 
 teen years of age, immediately enlisted, saying that 
 he would fill his father's place as far as he could. 
 
 Mr. Reeve was a radical republican, and usually 
 in advance of his party in progressive sentiment. 
 
 At the age of twenty-four he married Miss Ada- 
 
 line Riggs, daughter of Major Gideon Riggs, of 
 Ashtabula county, Ohio, and they had a large family 
 of children. One of the daughters is superintend- 
 ent of public schools in Franklin county. 
 
 James B. Reeve was six feet and five inches tall, 
 weighed two hundred pounds, and was one of the 
 most athletic men in the state. He had great firm- 
 ness and decision of character, warm sympathies 
 for the oppressed and the poor, and was always do- 
 ing some kindly deed for neighbors, and the unfor- 
 tunate wherever found. 
 
 PROF. A. M. CARPENTER, 
 
 KEOKUK. 
 
 PROFESSOR A. M. Carpenter was born in 
 Lincoln county, Kentucky, on the 12th of De- 
 cember, 1835, and was the youngest son of John 
 Carpenter, Esq., a noted agriculturist of the blue- 
 grass region, who died when the subject of this 
 sketch was only two years of age. He received his 
 primary training in the preparatory department of 
 Center College, under Prof James Graham ; then 
 entered the college proper, where he remained for 
 three years pursuing the studies of mathematics and 
 classics. His physical development not being com- 
 mensurate with his rapid growth, necessitated the 
 abandonment of his collegiate course. After spend- 
 ing several months upon a farm, and regaining his 
 health, he was induced to study medicine. Se- 
 lecting Dr. William Pawling as his preceptor, with 
 whom he read three years, and attended the Uni- 
 versity of Louisville, Kentucky, from which school 
 he received the degree of M.D. in 1854, he prac- 
 ticed during the summer following, and realized 
 sufficient therefrom to defray his expenses in Phil- 
 adelphia, Pennsylvania, for three months, attending 
 lectures at the Jefferson Medical College and the 
 University of Pennsylvania, dividing his time among 
 the hospitals of that city, where he acquired much 
 knowledge of a practical character. Returning to 
 Kentucky, he resolved to make his home in the 
 west, and after traveling through several states de- 
 cided to locate at Keokuk, then a small but promis- 
 ing young city, and settled there in July, 1855. The 
 competition met with there was strong, both as 
 to numbers and prominence, but his ambition led 
 him to the best medical men of the place, with 
 whom he was in frequent association, and in whose 
 
 counsels he sought to conduct his youthful steps 
 aright, both in the social and professional path, and 
 with a fixed purpose and inflexible will, coupled 
 with great industry, secured a foothold in the esti- 
 mation of the people as an earnest and thorough 
 professional worker. In 1856 he was placed in 
 charge of the city hospitals, and appointed prosector 
 to the chair of surgery in the medical department of 
 the then Iowa State University, the duties of which 
 he satisfactorily discharged, meantime pursuing his 
 profession successfully till the outbreak of the war 
 of the rebellion, when, owing to his southern pro- 
 clivities, he was ostracized by many of his patrons. 
 Nothing daunted he determined to remain at his 
 post steadfast to the few who adhered to him, and 
 especially to his relatives in the southern states. 
 Though repeatedly asked to accept a surgeoncy in 
 in the Union army, he could only respectfully de- 
 cline. In the fall of 1865 he had so far advanced 
 in his profession as to win the compliment of an 
 appointment to the chair of theory and practice, of 
 medicine, without solicitation on his part, to the now 
 College of Physicians and Surgeons of Keokuk. 
 The class of that year numbered about forty, that 
 of the present (1877-78) about two hundred and 
 thirty-five, which increase is in part due to his 
 known ability as a teacher, practitioner and ex- 
 temporaneous lecturer. His reputation as an en- 
 gaging, forcible and eloquent speaker has done 
 much to elevate the school in the eyes of the pro- 
 fession in the west. His professional reputation 
 has now reached far beyond the borders of his own 
 state. He has a large and ever-increasing consul- 
 tation practice in almost every direction, which lat- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 355 
 
 ter is due to his wisdom as a diagnostician. He 
 is a member of the American Medical Association, 
 ex vice-president of the Iowa State Medical Society, 
 ex secretary of the Keokuk Medical Society, and ex 
 president of the city board of health. Was ap- 
 pointed chairman of a committee of medical men, 
 by the president of American Medical Association, 
 to organize a state board of health for Iowa, in 
 1876. Is medical director for the Iowa Life Insur- 
 ance Company. Was elected president of the Iowa 
 State Medical Society (at one of the largest assem- 
 blages that ever took place in the state) for the year 
 1878. Is a frequent contributor to the literature of 
 medicine, and is said to be (by authors) the first 
 physician in the United States who used and pub- 
 lished the results of carbolic acid in the sore throat 
 of scarlet fever. 
 
 He was raised an orthodox Presbyterian, but 
 since thinking for himself, is somewhat skeptical.' 
 
 In politics, he is a democrat of the old Jackson 
 kind, and never sought nor would accept an office. 
 In his life he has engaged solely in his profession, 
 and given it his undivided attention. Having a 
 great fondness for agricultural pursuits, he would 
 gladly pursue them, but he is wedded to his pro- 
 fession. He takes great interest in the success of 
 democratic principles, using his interest and influ- 
 ence to preserve the integrity and purity of that party. 
 
 Dr. Carpenter is a man of acknowledged abilities 
 as a physician, and his services as such are recog- 
 nized by a host of appreciating friends. His in- 
 tellect is quick and incisive as well as compre- 
 hensive, his temperament animated, and his style 
 and address forcible and impressive. As a speaker 
 and writer, he is clear and argumentative, arranging 
 his subjects systematically, and clothing his ideas 
 in appropriate words, of which he seems to have a 
 ready command. 
 
 COLONEL ARTHUR T. REEVE, 
 
 HAMPTON. 
 
 ARTHUR T. REEVE (brother of James B.), one 
 . of the leading men of Frankhn county, is a 
 native of Ohio, and was born at New Lyme, Ash- 
 tabula county, on the i8th of December, 1835. The 
 Reeves were a patriotic family : the grandfather of 
 Arthur and three brothers were in the revolution- 
 ary army, and two of them died in a prison-ship. 
 Arthur's father was a farmer, and the son remained 
 ■at home until his nineteenth year, having, meantime, 
 one year's course of study at the Orwell Academy. 
 In 1854 he removed to Iowa, settling at Maysville, 
 six miles from the county seat, farming in the sum- 
 mers and teaching in the winters. In the spring of 
 1858 he went to Buena Vista county, made a claim 
 on the Little Sioux river, but lost it, and late in the 
 same year returned to Franklin county, continuing 
 his agricultural pursuits. The summer of i86o he 
 spent in the mines of Pike's Peak. 
 
 In 1861 he met John Brown, junior, in Chicago, 
 and enlisted in the 7th regiment Kansas Cavalry, 
 better known as the "Jay Hawkers." He started as 
 a private, and became a non-commissioned officer, 
 serving eighteen months. 
 
 As soon as colored men began to be mustered 
 into the Union army, Mr. Reeve was detailed to or- 
 ganize such troops. He soon had such a company 
 
 ready, at Corinth, Mississippi, for the ssth regiment 
 Colored Infantry, and he was appointed its captain. 
 A little later he aided in organizing the 88th regi- 
 ment of such infantry, and was appointed major. 
 Still later he organized a regiment of colored mili- 
 tia, and was made its colonel. 
 
 Near the close of the rebellion Colonel Reeve 
 was detailed for service in the Freedman's Bureau, 
 being appointed superintendent of the same at 
 Memphis. This office he held until January, 1866, 
 -when he returned to his home and farm at Maysville. 
 
 He moved to Hampton in 1870; had previously 
 read law at sundry times ; was admitted to the bar ; 
 and latterly has been in law practice and the real- 
 estate business. 
 
 Colonel Reeve aided in the organization of Buena 
 Vista county in 1858, and was elected judge of the 
 same, serving until he left. He was elected to the 
 same office in Franklin county in 1861, but before 
 qualifying, enlisted in the army, as before stated. 
 He was a member of the board of supervisors of 
 Franklin county from 1867 to 1869, and then elected 
 treasurer of the county, serving four years. He is 
 one of the regents of the State University. 
 
 Colonel Reeve has always been a hater of human 
 oppression; for many years was an out-and-out 
 
356 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART . 
 
 abolitionist, and has never been ashamed of his 
 political record. He glories in it. He votes the 
 republican ticket. 
 
 On the 2d of April, 1858, he was married to Miss 
 H. Lavinia Soper, of Maysville, formerly of St. Law- 
 rence county, New York. .They have had seven 
 children, and six are living. 
 
 Colonel Reeve is a positive man. His convictions 
 of duty are strong, and when his mind is made up 
 no power on earth or under the earth can swerve 
 him an iota. He has been a very useful man in the 
 county, and is not unknown in the state. He came 
 very near receiving the republican nomination for 
 treasurer of state four years ago. 
 
 HON. JAMES RENWICK, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 TAMES RENWICK, retired merchant and ex- 
 -' mayor of the city of Davenport, Iowa, was born 
 at Blantyre, Scotland, on the 6th of April, 1805. 
 He is a direct descendant of the old covenanter 
 stock of Presbyterians. He received a good educa- 
 tion in his earlier days, and on leaving school ac- 
 cepted a situation as book-keeper in his father's 
 woolen mills at Blantyre, where he remained until 
 his marriage, when he went to Liverpool, England, 
 and engaged in business as merchant and shipowner. 
 In 1845 a large company was formed for the man- 
 ufacture of lard oil in the United States, of which 
 he was one of the directors. By correspondence with 
 friends in this country, Davenport, Iowa, was se- 
 lected as the place to establish the factory. To 
 this end he emigrated to America and settled at 
 Davenport, which place has been his residence since. 
 
 The company failed to carry out their project, and 
 he embarked in the grain and commission and after- 
 ward in lumber and real-estate business, in all of 
 which he was eminently successful, except the real 
 estate, acquiring a fortune, and retiring from active 
 business in 1859. Mr. Renwick has done much in 
 developing the resources and enterprises of the 
 country, and has always been liberal in their ad- 
 vancement. 
 
 In religion, he has been from youth a Presbyterian, 
 and a liberal supporter of that church. 
 
 He has filled a number of public offices with 
 honor to himself, and served one term as mayor of 
 the city, though never taking an active part in polit- 
 ical matters. At over three-score and ten his step 
 is still firm, his form erect, and his countenance cheer- 
 ful, and he bids fair to see a ripe, mellow old age. 
 
 REV. STEPHEN N. FELLOWS, D. D., 
 
 IOWA CITT. 
 
 THE subject of the following sketch is a fair 
 example of what may be attained by perse- 
 verance, industry and energy. He was born on the 
 30th of May, 1830, in North Sandwich, New Hamp- 
 shire, and is the youngest of eight sons of Stephen 
 and Rachel (McGaffey) Fellows, and of English 
 descent. His ancestors were among the early set- 
 tlers, coming to this country in the seventeenth cen- 
 tury. When four years old his father and family 
 removed to Dixon, Illinois; there in the midst of a 
 wilderness and surrounded by Indians, and amidst 
 the privations of wild frontier life, he spent his boy- 
 hood. 
 
 In 1840, by the death of his father, the family 
 were left to struggle with poverty and care for 
 
 themselves. His educational advantages were very 
 meager, but throughout his boyhood he had a thirst 
 for knowledge that led him to '' devour " books and 
 newspapers within his reach. Hard work and hard 
 fare upon the farm developed a strong physical 
 frame, and prepared him for the great struggle for 
 knowledge. 
 
 At eighteen he entered Rock River Seminary, at 
 Mount Morris, Illinois, but at the end of the fourth 
 term, having spent all of his money, was obliged to 
 discontinue. 
 
 In 185 1 he entered the Asbury University, at 
 Green Castle, Indiana, and by teaching, working on 
 farms, and self-boarding, secured the funds necessary 
 to finish his course, taking the degree of A.B. in 1854. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 357 
 
 During his junior and senior year he served as 
 tutor in Latin and mathematics. 
 
 Just previous to graduating he was elected pro- 
 fessor of mathematics and natural sciences in Cor- 
 nell College, at Mount Vernon, Iowa. This he 
 accepted and remained six years. His chief desire 
 in seeking an education was to labor in the field 
 as a minister of the gospel, and only engaged in 
 teaching in order to earn money to pay debts, so as 
 to enter upon his ministerial work unembarrassed. 
 In i860 he resigned his position in the college to 
 engage in the pastoral work. Previous to this, in 
 1856, he had joined the upper Iowa conference of 
 the Methodist Episcopal church. For seven years 
 he labored in the ministry, filling the following 
 charges: 1860-61, Dyersville, Iowa; 1861-63, Tip- 
 ton, Iowa; 1863-66, Lyons, Iowa; 1866-67", Mar- 
 shalltown. 
 
 In August, 1867, by unanimous vote and without 
 solicitation, he was elected to his present position 
 in the State University. In 187 1 he received the 
 degree of D.D. from Cornell College. 
 
 Dr. Fellows has ever been an earnest worker in 
 the cause of temperance, and was active for years 
 in the Good Templars society. He has been for 
 eighteen years a member of the Masonic fraternity, 
 and received all degrees to and including the knight 
 
 templar, and is now most excellent prelate in Pales- 
 tine Commandery at Iowa City. 
 
 In religious views he is very liberal, though he 
 has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
 church since his sixteenth year, and a minister 
 since his twenty-second year ; he supplies the vari- 
 ous pulpits, in his city, of all denominations. 
 
 Dr. Fellows was raised in the republican school 
 of politics, but is in no way a partisan. 
 
 He was married in 1856 to Miss Sarah L. Matson, 
 daughter of Dr. S. G. Matson, of Anamosa, a lady 
 of high attainments and distinguished for a marked 
 excellence of womanly arid christian virtues. They 
 have had six children, four of whom, two sons and 
 two daughters, still survive. 
 
 Dr. Fellows has pursued his chosen course with 
 untiring zeal, and with a success wliich has already 
 earned for him no inferior rank among the leading 
 educators of the land. As a teacher, he is distin- 
 guished by clearness of statement, comprehensive- 
 ness of grasp, a synthetical method, intense ear- 
 nestness, and an impatience of superficiality. As a 
 preacher, he is vigorous in thought, argumentative, 
 fervid and impressive. If his chief characteristic 
 as a professor and a pulpit orator were to be ex- 
 pressed in one word, that word would certainly be 
 momentum. 
 
 CHARLES C. PARKER, M. D., 
 
 FATETTE. 
 
 CHARLES COLEMAN PARKER was born 
 on the i2th of September, 1823, in Clermont 
 county, Ohio. His father. Rev. Daniel Parker, a 
 native of Newburyport, Massachusetts, immigrated 
 westward at an early age, and spent all of his active 
 life as a preacher of the gospel, believing in the final 
 restoration of all mankind to holiness and happi- 
 ness. For several years he was pastor of the First 
 Restorationist Church, of Cincinnati, living at the 
 same time on a small farm on the Ohio river, 
 twenty miles from the city. He died at the age of 
 seventy-six. The mother of Charles, Priscilla M. 
 Parker, was born in Litchfield, Maine. Her father, 
 Lieutenant Hugh Mulloy, was an officer in the rev- 
 olutionary war, participating in the battles of Sara- 
 toga and Ticonderoga, and one or two others, and 
 who died in Ohio at the age of ninety-three. Mrs. 
 Parker lived to her eighty-second year. 
 
 The early years of Dr. Parker were spent upon 
 the farm, when the advantages of schools were very 
 limited, but this lack was greatly compensated by 
 the regular instruction of his mother, who was a 
 woman of much intelligence, and a teacher of rare 
 ability. Later, however, he attended one term at 
 the Pleasant Hill Academy, when his eldest brother, 
 James K. Parker, established, at the homestead, a 
 school called Clermont Academy, where the subject 
 of this sketch attended several terms, and where the 
 rest of the family, seven in number, were educated. 
 Charles, who was the third son, spent a few years in 
 teaching, and in 1845 commenced the study of 
 medicine with Dr. William Johnson, of Moscow, in 
 his native county, and graduated at Starling Med- 
 ical College, Columbus, in 1850. He began practice 
 at his native place, but was invited to Columbus 
 in 1852 to act as demonstrator of anatomy in the 
 
358 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 school from which he graduated. The peculiar ex- 
 posure of his position as demonstrator, the confine- 
 ment of the dissecting room, etc., induced disease, 
 by which he was so prostrated that he was unable to 
 complete the second year, and caused him to resign 
 and leave the city of Columbus, where he had al- 
 ready a respectable and growing practice. Several 
 months before this step was taken, October 4, 1853, 
 he had married Miss Sarah Maria, daughter of 
 William P. and Sarah Lakin, of Point Pleasant, Ohio, 
 and the doctor now returned with his young wife to 
 her mother's, until his removal to Fayette, Iowa, in 
 November, 1855. 
 
 One circumstance which perhaps more than an- 
 other determined his location at Fayette was the 
 fact of the establishment here of an institution of 
 learning, in the success of which he took a lively 
 interest. He has been a member of its board of 
 trustees almost continuously since 1856 ; sometimes, 
 in its earlier history, he taught classes in some of 
 the natural sciences, when otherwise there would 
 have been a vacancy in the faculty, and at other 
 times giving a few lectures only in physiology, illus- 
 trated by dissections and demonstrations with the 
 use of his own microscope. This service he always 
 rendered for the love of it, neither asking nor receiv- 
 ing compensation, except when the executive board 
 sometimes returned the compliment by remitting tui- 
 tion fees for his sons. 
 
 Dr. Parker has resided at Fayette for twenty-two 
 years, with only a few temporary absences. He 
 spent the summer of i860 in the Rocky Mountains, 
 the winter of 1861-62 in the army, and the winter 
 of 1862-63 in Chicago. He was surgeon of the 
 1 2th Iowa Infantry, but his health gave way, and he 
 was obliged to resign. He was at the capture of 
 Forts Henry and Donelson, and the battle of Pitts- 
 burgh Landing. 
 
 Soon after his return from the south he was ap- 
 pointed examining surgeon for pensioners, and still 
 holds that position. 
 
 When the Hospital for the Insane at Independ- 
 ence was established, his name was inserted in the 
 original bill as a member of the board of trustees 
 for its organization, and he served in that capacity 
 four years. He took an active part in organizing 
 the Fayette County Medical Society, was its presi- 
 dent the first five years, and has attended every one 
 of its meetings. 
 
 The reputation of Dr. Parker as a medical prac- 
 titioner and surgeon is second to no man's in Fayette 
 
 county. In difficult surgical cases he is often con- 
 sulted by parties in adjoining counties. Whatever 
 else may have temporarily engaged his attention, 
 he has always considered the practice of medicine 
 as his life work, and believes the obligations of his 
 chosen profession to be as sacred as he would those 
 of the gospel ministry. 
 
 Up to 1854 Dr. Parker was a democrat, with anti- 
 slavery proclivities, and since the republican party 
 was formed he has voted with it. He is also an 
 advocate of woman suffrage. 
 
 His religious connection is with the Methodist 
 Episcopal church, of which he is a nominal mem- 
 ber. As he expresses it, he " married into Method- 
 ism," his wife being of a family prominent in the 
 early history of that church in the west. He al- 
 lowed her preference to influence him in the choice 
 of his church relation, and has never regretted it. 
 Rev. Benjamin Lakin, a noted pioneer Methodist, 
 was an uncle of Dr. Parker's wife, and spent the last 
 years of his eventful life as a member of the family 
 in which Mrs. Parker was reared. 
 
 She, it is simple justice to add, is a woman of most 
 amiable qualities, one who "looketh well to her 
 household," and in whose heart, as well as on her 
 "tongue, is the law of kindness." She has had six 
 children, only four of them now living. The two 
 eldest are sons, and students in the Upper Iowa 
 University, located at Fayette. One of Mrs. Par- 
 ker's brothers, William B., has been a member of 
 both houses of the general assembly of Iowa, and 
 was clerk of the court of Fayette county for six 
 years. Another brother, James H., is auditor of 
 Fayette county. He aided for three years in crush- 
 ing the rebellion. He went into the army very 
 young, as sergeant, bore the flag of the 3d Iowa In- 
 fantry at Blue Mills, Missouri, Shiloh, and other 
 battles, and was promoted for his gallantry. He 
 came out as lieutenant. 
 
 Although past fifty-four years of age, Dr: Parker 
 has lost none of his mental activity, and none of his 
 love of study. He keeps thoroughly posted on the 
 theory and practice of medicine, delights in ana- 
 tomical investigations, and occasionally indulges in 
 scientific pursuits, outside his profession. Recently 
 he has been reviewing his botanical studies, for 
 which, and collateral branches, he has great enthu- 
 siasm. His love for such studies he attributes to 
 the influence of his mother, who taught him the ru- 
 diments of botany when he was a little child. He 
 has a collection of herbaceous plants which he 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 359 
 
 made nearly thirty years ago in Ohio, and he has 
 nearly every kind of such plants found in the flora 
 of Fayette county. In this branch one of his sons, 
 Daniel M., studies with him, and both make their 
 explorations and analyses con aniore. 
 
 Dr. Parker is small in stature, not weighing over 
 
 one hundred and thirty pounds, yet is of good pro- 
 portions, and perfectly erect ; has always taken su- 
 perb care of himself; is of a nervous-sanguine tem- 
 perament ; has a quick, elastic step, and illustrates, 
 in his busy and laborious life, what good habits may 
 do to preserve the vigor of early manhood. 
 
 GEORGE QUINBY, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 GEORGE QUINBY was born at Monmouth, 
 Illinois, on the 3d of January, 1852. His 
 father was Hon. Ivory Quinby, one of the most 
 prominent men in the western part of Illinois, as 
 also one of the most popular. He was an early 
 settler, and did much for the advancement of the 
 state to its present proud position. He was an in- 
 timate friend of Stephen A. Douglass, whom he 
 valued highly. On his arrival in Illinois he first 
 went into the mercantile business, but, finding it 
 unsuited to him, commenced the practice of law ; 
 was elected judge, and served a number of years 
 upon the bench ; retiring from which he went into 
 the banking business, in which he remained until 
 his death, in 1869. In life he had gained the con- 
 fidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens, and his 
 death was regretted by an unusually large circle of 
 friends and acquaintances. 
 
 His mother's maiden name was Mary E. Pierce, 
 who, as well as his father, was a native of Maine. 
 George's early education was gained at the common 
 schools and at Monmouth College. In February, 
 
 1873, he removed to Burlington and went into the 
 general merchandise business, which he conducted 
 with success during a period of one year, and in 
 1874 he opened an establishment for the sale of 
 musical instruments and the publication of music, 
 which is now the largest in that line in Iowa, and 
 the largest west of the Mississippi river under the 
 control of one man. His sales during the first 
 year were about sixty thousand dollars, and by his 
 push and good management he has been enabled 
 to raise them to more than one hundred thousand 
 dollars, and they are still steadily increasing, and 
 the business will soon rank among the foremost in 
 the United States. He has been a member of the 
 Methodist Episcopal church since his twelfth year. 
 He is republican in his principles, but in no way a 
 politician. 
 
 He was married, on the 7th of November, 187 1, 
 to Miss Melissa J. Wotring, of Burlington. 
 
 Mr. Quinby's publications are found throughout 
 the west, and his name is fast becoming a house- 
 hold word. 
 
 JAMES C. PEASLEY, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 TAMES C. PEASLEY, president of the National 
 •J State Bank of Burlington, Iowa, was born in 
 Henderson county, Illinois, on the 30th of March, 
 1840, and is the son of Francis J. C. and Mary E. 
 Peasley ne'e Grannis. His father was one of the 
 early settlers, having emigrated from Lower Canada 
 to Illinois about 1835, and removed to Burlington 
 in 1842, where he resided until his death. He was 
 first a merchant and afterward a banker, being at 
 the time of his death the senior partner of the 
 banking house of F. J. C. Peasley and Co. ; his part- 
 36 
 
 ner being F. W. Brooks, who continued the business 
 until 1854, when he was succeeded by the firm of 
 Coolbaugh and Brooks. Their business was merged 
 into the Burlington branch of the State Bank of 
 Iowa in 1859, which was again changed into the 
 National State Bank in 1865. The father was of 
 decided literary taste, and had a carefully selected 
 library, which was well used by his children, and 
 fixed in them a taste for books and reading never 
 effaced. His death, in 1852, was regretted by an 
 unusually wide circle of friends and acquaintances. 
 
36o 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 Our subject was at Illinois College, in Jacksonville, 
 Illinois, two or three years, but did not graduate, and 
 left in i860. His desire was to acquire- a business 
 education, and not long after returning from Jack- 
 sonville he secured a situation in the Des Moines 
 County Savings Bank, an institution doing business 
 in Burlington under the management of W. W. White. 
 In 1864 he received the appointment of assistant 
 treasurer of the Burlington and Missouri River Rail- 
 road Company, where he remained until the spring 
 of 1866, when he became cashier of the National 
 State Bank, at that time under the presidency of his 
 
 father's old partner, F. W. Brooks. After the death 
 of Mr. Brooks, in the spring of 1869, Mr. E. D. Rand 
 was elected president, and he was succeeded by Mr. 
 Peasley in the spring of 187 1. Mr. Peasley went 
 into the banking business frorn choice, and has been 
 very successful, and though still young, takes rank 
 as one of the leading bankers and financiers of the 
 state. 
 
 In politics, he is a republican, though he is in no 
 wise a politician, never having filled a public office. 
 
 He was married on the loth of October, 1866, to 
 Miss Louisa S. Green, of Lawrenceville, New Jersey. 
 
 JOHN C. SHRADER, M.D., 
 
 IOWA CITY. 
 
 WHILE the lives of self-made men seldom 
 abound in sensational incidents, there is an 
 energy, a perseverance and an underflow of char- 
 acter that lends them a charm, an attractiveness and 
 worth that merits admiration and careful thought. 
 We need not look among those of royal blood to 
 find lives worthy to be recorded. Among us they 
 are the outcome of a stern conflict with opportuni- 
 ties made and conquered to oneself, and are at once 
 the support and the proud result of this grand 
 American civilization. 
 
 Dr. Shrader began his career a poor boy, and 
 has by his own effort risen to an honorable position 
 both in professional and social life. He was born 
 in Washington county, Ohio, on the 24th of April, 
 1830. His parents were John and Eliza Ann (Mel- 
 vin) Shrader. His mother was a descendant of the 
 old Dearborn family, of New Hampshire. John's 
 boyhood was spent on the farm, and he was raised, 
 as were the families of that day, to habits of econ- 
 omy and industry. Owing to the illness of his father, 
 on him, as eldest son, mainly devolved the support 
 of the family, which denied him much opportunity 
 for early education. A college education was be- 
 gun, but abandoned for lack of means to complete 
 it. But native talent and earnest study in later 
 life have made the lack of college training imper- 
 ceptible, and placed him the compeer of men with 
 the culture of schools. 
 
 While young, he had the desire to devote him- 
 self to the profession of medicine, and to this end 
 all his energies were bent. While at home he pur- 
 sued his studies under the direction of Dr, John 
 
 Hemphill, and filled the hours between teaching 
 with studious application to his work of medicine. 
 Removing to the west in 1855, he located in Linn 
 county, Iowa, and engaged in farming and stock 
 raising. This he continued successfully till the crisis 
 of 1857-8, which wrecked him along with thou- 
 sands of others in the west. Leaving the farm, he 
 assisted in the organization of Western College, in 
 Linn county, afterward becoming one of its first 
 instructors. His new occupation afforded him the 
 opportunity of resuming his studies with renewed 
 vigor, under the direction at first of Dr. Crouse, and 
 afterward under that of Dr. Parmenter, then a pro- 
 fessor in the college. He resigned his place in the 
 school, attended medical lectures, and was fairly 
 at work in a rapidly increasing business when he 
 was commissioned, by Governor Kirkwood, cap- 
 tain in the 2 2d Iowa Infantry (Colonel Stone's regi- 
 ment). While serving with his regiment as cap- 
 tain he was detailed for duty on General Fitz- 
 Henry Warren's staff, and served for a time in 1864 
 as provost-marshal general of Texas. Returning to 
 his regiment, he was soon afterward appointed its 
 surgeon, with rank of major, by Governor Stone, 
 and on the removal of his regiment to the eastern 
 department, was chosen one of the operating sur- 
 geons of the second division, nineteenth army corps. 
 After the battle of Winchester he had charge of 
 one of the largest hospitals in Winchester, Virginia. 
 After rejoining his regiment he remained with it till 
 it was mustered out. He was presented in the name 
 of his regiment with a complete set of surgical instru- 
 ments, on the several cases of which was engraved : 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DlCTIONARr. 
 
 363 
 
 Presented to Surgeon John C. Shrader, by the officers 
 and men of the 22d regiment, Iowa Infantry ; in apprecia- 
 tion of his skill as a physician and surgeon, and as a tribute 
 of love and esteem from his comrades in arms. 
 
 On leaving the service he entered upon the prac- 
 tice of his profession at Iowa City, where he has 
 by successful practice made himself one of the 
 leading physicians of the city, and has built up a 
 large and remunerative business. Upon the estab- 
 lishment of the medical department of the Univer- 
 sity of Iowa he was appointed, by the board of re- 
 gents, professor of obstetrics and diseases of women 
 and children. He still holds his position in the 
 department, which is becoming so justly popular in 
 Iowa and the northwest. He is a physician to the 
 board of health of Iowa City, member of the Iowa 
 City Medical Society, the Iowa and Illinois Cen- 
 tral District Medical Society, the Eastern Iowa Dis- 
 trict Medical Society, the Poweshiek County Med- 
 ical Society and the Iowa State Medical Society. 
 
 He was made a Mason in December, 1864, at 
 Hiram Lodge No. 21, at Winchester, Virginia, one 
 of the oldest lodges in the United States. He was 
 
 recommended by General Washburn and General 
 Granger, then commanding the second division, 
 nineteenth army corps. Since, he has held offices 
 in Royal Arch Chapter and as Knight Templar, 
 and is now eminent commander of Palestine Com- 
 mandery No. 2, at Iowa City. He also belongs to 
 the order of Knights of Pythias and the Ancient 
 Order of United Workingmen. 
 
 The doctor is a member of no church, and is 
 liberal in his religious opinions. 
 
 He has been a republican since the organization 
 of that party, but his profession engrosses his time 
 and leaves none for political matters. 
 
 He has been twice married: on the ist of Jan- 
 uary, 1852, to Miss Lydia P. Evans, of Washington 
 county, Ohio, who died in 187 1. His second wife 
 was Miss Maggie A. Carter, of Iowa City. 
 
 Such is the brief outline of the life of one who, 
 struggling through trials, has worked his way from 
 obscurity to a place of high esteem ; who has per- 
 formed a work the influence of which shall live in 
 the hearts of those who have known him. 
 
 ANTOINE Le CLAIRE, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 ANTOINE Le CLAIRE, one of the founders, 
 and during his life-time the leading citizen, 
 of Davenport, was born on the 15 th of December, 
 1797, at Saint Joseph, Michigan. His father, Antoine 
 Le Claire, was a French Canadian, whose ancestors 
 settled in Canada during the time of its colonial re- 
 lationship to the French crown. His mother was a 
 full-blooded Indian, and the granddaughter of a 
 Pottawatomie chief. At this time the territory of 
 the northwest, out of which half-a-dozen mighty 
 states have been formed, was peopled almost exclu- 
 sively by the red-man, with here and there a '' pale- 
 face," who was fearless enough to brave the perils of 
 a frontier life among the dusky denizens of the 
 wilderness. 
 
 The father of Antoine Le Claire was one of these 
 hardy pioneers of civilization. In 1808 he estab- 
 lished a trading post at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, ex- 
 changing manufactured articles for various kinds of 
 furs. In the following year he enlarged his opera- 
 tions, taking into partnership with him John Kinzie, 
 of Chicago (then Fort Dearborn), Illinois, and for 
 several years did a profitable business in that line. 
 
 In 1812, though surrounded with the Indian tribes 
 with whom he was trading, and who, through the 
 influence of British emissaries, were generally hos- 
 tile to the United States. Mr. Le Claire espoused 
 the American cause, and engaged actively in the ser- 
 vice. He was in the contest at Peoria, where, with 
 others, he was taken prisoner and confined at Alton, 
 Illinois, but was released during the same year. 
 
 At this period, at the solicitation of Governor 
 Clarke, of Missouri, Antoine Le Claire, our subject, 
 entered the government service, and was placed at 
 school, that he might acquire a proper knowledge of 
 the English language, the French being his vernacu- 
 lar. In 1818 he acted as interpreter under Captain 
 George Davenport, at Fort Armstrong (Rock Island), 
 with whom he was afterward intimately associated 
 in the founding and developing of the city of Dav- 
 enport. In the same year he removed to Portage 
 Des Sioux, Saint Charles county, Missouri, where he 
 married the granddaughter of the Sac chief, Acoqua 
 (the Kettle), and was so*n after sent to Arkansas to 
 watch the movements of the Indians in that locaHty, 
 where he remained several years ; was returned to 
 
364 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTION ART. 
 
 Fort Armstrong in 1827, and was official interpreter 
 in 1832, when the treaty was made by which the 
 United States purchased of the Sac and Fox tribes 
 of Indians the territory west of the Mississippi river. 
 
 In consequence of the breaking out of cholera 
 among the soldiers at Fort Armstrong, the conven- 
 tion, which concluded the treaty, which would 
 otherwise have been held in the fort, was transferred 
 to the Iowa shore. There the great chief of the 
 Sacs, Keokuk, made a reserve of a section of land 
 which he donated to Mr. Le Claire's wife, request- 
 ing, as an only condition, that he (Mr. Le Claire) 
 should build his house on the section, and on the 
 spot then occupied by the marquee of General 
 Scott, during the convention that framed the treaty. 
 The condition was afterward filled to the letter, and 
 the Le Claire mansion, which was occupied by his 
 widow until her death, on the i8th of October, 1876, 
 in her seventy-sixth year, was one of the most ele- 
 gant and ornate of the city, and crowned the brow of 
 one of the most picturesque sites on the " Father of 
 Waters." The Sacs and Foxes also gave him another 
 section at the head of the rapids, where the town 
 of Le Claire (named after him) now stands. The 
 Pottawatomies, in the treaty of Prairie du Chien, re- 
 served two sections on the Illinois side, which they 
 also presented to Mr. Le Claire. The flourishing 
 town of Moline is situated on this reserve. These 
 treaties were ratified by congress during the follow- 
 ing winter, and in the spring of 1833, Mr. Le Claire 
 erected a small building or "shanty" in the then 
 Fox village, " Morgan," which had occupied this 
 ground for years previously. Of the tribe of which 
 this was the metropolis, Maquopom was the head 
 warrior, and Poweshiek was head chief. In the 
 autumn of 1834 the Sacs and Foxes removed from 
 this point to Cedar river. 
 
 The Indians being thus all removed, and the in- 
 tercourse of the government with them at Rock 
 Island being thus ended, Mr. Le Claire was no 
 longer required as an interpreter at this point, but, 
 as will be seen farther dewn, his services in this 
 capacity were subsequently required on several oc- 
 casions. 
 
 In 1836 he was appointed postmaster of Daven- 
 port, to which point mails. come once a week from 
 the east via Chicago, and once in two weeks from 
 Dubuque via Davenport, to Fort Des Moines (now 
 Montrose). Postage on half-ounce letters at that 
 time was twenty-five cents. The postmaster used 
 to carry the mail across the river in his pocket, and 
 
 his emolument for the first three months was seventy- 
 five cents. Mr. Le Claire was also appointed justice 
 of the peace, to settle all matters of difference be- 
 tween 'the whites and Indians. His jurisdiction ex- 
 tended over all the territory purchased of the Sacs 
 and Foxes west of the Mississippi river, from Du- 
 buque on the north to Burlington on the south. 
 The population of Burlington was at this time about 
 two hundred, of Dubuque two hundred and fifty, 
 and of Davenport less than one hundred. Mr. 
 Le Claire was an accomplished linguist, speaking 
 some twelve or fourteen diiferent dialects, as well as 
 French and English, and was present as interpreter 
 at the treaty with the Great and Little Osages, at 
 St. Louis, Missouri, in 1825 ; with the Chippewas, at 
 Prairie du Chien, in 1829; with the Winnebagoes, at 
 the same place, in August of the same year; at the 
 same place, in 1826, with the Sacs and Foxes; same 
 place with the Winnebagoes, in 1832 ; at Fort Arm- 
 strong, held on the Iowa side in the latter year ; at 
 Davenport, with Sacs and Foxes, in 1836 ; at Wash- 
 ing, District of Columbia, with various tribes, in 
 1837 ; and with the same tribes at Sac and Fox 
 agency, in Iowa territory, in 1842. 
 
 Mr. Le Claire was one of the original proprietors 
 of Davenport, and was throughout the remainder of 
 his life one of its most active and enterprising busi- 
 ness men. He possessed great wealth for a man of 
 his day, and improved the city in every way in his 
 power by a liberal expenditure of his large income. 
 He erected churches, hotels, and other public build- 
 ings, at his own expense. Saint Margaret's, whose 
 spire reaches from the lofty bluff till it almost seems 
 to touch the quiet stars or to mingle with the cloudy 
 glories of a summer's day, was built and furnished by 
 the munificence of Mr. Le Claire. Everywhere over 
 the fair city of Davenport are scattered improve- 
 ments, each of which elegantly and appropriately 
 memorialize his generosity. 
 
 His progress from the small white house on the 
 depot grounds to the palatial mansion on the bluffs, 
 his physical increase from a small frame to one of 
 the most majestic and portly embodiments of the 
 genus homo, present a fine type both of his increase 
 in wealth and the growth of the city which he was 
 mainly instrumental in founding. It is to be re- 
 gretted that a history of his life, embracing its lesser 
 details, could not have been obtained, as his whole 
 career was replete with stirring incidents and ro- 
 mantic adventures. His name, however, will not 
 be very soon forgotten, for it is recorded in the na- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 365 
 
 tional archives, inscribed in lofty spire and sacred 
 altar, and in wall and street in the city of which he 
 is the parent. But more enduring than all these 
 memorials of parchment, wood-work and masonry, 
 it is written upon the hearts of all who knew him, 
 that he was a philanthropist and a christian. 
 
 In 1859 the firm of Cook and Sargeant, bankers, 
 of Davenport, and for whom he had become se- 
 curity, failed, involving the estate of our subject in 
 liabilities amounting to over one hundred thousand 
 dollars, which, mainly owing to the panic which 
 then prevailed, rendering a sale of his property im- 
 practicable, seriously embarrassed him financially, 
 and probably hastened his death, which occurred 
 
 on the 25th of September, 1861. The affairs of the 
 estate are now nearly settled up, the claims all met, 
 and a residuary estate valued at two hundred and 
 fifty thousand dollars remains to be divided among 
 his heirs, embracing some thirty nephews and nieces 
 of both sides of the house. He left no children of 
 his own. 
 
 His nephew, Louis Le Claire, Esq., has had chief 
 charge of the winding up of the affairs of the estate, 
 and the result reflects the highest credit upon his 
 executive ability. A brother of our subject, David 
 A. Le Claire, is still living, and has been for many 
 years one of the most expert pilots on the Missis- 
 sippi river. 
 
 HON. IRVING W. CARD, 
 
 MASON CITT. 
 
 IRVING WATSON CARD is a native of Ohio, 
 being born in Deerfield, Portage county, on the 
 19th of May, 1834. His parents were Silas Card 
 and Mary Gibbs Card. His father was a physician, 
 a very excellent man, who died at Mason City, Iowa, 
 in March, 1874, his widow is the postmistress at 
 Mason City. 
 
 Until about nineteen years of age Irving spent 
 most of his time at school, concluding his literary 
 studies in an academy at Lima, Ohio. 
 
 The family moved to Vinton, Iowa, in the autumn 
 of 1854, and the next spring the son engaged in sur- 
 veying, removing, however, soon after to Mason City, 
 Cerro Gordo county, where he continued this busi- 
 ness. Two years later he went to Charles City, Floyd 
 county, and studied law with G. G. and R. G. Rein- 
 iger, being admitted to the bar in 1859. He formed 
 a partnership with the Reinigers and practiced in 
 Charles City until 1861. In February of the next 
 year Mr. Card returned to Mason City, and there 
 remained part of the time : in connection with the 
 practice of law he carried on the real-estate business. 
 The firm of Card and Stanberry, and later that of 
 Card and Miller, were extensive both in the practice 
 of law and in land operations. They were known 
 far and wide alike for the extent of their business 
 and their honorable method of transacting it. Ow- 
 ing to ill health, Mr. Card retired from business in 
 1873, and has not resumed it. 
 
 During the years 1863 and 1864 Mr. Card was 
 deputy provost-marshal for the sixth congressional 
 
 district, taking charge of the enlisted troops and 
 looking after deserters. In the latter business he 
 was very expert, making a record well known and 
 remembered in northern Iowa. 
 
 Mr. Card was elected district attorney for the 
 twelfth judicial district in 1868, and served until 
 just before the close of the four years. On sending 
 in his resignation to Governor Carpenter, he received 
 the following reply, dated at Des Moines, on the 31st 
 of August, 1872 : 
 
 Hon. J. W. Card,— Z>ear Sir: Your resignation of the 
 office of district attorney for the twelfth judicial district 
 came to hand yesterday. In compliance with your request, 
 I accept your resignation, and in doing so you will permit 
 me to express my regret that you are impelled to take this 
 step. Your faithful service to the state has been a credit 
 to the judiciary and an honor to yourself. In view of your 
 valuable experience, which, in addition to acknowledged 
 legal ability, fits you better than any other man for the 
 difficult and important duties of public prosecutor, I can- 
 not but regret the responsibility it will devolve on me of 
 naming a successor. With the best wishes for your future 
 success and happiness, I am 
 
 Your friend, C. C. Carpenter. 
 
 This letter properly characterizes his official career. 
 In 1870 Mr. Card was a candidate for district judge, 
 and led the convention for three hundred and sixty- 
 six ballots, and was defeated on the next ballot by 
 one and three-fifths of a vote, Hon. G. W. Ruddick, 
 of Waverly, being the successful candidate. Such 
 a number of ballotings for one candidate is almost 
 unprecedented in the history of American politics. 
 
 Mr. Card has always been an active republican. 
 In 1872 he was one of the delegates at large from 
 Iowa to the republican national convention. 
 
366 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 He is a Mason, and has occupied the chair both 
 in the lodge and chapter. 
 
 On the i2th of August, i86o, he was married to 
 with Miss Jennie C. Jackson, of Charles City. They 
 have had one child, which died in infancy. 
 
 Mr. Card was one of the leaders in bringing the 
 
 Iowa branch of the Milwaukee and St. Paul rail- 
 road to Mason City ; is a very influential and public- 
 spirited man, and has done as much, probably, to 
 build up the home of his adoption as any resident 
 of the place. His moral character is excellent, and 
 he has the highest respect of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 HENRY GABBERT, 
 
 BLUE GRASS. 
 
 AMONG the earlier pioneer settlers of Scott 
 iV county and the state, and one who has seen 
 the rapid rise of this section for more than a quarter 
 of a century, and one who in days gone by was to 
 the front and bore the heat and burden of the day, 
 and saw his adopted state takes its place from a terri- 
 tory in the bright galaxy of states of our Union, is 
 enrolled the name of Henry Gabbert. 
 
 He was born in Overton county, Tennessee, on 
 the 19th of March, 1821. His parents were David 
 and Catherine Gabbert nde Giles. His father, a 
 native of Virginia and his mother of North Carolina. 
 His father was a soldier in the war of 1812, serving 
 on the frontiers of Ohio in General Harrison's bri- 
 gade and in Colonel Barber's regiment, in which his 
 brother was an officer. His ancestors were in the 
 revolutionary war, and took part in forming our free 
 institutions. He had few opportunities for educa- 
 tion, as the schools of that day were few ; his studies 
 were confined to the common-school and ordinary 
 branches. Mr. Gabbert has lived successively on 
 
 the frontiers of Indiana and Illinois, and at five 
 years of age removed with his father's family to the 
 west, and settled in Iowa in the spring of 1835. 
 Here his father had located a claim, onto which 
 he went, and for the first two years had charge of 
 the ferry-boat at Buffalo, owned and run by Captain 
 Clark of the same place. He has followed farming 
 for years, adopting this calling from tfie first. 
 
 In politics, he is a democrat, one of the original 
 old stock, to whose principles and precepts he is 
 an adherent. He has neyer been a candidate for 
 office, and is not active in political matters. His son, 
 William H. Gabbett, is a promising young member 
 of the bar at Davenport, and is at present clerk of 
 the district and circuit courts of Scott county. 
 
 Mr. Gabbert was married on the 28th of Decem- 
 ber, 1848, to Miss Eliza J. McGarvey, of Holmes 
 county, Ohio. 
 
 He is a genial gentleman, observant as he is gen- 
 erous in his social relations, thoroughly meriting the 
 esteem in which he is held by his fellow-citizens. 
 
 HON. THOMAS S. WILSON, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 THOMAS STOKELY WILSON was identified 
 with the interests of Iowa before it became 
 a state. While it was a territory he was appointed one 
 of its judges; and there are now living in Dubuque 
 persons who recollect him, with his boyish look, 
 sitting on the bench nearly forty years ago. His 
 history presents points of no inconsiderable interest. 
 He was born in Steubenville, Ohio, on the 13th of 
 October, 1813, and was the son of Peter Wilson 
 and Frances Stokely Wilson. He was educated at 
 Jefferson College, Canonsburgh, Pennsylvania, and 
 was graduated in 1832. After studying law two 
 
 years he was admitted to the bar, and commenced 
 practice in his native town. In a short time he 
 came west, stopping at first at Prairie du Chien, 
 Wisconsin, where he had a brother. Captain George 
 Wilson, of the ist United States Infantry, under 
 command of Colonel, afterward General, Taylor. In 
 the autumn of 1836 he selected Dubuque for his 
 home. Here he has resided for forty years, and 
 has often been the recipient of political honors. 
 It was in 1838, when but twenty-five years of age, 
 that he received from President Van Buren, the 
 appointment of one of the judges of the supreme 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 367 
 
 court of the territory. In June of the same year 
 he was nominated as a candidate for congress by 
 the northern counties, and was preparing to com- 
 mence the canvass when the news came of his judi- 
 cial appointment. 
 
 Judge Wilson sat on the supreme bench till 1847, 
 one year after Iowa assumed her sovereignty, when 
 he left that high position to form a law partnership 
 with Piatt Smith and his brother, David S. Wilson. 
 Both of these gentlemen are still living in Dubuque, 
 and his brother is judge of the ninth judicial dis- 
 trict. In April, 1852, he was elected to the same 
 office which his brother holds at the present time, 
 
 and by repeated elections he held that office ten 
 years. Judge Wilson was in the Iowa legislature two 
 terms, in 1866 and 1868, and at the former session 
 was offered the complimentary vote of the dem- 
 ocratic members for United States senator, but de- 
 clined the honor. He is now holding the office 
 of city attorney. 
 
 Judge Wilson married Miss Anna Hoge, of Steu- 
 benville, Ohio, before he left his native state. She 
 died in 1854, and ten years later he married Miss 
 Mary Stokely, a native of Derbyshire, England. He 
 has three children living by his first wife and two by 
 the second. 
 
 HON. SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD, 
 
 IOWA CITT. 
 
 SAMUEL JORDAN KIRKWOOD, governor of 
 the State of Iowa, and United States senator- 
 elect, was born in Hartford county, Maryland, on 
 the 20th of December, 1813. His parents were of 
 Scotch-Irish descent and settled in this country pre- 
 vious to the war of the revolution. When ten years 
 old he went to Washington, District of Columbia, to 
 attend a school conducted by his uncle, John Mc- 
 Leod, where he remained four years. He then en- 
 tered a drug store as a clerk, continuing until after 
 his majority, excepting eighteen months spent in 
 teaching school in York county, Pennsylvania. In 
 1835 he left Washington, and moving west settled 
 in Richland county, Ohio, and assisted his father 
 and brother in clearing up a farm. In 1841 he be- 
 gan the study of law in the office of Judge Thomas 
 W. Bartley, in Mansfield, Ohio, and in 1843 was ad- 
 mitted to the bar by the supreme court of Ohio, at 
 the spring session held at Cincinnati. Soon after 
 his admission to practice he engaged in his chosen 
 profession, in partnership with his former preceptor. 
 Judge Bartley, which copartnership continued for 
 eight years. From 1845 to 1849 he served as pros- 
 ecuting attorney for his county, discharging the du- 
 ties acceptably. He served as a member of the 
 constitutional convention which met at Columbus, 
 Ohio, in 1850, which, after a three months' session, 
 adjourned until winter and sat a balance of a six 
 months' term at Cincinnati. This convention framed 
 the present constitution of that state. 
 
 In 1 85 1 his associate in the practice of law was 
 elected as one of the judges of the supreme court, 
 
 and Mr. Kirkwood entered into partnership with 
 Colonel Barnabas Burns, with whom he remained in 
 practice until the spring of 1855, when he removed 
 to Iowa and settled upon a farm near Iowa City. 
 Here he engaged in milling and farming until the 
 breaking out of the war in 1861. In 1856 he was 
 elected to the state senate and served through the 
 last session in Iowa City and in the first in the new 
 capital at Des Moines. At this last session they 
 adopted the system of state banks, the ■ safety of 
 which has been practically proven. In 1859 he was 
 elected governor over the democratic candidate, 
 Hon. A. C. Dodge. This was the last severely con- 
 tested election of the state, the republican major- 
 ity being over three thousand. In r86i he was re- 
 elected governor with a majority of about eighteen 
 thousand. As governor during the darkest days of 
 the rebellion, he performed an important duty, re- 
 flecting much credit upon himself and the state. 
 His administration coring those trying times was 
 bold, economical and successful. Each quota of 
 troops was so promptly filled that no draft became 
 necessary. 
 
 During his gubernatorial term he was nominated 
 by President Lincoln as minister to Denmark. He 
 was unanimously confirmed by the senate, but on 
 being notified declined to accept until the expira- 
 tion of his term. His privilege to accept the mis- 
 sion was held open until the expiration of his offi- 
 cial term ; but he finally declined the appointment, 
 his private business requiring his immediate atten- 
 tion. 
 
368 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DTCTIONART. 
 
 Relieved from his public position, he returned to 
 his business in Iowa City. Here again he was 
 sought after, and in January, 1866, was appointed to 
 the unexpired term of Mr. Harlan in the United 
 States senate and remained through two sessions. 
 
 In ^875 he was again elected governor, and soon 
 after United States senator. 
 
 Politically, he was an old democrat, but during 
 the Kansas-Nebraska struggle abandoned the party. 
 He is now in full sympathy with the principles of 
 the republican party, and an active participant in 
 state and national politics. 
 
 He was married in 1843 to Miss Jane Clark, a na- 
 tive of Ohio, and sister of Hon. Ezekiel Clark, of 
 Iowa City. 
 
 Such is the brief sketch of a prominent self-made 
 man, who by his own ability and energy has raised 
 himself from obscurity to a high and honored posi- 
 tion. In every department which in his eventful life 
 
 he has been called to fill, Governor Kirkwood has 
 been eminently successful, and has left an untar- 
 nished record and unspotted reputation. 
 
 As a business man, he has been upright, reliable 
 and honorable, and as a public official, attentive and 
 obliging, but inflexible and unswerving in the dis- 
 charge of duty. 
 
 In all places and under all circumstances he is 
 loyal to truth, honor and right. Few men have 
 more devoted friends, and none excel him in fideli- 
 ty to those who have gained his confidence and won 
 his esteem. 
 
 Among the many loyal governors of states who 
 seemed during their country's hour of peril to be 
 providentially and emphatically " the right men in 
 the right places," Samuel J. Kirkwood, governor 
 of Iowa, was conspicuous for earnest patriotism, 
 great executive ability, prudence and burning elo- 
 quence. 
 
 HON. CHARLES H.. LEWIS, 
 
 CHEROKEE. 
 
 THE present judge of the fourth judicial dis- 
 trict, Charles Henry Lewis, was born on the 
 27th of October, 1839, in Concord, Erie county. New 
 York, his- parents being Oren and Betsy Lewis. His 
 mother's family name was Nicholis. His grandfather 
 erected the first frame house in Utica, New York. 
 In 1840 the father of Charles moved with his family 
 to Boone county, Illinois. When the son was four 
 years old he lost his mother; the family was thus 
 broken up. The son spent four years at different 
 places in Wisconsin and Illinois, when his father 
 married again, and gathered his family in a new 
 home at Popple Grove, near Belvidere, Illinois. 
 There they remained until October, 185 1, when the 
 whole family removed to Independence, Buchanan 
 county, Iowa, the father of Charles carrying on a 
 chair and furniture factory and raising fruit trees. 
 Three years later the family moved to Quasqueton, 
 farther down the Wapsipinecon valley, in the same 
 county, where Oren Lewis now resides. He is a 
 thoughtful and considerate man, looking well to the 
 education of his son, and taking great pains to 
 see that he was kept at school. In 1859 Charles 
 entered Cornell College, at Mount Vernon, Iowa, 
 and remained there until the second year of the 
 war. 
 
 Mr. Lewis studied law at the State University, 
 Iowa City ; was admitted to the bar early in 1869, 
 and in May settled in Cherokee, Cherokee county, 
 where he soon built up a lucrative practice. 
 
 In the autumn of 1870 Mr. Lewis was elected dis- 
 trict-attorney of the fourth judicial district, which 
 embraced twenty-two counties in the extreme north- 
 western part of Iowa, holding that office four years, 
 and discharging its duties in a very satisfactory 
 manner. So popular had he become in the dis- 
 charge of the official duties, that during the last 
 year of his incumbency the people, recognizing his 
 personal worth and his especial fitness for the po- 
 sition, elected him judge of the district court for 
 the term of four years : that honorable position he 
 now holds. The district formerly embraced twenty 
 counties, but it has now only nine. 
 
 In the autumn of 1862, while pursuing his studies 
 at Mount Vernon, Judge Lewis enlisted as a private 
 in the 27th regiment of Iowa Infantry; at the end 
 of one year he was appointed sergeant-major, and 
 on the 2d of August, 1864, was commissioned first 
 lieutenant and adjutant of the regiment, filling the 
 latter position till the sth of August, 1865, when the 
 heroic 27th was mustered out of the service. He 
 was with the regiment all the time, and in several 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 369 
 
 skirmishes and eleven engagements, passing the or- 
 deal without a scar. 
 
 Judge Lewis became an Odd-Fellow in 1869. 
 He belongs to the Congregational church. He has 
 
 always been a republican. On the 31st of March, 
 1866, he was united in marriage with Miss Emma 
 E. Kellogg, of Quasqueton, and they have three 
 children. 
 
 HON. ANTHONY W. CARPENTER, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 ANTHONY WAYNE CARPENTER, deceased, 
 ir\. was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, 
 on the ist of January, 1814, and was eldest son of 
 Anthony and Catherine Carpenter ni!e Curran. His 
 ancestors were of German descent, and were early 
 settlers. He was a self-educated man, his early boy- 
 hood receiving little chance for improvement. At an 
 early age he learned the jeweler's trade, at Phila- 
 delphia, getting a thorough knowledge of all its in- 
 tricacies, and in 1837 came west and settled at Bur- 
 lington. His whole stock in trade consisted of his 
 tools and thirty dollars. He commenced the founda- 
 tion of a fortune in a log building, and was the first 
 watch-maker west of the Mississippi river and north 
 of St. Louis, the pioneer jeweler of the west. By 
 hard labor, courteous treatment to his customers, 
 and with a good knowledge of the demands of the 
 western market, he succeeded in acquiring a compe- 
 tence and gained the esteem and love of his fellow- 
 citizens, who placed him in many positions of trust 
 and honor, which he filled with distinction and to 
 the satisfaction of his constituents. He was sheriff 
 of the county two terms ; the first term he was the last 
 sheriff to hold office under the territorial govern- 
 
 ment and first on the admittance of the new state. 
 In politics, he was a democrat and an active par- 
 tisan, and was thoroughly posted in the politics of 
 the day. He was collector of customs for some 
 time, and in 1868 was mayor of the city, and held 
 the position of alderman for many years. In i860 
 he was elected delegate at large to the national 
 convention at Baltimore which resulted in the rup- 
 ture of the party. 
 
 He was not a member of any particular relig- 
 ious body, but was an attendant on the Methodist 
 church, of which his wife was a member. 
 
 He was married on the gth of March, 1842, to 
 Miss Sarah Ann McKenny, of Burlington, by whom 
 he had three children, one son and two daughters. 
 The son, E. H. Carpenter, succeeded him in busi- 
 ness, which he is pursuing successfully. 
 
 In private life he was generous and charitable, 
 devoted to his family and business, a faithful friend 
 and an outspoken opponent. As a public officer, 
 his conduct was always distinguished for its up- 
 rightness and unblemished integrity. He died at 
 Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he had gone for 
 his health, on the 19th of June, 1869. 
 
 HON. JOHN PORTER, 
 
 ELDORA. 
 
 AMONG the men of northern Iowa who have 
 ±\. worn the ermine, probably no one is more 
 modest and unassuming, or left the bench with a 
 purer name, than Judge Porter. He resigned his 
 position, after serving more than seven years, with 
 the reputation of being an impartial judge and a 
 rapid dispatcher of business. Western people step, 
 eat, think and talk rapidly ; sometimes they make 
 fortunes in the same way; and they like to see 
 everything, even hanging, done in a hurry. As 
 Judge Porter had remarkable success in clearing 
 37 
 
 the docket, he pleased jurors and everybody else, 
 and could have remained longer on the bench had 
 he not seen fit to hasten his retirement. 
 
 John Porter was the son of a miller, William 
 Porter, and was born in Washington county, Penn- 
 sylvania, on the 14th of April, 1828. His mother 
 was a Langan, and his grandparents, on both sides, 
 came from Ireland. Young Porter gave his sum- 
 mers, until he was eighteen, to milling and farming, 
 and his winters to common-school studies. During 
 the next three years h? alternated between teach- 
 
370 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 ingsgand being taught. Arrived at age, he com- 
 menced studying law in the ofifice of Tod, Hoff- 
 man and Hutchins, Warren, Ohio. At the end of 
 two years he was admitted to the bar, but did 
 not leave the office just mentioned until two years 
 later. With this excellent preparation, in 1854 we 
 find Mr. Porter in Plymouth, Marshall county, In- 
 diana, following his profession. Two years later he 
 became a citizen of Iowa, settling at Mason City, 
 Cerro Gordo county, in November, 1856. There 
 he remained until 1859, when he took up his resi- 
 dence in Eldora, Hardin county, and here he still 
 remains. He is of the firm of Porter and Moir, a 
 firm eminent for success in business, and for its 
 promptness and rectitude in all legal dealings. 
 
 In 1858 Mr. Porter was elected judge of the 
 eleventh judicial district, and reelected in 1862. 
 Resigning a few months before his second term of 
 four years had expired, he resumed the profession 
 
 so congenial to his taste, and in which he has 
 gained such distinction. 
 
 Of late years he has had very little to do with 
 politics, although in sentiment he is antimonopoly. 
 He is strongly in favor of making the national 
 treasury notes the currency of the country. He 
 was a republican until 1870. 
 
 Judge Porter is a member of no church, but in 
 sentiment leans toward the Disciples. 
 
 On the 26th of April, 1854, he married Miss 
 Mariam Stevens, of Mesopotamia, Trumbull county, 
 Ohio. They have one child. 
 
 Judge Porter has been thoroughly enHsted in the 
 railroad and other enterprises, which have built up 
 Eldora and developed the wealth of the county and 
 state, and is as large-hearted as he is energetic 
 and public-spirited. Though quiet in his charities, 
 he is liberal to the poor, and responds promptly to 
 the calls for benevolence in various directions. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM F. SAPP, 
 
 COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 IT may be truly said of the United States that 
 no country in the world is productive of so 
 large a number of men whose native ability and 
 unaided effort have achieved for them positions of 
 the highest distinction. The best men of the great 
 west are of this character. Iowa possesses no small 
 share of this invaluable class of public men. With 
 such ranks the subject of this sketch, William Flet- 
 cher Sapp, first saw the light of day on the 20th of. 
 November, 1824, at Danville, Knox county, Ohio. 
 His ancestry were of good stock, descending from 
 both French and English blood. His paternal 
 grandfather, Daniel Sapp, was one of the first set- 
 tlers in what is now the county of Knox, Ohio, and 
 one of the proprietors, and the founder, of the 
 present village of Danville. He was a man of dis- 
 tinction, for a pioneer settlement; was the first county 
 surveyor for Knox county, and justice of the peace 
 upward of thirty years ; he held that office at the 
 time of his death, which occurred at an advanced 
 age. He performed military service in the war of 
 181 2, together with his brothers Joseph, George 
 and William. Of such parentage it is not at all 
 wonderful that their son, Mr. John Sapp, father of 
 the present Colonel W. F. Sapp, became a distin- 
 guished man in the section of country in which he 
 
 lived. He was universally beloved for unbounded 
 generosity, humane feelings and charitable acts, and 
 his house was the abode of unlimited hospitality. 
 He was married on the 7th of December, 1820, to 
 Miss Elizabeth Myers, a native of Cumberland, 
 Maryland. His career, however, was short, as he 
 died on the ist of December, 1835, in early man- 
 hood, leaving a wife, two daughters and the sub- 
 ject of this sketch, then in his eleventh year. He 
 was a man remarkable for correct judgment- and 
 prophetic forecast. In looking into the future of 
 the western country he predicted, at that early day, 
 that Saint Louis was destined to become a great 
 city, and just previous to his death had disposed 
 of his property with the view of taking up his resi- 
 dence there. 
 
 The son, left fatherless at a tender age, has 
 proved worthy of such a sire; inheriting his best 
 traits of character and his thrift, and while yet 
 in the prime of life, arriving at even greater dis- 
 tinction and equal esteem. Like the most of men 
 who have achieved fortune and honor, he had the 
 great advantage of the advice and direction of a 
 true and noble mother, who was a woman noted 
 for superior judgment, great force of character and 
 rare christian virtues ; from early womanhood a de- 
 
^"f'h^xtSaUiSmai^crjijri-rxy' 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTTONART. 
 
 373 
 
 voted member of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
 she took great pains throughout her life, both by 
 precept and example, to educate her children in the 
 christian faith. It was mainly through her influence 
 that her son was led to adopt the profession of law. 
 To this end, depending solely upon his own re- 
 sources, he early availed himself of such educa- 
 tional advantages as came within his reach, ac- 
 quiring a common-school and academic education. 
 
 With a studious turn of mind and industrious 
 habits he advanced so rapidly in his studies as to 
 be enabled, in the spring of 1847, to commence the 
 study of law, by entering the office of the late dis- 
 tinguished secretary of the interior, the Hon. Colum- 
 bus Delano, and his partner, the Hon. W. R. Sapp, 
 uncle of the subject of this sketch, at Mount Ver- 
 non, Knox county, Ohio. Having obtained his pre- 
 vious education unaided, help to enable him to 
 pull through his course of law studies came from 
 the old friends of his father, who placed in his 
 hands collections and employed him in cases be- 
 fore justice courts, in the management of which he 
 proved that he possessed the elements of success. 
 He also earned sufficient money during his course 
 of study to defray all his necessary expenses, and to 
 purchase a small law library with which to com- 
 mence the practice of his profession. 
 
 In June, 1850, Colonel Sapp was admitted to the 
 bar, and immediately commenced the practice of 
 law in the town where he had studied and where 
 at the time was the most formidable bar in the 
 state. His success was immediate and eminent, ob- 
 taining a larger practice than any young lawyer in 
 that section of country. 
 
 With true patriotic blood in his veins, and wonder- 
 ful activity of iriind and body, he naturally early 
 drifted into the political arena. His antecedents 
 were all with the whig party of that day; and 
 though a mere youth, he stumped the county in 
 which he lived for the election of Zachary Taylor 
 in 1848, and again for Winfield Scott in 1852. On 
 the formation of the republican party in 1856 he 
 became one of its most active adherents; he stumped 
 his congressional district for John C. Fremont, and 
 has been a warm and active republican since that 
 time to the present. In 1852 he was placed on the 
 ticket of his party for the office of prosecuting 
 attorney for the county, in opposition to General 
 George W. Morgan, and notwithstanding the great 
 strength of his opponent, and a county usually car- 
 rying from seven to eight hundred democratic 
 
 majority, he came within forty-one votes of being 
 elected. Two years later he was again nominated 
 for the same office, and elected over the democratic 
 candidate by more than eight hundred majority. In 
 1856 he ran as the republican candidate for the 
 same office, and was again elected by several hun- 
 dred more votes than were cast for J. C. Fremont in 
 the same county. 
 
 On the 29th of December, 1856, he was married 
 to Miss Mary Catherine Brown, second daughter of 
 Captain Richard M. Brown, an old and highly re- 
 spected citizen of Mount Vernon, Ohio, who served 
 with distinction in the war of 1812. 
 
 It may be of interest to also state in this connec- 
 tion that the mother of Captain Brown was an own 
 cousin to the mother of Daniel Webster. 
 
 Colonel Sapp continued in the practice of his pro- 
 fession at Mount Vernon till the spring of i860, at 
 which time he 'removed to Omaha, Nebraska, where 
 he opened a law office. In the spring of 1861 he 
 was appointed, by Governor Alvan Saunders, adju- 
 tant-general of the territory, which office he held 
 until December, 1862. 
 
 In the fall of 1861 he was elected to the legisla- 
 tive council of the territory, to fill the vacancy 
 occasioned by the resignation of the Hon. John W. 
 Thayer. He was elected to that office a republican, 
 in the then democratic county of Douglass. 
 
 In 1862 the 2d regiment Nebraska Cavalry was 
 organized for the defense of the frontier against the 
 hostile Indians, and Colonel Sapp was tendered and 
 accepted the office of its lieutenant-colonel, in which 
 capacity he was commander of the district of Ne- 
 braska during a portion of the summer of 1863, and 
 was in command of the post of Fort Kearney dur- 
 ing a portion of the term of his military service. 
 
 Having terminated his military career on the mus- 
 tering out of his regiment, he removed to Council 
 Bluffs, and entered into a law partnership with Judge 
 Samuel Clinton, in the spring of 1864, which con- 
 nection was continued until the spring of 1869. In 
 the fall of 1866 he was elected a member of the 
 legislature of Iowa for the county of Pottawattamie, 
 and served on the committee of the judiciary of 
 that body, and as chairman of the committee on 
 federal relations. During the session, through his 
 personal exertions, he succeeded in securing the 
 location of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum of the state 
 at Council Bluffs. 
 
 On the accession of General Grant to the Presi- 
 dency he was appointed United States district at- 
 
374 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 torney for Iowa, which office he administered four 
 years, and received the high compUment from the 
 United States attorney-general of- being officially 
 reported by that officer as having conducted the 
 duties of the position several per cent more suc- 
 cessfully than any other district attorney in com- 
 mission at the time. 
 
 In 1872 he was a candidate for the nomination 
 before the congressional convention for the eighth 
 congressional district, and was defeated by the Hon. 
 J. W. McDill, Cheerfully acquiescing in the result, 
 he made a thorough canvass of the district in the 
 interest of his successful competitor and the repub- 
 lican cause. In 1876 he was nominated for congress 
 on a vote of seventy-three to thirteen for the Hon. 
 William Hale, and was elected over his democratic 
 and greenback opponent, Hon. Lemuel R. Bolter, by 
 a majority of over four thousand. During the canvass 
 that followed. Colonel Sapp accomplished the feat 
 of making seventy-one speeches in his district, and 
 in the sequel was triumphantly elected. 
 
 With the exception of the time he was in the 
 military service of his country, he has devoted his 
 life to the duties of his chosen profession ; during 
 which his practice has been remarkably successful 
 and extensive, gaining an eminent position at the 
 bar, which has been the reward of merit and per- 
 sonal popularity. Notwithstanding an intellectually 
 busy life, he has wisely not been unmindful of the 
 
 main chance, and has acquired by square dealing a 
 handsome property, a portion of which is in the city 
 and vicinity of Council Bluffs. 
 
 Mr. Sapp is every way a marked man. His per- 
 sonale is commanding, with marked personal mag- 
 netism ; his physique is full, tall, erect and hand- 
 somely proportioned, full of healthy blood, life and 
 animation, with a demeanor at once courteous, affa- 
 ble and unaffectedly democratic. His standing in 
 society fully comports with the esteem in which he 
 is held by his brethren of the bar, and all who 
 have the pleasure of his acquaintance as well ; and 
 his professional competitors and political opponents 
 universally respect him. 
 
 His mother having descended from good Mary- 
 land stock, the noted magnificent manners of that 
 state crop out in the polished and cultivated char- 
 acteristics of her eminent son. 
 
 Going now to the capital of this great nation as 
 an honored representative of the vast State of Iowa, 
 he has a brilliant career before him. It is just such 
 men of tried integrity, ability and patriotism that 
 the country needs for governing statesmen at this 
 critical period in its history. Upon the unselfish 
 services and sound principles of men in power, like 
 unto the subject of this sketch, the best elements of 
 the country rely for the safety of the republic, feeling 
 that it is in safe hands, so far as they can influence 
 its destiny. 
 
 JOHN J. OLSHAUSEN, M. D., 
 
 DAVENPORT. 
 
 AMONG the names of Olshausen, prominent phy- 
 ix. sicians and surgeons of the northwest, is en- 
 rolled that of Dr. John J. Olshausen. He was born 
 in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, on the 6th of June, 
 181 7, and is the son of Rev. John D. and Julianna 
 Olshausen. His father was one of the most prom- 
 inent clergymen of the Lutheran church in Germany, 
 and superintendent of all the churches in the duchy 
 of Oldenburg, the highest position a clergyman could 
 attain. 
 
 He was an author of much note, writing several 
 works on theology and geography. In the pulpit 
 he was very eloquent, and carried conviction and 
 truth in his sermons. He died in 1823, much be- 
 loved and regretted. On the maternal side, his 
 grandfather was a very prominent surgeon. 
 
 He received his education at the gymnasium at 
 Schleswig, and later at the University at Konigs- 
 berg, Prussia, and graduated in the departments of 
 natural science and medicine at Kiel. After leaving 
 the gymnasium he traveled foi* nearly five years 
 over the continent of South America, part of Europe, 
 and the Mediterranean, as he wished to give all his 
 energies to the development of natural science. 
 Finding it did not pay financially, he returned to 
 Germany and studied medicine at Kiel. After his 
 graduation he visited a number of hospitals and 
 universities, and finally, emigrating to the United 
 States, located at St. Louis in 1847, and commenced 
 the practice of his profession. Here he had a suc- 
 cessful practice, but owing to the warmth of the 
 climate, decided to remove to Davenport, Iowa, which 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 375 
 
 he did in 1854. Here he founded a large and 
 lucrative practice, which he still enjoys. 
 
 His travels and researches, which were extensive, 
 will some day appear to the public, as he intends in 
 time to publish them. 
 
 He was married on the loth of December, 1848, 
 to Miss Elizabeth Shepman, a native of Hanover. 
 
 He is very liberal in his religious views and opin- 
 ions. 
 
 In politics, he is a liberal republican, though never 
 
 taking an active part in political matters. He was 
 a director of the public schools in Davenport for 
 fifteen years. 
 
 In his medical relations, he has built up his own 
 reputation by his skill and energy, and has acquired 
 an extensive practice. He is a genial gentleman, a 
 quick observer, and as prompt in his business as 
 he is generous in his social relations, and thoroughly 
 merits the esteem in which he is held by his fellow- 
 citizens. 
 
 CHAUNCEY LAMB, 
 
 CLINTON. 
 
 CHAUNCEY LAMB, capitalist and lumber mer- 
 chant, was born at Ticonderoga, Essex county, 
 New York, on the 4th of January, 1816. He is the 
 son of Alpheus and Sophia Bailey Lamb, whose an- 
 cestors were among the first settlers of the State of 
 Connecticut. 
 
 His grandparents on both sides are of good old 
 Saxon stock, having early emigrated to this country 
 from England. His father participated in the war of 
 1812; and the inherited patriotism of the son was 
 not weakened by having his birth near the s])0t 
 where Ethan Allen, in revolutionary times, demand- 
 ed the surrender of the fort in the name of the 
 " Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress.'' 
 
 His early education was such as could be obtained 
 at the common schools of that period. His parent- 
 age, although worthy and respected, belonged to 
 that numerous class whose worldly means were very 
 limited. The undeveloped resources of the countrj' 
 immediately subsequent to the war of i8r2 left many 
 families destitute, and* the heroes of " many a well- 
 fought battle-field " found it quite difficult to keep 
 the " wolf" from the door of their humble dwelling. 
 
 At the age of fourteen years he began not only to 
 earn his own living, but contributed liberally to the 
 support of his father's family. At the age of nine- 
 teen years he made, with his father, a profitable in- 
 vestment in the purchase of a lumber lot, devoting 
 the proceeds arising from this property to the ne- 
 cessities of the parental home. He continued as 
 a laborer in lumbering and farming, in various ca- 
 pacities, until the age of twenty-two, when he left 
 home. 
 
 Having determined from observation that mechan- 
 ics enjoy many advantages over other classes of the 
 
 laboring community, he resolved to learn a trade. 
 An old friend advised him to learn 'the carpenter 
 trade, which he did, but soon exchanged it for that 
 of a wagon-maker. In this vocation his peculiar 
 mechanical tastes and his wonderful inventive and 
 constructive talents enabled him to make and finish 
 completely an entire wagon during the first week of 
 his apprenticeship. 
 
 In six months he relinquished this occupation and 
 embarked as a contractor in building saw and grist 
 mills, and continued in this business till 1843. 
 During the latter year he and his father's family 
 came west and located in Carroll county, Illinois. 
 In this locality he continued, improving and culti- 
 vating the farm until 1850. 
 
 In 1847 he invented and built the self-reaper 
 known as the Manning inachine. Having, however, 
 been anticipated in his invention, he was compelled, 
 to avoid litigation, to forego the benefits resulting 
 from his own genius. 
 
 In 1850 he engaged in the lumber business in the 
 State of New York, and continued in it until 1856. 
 He then returned to Iowa, and during the following 
 winter, with very limited means, built a saw-mill and 
 run it during the three subsequent years, »when it 
 was destroyed by fire, leaving him at the time penni- 
 less. The disaster may have been a blessing in dis- 
 guise, as it brought forth the latent strength and ca- 
 pacity of his nature. The same yAr (1869) he re- 
 built his mill with renewed hope and energy ; but 
 the failure of his partner, early in i860, involved 
 him again in temporary difficulty. In due time, how- 
 ever, his indomitable energy and perseverance ex- 
 tricated him from embarrassment, and enabled him 
 fully to discharge his obligations and completely re- 
 
376 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY 
 
 establish his business, and to some extent repair his 
 broken fortune. 
 
 In 1865 he enlarged his business in the same lo- 
 cality. He built a mill of several times the capacity 
 of the former, and continued to enlarge and extend 
 his mill enterprises till 1868, when he bought the 
 entire property known as the "Lamb and Byng 
 mill," in the vicinity of Clinton, Iowa, one and one- 
 quarter miles distant from his other works, and one 
 of the largest and finest in this section or state. 
 
 The capacity of the above mill is over two- hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand feet of lumber, one hundred 
 thousand feet of shingles, and fifty thousand feet of 
 lath. The planing mill is likewise of immense ca- 
 .pacity. The entire business has increased to up- 
 ward of fifty million feet of lumber annually manu- 
 factured. 
 
 In summer he employs in his mills about one 
 thousand men, exclusive of a large number engaged 
 at labor in his lumber regions in other localities. 
 
 Mr. Lamb's wonderful intuitive knowledge of me- 
 chanics has enabled him to successfully introduce 
 many valuable improvements in saw-mill machinery. 
 He was the first to introduce and put into practical 
 operation in the State of Iowa the gang-mills, he hav- 
 ing made the application of a gang of saws in his 
 own establishment in 1859, being the only one be- 
 low Stillwater, Minnesota, on the river. 
 
 In his steamboat enterprises he has been equally 
 successful, having built and launched several for 
 river traffic. 
 
 In all his undertakings he has manifested public 
 spirit, and has contributed materially to the improve- 
 ments of the city and county in which he resides. 
 
 His talent for invention seems to have exhibited 
 itself in every step of his business career. When- 
 ever he observed a defect in any mechanical con- 
 struction, his mind involuntarily would suggest some 
 
 improvement, and he could not rest until the hand 
 had put in tangible form the idea mentally con- 
 ceived and entertained. Many of these valuable in- 
 ventions, after having been patented and applied to 
 use in his own establishment, he has generously be- 
 stowed on some deserving individual for his exclu- 
 sive benefit. His benevolence and generosity are 
 proverbial. Having himself experienced the vicissi- 
 tudes of life, his sympathies are not withheld from 
 the unfortunate, nor his charities from the children 
 •of poverty. His success in life is attributed to his 
 being as true to all as it is possible to be, — never 
 making a promise that he cannot perform, and al- 
 ways keeping his word if once given. 
 
 As a developer of the resources of the west, great 
 credit must be awarded to him. It is through the 
 agency of men of his nature and energy that the ma- 
 terial interests of our county are forwarded and ex- 
 panded. 
 
 At this time he is largely interested in the First 
 National Bank, of Clinton, Iowa, being one of its 
 heaviest stockholders and principal directors. 
 
 In politics, he is a decided republican, though not 
 a partisan. In religious sentiment, he may be re- 
 garded as orthodox. He is neither a skeptic nor 
 sectarian. He believes all religion relates to life, 
 and that the life of religion is to do good. 
 
 He was married in 1839 to Jane Bevier. They 
 have four children now living, and one died at the 
 age of thirteen years. In the family burying-ground, 
 in York, Carroll county, Illinois, are interred thirty- 
 one of his immediate relatives. 
 
 Mr. Lamb is now in the maturity of life, full of 
 vim and activity. The unswerving integrity which 
 marks all his transactions, and the kindliness of his 
 manners to the numerous employes in his various 
 enterprises, render him at once respected and loved 
 throughout a wide circle of acquaintances. 
 
 HON. JOHN J. SMITH, 
 
 VAN METER. 
 
 THE biogrd^hy of Hon. John Julian Smith, 
 presents one of the many examples found in 
 the United States of rapid personal progress from 
 a humble beginning to a substantial and honored 
 position. Mr. Smith was born at Akron, Ohio, on 
 the 15th of August, 1846. His mother's maiden 
 name was Sarah Glendower. She was born in Ire- 
 
 land, but moved to England at an early day. His 
 father, Bernard N. Smith, was a native of England. 
 Married Miss Glendower in 1841, and embarked 
 for America the same year, where he settled in 
 Ohio. He served in the Mexican war, and died 
 soon after his return home. 
 
 John's advantages of education were very lim- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAR2'. 
 
 377 
 
 ited. He attended the common schools of Wauke- 
 sha county, Wisconsin, but fourteen months. Being 
 left an orphan at the age of seven, he was taken to 
 the orphan asylum at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where 
 he remained two years, and was then adopted by 
 Thomas Burnard, a farmer, who was killed by the 
 falling of a load of wood the following year. Thus 
 thrown on his own resources, from that time till the 
 age of fifteen he worked among farmers for his board 
 and clothes. He moved to Iowa on the 9th of Au- 
 gust, i86i, and settled in Muscatine. Went to Clay- 
 ton county in 1866, and from there to Madison 
 county in 1867, where he now lives. 
 
 In religion, Mr. Smith was raised a Catholic ; 
 when he was fifteen he became a Universalist, and 
 at the age of twenty a Methodist, and is a member 
 of that denomination at the present time. Mr. 
 Smith has always been a staunch republican ; cast 
 his first vote at eighteen for Lincoln and Johnson ; 
 was ift active service during all of the late civil war ; 
 enlisted in 1861 in company H, nth Iowa Infantry; 
 reenlisted on the 7th of December, 1863, and served 
 till the close of the war. Among some of the engage- 
 
 ments he participated in were the following well 
 known battles : Shiloh, April, 1862 ; Medan Station, 
 August, 1862; Corinth, Mississippi, on the 4th of 
 October, 1862 ; Jackson, Mississippi, and at the 
 siege of Vicksburg; was one hundred and one days 
 without being out of danger; wounded at Atlanta, 
 Georgia, on the 7lh of August, 1864; was with Sher- 
 man on his march to the sea, and participated in 
 their last engagement, at Bentonville, North Carolina. 
 He was discharged on the 2d of July, 1865, and 
 returned immediately to his home in Muscatine, 
 Iowa. Mr. Smith has acquired an ample compe- 
 tence and is a public-spirited citizen, active in all 
 progress, enterprising and much esteemed ; an advo- 
 cate of woman's suffrage, he believes that a woman 
 should receive the same compensation as a man, 
 where the labor to be performed is equal. Mr. 
 Smith now holds the honored position as represen- 
 tative of Madison county, Iowa. Was married to 
 Mary A. McLa.ughlin, on the 21st of November, 
 1866, and has two children : Cora Minnie was born 
 on the 29th of August, 1867, and Estela Maud on 
 the nth of June, 1875. 
 
 HON. DAVID SECOR, 
 
 DES MOINES. 
 
 DAVID SECOR, a native of Putnam county. 
 New York, was born on the 6th of January, 
 1836, the son of Alson Secor and Sarah Caroline 
 n^e Knapp. His paternal grandparents were Gidney 
 and Catherine (Strang) Secor. His father's family 
 is descended from the French Huguenots, and was 
 first represented in this country by Ambrose Secor, 
 who_ more than two hundred years ago emigrated 
 from France, prompted by a love of religious liberty, 
 and settled at New Rochelle, New York. Various 
 members of the family served as officers during 
 the revolutionary war. His maternal grandparents, 
 David and Abigail (Lee) Knapp, were of English 
 origin, and settled in this country prior to the 
 revolution. David Knapp, an uncle of our subject, 
 served in the war of 1812. 
 
 Prior to his twelfth year David attended the dis- 
 trict school, but afterward waS employed on his 
 father's farm, there being eleven children in his 
 family, and his father being a man of limited means. 
 
 In May, 1856, being then twenty years of age, he 
 left home and, removing to Iowa, settled at Western 
 
 College, in Lynn county. Learning the masons' 
 trade there, he worked at it during the summers, 
 and for three years he spent his winters in the 
 college at that place. 
 
 Going to Mason City, Iowa, in the spring of 1859, 
 he had one dollar in his pocket upon his arrival, 
 and remained one year teaching and working at 
 his trade. In the spring of i860 he settled at For- 
 est City, in Winnebago county, and during that and 
 the following year worked at his trade. 
 
 In 1861 he was elected county treasurer, and 
 while holding that position purchased a farm ad- 
 joining the town, which he began to cultivate. 
 
 In October, 1864, he enlisted as a private in com- 
 pany C, 2d regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry, for 
 the purpose of recruiting the regiment whose term 
 of enlistment had expired. This company partici- 
 pated in Sherman's march to the sea, during which 
 march he was taken ill and transferred to New 
 York and thence to Keokuk, Iowa, where he was 
 mustered out of the service in May, 1865. 
 
 Returning to his home, he engaged in farming. 
 
378 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAHT. 
 
 and soon afterward was again elected county treas- 
 urer, and also held the position of postmaster, hav- 
 ing been appointed by President Lincoln. In 187 1 
 he was elected to represent Cerro Gordo, Hancock, 
 Worth and Winnebago counties in the state legisla- 
 ture. He was returned to the general assembly in 
 1873, and in the fall of the following year was 
 elected register of the State Land Office. 
 
 Mr. Secor has become well known as a prompt 
 and thorough business man, and in all that he has 
 attempted has met with eminent success. 
 
 On the loth of December, 1862, he was married 
 to Miss Samantha Ellen Vancuren, a daughter of 
 Jacob Vancuren, of Cerro Gordo county, by whom 
 he had four children : Eugene Elsworth, born on 
 the ist of January, 1864; Fanny L., who died in 
 
 infancy; Stanley Sherman, born in May, 1868, and 
 Mary Myrtle, born in April, 1870. 
 
 Mrs. Secor died on the 13th of July, 187 1, and on 
 the loth of September, 1872, he was married to 
 Miss Jennie Gregg, daughter of Captain James 
 Gregg, of Des Moines, who died on the 15th of De- 
 cember, 1875, having born to him one child, Alvin 
 A., who died in infancy. 
 
 In 1875, though still retaining his farm, he re- 
 moved his family to Des Moines. 
 
 Mr. Secor's success is mainly due to his untiring 
 enterprise and energy of will. Governed by purity 
 of motive and honesty of purpose, he has faithfully 
 discharged the trusts imposed upon him, and by his 
 upright and manly dealing has won the highest re- 
 spect and lasting confidence of all who knew him. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM G. DONNAN, 
 
 INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 WILLIAM G. DONNAN was born at West 
 Charlton, Saratoga county, New York, on 
 the 30th of June, 1834. His father was Alexander 
 Donnan, his mother Elizabeth McKindley Donnan. 
 His four grandparents emigrated from Scotland. 
 William worked on his father's farm until he was 
 seventeen years of age, attending the district school 
 during a small portion of each year. He prepared 
 for college at the Cambridge Academy; entered the 
 sophomore class of Union College in 1853, and 
 graduated fourth in his class in July, 1856. 
 
 The next month he moved to Iowa, selecting In- 
 dependence, the seat of justice of Buchanan county, 
 for his home. Here he studied law in the office of 
 Hon. J. S. Woodward, and was admitted to the bar 
 in April, 1857. Three months afterward he was 
 elected treasurer and recorder of Buchanan county, 
 and held that office by reelection until 1862. 
 
 Mr. Donnan entered the army in August, 1862, 
 as a private in the 27th regiment Iowa Infantry; 
 was promoted to second then to first lieutenant; 
 breveted captain and major for efficient service in 
 the field, and served until the glose of the war. 
 
 He was a member of the state senate four years, 
 the twelfth and thirteenth sessions of the general 
 assembly, and originated the bill locating the Hos- 
 pital for the Insane at Independence, and was largely 
 instrumental in securing the passage of the act. 
 
 Mr. Donnan represented the third district in the 
 
 forty-second and forty-third congresses, and, as his 
 record will show, was always at the post of duty, 
 being absent from roll-call only on four occasipns in 
 four years. While in congress he delivered but two 
 or three studied speeches; those he prepared with 
 great care, and there has since been frequent calls 
 for them. This is especially true in regard to 
 the speeches on " Cheap Transportation " and the ' 
 "Reeligibility of the Executive." The latter effort 
 exhibits careful investigation, exhaustive research 
 and fine legal powers. It is the masterpiece of his 
 congressional life. We make room for a short ex- 
 tract, in which Mr. Donnan is replying to the argu- 
 ment that the patronage of the President has been 
 or may be used for his reelection : 
 
 During the first forty years immediately succeeding the 
 adoption of the constitution very little use was made of the 
 appointing power in a partisan sense; yet during thirty- 
 two of those forty years the executive office was filled by 
 Presidents who were reelected. One-fifth of that period 
 only was it filled by the two Adamses, neither of whom 
 was rechosen. Then came the democratic regime, which 
 inaugurated the system of appointing political friends of 
 the administration to the federal offices. This practice has 
 been followed more or less closely by the democratic, whig 
 and republican parties, when in power, up to the present 
 time. If the bad use of patronage elects Presidents, we 
 have certainly had splendid opportunities to test it during 
 the intervening forty-four years. I will not deny that 
 Jackson may have been thus aided to a second term, but 
 from Jackson to the present time but one only of the eleven 
 Presidents has been rechosen ; and who will say that any 
 spot of corruption was ever found on Lincoln's official 
 garments.'' No, sir, it is fidelity that wins. Gratitude to a 
 great and generous people, and a high sense of duty, are 
 
THE UNITED STATES BJOGRAFHICAL DICTIOXART. 
 
 379 
 
 strong cords which bind a Prebident to fidelity in the dis- 
 charge of his trust; yet who that stops a moment to consider 
 the springs of human action will not agree that should he 
 desire to obtain a continuance of this highest honor among 
 men, and is not debarred the hope, by legal prohibition, 
 then will interest and ambition itself combine to prompt 
 him, not to corrupt, but to faithful, honest, earnest adminis- 
 tration for the public benefit, with a sympathy which will 
 seek " to enforce no policy against the will of the people." 
 
 Mr. Donnan has been a member of the Presby- 
 terian chiirch more than twenty years, and has never 
 
 allowed his business transactions to conflict with his 
 religious profession. 
 
 He cast his first vote for John C. Fremont for 
 President in 1856, and has since been an unflinch- 
 ing republican. 
 
 He was married on the ist of October, 1857, to 
 Miss Mary E. Williamson, a native of Kentucky, 
 who was a very estimable lady. They have two 
 children. 
 
 GEORGE W. MILLER, 
 
 WATERLOO. 
 
 THE trials of a pioneer settler often test the 
 man. Sometimes they seem to unmake or un- 
 man him, but more frequently they develop his 
 cSurage and pluck (if possessed of them), and start 
 him on the high road to success. The subject of 
 this notice was among the early immigrants to 
 Black Hawk county, Iowa, and experienced many 
 of the hardships and discouragements of a frontier 
 life, but bravely bore up, and pushed on to fortune 
 and to independence. 
 
 George W. Miller was born near Williamsport, 
 Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, on the loth of 
 October, 1825. He is the son of John and Susan 
 Beaver Miller (the father now living and ninety 
 years of age). His grandfather, George Miller, 
 was a revolutionary soldier, and died at eighty-four 
 years of age. John Miller was a blacksmith by 
 trade, but exchanged his shop for a farm, when 
 George was about four years old. The latter lived 
 at home until he was nineteen years of age, alter- 
 nating between farm work and study at the common 
 school. He then taught four or five winters and 
 one entire year within three miles of home, and 
 part of the time in his father's district. In the 
 spring of 1852 he entered Dickinson's Seminary, at 
 Williamsport, and remained there eighteen months, 
 attending to such branches as would be most ser- 
 viceable to a practical businessman. 
 
 In the autumn of 1853 we find Mr. Miller in La 
 Porte county, Indiana. The winter following he 
 taught a district school three miles from La Porte 
 City, and in April, 1854, settled in Waterloo, Iowa. 
 Waterloo then contained about one hundred and 
 twenty-five inhabitants, all living in small log cabins. 
 On his way to Waterloo Mr. Miller left his trunk at 
 Dubuque, and the roads being almost impassable 
 38 
 
 for teams, he started on foot, walking all the way, a 
 distance of ninety-five miles. He selected a quarter- 
 section of land three miles southwest of Waterloo, 
 and went back to Dubuque on foot to enter upon it, 
 the land office being located in that city. Making 
 arrangements to have his trunk taken to Waterloo 
 by stage, he started a second time for the Cedar 
 valley on foot. Reaching Independence, twenty- 
 five miles east of Waterloo, his limbs and money 
 began to give out. There he undertook to nego- 
 tiate with the landlord and other parties for work, 
 but met with no success. While there, the stage 
 came along bearing westward, but his trunk was 
 not on board. This caused him some trouble, for 
 in that trunk was a small compass, and with that 
 instrument he would have had an bpportunity to 
 earn a little money. At length, with a small lunch 
 in his pocket, furnished by the landlord, he started 
 for his future home, reaching Waterloo with just 
 two dollars and seventy-five cents in his pocket. 
 
 Mr. Miller was now ready for business, and busi- 
 ness was ready for him; but his trunk containing 
 the compass was behind, and his two dollars and 
 seventy-five cents was growing painfully less. At 
 length he had his compass in hand, and sallying 
 out, soon had a small job, for which he received 
 one dollar. More than once Mr. Miller has been 
 heard to declare that that first dollar earned in 
 ^^'aterloo made him happier than the reception of 
 any fifty dollars received at any one time since. 
 
 During his first autumn and winter in Iowa Mr. 
 Miller taught school in a little log house, built for 
 that purpose, still standing, and now used as a store- 
 room for agricultural implements. The few chil- 
 dren of school age in Waterloo at that time had 
 come from different states where different text- 
 
;8o 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAHT, 
 
 books were used, and there were almost as many 
 kinds of spelling books, readers, etc., as he had 
 pupils. Under the circumstances, he did the best 
 he could, and has never abandoned the belief that 
 the children in that log school-house made some 
 progress up "the hill of science." 
 
 Mr. Miller acted as deputy surveyor of Black 
 Hawk county in the summer of 1855, and in the 
 following autumn was elected surveyor for the term 
 of two years, he meantime operating more or less 
 in real estate. This, for twenty years, has been his 
 principal business, until he has become, quite as 
 much of a real-estate owner as real-estate dealer. 
 He is among the wealthiest men in Waterloo, and 
 as an honorable business man, has been eminently 
 successful. He has not been wholly absorbed in 
 his own matters, but has looked after the interests 
 of the city of his adoption, lending his full share 
 
 of energy in building it up. He aided largely in 
 securing the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minne- 
 sota railroad. 
 
 Mr. Miller belongs to no church, but is a Meth"- 
 odist in sentiment. 
 
 He has always been a republican. 
 
 On the 14th of June, 1858, he married Miss 
 Chloe Severance, of Waterloo. They have had 
 seven children, and six are living. 
 
 Where the few log cabins stood twenty-three years 
 ago, on the west side of the river, three thousand 
 people are living to-day, largely in elegant frame 
 and brick houses, Mr. Miller's residence being on 
 one of the finest sites and among the best ; while 
 on the east side of the river are as many more peo- 
 ple, engaged in the multipHed industries of life, and 
 like Mr. Miller, pleased to have a home in so pleas- 
 ant a city. 
 
 HON. JACOB W. STEWART, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 JACOB W. STEWART was born in Danbury, 
 J Connecticut, on the 21st of June, 1828. His 
 parents were Simeon M. and Susan Stewart. His 
 father was a man of moderate means, and gave him 
 the advantage of a good education, intending that 
 he should study medicine, but a longing for the study 
 of law had grown upon the son, and from early 
 youth he had resolved to make it his profession. 
 After closing his studies in the common schools he 
 pursued a collegiate course at Dennison University, 
 Granville, Ohio, a school of much celebrity at that 
 time. After receiving his diploma he began to read 
 law in the office of Hon. Edward Wells, a promi- 
 nent lawyer of Peekskill, New York, and was ad- 
 mitted to the bar. After some time spent in look- 
 ing around he decided to remove to the west, and 
 accordingly, in the fall of 1852, with a fewdollars 
 in his pocket, he settled in Iowa. He stopped the 
 first winter in Burlington, and engaged in teaching 
 school at that place, and in the following spring 
 moved to Davenport and opened an office. The 
 practice of a young lawyer for the first few years is 
 not very lucrative, and he found it necessary to 
 engage in various kinds of work. He taught school 
 one winter, and acted as clerk on a steamboat part 
 of one season, but kept his office open and did 
 what business came to him. Thus he gained a foot- 
 
 hold, and in 1856 was elected prosecuting attor- 
 ney, an office which he held for four years. In 
 1866 he was appointed, by President Johnson, inter- 
 nal revenue collector of the second congressional 
 district, holding the office but one year. In 1874 
 he was elected mayor of the city for a term of one 
 year. 
 
 Mr, Stewart is in no way a politician, and has 
 never held an office when he could avoid it, and 
 takes just pride and an active interest in the wel- 
 fare of his adopted city and state. He is liberal in 
 his political views, although a republican till 1865. 
 
 In Masonry, he has taken every degree to be had 
 in this country, and is an earnest worker in the 
 order. 
 
 He was reared a Baptist, but is now a member of 
 no church ; he believes in the fundamental doctrines 
 of the christian religion, and adheres to the golden 
 rule as his guide. 
 
 He was married on the 15th of January, 1856, to 
 Miss Fannie A. Ferguson, of Danbury, Connecticut. 
 They have two children, a son and a daughter. 
 
 Much of his success may be attributed to his 
 industry and honorable dealing with his clients. 
 Mr. Stewart is somewhat above medium height, of 
 good physical appearance, suggestive of good health 
 and habits. He has an elegant residence about 
 
^yC^^^ 
 
IHB UNITED STATES BlOGIiAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 7)^0 
 
 three miles from the city, surrounded by handsome | life in a new country, without friends and in straitened 
 grounds, and where, free from the dust and din of ! circumstances, he has by his own unaided industry 
 the city, he rests from the toils of the day. Mr. j and perseverance gained a competence, and the 
 Stewart is emphatically a self-made man. Beginning I esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 WESLEY JONES, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 W'ESLEY JONES, prominent merchant, Bur- 
 lington, Iowa, was born in Springfield, Ohio, 
 on the nth of February, 1841, and is the son of 
 Wesley Jones, senior, and Mary Margaret Jones, who 
 were early settlers of the state, his father locating 
 at Burlington in 1838. Soon after the birth of 
 Wesley the family removed to Burlington, where 
 he attended the common schools for a short time, 
 but the death of his father leaving him dependent 
 upon his own exertions for a living, he accepted the 
 first position that offered, which was that of carrier 
 for the " Hawkeye " newspaper, in which office he 
 learned the printer's trade, and remained two years. 
 He then secured a situation as clerk in the dry- 
 goods house of W. H. Postlewait, in whose employ 
 he spent seven years, and remained with his suc- 
 cessors, Garrett, Rhodes and Co., until they quit 
 business. Shortly after this he went west and en- 
 gaged in a series of speculations, which, though at 
 ttmes perilous and in which he labored under great 
 disadvantages, were very successful, and he again 
 returned to Burlington. 
 
 In 1866 the book-store of J. L. Corse, deceased, 
 being offered for sale, he purchased it. It was then 
 doing a business of eighteen or twenty thousand 
 dollars per annum. He took hold of it a green 
 
 hand knowing nothing at all of the business, but 
 investing the same energy and will which had 
 proved so successful in the mountains of Montana, 
 and with an eye to the growing demands of the 
 country, and a determination to succeed, has built 
 up the establishment to what it is now, the leading 
 house in its line in the northwest, and doing a 
 business of three hundred thousand dollars per 
 annum. He is undoubtedly the proprietor of the 
 largest book and paper store owned and controlled 
 by any one man in the United States, and is vice- 
 president of the American Book Trade Association 
 of the United States, erected July, 1875, at a con- 
 vention held at Niagara Falls. His success has been 
 attained by his indomitable energy and close at- 
 tention to business. He is in the fullest sense of 
 the term a self-made man : commencing in early life 
 without a penny, he has raised himself by his own 
 unaided- ability, industry and perseverance. 
 
 He was brought up in the Episcopal church, and 
 is still and attendant of that form of worship. 
 
 In politics, he is a liberal democrat, but is in no 
 sense of the word a politician. 
 
 Though still young, he has by his superb business 
 qualifications attained the respect and confidence 
 of the trade, and is a most exemplary citizen. 
 
 HON. GEORGE R. MILLER, 
 
 MASON CITY. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch was born in Craw- 
 ford county, Pennsylvania, on the 21st of Janu- 
 ary, 1 83 1, his parents being Abram Miller and Nancy 
 Ross Miller. His paternal grandfather was a Bap- 
 tist minister for thirty-five years, and his father, a 
 hale old man, is living in Mason City. His ma- 
 ternal grandfather was a son of Sir ^Villiani Ross, 
 of Ireland. 
 
 Young George had a strong thirst for knowledge, i 
 
 and when twelve years of age used to attend a 
 select school, fi\-e miles from home, walking ten 
 miles daily. 
 
 When he was fourteen his parents moved to Vir- 
 ginia, and after working one year with his father on 
 a farm the son was apprenticed to the tailor's trade, 
 serving his full time of three years. While working 
 on the bench he was accustomed to study, more or 
 less, giving all his leisure to text-books, fitting him- 
 
384 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 self for a teacher while learning his trade. He 
 went directly to teaching, devoting eight years 
 steadily to this, in Erie county, Pennsylvania, and 
 in the southern part of that state. 
 
 Mr. Miller moved to Rossville, Allamakee county, 
 Iowa, in 1856, being one of the early settlers in that 
 place. Rossville was named after an uncle of his. 
 At twenty-six years of age he commenced studying 
 law at Rossville, and was admitted to the bar at 
 Lansing, Allamakee county, in 1859. He practiced 
 in that county until 1868, when he moved to Mason 
 City, Cerro Gordo county, connecting real estate with 
 his legal business. For six years he was in partner- 
 ship with Hon. I. W. Card. The firm is now Miller 
 and Cliggitt, and has a high standing in the county. 
 
 In 1 86 1 Mr. Miller received a recruiting commis- 
 sion from Adjutant-General Baker, with the title of 
 lieutenant, and that year recruited a portion of the 
 ist Iowa Cavalry and the 5th and 12th Iowa Infantry. 
 The next year he recruited a compan,y for the 27th 
 regiment of Infantry, and went into the army as 
 captain of the same. He served until June, 1863, 
 when his health failed and he was discharged. 
 
 Mr. Miller represented Allamakee county in the 
 twelfth general assembly, 1868, being in the lower 
 house. He was one of the hard-working members. 
 
 He is a Master Mason, and has been a member of 
 the fraternity twenty years. 
 
 He has been connected with the Baptist church 
 since he was eighteen years old. 
 
 He was a Douglas democrat, and now calls hinti- 
 self a liberal democrat. He was a delegate to the 
 national democratic convention in 1876. 
 
 In June, 1853, he married Miss Mary E. Burchi- 
 nal, of Fayette county, Pennsylvania. They have 
 five children, all born in Iowa. 
 
 Mr. Miller had quite a struggle to get his educa- 
 tion, having no assistance except his own diligence, 
 perseverance and good, health. He has been iden- 
 tified with many important enterprises in northern 
 Iowa. He is one of the foremost men in Cerro 
 Gordo county in agricultural matters, and has been 
 president of the county agricultural society for the 
 last four years. He is one of the leaders in what- 
 ever is calculated to promote the best interests of 
 society. 
 
 COLONEL JED LAKE, 
 
 INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch, a son of Jedediah 
 Lake, a farmer, and of Patience Church Lake, 
 was born in Lapeer, then a part of Virgil, New 
 York, on the i8th of November, 1830. His grand- 
 father, Henry Lake, served four years in the revolu- 
 tionary war. Jedediah Lake died when his son was 
 only three years old, and the latter remained with 
 his mother on the farm until he was seventeen. He 
 enjoyed the usual educational advantages of farm- 
 ers' sons to be had in a district school. After that 
 age, for four or five years, he attended Cortland 
 Academy in the summers and taught school in the 
 winters. He paid some attention to classics, but the 
 English branches, and particularly mathemathics, 
 engaged most of his attention. 
 
 The years 1853 and 1854 were spent in travel- 
 ing in the middle and southern states, partly to 
 acquaint himself with the manners and customs of 
 the people and the resources of the country, and 
 partly to find a location in which to settle. 
 
 He came to the west in September, 1855, and be- 
 ing delighted with the valley of the Wapsipinecon, 
 
 resolved to settle at Independence, Buchanan county, 
 which he did the next month. He ran a saw-mill 
 and cultivated a farm until the financial crisis of 
 1857, when he found himself, like many of his 
 neighbors, ruined by its effects. 
 
 Prior to this date he had read a few law books, 
 and now resolved to devote himself to the legal 
 profession. He entered the office of C. H. Lathrop, 
 Esq., in the autumn of 1857, and studied about one 
 year, when he was admitted to the Buchanan county 
 bar. Here he has practiced ever since, except 
 when in the army, having a very remunerative busi- 
 ness and standing high in the profession. 
 
 In August, 1862, he enlisted as a private in com- 
 pany C, 27th Iowa Infantry. When the company 
 was organized he was elected first-lieutenant, and 
 was appointed lieutenant- colonel by the governor 
 before the regiment was mustered into the service. 
 In 1864, when Colonel Gilbert, commander of this 
 regiment, was promoted to brigadier-general, Lieut. - 
 Colonel Lake was commissioned colonel. He served 
 three years, at the end of which time the war had 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 385 
 
 closed. The 27th was at the capture of Little Rock, 
 Arkansas, under General Steele; in the Red river 
 expedition, under General Banks; at the battle of 
 Nashville, Tennessee; at the capture of Mobile, 
 Alabama, and several other engagements, but Colo- 
 nel Lake never received a wound. 
 
 In 1861 he was elected a member of the lower 
 house of the general assembly, and enlisted in the 
 army while serving in the extra session. Just before 
 enlisting he was appointed a collector of internal 
 revenue for the third congressional district, but he 
 declined to act, preferring to serve his country in 
 the field. 
 
 When the new law of Iowa, reducing the number 
 of supervisors to three, went into effect, he was 
 elected one of the members of the board and served 
 two years. He is one of the directors of the First 
 National Bank of Independence, and of the Mill 
 Company, a heavy local organization, owning the 
 largest flouring mill in the state. 
 
 Colonel Lake is a member of no church, and has 
 no religious preferences. 
 
 He has always been a republican. 
 
 On the 2d of Januarj', 1861, he was married to 
 Miss Sarah E. Meyer, of Buchanan county, and by 
 her has had three children, two of whom are living. 
 
 GEORGE S. SHAW, 
 
 DAVENPORT. 
 
 GEORGE S. SHAW, one of the most wealthy, 
 enterprising and useful citizens of Davenport, 
 and the proprietor of a large portion of East Daven- 
 port, was born in Chelsea, Vermont, on the 14th of 
 April, 1824. His parents were Elijah and Elizabeth 
 (Ainsworth) Shaw, of Scotch descent (the original 
 ancestor having migrated to New England some 
 three generations previously), perpetuating and ex- 
 emplifying in an eminent degree the characteristics 
 of that race ; hardly, patipnt, persistent, industrious 
 and frugal. The father owned a farm in the " Green 
 Mountain State " consisting of one hundred and 
 twenty acres of a steep hill-side, so closely covered 
 with small rocks and underlaid with larger ones, 
 that it resembled more a macadamized highway 
 than a farm of arable land. The earliest recollec- 
 tions of our subject are fraught with the drudgery 
 and hardship of removing those flinty impediments 
 to the plowshare, and the productiveness of the soil. 
 The only opportunities for education which he en- 
 joyed were three months in each winter, when the 
 ground was so frozen and coated with snow that 
 field-work was impossible. At the early age of teti 
 years he launched out in support of himself, and for 
 two years worked for his board and clothing, going 
 to school three months each year. The following 
 three years he worked as a day laborer or farm- 
 hand. At fifteen he was indentured as an appren- 
 tice to learn the house carpenter and millwright 
 business, to which he served four years, and was 
 considered an expert and ingenious mechanic, while 
 his health and general constitution had become 
 
 robust and established by the physical exercise in- 
 cident to his pupilage. On completing his appren- 
 ticeship he left his native town of Chelsea, Vermont, 
 and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and lacking 
 means he was compelled to make the entire journey 
 of one hundred and fifty-five miles on foot. There 
 for two years he worked steadily at the bench as a 
 journeyman, and saved a small sum of money. At 
 the age of twenty-one years, having attained a rep- 
 utation for mechanical skill and integrity, he com- 
 menced to take contracts for the erecting of houses 
 and other structures, with general success, and was 
 daily adding to his little hoard. At the end of four 
 years he moved to Chelsea, Massachusetts, a sub- 
 urb of Boston, bringing with him what at that date 
 was regarded as a considerable " pile," and settled 
 in a suburb of the town which was then called 
 Winthrop. Here he invested his savings in adjacent 
 lands, which he subdivided into lots, streets, etc., 
 and commenced the building of houses, which he 
 sold or rented as fast as completed, and in a short 
 time he had built nearly half the town, and was 
 considered the most distinguished benefactor of the 
 neighborhood. He was accordingly honored suc- 
 cessively with all the offices of the corporation from 
 school trustee upward. In 1857 he moved tcTChel- 
 sea, Massachusetts, where for nine years he con- 
 tinued the business of contractor and builder. He 
 was especially distinguished as a church builder, as 
 his conscientious and honorable dealings especially 
 commended him to that class of employers; and 
 during this last-named period not less than thirteen 
 
386 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 beautiful ecclesiastical edifices were eTected by him. 
 Here, also, as in his former home, he was honored 
 with all the civil distinctions his fellow-citizens could 
 confer. But his unremitting toil, coupled with the 
 treacherous character of the climate, had been for 
 several years making serious inroads upon his hither- 
 to robust constitution, and his physicians gravely 
 advised him to seek a more genial climate some- 
 where in the west. He accordingly, in 1865, moved 
 to Davenport, Iowa, where in two years his health 
 was fully restored. His old habits followed him to 
 the west, and he was soon the owner of some of the 
 most picturesque and desirable declivities bordering 
 on the river, and overlooking the "Island," — the 
 center of gravitation for that region — upon which 
 he commenced building houses and laying out ad- 
 ditions, which were .originally known as " Shaw's first, 
 second and third additions to the city of Daven- 
 port," but now denominated " East Davenport," the 
 most beautiful and desirable portion of the city. 
 - In 1875, in partnership with William Renwick and 
 E, S. Crossett, Esqs., he engaged in the steam saw- 
 mill business, and has since been extensively engaged 
 in the manufacture of lumber with a success not 
 inferior to that which attended all his former enter- 
 prises. This establishment employs over one hun- 
 dred men and a large number of teams the year 
 round, while its oversight and management consti- 
 tute the chief occupation of our subject. 
 
 In 1868 he was elected a member of the city 
 council of Davenport, in which capacity he served 
 his fellow-citizens with zeal and marked ability 
 
 for six years, some of the wisest and most important 
 measures of city government and improvement ow- 
 ing their existence to his consummate judgment and 
 energy. One of the strongest traits of his character 
 is his decision, which, accompanied, as it always has 
 been, with perseverance, naturally resulted in his 
 eminent success. He is a man of remarkable pre- 
 science, a rare judge of human nature, but withal 
 strictly conscientious and scrupulously upright. He 
 is an unflinching friend and an uncompromising 
 opponent ; with him there is no neutral or equivocal 
 ground. He is a public-spirited and generous citi- 
 zen ; liberal with his wealth in responding to the 
 calls of benevolence and charity, whether public 
 or private, and a friend to the poor. Such an ex- 
 ample as that of George S. Shaw, without education 
 or influence, by his own unaided energy and indus- 
 try, rising from poverty and obscurity to affluence 
 and distinction, cannot fail to be an encouraging 
 inspiration to many a youth struggling with difficul- 
 ties, and often tempted to give up in despair. 
 
 On the 26th of April, 1846, he married Miss Mary 
 Ross, daughter of Willis Ross, of Bakersfield, Ver- 
 mont, a most estimable lady, who in the early days 
 of their pilgrimage bore with cheerfulness her due 
 proportion of the burden of life, and in later years 
 shares his affluence with unaffected modesty and 
 meekness. They have five children : George T., 
 Edward A., Willis R., Lizzie C. and Hattie M. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Shaw has always been an ardent re- 
 publican, while in religion he follows in the line of 
 the Pilgrim Fathers. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM B. LEACH, 
 
 CEDAR RAPIDS. 
 
 AMONG the many New England men who have 
 ^ strayed from home and crossed the Missis- 
 sippi to carve their way to "fortune and to fame," 
 is William Benton Leach, son of James and Try- 
 phenia Benton Leach. He was born at Lisbon, 
 New Hampshire, on the 4th of July, 1832. His 
 grandfather fought in the great and successful strug- 
 gle for American independence. William's father 
 and mother died in his infancy. He lived with an 
 aunt until, he was nine years old, and was then sent 
 to Barre, Vermont, to live with Hon. Josiah Wood, 
 under whose guardianship he remained until of 
 age, 
 
 Young Leach attended school at different Ver- 
 mont academies, and entered the University of Ver- 
 mont in 1853, but left in the sophomore year. He 
 spent two years on the preliminary surveys of a road 
 between Hoboken, New Jersey, and Pittston, Penn- 
 sylvania. 
 
 In 1857 Mr. Leach went to Faribault, Minnesota, 
 and studied law in the office of Bachelder and 
 Buckham ; was admitted to the bar the next year, 
 and practiced there and at Hastings until the break- 
 ing out of the rebellion. 
 
 In 1865 he removed to Cedar Rapids, and carried 
 on the milling business until 1870. The next year 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 !7 
 
 he resumed the practice of law, adding to it the 
 business of insurance. 
 
 On the 29th of April, 1861, Mr. Leach was corn- 
 missioned adjutant of the ist regiment Minnesota 
 Infantry. Shortly after he was commissioned adju- 
 tant-general of volunteers by President Lincoln, and 
 served three years. Among the battles in which he 
 participated were the first Bull Run, Ball's Bluff, 
 siege of Yorktown, Fair Oaks, Peach Orchard, Sav- 
 age Station, Nelson's Farm, Malvern Hill, second 
 Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Gettys- 
 burg. Strange to say, though usually in the hottest 
 of the conflict, he was never wounded. Many fell 
 at different times by his side, and he had numerous 
 narrow escapes in the "imminent deadly breach.'' 
 Mr. Leach came out of the army at the end of his 
 three years' service with the rank of captain ; an 
 honor well merited for his coolness and bravery. 
 He was one of the first men in Minnesota to enlist. 
 
 In the autumn of 1867 Captain Leach was elected 
 to the lower house of the. general assembly of Iowa, 
 
 and served one term. He was an active member on 
 several committees. At the close of the session 
 Governor Merrill placed him upon his staff, with the 
 rank of lieutenant-colonel. 
 
 Colonel Leach was a democrat until 1861; since 
 then he has voted with the republican party. 
 
 He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic order. 
 
 In religion, his connection is with the Episcopal 
 church. 
 
 On the 19th of June, 1861, he was united in mar- 
 riage to Miss Mary C. Hammond, of Hastings, 
 Minnesota; she has had four children, three now 
 living. 
 
 Colonel Leach was mayor of Cedar Rapids in 
 1869, and made an efficient head of the munici- 
 pality. He is a man of cultivation, is much inter- 
 ested ifi educational matters, and for the last four 
 years has been president of the local school board. 
 
 It is to such active and efficient men as Colonel 
 Leach, and a few others in Cedar Rapids, that the 
 city owes its excellent system of public instruction. 
 
 JOHN S. SCHRAMM, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 JOHN SIEGMUND SCHRAMM was born in 
 J Plech, Bavaria, Germany, on' the 31st of March, 
 1 8 18. His parents were John Christopher and 
 Anna Margaretta (Kessling) Schramm. 
 
 John S. received his early education in the pub- 
 lic schools at Plech, and at thirteen went to Culm- 
 bach and served five years in a mercantile house, at 
 the same time taking lessons in Latin and French. 
 
 In boyhood he was very fond of music, flowers, 
 and innocent fun, which he still enjoys. In later 
 years astronomy has become his favorite study. 
 
 His father served his military term (seven years) 
 under Frederick the Great, and was engaged in the 
 great battles of Sena and Austerlitz, and others of 
 less importance; after which he returned home and 
 engaged in the mercantile business. 
 
 Having received more than a common education, 
 he was elected to various offices of trust and impor- 
 tance. He was a well read man and had the finest 
 library within many miles of Plech. 
 
 After the seven years' war a part of the country 
 formerly belonging to Prussia was allotted to Bava- 
 ria, and his father, not feeling friendly toward the 
 licentious king, Ludwig I, resolved to leave Bavaria 
 
 and emigrate to America. Being well read in the 
 history of this country and sighing for the freedom 
 of its institutions, he resolved in 1837 to come. 
 This had to be done with prudence, for, being a jnan 
 of much influence, the government sought every 
 means to frustrate his design, inore particularly be- 
 cause he was the first one within hundreds of miles 
 applying for the privilege. His children were scat- 
 tered over the country engaged in various pursuits, 
 but letters gathered them once more at home, and 
 nothing was left undone to make him chang& his in- 
 tentions, but of no use; and in September, 1837, 
 after a tedious and stormy voyage of eleven weeks, 
 they arrived in New York, and after remaining a few 
 days started for Missouri, but on account of sick- 
 ness they were obliged to stop at Circleville. John's 
 knowledge of the Englisfi language being meager, 
 he found it. difficult to procure a situation, but at 
 last found employment in a printing office at four 
 dollars a month. This he accepted for two reasons : 
 to earn something, and more especially to gain a 
 more rapid knowledge of the English language. He 
 remained here five years, receiving journeyman's 
 wages the third year. 
 
388 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 In the summer of 1842 he was influenced by a 
 friend to come to Burlington, thinking he could do 
 well here. He arrived in the month of August, 
 1842, with forty dollars in his pocket. He engaged 
 at once in the " Gazette " office, and commenced 
 work the next day. Here he remained but a short 
 time, as the paper changed hands and his services 
 were not needed ; and gathering his savings he 
 started for St. Louis, where he purchased a small 
 stock of groceries. 
 
 In his business affairs he has always been careful, 
 making calculations under the most adverse circum- 
 stances to meet his obligations. 
 
 While in the grocery business he also manufac- 
 tured vinegar, always finding a market for his over- 
 stock. He also taught music about three evenings 
 in the week, and established the first brass band in 
 Burlington. 
 
 He was married on the 15th of March, 1843, to 
 Miss Harriet, daughter of Jonathan Morgan, one of 
 the first settlers. The year 1850, when the cholera 
 swept over the land, it took his wife and one child, 
 and also his mother. His father died in 1849. 
 
 He remarried on the 24th of March, 1852, to Miss 
 Amelia P., daughter of Silas Williams, Esq. In 
 1854 he formed a partnership with his brother in the 
 dry-goods trade, which was dissolved in about five 
 years on account of the poor health of his brother, 
 whose interest he purchased, and has continued the 
 business till the present time. 
 
 His success may be attributed to his early home 
 influence, it having been the constant aim of his 
 parents to inculcate into their children the princi- 
 ples of doing right. They were members of the 
 Lutheran church and brought up their children in 
 the same faith. 
 
 He has been a member of the different orders of 
 Masonry for many years, and has been a master- 
 mason for thirty-two years. He has never sought 
 political offices, voting always in his opinion for the 
 best man, regardless of party. 
 
 He vis much interested in the public schools, and 
 spends much of his time in their benefit; and it is 
 his firm conviction that the-future prosperity and se- 
 curity of this nation rests upon a proper, universal 
 system of free schools. 
 
 JUNIUS W. SHANNON, 
 
 ELKADER. 
 
 THE boys who have the hardest row to hoe, 
 often, if not usually, make the best men. 
 Their early struggles have a tendency to develop 
 their self-reliance and other manly traits. Junius 
 W. Shannon is not an exception to this rule. 
 
 He lost his father in infancy, and his mother, a 
 delicate, yet resolute woman, became a widow before 
 she had been married two years, and was left with 
 no means of support for herself and child, except her 
 own weak, yet willing and diligent hands. She 
 had a difficult task, but lived through it, reared her 
 son, and is now the recipient of that son's grate- 
 fully rendered hospitalities. 
 
 Junius W. Shannon was the son of Robert Em- 
 mett and Nancy Daniels Shannon, and was born m 
 Will county, Illinois, on the 19th of February, 1835. 
 His father was of Irish and the mother of French- 
 Irish descent. 
 
 Robert E. Shannon was a brilliant young lawyer 
 whom a malarious fever carried off about three years 
 after settling in Illinois. 
 
 Until seventeen years of age Junius spent his time 
 
 largely on a farm, with a few months' schooling each 
 year. When a little older he attended a select 
 school six months at Sterling, Illinois. At nineteen 
 he went into the office of the "Sterling Times," be- 
 ginning at the bottom as printer's devil, and in nine 
 months had editorial charge of the paper. He 
 never completed a regular apprenticeship at the 
 printer's trade, but picked up the whole art in a few 
 years, and can make a good roller, put up a neat job, 
 or set up an editorial without putting it on pa- 
 per. He edited papers at SterHng and Morrison, 
 Whiteside county, until November, 1858, when he 
 removed to Fayette county, Iowa, spending a year or 
 more on a farm. 
 
 In i860 he established the "North Iowa Ob- 
 server," at Fayette, meeting with good success. 
 
 Seven years later, in connection with C. H. Tal- 
 madge, he started the " West Union Gazette," an- 
 other success. The paper is now conducted by Mr. 
 Talraadge, and is the leading journal in Fayette 
 county. 
 
 In 1 87 1 Mr. Shannon took charge of the "Iowa 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 389 
 
 State Reporter," at Waterloo, and the next spring 
 when the " Cedar Rapids Daily Republican " was 
 started, he became its chief editorial writer, and re- 
 mained in that position until he purchased the 
 "Clayton County Journal," Elkader, in August, 
 1872. This, the oldest paper in the county, he still 
 conducts with marked ability. In February, 1873, 
 he was appointed postmaster, and the oversight of 
 this office in addition to his editorial and other cares, 
 make him a busy man. 
 
 He has held several minor offices in different 
 counties, but craves none more than a printing of- 
 fice. There he is at home. 
 
 When about seventeen, to please his mother, he 
 began to read law with Hon. Miles S. Henry, of 
 
 Sterling; read two years, afterward, with Judge Mc- 
 Glatherly, of West Union, finished the course and 
 was admitted to the bar of Fayette county, but hav- 
 ing no taste for the profession he never practiced. 
 
 Mr. Shannon is a member of the Episcopal 
 church, holding his connection at West Union. 
 
 In boyhood he was an abolitionist, and since he 
 was old enough to vote he has acted with the re- 
 publican party. 
 
 On the i2th of February, 1859, Mr. Shannon mar- 
 ried Miss Laura Spencer, daughter of Ralph H. 
 Spencer, of Fayette county. Mrs. Shannon has had 
 four children, three of them still living. The two 
 eldest children, boys, are growing up in the printing 
 office with their father's industrious habits. 
 
 JOSEPH C. STONE, M. D., 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 JOSEPH C. STONE, a prominent physician of 
 J Burlington, Iowa, was born in Westport, Essex 
 county. New York, on the 30th of July, 1829. His 
 parents were Henry and Abigail Stone, who were 
 natives of New England. His father was a farmer, 
 and served in the war of 1812, participating in the 
 battle of Plattsburg. His mother, who was highly 
 educated, having enjoyed academic privileges, in the 
 absence of any other opportunity was enabled to 
 give her family a knowledge of the rudiments of 
 learning. Thus Joseph grew up to manhood with 
 only such advantages as were to be found at a family 
 fireside forty years ago. In 1844 the family moved 
 to the west, and settled in Le Claire, Scott county, 
 Iowa, and for six years he worked upon the farm ; 
 but owing to failing health and a desire to know 
 more of mankind, he left his home and went out 
 into the world. Determining he would make medi- 
 cine his profession, he went to Illinois College, 
 where he remained a year, preparatory to entering 
 upon his professional studies. He studied medicine 
 under the direction of the eminent Professor Charles 
 A. Pope, of St. Louis, and graduated with high 
 honor at the .medical department of the St. Louis 
 University (Pope's College) in 1853-4. After grad- 
 uation he returned to Iowa and entered at once 
 upon a good practice, and gained an enviable repu- 
 tation as an accomplished surgeon. When the 
 Russia-Allied war came. Dr. Pope, knowing the 
 ambition rff the young surgeon to visit Europe, 
 39 
 
 kindly used his influence and secured a commission 
 in the Russian service, which was accepted, and for 
 over a year he was engaged in foreign service. At 
 the close of the war he returned to Iowa, and en- 
 gaged in private practice at Iowa City. 
 
 In politics, he has always been an ardent republi- 
 can, though never taking an active part in questions 
 of governmental policy until the Kansas-Nebraska 
 bill and the Dred Scott decision. From that time 
 to the present he has been known as an earnest 
 advocate of the representation principle, and in 
 speeches often declared "that an absolutely wise and 
 honest administration of public affairs was the only 
 safety of the republic." 
 
 At the breaking out of the war of the rebellion he 
 closed his office and was one of the first to offer 
 his services to his country, and enlisted in the ranks 
 of the army. He was soon made adjutant of his 
 regiment, the ist Iowa Cavalry, and in a few weeks 
 was appointed captain and assistant adjutant-gen- 
 eral, and from time to time was promoted to the 
 offices of major and lieutenant-colonel, entirely with- 
 out solicitation on his part. While in the army he 
 had the reputation of being an officer of good exec- 
 utive ability and solid integrity, having the respect 
 and confidence of his superior officers and the love 
 of the men in a high degree ; and when the war was 
 over, and he about to return home, General Canby 
 indorsed on his final order: "Few officers return 
 from the service of their country with the conscious- 
 
390 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARi: 
 
 ness that their every act has been approved, and that 
 through their watchful care millions of dollars have 
 been saved to the government. That consciousness 
 you carry with you to your home, and with it the 
 respect and love of your commanding officer and 
 friend." At the close of the war he settled at Bur- 
 lington and engaged in the practice of his profes- 
 sion. He has the confidence of the medical men to 
 a high degree. Not only at home is he well known 
 and highly respected, but also throughout the state. 
 He is a man of quick perception, clear judgment 
 and a high sense of honor. Positive in his charac- 
 ter, he makes but little allowance for the men of 
 policy, and is slow to forgive political offenses. The 
 men who have degraded their high offices by thiev- 
 ery and dishonesty find no excuse in his mind, and 
 
 he has for them only words of condemnation. By 
 his bitter denunciation of demagogues and thieving 
 officials he has made some enemies. This he does 
 not regard, but sticks by his convictions and contin- 
 ues his work, trusting that time and the better nature 
 and judgment of men will correct the errors that 
 disturb the harmony of our social system and de- 
 grade and disgrace the public service. 
 
 He married in 1862 Miss Ellen L. Lutz, of Ohio, 
 and has one daughter, an only child. 
 
 Dr. Stone has gained much prominence in his 
 profession, and now stands among the first medical 
 practitioners in the state. Appreciated ar.d beloved 
 by a host of friends, his future bids fair to end on 
 the top of the ladder of fame, the result of merito- 
 rious services. 
 
 HON. ZEPHANIAH C. LUSE, 
 
 10 IV A cn^r. 
 
 A MONG the self-made men of our times none 
 Jr\. deserve more honorable mention than Hon. 
 Zephaniah C. Luse, past grand high priest of the 
 Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Royal Arch Masons 
 and present grand master of Iowa. 
 
 He was born in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, 
 on the 23d of January, 1826, and is son of Caleb 
 and Margaret (Cuthbertson) Luse, both natives of 
 Pennsylvania. His boyhood was passed upon a 
 farm, and by attending the country schools gained 
 the rudiments of an education. Being very ambi- 
 tious, and feeling the great need of knowledge as 
 the highway to success, he devoted himself to study. 
 At eighteen he was apprenticed to the carpenter's 
 trade, which, having learned, he resolved to labor 
 no more with his hands until he had acquired the 
 education his mind had so long coveted. Accord- 
 ingly, he wended his way to a distant county and 
 entered an academy. The next five years were 
 spent teaching part of the time to pay his way and 
 qualify himself for college, which he successfully 
 accomplished, thus gaining that practical education 
 which has afterward been his greatest treasure. 
 During these years, however, he (as many another 
 ambitious youth) read law without an instructor, 
 but did not till later years enter into its practice. 
 In 1852 he removed to the west, and settled at St. 
 Paul, but finding the climate too severe for his con- 
 stitution, he traveled for a season, stopping at Rock 
 
 Island, Davenport and other places, until the spring 
 of 1855, when he removed to, and permanently 
 settled in, Iowa City. 
 
 Here he engaged as trader and as general auc- 
 tioneer, continuing in that business till 1858, when 
 he commenced the practice of law. Never ambitious 
 for office nor the distinction it confers, he was never- 
 theless appointed county judge in 1864, to fill a 
 vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Williams. 
 This appointment was a compliment to his judg- 
 ment and ability, as it was made by a board com- 
 posed of those of opposite political faith. Holding 
 at the same time the office of city solicitor, an office 
 more congenial to his taste, he declined a nomination 
 by his party for election to the office, and there- 
 after devoted himself with renewed energy and dili- 
 gence to his profession. Judge Luse had had dur- 
 ing his early years a longing desire to become a 
 Mason, but the prejudices of his father, who was a 
 strong " anti-Mason," and who thought all Masons 
 alHed with Satan, — this, added after marriage to the 
 opposition of his wife, prevented his earlier associa- 
 tion with the body. With the lapse of years, how- 
 ever, her opposition ceased, and she yielded her full 
 consent, so that late in 1858 he joined the order in 
 Iowa City. The same ambition to learn and ad- 
 vance which had urged him to acquire an education 
 is manifest in his career as a Mason, and in 1859 
 he was elected senior warden, and in 1865 was 
 
*'s^iv£L'ivirtus^.!rT,i3..-n i 
 
 1>^ 
 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 393 
 
 elected junior grand warden of the Grand Lodge. 
 After holding numerous offices in the subordinate 
 and 'grand lodges which the briefness of our space 
 will not allow of enumeration, he was in 1870 elected 
 grand high priest, but owing to failing health in 
 187 1 declined reelection. Previous to this, in June, 
 1864, he was elected grand treasurer of the Grand 
 Commandery of the State of Iowa, to which he was 
 reelected three successive terms. In consulting the 
 records- of the subordinate bodies, we find Judge 
 Luse has served repeatedly as treasurer of them all. 
 He received the degrees of the A. and A. rite, and 
 was subsequently elected to the office of grand 
 chancellor, which he continues to fill. In 1874 he 
 was elected deputy grand commander, and in June, 
 1877, elected grand master. In all the bodies, 
 grand and subordinate, he has ever proved an in- 
 telligent, useful member, setting a worthy example. 
 
 In religious views, he is a Methodist, in which 
 church, as in Masonry, his influence has been ex- 
 erted for the good of his fellow-men, and amidst his 
 sufferings he finds in the religion of his blessed 
 Redeemer that consolation the world can neither 
 given nor take away. 
 
 In politics, he is a republican, and an active advo- 
 cate of its principles, though never accepting office. 
 
 On the 9th of March, 1852, he married Miss Jane 
 A. Henry, of Crawford county, Pennsylvania. 
 
 Much of Judge Luse's success in early life was 
 due to the influence of a good christian mother, and 
 in after years to a devoted, christian wife, influences 
 which are, in the experience of nearly all, most 
 happy and effective. In i868 the judge's failing 
 health admonished him that he should, at least for a 
 season, give up his professional labors and seek a 
 more active outdoor exercise. This he did, and in 
 the fall of 1869 made a trip to the Pacific coast, 
 returning with greatly improved health. In 1871 he 
 was more severely attacked, but this time with rheu- 
 matism, superinduced by overwork and study, which 
 finally located in the head, and from that he suf- 
 fered for a number of years, and still suffers occa- 
 sionally. Recovering partially in 1873, he formed 
 a copartnership with his son Frank, his only living 
 child, under the firm name of Z. C. Luse and Son, 
 in the raising of fine stock. Such has been his suc- 
 cess that his name is used in connection with fine 
 stock all over the country. His fine Jersey cattle 
 have secured premiums in state and county fairs 
 wherever exhibited, and gained the encomiums of 
 both press and people. Such is the brief outline of 
 the life-history of one who, struggling through trials, 
 has worked his way from obscurity to a place of higR 
 esteem, and performed a work the influence of which 
 shall live in the hearts of those who have known 
 him, and increase with the passing years. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM G. STEWART, 
 
 DUBU^^IUE. 
 
 AMONG the honored names of Dubuque's early 
 XV. settlers, none are more worthy of record than 
 that of William Graham Stewart, who for over forty 
 years has been a citizen of Dubuque, and for more 
 than half of which time he has held positions of 
 honor and trust, with high credit to himself and to 
 the satisfaction of his constituents. 
 
 He was born in Lee county, Virginia, on the loth 
 of July, 1813, and is son of William and Jane 
 Stewart, both natives of Virginia. His early edu- 
 cation was limited, and embraced but the rudiments; 
 but later, through his own efforts of reading and 
 study, he has placed himself above others, with 
 much better opportunities for learning. 
 
 In early life he had an ambition to see and live 
 in the great west, and in September, 183 1, on the 
 removal of his father and family to Montgomery 
 
 county, Missouri, he accompanied them. In the 
 spring of 1832 he was employed by the government 
 to assist in the removal of the remnants of the tribes 
 of Seneca, Delaware, and other tribes of Indians, 
 from Ohio to their reservations, about one hundred 
 miles above Little Rock, Arkansas. 
 
 Having heard of the Galena lead mines and their 
 great wealth, he determined to visit them. Arriving 
 at Galena, in October, 1833, he remained until the 
 loth of February, 1834, when he came to Dubuque 
 (then in Michigan territory), and returned to Mis- 
 souri the following summer. 
 
 After remaining away nearly a year, on account 
 of sickness, he returned to Dubuque and engaged 
 in farming and mining. Was elected sheriff" of Du- 
 buque county in 1847, and held the office for six 
 years. 
 
394 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 In 1856 he was elected to the state senate for a 
 term of four years. Was elected county treasurer, 
 in 1869, by a large majority, and by reelections held 
 that office twelve years. 
 
 He is connected with the Dubuque and Sioux 
 City, Chicago, Dubuque and Minnesota, and Iowa 
 Pacific railroads, and is active in the development 
 of the interests of the city and country; has always 
 been identified with the democratic party, and an 
 advocate of its principles ; and was a member of the 
 order of the Sons of Temperance several years. 
 
 In religious views he is liberal, and is guided by 
 
 the principle that " man should do unto man as he 
 would have man do unto him," fear God and obey 
 the laws. 
 
 He was married on the 2d of June, 1842, to Mrs. 
 Caroline Wilson, by whom he has six children, two 
 sons and four daughters. 
 
 From boyhood up, Mr. Stewart's 'life has been 
 marked by strict integrity, independent action, and 
 close attention to business. Conscientious, benevo- 
 lent, and warm in his affections, he has endeared 
 himself to a large circle of friends, and presents an 
 example of self-culture well worthy of emulation. 
 
 WILLIAM A. FOSTER, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 WILLIAM A. FOSTER, attorney and coun- 
 selor-at-law, was born at Davenport, Scott 
 county, Iowa, on the 24th of July, 1842, and is one 
 of the few members of the Iowa bar claiming the 
 " Hawkeye " as their native state. 
 
 His parents were Asa and Cora (Wray) Foster, 
 
 who moved from Indiana and settled in Scott 
 
 * 
 
 county, Iowa, in 1838, soon after the organization of 
 the territory. 
 
 The Foster family is of Scottish origin and date, 
 their residence far back in the colonial history of 
 New England ; whence some of the descendants 
 removed to Long Island, New York, and thence the 
 grandparents of our subject removed to the west, 
 and were among the pioneer settlers of Ohio and 
 Indiana. 
 
 The early education of our subject was such as 
 the log school-houses of a sparsely settled and im- 
 perfectly organized new country afforded. 
 
 During his minority he resided upon the farm on 
 which he was born. His father died when he was 
 but thirteen years of age, and much of the respon- 
 sibility of the care of the farm and the support of his 
 widowed mother fell upon him. His tastes in early 
 life were not averse to farming, but he was influenced 
 by a strong desire to improve his limited oppor- 
 tunities for education and observation ; and accord- 
 ingly on attaining his majority he entered the 
 Davenport high school, where the major part of his 
 literary education was attained. 
 
 In the spring of 1865 he entered the law office of 
 Davison and True, of Davenport, as a student, with- 
 out any fixed intention, however, of adopting the law 
 
 as a profession, but thought he might gather some 
 practical knowledge that would be important to him 
 in after life. He soon, however, became enthusias- 
 tically fond of both the study and practice of the 
 law; a sentiment which has grown with his growth 
 and strengthened with his strength, until he has come 
 to regard it as one of the noblest vocations on earth. 
 He was admitted to the bar in October, 1866, and 
 during the short interval he has risen to the very 
 highest ranks of his profession. 
 
 Early in his career he developed not only a fond- 
 ness but a passion for criminal practice, especially 
 on the side of the defense. A prisoner behind the 
 iron bars of a cell, protesting his innocence and im- 
 ploring his assistance, appealed to his innermost 
 sympathies, and nerved him to the most determined 
 action. He makes the cause of his client emphat- 
 ically his own, and acts as though he himself must 
 rise or fall, sink or swim, with the accused. 
 
 For several years past he has been the acknowl- 
 edged chief in this department of the practice, not 
 only in- his own district but throughout the state, 
 and in other states. 
 
 Among the celebrated capital cases in which, dur- 
 ing the past few years, he conducted the defense to 
 a successful issue, were the following : Henning Lo- 
 renzen and two others, charged with the killing of 
 William Schuman in 1873; Lewis Johnson, charged 
 with the murder of Mrs. Browler and child in 1874; 
 Dr. Alberti, charged with the murder of F. E. Ehrig 
 in 1875 ; Charles Hermann, charged with the murder 
 of Russell, of Le Claire ; Samuel C. Prichard, charged 
 with the murder of John Helmus, and Elizabeth C. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 395 
 
 Hervey, charged with the poisoning of Mrs. Mary 
 Bruce ; in every one of which, by his eloquence 
 and consummate ability, he either cleared his clients 
 or secured for them a greatly mitigated punish- 
 ment, and that where the evidence seemed to be 
 overwhelmingly against them. 
 
 In referring to the Prichard case, which was that 
 of a youth of sixteen, charged with the murder of 
 John Helmus, a farmer of Colfax county, Nebraska, 
 and describing the effects of the eloquence of Mr. 
 Foster on the court and spectators, the Fremont 
 " Tribune " of the 3d of June, 1876, employs the 
 following language : 
 
 The argument of Mr. Foster was a studied eftbrt of four 
 hours' duration. It was a masterly appeal, and it carried its 
 effects. It carried the hearts of tlie crowded court-room to 
 the gallows to witness the last agonizing farewell of the 
 stricken mother . . . The scene was so graphically 
 described that the wretched mother, who was in court, ran 
 frantically to her boy, and clasping him around the neck 
 rocked him to and fro in a very transport of agony. Ladies 
 wept and strong men's hearts gave way at the scene. And 
 when at last the orator closed his eloquent appeal, a murmur 
 of subdued applause was heard above the sobs of women 
 and the rustle of handkerchiefs. The jury retired and in 
 half an hour returned with a verdict of acquittal. 
 
 As an illustration of his extraordinary influence 
 over the minds of a jury, this extract must suffice, 
 though the columns of the Davenport press during 
 the past five years furnish numerous instances of a 
 similar character. 
 
 He is emotional, — one of the absolute requisites 
 of a successful criminal lawyer ; but he talks in that 
 familiar way which is free from dithyrambic flights, 
 but never wearies the audience. 
 
 His talents as a criminal lawyer are not, however, 
 confined to his ability as an orator. He is an adept 
 at cross-examination ; has a very insinuating, affable 
 
 and pleasant manner, and a witness is led into a 
 snare so gradually, but so surely, that he is not con- 
 scious of where he is drifting till be is overwhelmed 
 with confusion. 
 
 Nor has he attained his success without diligent 
 and laborious study. He has never appeared as 
 counsel in any case, whether in the lowest or the 
 highest court, which he had not thoroughly studied 
 and mastered. 
 
 Almost from the outset of his career he has found 
 himself pitted against the ablest and most expe- 
 rienced lawyers of the bar, and with a success rarely 
 paralleled by men of his years. Another important 
 element in his strength is his earnestness ; the sin- 
 cerity of his manners and the momentum of his well- 
 considered words tell powerfully on a jury. 
 
 Added to all, he is a gentleman of unimpeachable 
 moral character and of the highest social standing. 
 He is blessed with a robust constitution, which he in- 
 vigorates by healthful outdoor exercise and athletic 
 sports, being especially fond of hunting and fishing. 
 
 To all human appearance there is yet in store for 
 William A. Foster a career of brilliancy and success 
 that falls to the lot of but few men. 
 
 In politics, be is radically republican, and* is now 
 a member of the state senate. 
 
 In religion, he holds to the Protestant faith, but 
 his views are not in harmony with any of the ortho- 
 dox creeds, though he heartily indorses the golden 
 rule, and the principles cf Christ's sermon on the 
 mount. 
 
 He was married on the 12th of June, 1867, to 
 Miss Lucy M. Birchard, daughter of Backus Birch- 
 ard, Esq., a large farmer, of Scott county, Iowa. 
 
 JOHN A. CARTON, 
 
 ACKLEi: 
 
 JOHN ARTHUR CARTON, who drew the first 
 J load of lumber to Ackley, for his own building, 
 and built the first elevator there, and who is second 
 in enterprise to no man in the place, became a resi- 
 dent of Iowa in 1856, moving from his home at 
 Ottawa, Illinois, and arriving at Dubuque on the 
 4th of November of that year. 
 
 His father, James Carton, was one of the pioneer 
 settlers of La Salle county, Illinois ; and the family, 
 brothers and sisters of Mr. Carton, still reside there. 
 
 The subject of this sketch made Ottawa his home 
 
 until after he became of age ; was educated at Otta- 
 wa and Chicago for a civil engineer, and from 1856 
 to i86t was on the line of the Dubuque and Pacific, 
 now the Iowa branch of the Illinois Central rail- 
 road, aiding to survey the route from end to end. 
 
 In 1 86 1 Mr. Carton became a clerk in the bank of 
 J. H. Leavitt, of Waterloo, Iowa. 
 
 On the demise of his father the following year, he 
 returned to Ottawa, settled the estate, and in July, 
 1865, came to Ackley and built an elevator, and 
 started a lumber yard, branches of which business 
 
396 
 
 THE UNITED STATES- BIOGRAPHICAL DICTION ART. 
 
 he is still engaged in, and in which he has met with 
 good success. 
 
 In 1870 he started a bank in company with John 
 Christian Lusch. This institution has enjoyed a 
 steady growth of business and possesses the un- 
 limited confidence of the people. Mr. Lusch, his 
 local partner, is a man of solid character, and, like 
 himself, is a man of first-class business capacities. 
 
 Since settling in Ackley, Mr. Carton, the pioneer 
 business man of the city, has made himself very use- 
 ful in many ways in building up the city. 
 
 In education, and every commendable enterprise, 
 he has been one of the foremost men. He has been 
 especially active in the local school board, and has 
 
 served as a town trustee or member of the board of 
 supervisors much of the time. 
 
 The interests of Ackley he has made his own, 
 and with the first decade of its history his name is 
 inwoven in an especially honorable manner. He is 
 essentially one of the many enterprising town- 
 builders of Iowa, and having energetic co-workers 
 in Ackley, they have built up a lively town. 
 
 Mr. Carton is a republican in politics, but his 
 taste rather inclines to business than office. 
 
 He is a Royal Arch Mason, a warden of the 
 Episcopal church, and a man of pure character. 
 
 On the 3d of January, 1867, Miss Susan E. Ray- 
 mond, of Ottawa, Illinois, became his wife. 
 
 HON. DAVID S. WILSON, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 HON. DAVID S. WILSON, for nearly thirty 
 years a member of the legal profession of 
 Dubuque, furnishes an excellent example of that 
 class of western lawyers who have achieved success 
 and gamed a competence by persevering adherence 
 to their chosen calling. He was born at Steuben- 
 vi'lle, Ohio, on the 19th of March, 1825. 
 
 At the age of fourteen he graduated from the 
 high school of his native town, and immediately 
 removed to Dubuque, Iowa, and commenced the 
 study of law, in the office of Hon. T. S. Wilson, his 
 brother, and one of the three original judges ap- 
 pointed by President Van Buren in 1838. After 
 remaining in the office a short time he turned his 
 attention to the editorship of the " Miners' Express," 
 which he conducted with success until 1845, when 
 he sold his interest and turned to the study of law. 
 
 So popular had he become with the people of his 
 county, that in 1846, though but a month over age, 
 he was .chosen to represent them in the state legis- 
 lature, and took an active part in the re-submission 
 of the state constitution to the people. 
 
 During the Mexican war he was commissioned a 
 lieutenant by Governor Clark, with authority to 
 raise a company, which was employed to remove 
 the tribe of Winnebago Indians from their reserva- 
 tion at Fort Atkinson to Long Prairie, one hundred 
 and twenty-five miles above the falls of Saint An- 
 thony. They remained in service several months 
 after the close of the war, on account of the inability 
 of the government to relieve them. 
 
 Returning to Dubuque, he was admitted to the 
 bar, and was immediately elected by the citizens as 
 prosecuting attorney, which position he filled with 
 ability for two terras, declining a further election. 
 
 In 1 85 1, on the establishment of the land office at 
 Dubuque, great inducements were offered to active, 
 energetic men to engage in the speculations which 
 followed. Forming a partnership with his brother, 
 Hon. T. S. Wilson, they embarked in the enterprise 
 with great success, until the storm of 1856-57 ruined 
 their hopes, as it did hundreds of others. 
 
 In 1857 Mr. Wilson was elected to the state senate 
 for a term of four years, and he served with such 
 distinction as to soon be one of the leading men of 
 his party. During the extra session called by Gov- 
 ernor Kirkwood, to place the state on a war footing, 
 he was nominated by the legislature to deliver a 
 lecture on "The Right of States to Secede from the 
 Union." Up to this time he had been an earnest 
 democrat, and one of the strongest and best advo- 
 cates of the principles of his party in the state ; 
 but in the examination necessary in preparing his 
 lecture, he found occasion to diverge some from his 
 former opinions. He brought out a masterly effort 
 in point-blank opposition to the right of secession, 
 which evinced great research and thought, and was 
 the first of the kind that appeared. So great was 
 its popularity, that it was adopted as the war-docu- 
 ment of the state, and the legislature published and 
 circulated it by thousands throughout Iowa. By 
 invitation of the people of Des Moines, he repeated 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 597 
 
 . his lecture in that city to one of the largest audi- 
 ences ever assembled at the capital. From this 
 time Mr. Wilson worked in the cause of the Union 
 during the war, and by his influence and example 
 was of valuable aid. 
 
 In 1862, entirely without his knowledge and with- 
 out solicitation, he was commissioned colonel, by 
 secretary Stanton, of the war department. Although 
 over fifty thousand men had been sent from the 
 state to the army, by his personal exertions he raised 
 his regiment. Just previous to their being mustered 
 into the service, the outbreak of the Sioux Indians, 
 followed by the Minnesota massacre, caused the 
 government to send Colonel Wilson's regiment to 
 the relief of the border, where they participated 
 in several engagements. During the fall of 1863 
 Colonel Wilson built Fort Sully, on the upper Mis- 
 souri, and during the following winter was stationed 
 with his command along the Missouri river, for the 
 protection of the settlers from Fort Sully to Sioux 
 City. In June, 1864, he resigned his command, 
 and in the following August removed to California, 
 where he formed a partnership with his brother, S. 
 M. Wilson, Esq., one of the leading lawyers on the 
 Pacific coast, for the practice of their profession. 
 After remaining two years he returned to Dubuque 
 and resumed his practice, as well as practicing in 
 the courts at Washington. In 1872 he was ap- 
 pointed circuit judge, to fill a vacancy caused by 
 the death of Judge Barker. This office he held 
 
 until August following, resigning to accept the ap- 
 pointment of district judge, left vacant by resigna- 
 tion of Judge Brayton. In 1874 he was elected by 
 a large majority, irrespective of party distinction, to 
 the office of district judge, which he still fills. 
 
 Mr. Wilson is a popular judge and a hard worker. 
 Whatever he undertakes he throws into it his whole 
 energy, and this may be the ground-work of his 
 success. He is prominently spoken of by his friends 
 as candidate for congress in the coming convention. 
 
 He was married in 1850 to Miss Henerettia E. 
 Sanford, of Erie, Pennsylvania. 
 
 In every position which in his eventful life he has 
 been called upon to fill. Judge Wilson has been suc- 
 cessful in the highest sense. He has left an un- 
 tarnished record and unspotted reputation. As a 
 business man, he has been upright, reliable and 
 honorable ; as a soldier, brave and chivalrous ; as a 
 public official, attentive and obliging, but inflexible 
 and unswerving in the discharge of duty. In all 
 places and under all circumstances he is loyal to 
 truth, honor and right, justly valuing his own self- 
 respect and the deserved esteem of his fellow-men 
 as infinitely more valuable than wealth, fame or 
 position. He is a man of fine personal appearance, 
 courteous and friendly, and grows in esteem among 
 his friends upon extended acquaintance. He may 
 well be termed a self-made man, as he began the 
 voyage of life with only his iron will to stem the 
 current of the stream of life. 
 
 BENJAMIN McCLUER, M.D., 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 TWENTY years ago, when the subject of this 
 sketch crossed the Mississippi river to locate 
 and to practice medicine, he brought with him an 
 ardent love of his profession, a mind richly stored 
 with medical knowledge, and the experience of five 
 years' diligent practice. It will be seen that he laid 
 a broad foundation, sparing no pains or expense in his 
 medical education, and building slowly and solidly 
 on the foundation laid in early manhood. 
 
 Benjamin McCluer was born in Franklin ville, 
 Cattaraugus county. New York, on the 8th of May, 
 1824. He received the christian name of his father, 
 who was a farmer, and who died when the son was 
 hardly eight years old. His mother, Elizabeth Bar- 
 ber McCluer, died when he was nineteen. At that 
 
 time, having received only a common-school educa- 
 tion in his native town, he went to Moscow, Liv- 
 ingston county, and spent six months in a graded 
 school. He then attended two terms at the Perrv 
 Center Academy, Wyoming county, and two years 
 at Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, Lima, Livingston 
 county. At the last mentioned institution he paid 
 some attention to classics, but much more to mathe- 
 matics and the natural sciences, for which he had 
 a strong predilection. 
 
 From Lima he went to Moscow, and read law 
 two years with William M. Older, Esq. He then 
 turned his attention to medicine, and, remaining in 
 the same town, studied in the office of Dr. William 
 C. Dwight. 
 
398 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 In the winter of 1849-50 he attended a course 
 of lectures in the medical department of Harvard 
 College, in Boston, and the following year at Cleve- 
 land, Ohio. Returning to Massachusetts in 185 1, 
 he took a special course in chemistry, under the 
 instruction of Professor E. N. Hosford, at the Law- 
 rence Scientific School, Cambridge. At its close 
 he again entered the medical college, in Boston, 
 beginning with the session in the autumn of 185 1 
 and graduating the following March. 
 
 Thus thoroughly qualified for the practice of 
 medicine. Dr. McCluer opened an office the same 
 month in which he graduated, at Holliston, Massa- 
 chusetts. 
 
 Five years later, tempted by the many promising 
 fields presented at the west, he removed to Dubuque, 
 Iowa. Here he continued the practice of medicine 
 from the autumn of 1856 until August, 1861, when 
 he accepted the post of surgeon of the 9th regiment 
 Iowa Infantry, acting in that capacity until April, 
 
 1863. In the early part of the next year he re- 
 ceived from the President a commission as assistant 
 surgeon of United States Volunteers. He was pro- 
 moted to the rank of surgeon in the following Sep- 
 tember, and the next year, while on duty at Macon, 
 Georgia, he received the commission of lieutenant- 
 colonel by brevet. 
 
 Before returning to Dubuque to resume practice, 
 during the winter of 1865-66, he attended lectures 
 at Bellevue Hospital College, and the College of 
 Physicians and Surgeons, New York city. Since 
 1866 he has continued to practice in Dubuque with 
 a constantly increasing reputation. 
 
 So thoroughly is Dr. McCluer wedded to the 
 science of medicine, that he has never otherwise 
 wedded. 
 
 He has always acted with the republican party. 
 
 He has been a member of the Congregational 
 church for twenty-five years, and is highly exem- 
 plary in all his habits. 
 
 HON. HENRY W. STARR, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 HENRY W. STARR, lawyer, was born in Mid- 
 dlebury, Vermont, on the 24th of July, 1815 ; 
 son of Hon. Peter Starr and Eunice Starr nee Ser- 
 geant. 
 
 He was educated at Middlebury College, from 
 which he was graduated in 1834. 
 
 He studied at the law school in Cincinnati for 
 three years, occupying a desk in the office of his 
 uncle, Henry Starr, a prominent lawyer at that time, 
 and was there admitted to the bar in 1837. Chief 
 Justice Chase was his examiner.. 
 
 In June, 1837, he left Cincinnati, seeking a place in 
 which to locate in profession, and, after visiting all 
 the most prominent places in the west, decided to 
 settle at Burlington, then the capital of Wisconsin 
 Territory, General Dodge then being governor. 
 After a short visit home he located here in Novem- 
 ber, 1837. 
 
 After practicing a short time he formed a partner- 
 ship with the late Senator Grimes, making a firm of 
 much celebrity and prominence, which enjoyed a 
 lucrative practice for seventeen years, and was per- 
 haps the best known of any law firm in the state. It 
 is hardly necessary to enter into the details of this 
 practice. 
 
 The achievements of Mr. Starr as a distinguished 
 advocate are well known to the community and 
 state at large, and is a record in itself. 
 
 Noted from boyhood for his clear and active in- 
 tellect, these faculties were highly cultured by a 
 liberal course of education. He passed through 
 college with credit, and his studies in the law school 
 were a thorough preparation for the brilliant course 
 of practice which followed. 
 
 Had he gone into politics he might have been 
 distinguished in the halls of legislation, but neither 
 his tastes nor his ambitions led him in that direc- 
 tion. 
 
 He was twice elected mayor of Burlington ; be- 
 yond this he never sought or held office, keeping 
 entirely free from the political arena. 
 
 He was married in September, 1844, to Miss 
 Marion S. Peasley, who died in 1855. In 1859 he 
 was again married, to Miss Eliza M. Merrill, of Mid- 
 dlebury, Vermont. 
 
 On account of feeble health he quit the practice 
 of law about twelve years ago, and retired on a com- 
 fortable competence. 
 
 Though retired from business and somewhat in- 
 firm, his mental faculties are still vigorous.* He has 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 399 
 
 lived an active and useful life, and has merited the 
 confidence and esteem given him by the community 
 and state at large. 
 
 His only living son, Charles E. Starr, was born at 
 Burlington, Iowa, on the 29th of September, 1845. 
 
 While fitting for college in 1862, he received an 
 appointment to the United States Naval Academy, 
 which he accepted, remaining in the Academy un- 
 til ordered into active service as midshipman in 
 
 1866. He resigned from the navy in 1867, after a 
 little over a year's active service, and commenced 
 the study of law, graduating from the law depart- 
 ment of Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, 
 in 1873; since which time he has practiced at the 
 bar of his native city. With an increasing practice 
 he bids fair to fill the place left vacant by his 
 father's retirement, and place himself among the 
 leading members of the Iowa bar. 
 
 HON. SAMUEL MURDOCK, 
 
 ELKADER. 
 
 FEW residents of Clayton county, Iowa, have 
 made a more honorable record than Samuel 
 Murdock. His talents, attainments and fitness for 
 certain positions of trust and honor were early dis- 
 covered. He has been called repeatedly to fill 
 public offices, and has never disappointed the ex- 
 pectation of his constituents. 
 
 He is of Scotch-Irish descent, and his father, 
 whose full name the son bears, came to this country 
 in 181 2, and located near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 
 where the subject of this sketch was born, on the 
 17th of March, 1817. 
 
 When he was eleven years old his father moved to 
 Ohio, settling on a farm near Cleveland. There the 
 son remained several years, aiding his father three- 
 fourths of each year, attending a district school the 
 rest of the time, and completing his studies under a 
 teacher, with a few terms at an academy in Cleve- 
 land. 
 
 He taught school at different places in Ohio ; 
 went to Kalamazoo county, Michigan, in 1838; 
 taught there one season ; returned to Ohio and con- 
 tinued teaching, and in 1841 emigrated to Iowa. 
 
 In the autumn of that year we find him in the law 
 office of Hon. Oilman Folsom, of Iowa City, where he 
 remained until he was admitted to the bar of John- 
 son county, in the spring of 1843. He immediately 
 removed to Garnavillo, Clayton county, and began 
 practice, being the first lawyer in the county. 
 
 A year or two later Mr. Murdock entered some 
 land a mile and a half south of the village, and in a 
 few years had one of the best improved farms in 
 that part of the county. It was his home nearly 
 thirty years, and its evergreens, vineyards and or- 
 chards showed the hand of taste and the skill of an 
 experienced horticulturist. 
 40 
 
 With the exception of two winters in McGregor, 
 passed there on account of school privileges, he lived 
 at the little paradise, called " The Evergreens " until 
 March, 1876, when he removed to Elkader. 
 
 He is of the firm of Murdock and Larkin, attor- 
 neys-at-law, and is regarded by all as the father of the 
 Clayton county bar. He has the reputation through- 
 out the state of being an able lawyer and a sound 
 jurist, and his acquaintance with the laws, statutes 
 and constitution of Iowa is extensive. 
 
 This great commonwealth has grown from a wil- 
 derness under his eye, and his knowledge of her 
 public men, her improvements and her resources is 
 equally as extensive. 
 
 As already intimated, during the thirty-seven years 
 that he has been in the state he has been the recip- 
 ient many times of official honors. 
 
 In 1845 Mr. Murdock was elected to represent 
 Dubuque, Delaware and Clayton counties in the ter- 
 ritorial legislature, and attended two sessions. He 
 aided, at this time, in securing the northern boun- 
 dary of the state. 
 
 He held the office of school-fund commissioner 
 about four years, commencing in 1848, and during 
 his administration most of the school lands of the 
 county were sold by him. He had the sagacity to 
 see that in all cases they fell into the hands of bona- 
 fide settlers. 
 
 It is safe to say that no man ever looked after the 
 interests of the county better than he, or guarded its 
 funds intrusted to his hands with greater vigilance. 
 Neither the county nor any man ever lost a dollar by 
 him. 
 
 In April, 1854, Mr. Murdock was elected the first 
 judge of the tenth judicial district, and he held the 
 office until the new constitution, adopted in 1857, 
 
400 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 went into effect. During his term of office several 
 counties were organized in his district, and he held 
 the first court in them. 
 
 Judge Murdock was a member of the thirteenth 
 general assembly, and during its session was ;imong 
 the most influential members from the northern part 
 of the state. 
 
 He was for several years president of the Pioneers 
 and Old Settlers' Association, of Clayton county, 
 and has written a great deal of biographical history, 
 not only of local early settlers, but of those in other 
 parts of the state. Years ago he wrote a fine sketch 
 of each of the three territorial governors of Iowa. 
 His pen is still active. Scarcely a week passes in 
 which something from it does not appear in some 
 county paper. 
 
 'Judge Murdock has always had a taste for scien- 
 tific pursuits, and has taken up and pursued with 
 diligence several branches of knowledge about 
 which he knew nothing when he came to this state. 
 He has carefully studied astronomy, geology and 
 archaeology, and has lectured on these subjects as 
 well as others in many places in Iowa. He is famil- 
 iar with tlie geology of the state, and has probably 
 gone down as deep as any one into her fossiliferous 
 strata to bring up the earlier representatives of life. 
 
 He has done much to bring to light the relics of 
 prehistoric races that once swarmed along the Mis- 
 sissippi river and its tributaries ; and for these ser- 
 vices scientific societies have conferred upon him 
 distinguished honors. He is one of the vice-presi- 
 dents of the American Anthropological Association. 
 
 In intellectual pursuits, he has the avidity and 
 
 activity of middle life ; his rnental powers were never 
 more vigorous, and he appears as if still in the 
 prime of life. 
 
 Judge Murdock was a democrat until the organi- 
 zation of the republican party, since which time he 
 has acted with the latter. During the rebellion his 
 voice and pen were active on the side of the- Union. 
 He spent some time in the southern states in 1862 
 and 1863, and his letters written at that time to 
 different northern papers attracted considerable at- 
 tention. In religious matters, Judge Murdock calls 
 himself liberal. 
 
 On the nth of September, 1845, he married Miss 
 Louisa Patch, of Clayton county, a woman who had 
 the good sense to be contented with frontier life 
 when it was not convenient to have any other, and 
 who can be domestic and happy with much or little 
 society. She has had six children, four of them 
 now dead. The eldest living daughter, Marion, is 
 professor of elocution and mathematics in the State 
 University, Madison, Wisconsin ; the other, Amelia, 
 resides at home. Both inherit their father's love 
 of knowledge, and, like their father, sometimes in- 
 dulge in the "pleasure of poetic pains." 
 
 As the first lawyer of the county, the first judge of 
 the tenth judicial district, and as a miscellaneous 
 writer and scientist, the name of Judge Murdock 
 will ever be associated with the history of Iowa in a 
 manner honorable to his memory. 
 
 His good conversational powers, his kindly and 
 humane disposition and other fine social traits, 
 greatly endear him to his neighbors and his large 
 circle of acquaintances. 
 
 HON. HARVEY LEONARD, 
 
 DAVENPORT. 
 
 AMONG the earliest pioneer settlers, and one 
 . who has watched the growth of this populous 
 city from a little hamlet of two or three houses to 
 its present proportions, and has seen it take its place 
 among the most important of Iowa's cities, is the 
 name which heads this sketch. Hon. Harvey Leon- 
 ard, ex-mayor of the city and sheriff o£»Scott county, 
 Iowa, was born at Lebanon, Warren county, Ohio, 
 on the 20th of November, 1812. His parents were 
 James and Jane Leonard n^e Biggs. His father 
 was a native of Pennsylvania, and his mother of 
 Virginia. He had very little opportunity for edu- 
 
 cation in his early youth, all of which was gained 
 at the common schools, he being at the same time 
 engaged in learning his father's trade, that of brick- 
 making, learning also the trade of brick-laying. 
 
 When sixteen years of age he left home and com- 
 menced working for himself, and in 1829 came to 
 St. Louis, living, however, on the Illinois side, oppo- 
 site the city. Here he remained till 1837, when he 
 removed to Iowa and located at Davenport. At 
 that time there were but three or four houses and 
 less than one hundred inhabitants. He commenced 
 working at his trade, and to him belongs the honor 
 
,.,i^1 
 
 C d-t L Gl-^/t^ 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 403 
 
 of making the first brick, and building the first 
 brick house in Davenport. 
 
 He still worked at his trade after being elected 
 county officer, and he has served as sheriff more 
 consecutive terms, and been longer in office, than 
 any other sheriff in the state. Being elected in 
 1847, he held the office by reelections till i860. In 
 1872, after a lapse of twelve years, he was again 
 elected sheriff, which position he still occupies. He 
 served as alderman several years, and in 1842 was 
 elected mayor of the city. He has done much in 
 aiding the enterprises of the city in its early day. 
 
 Mr. Leonard is not a member of any church, but 
 holds liberal views on religion. 
 
 He was educated in the democratic school of 
 politics, the principles of which party he still advo- 
 cates. 
 
 He was married in 1835 to Miss Pelogie Bough- 
 nou, of St. Louis. 
 
 In all the various changes of an active life Mr. 
 I,eonard has gained the respect of a large circle 
 of friends, and the confidence of his constituents. 
 He is a man of good sound understanding, of large 
 practical experience, and of genial manners. 
 
 HON. ISAAC J. MITCHELL, 
 
 BOONESBORO. 
 
 T UDGE MITCHELL is a native of Ohio, and was 
 J born in Cincinnati on the 31st of May, 1827. 
 His father, Henry Mitchell, was a farmer. His 
 mother belonged to the Corbin family, of Ohio. His 
 paternal grandfather was one of the militia men 
 called out to defend Baltimore during the revolu- 
 tionary war. While Isaac was an infant his father 
 moved to a farm in Clermont county, Ohio, and 
 there the son worked until he was nineteen, when he 
 went to a high school at Laurel, Ohio, a few months 
 to prepare himself for a teacher. He taught in 
 Brazil, Indiana, and adjoining districts, for nearly 
 three years. While preparing to teach he worked 
 on a farm a while for two dollars a week, devoting 
 the money thus earned to the purchase of text-books. 
 He read law while teaching in Indiana, and com- 
 pleted his school education by attending Asbury 
 College, Greencastle, Indiana, one term, when, his 
 health giving way, he had to leave the institution. 
 He removed to Boonesboro, Iowa, in June, 1855, 
 and there resumed his study of law, while engaged 
 in the drug business. He finished reading law early 
 in 1858; was admitted to the bar at Boonesboro in 
 April, and opened an office there in that year. He 
 has since been in constant practice, except when in 
 office, building up a large business and an enviable 
 reputation. 
 
 He served as justice of the peace in 1857, while 
 reading law in Boonesboro, and the next year was 
 elected a member of the state board of education, 
 serving two years. In 1868 he was sent to the upper 
 house of the general assembly for four years. He 
 was chairman of the committees on enrolling and 
 
 agriculture, and acted on three or four other com- 
 mittees. He took a prominent part in the movement 
 to settle the title to the Des Moines river lands, and 
 was a very useful and influential member of the leg- 
 islative body. 
 
 While in the general assembly he was elected by 
 that body a trustee of the Iowa State Agricultural 
 College, and most of the time was a member of the 
 executive committee of the same institution. While 
 he was thus serving the state more than one hundred 
 thousand dollars were expended on buildings and 
 improvements on the farm. His responsibilities 
 were great, and he never shirked them or failed to 
 give satisfaction. 
 
 In 1874 he was elected judge of the eleventh 
 judicial district, and now holds that office. He 
 is a man of great purity of character ; is well read 
 in law; has good judgment, dignity, decision of 
 character, and other qualities which make him an 
 excellent judge. His reputation as a jurist is slowly 
 yet steadily rising. 
 
 Judge Mitchell has been an Odd-Fellow for twenty 
 years. 
 
 He aided in organizing the republican party in 
 Iowa, and still belongs to that party. 
 
 He is a member of no church, but sympathizes 
 with the Methodists in their general doctrines. 
 
 In July, i860, he was married to Mrs. Amanda 
 M. Denison, of Boonesboro. She had one child, 
 and died on the nth of May, 1873. The child is 
 living. 
 
 Judge Mitchell had a hard struggle in getting 
 the rudiments of knowledge and in mastering a few 
 
404 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 of the more advanced branches, for he had to rely 
 wholly on his own resources and strength, and in his 
 younger years was far from being robust and vigor- 
 ous. By rigid economy and great industry and per- 
 
 severance he laid a good foundation of scientific and 
 legal knowledge, and is still building on it. He has 
 lost none of his studious habits, none of his ambi- 
 tion, and is a reading, growing man. 
 
 WILLIAM R. SMITH, M.D., 
 
 SIOUX CITT. 
 
 TWENTY years ago the bluffs of the Missouri 
 river around Sioux City, and the whole sur- 
 rounding country, presented a very different appear- 
 ance from what they present in this centennial year. 
 In the autumn of 1856 there were not five hundred 
 residents in Sioux City, and farm houses were far 
 apart. In those days a physician of a fair reputa- 
 tion had long, often tedious, and sometimes perilous, 
 rides. The subject of this memoir, one of the best- 
 read and most popular physicians that ever rode out 
 of Sioux City on professional duties, sometimes went 
 as far east as Cherokee, a distance of sixty miles ; 
 frequently thirty or forty miles northwest, into what 
 is now Dakota Territory, and twenty-five and thirty 
 miles southwest, into the present state of Nebraska. 
 It is not an enviable lot to be a frontier physician, 
 and face the emergencies and responsibilities of his 
 profession all alone ; but a good man will endure 
 much hardship for the sake of relieving suffering 
 or prolonging life, even though the compensation, 
 in dollars and cents, amounts to nothing. Such 
 was the character, such were the professional rides,^ 
 and such, sometimes, the pecuniary rewards of Will- 
 iam R. Smith, M.D., fifteen and twenty-five years 
 ago. He knew every family on either side of the 
 river within forty miles of Sioux City, and nearly all 
 of them received prescriptions at some period from 
 his hands. The doctor's kindly disposition has not 
 changed, but his business has. His saddle bags are 
 seen no more. In other words, during the last few 
 years he has made himself useful; and younger 
 physicians are climbing the bluffs and spanning the 
 prairies that surround Sioux City. 
 
 William Remsen Smith was born at Barnegat, 
 Ocean county. New Jersey, on the 30th of December, 
 1828. His father, Daniel Smith, a wheelwright by 
 trade, died when the son was seven years old, and 
 the boy spent the next eight years of his life with 
 his grandfather, alternating between labor on a farm 
 and a little mental work in a school-house. His 
 mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Boude, 
 
 At sixteen William went to New York city, to 
 learn the saddlery and harness-making trade ; but 
 before he had completed it he followed a venerated 
 mother and his step-father, James Collins, a promi- 
 nent member of the Society of Friends, to Macon, 
 Michigan. There young Smith spent three years in 
 working at his trade and teaching. About the time 
 he was of age he returned to New York city, studied 
 medicine under Dr. William Detmold ; attended three 
 courses of lectures at the old college of physicians 
 and surgeons, and then returned to Macon. There 
 he practiced three years in partnership with Dr. 
 Joseph Howell, an experienced physician and a most 
 estimable man. 
 
 In 1856 Dr. Smith removed to Sioux City. Here 
 he practiced medicine very diligently for eleven or 
 twelve years, when not absent from home, building 
 up a good reputation and a wide practice, often 
 having more and longer rides than he desired. In 
 those early days in the history of this frontier settle- 
 ment, duty often called him to other than his pro- 
 fessional labors. In the spring of 1 86 t, when there 
 were Indian troubles in this vicinity. Dr. Smith was 
 appointed first lieutenant of a company of mounted 
 riflemen, serving until relieved the following autumn 
 by a company of United States soldiers. About 
 this time he was appointed government surgeon, 
 holding that position until 1863. When the Indian 
 outbreak occurred in Minnesota, in August, 1862, 
 sending a thrill of terror among the residents on 
 the frontier, he was made chairman of the vigilance 
 committee for protection, and gave whatever time 
 necessity required to the duties of the emergency. 
 The following winter he was sent by Governor Kirk- 
 wood, in connection with the late Dr. Brooks, of 
 Des Moines, on a sanitary tour of inspection among 
 the Iowa troops, in which mission he visited the 
 army then lying in front of Vicksburg ; and after- 
 ward did his best to emphasize that general and 
 strong appeal for vegetables, so indispensable for the 
 relief of our suffering soldiers. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGJiAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 405 
 
 In March, 1863, Dr. Smith was elected mayor of 
 Sioux City, and two months later was appointed 
 surgeon of the board of enrollment of the sixth con- 
 gressional district, serving in the latter position until 
 December, 1864. For several years after the rebel- 
 lion closed he acted as examining surgeon for the 
 pension bureau. 
 
 On the isth of July, 1865, Dr. Smith was ap-' 
 pointed receiver of public moneys of the United 
 States land office at Sioux City, and, with the excep- 
 tion of a short time during the administration of 
 Andrew Johnson, he has held that position to the 
 present time. No less than four times has his ap- 
 pointment been renewed, showing the confidence of 
 the government in his integrity, and his care in 
 managing the business, in one year alone having 
 nearly a million of dollars to pass through his hands. 
 He is eminently trustworthy, and has peculiar fit- 
 ness for this office. It is a pity that the government 
 could not always be as fortunate in its appointments 
 where great responsibilities are required. 
 
 Dr. Smith was one of the incorporators of the 
 First National Bank of Sioux City, and of the Sioux 
 City and St. Paul and Sioux City and Pembina rail- 
 roads. He acted for years on the local school 
 board; has been vice-president of the Sioux City 
 Building Association since its organization, and a 
 director of the State Horticultural Society. His quiet 
 and rural tastes, and partiality for farm life, have 
 led him to be quite active in agricultural, horti- 
 
 cultural and kindred pursuits. In most enterprises 
 likely to promote the interests of Sioux City or his 
 adopted state. Dr. Smith has been vigilr.nt and un- 
 tiring. He has been appointed, recent ;, , i y Gov- 
 ernor Gear, as one of the honorary coL-.'.missioners 
 of the State of Iowa to the Paris exposition of 1878. 
 
 He votes the republican ticket, but is averse to 
 unreasoning partisanship. Though a supporter of 
 the gospel, and a regular attendant on divine wor- 
 ship, he is connected with no church by membership. 
 
 On the 1 2 th of July, 1859, he took to wife Miss 
 Rebecca Osborne, of Macon, Michigan, a true help- 
 meet and most estimable and exemplary lady. They 
 have had six children, all boys, only one half of 
 them now living. 
 
 The doctor lives on an eighty-acre farm within the 
 corporate limits, well stocked with fruit and planted 
 with forest trees, situated on a high tract of land 
 overlooking the city, and affording a fine view of the 
 singularly picturesque bluffs of the Missouri river. 
 The doctor is also the owner of other farms in the 
 adjoining county of Plymouth, which attests his 
 success in life in a business point of view. 
 
 Dr. Smith is of medium height, very compactly 
 built, and weights two hundred pounds. He is of 
 dark complexion, and nervous-lymphatic and vital 
 temperament ; of determined will, and a high sense 
 of honor ; easy and affable, yet dignified in manners, 
 and cheerful in disposition, contributing his full 
 quota of sunshine in this "vale of tears." 
 
 GEORGE C. LAUMAN, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 GEORGE CHRISTOPHER LAUxMAN, vice- 
 president First National Bank, Burlington, 
 • Iowa, was born at York, Pennsylvania, on the 28th 
 of November, 1814. His parents are George and 
 Margret Lauman nh Gardner. His parental an- 
 cestors were of German origin, and were among 
 the early settlers of Pennsylvania ; his grandfather, 
 on his father's side, was engaged in the Indian 
 war under Braddock, and took an active part in 
 the revolutionary war. 
 
 George's early education was received from the 
 common schools of the country and the York 
 County Academy, where he pursued the ordinary 
 studies, but being in delicate health he left school 
 and entered a law office. It was the desire of his 
 
 father that his sons should become merchants, and 
 to that end, after remaining a year, he engaged in 
 a store as a clerk, remaining several years. 
 
 In 1834 his father sent him west upon business, 
 and he made the entire journey from York to Rich- 
 mond, Indiana, and back, on horseback, though, 
 in the meantime, remaining a year in Chillicothe, 
 Ohio, as clerk. In 1835 lie went to Louisville, 
 Kentucky, and was engaged in the mercantile busi- 
 ness for four years, and gathering his savings he 
 found he had a capital of seven hundred and fifty 
 dollars, with which, with some borrowed capital, in 
 1840 he entered business in La Fayette, Indiana, or- 
 ganizing the firm of Lauman and Bausemer, general 
 merchandise, etc. In this he was very successful • 
 
4o6 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 this laid the foundation for the competence he now 
 enjoys. His success is much due to his early dis- 
 position to live within his income and never incur 
 debts. I.i ihe winter of 1845 he sold his interest 
 and in 1S46 came to Burlington, and in 1847 went 
 into partnership with his brother in general mer- 
 chandise, as J. G. Lauman and Bro., in which he 
 continued very successfully till 1858, selling out to 
 W. H. Postlewait and J. G. Lauman. Thomas 
 Hedge and G. C. Lauman formed the firm of Lau- 
 man, Hedge and Co. in the banking business, in 
 which they continued three years and dissolved. J. 
 G. Lauman entering the army a colonel of the 
 7th Iowa Volunteers, and George C. Lauman and 
 Thomas Hedge forming partnership as Hedge and 
 Lauman in general produce business, in which he 
 remained a year or two and withdrew, and gave 
 his attention to settling up the old business of the 
 late firms, and buying produce, etc. The First 
 National Bank of Burlington organizing, elected 
 
 him cashier in February, 1864, remaining in that 
 ofiice till 1874, when he was elected vice-president, 
 which office he holds to this date. The bank is 
 doing a large and successful business, the result 
 of good management of its officers. He is active 
 in all enterprises for the development of the in- 
 terests of the city and country. 
 
 He was formerly a whig and is now a republican, 
 but is not a strong partisan or politician, never hold- 
 ing office and always refusing any nomination. He 
 has traveled much throughout the states and Can- 
 ada, visiting all points of interest. 
 
 He was born and raised a Lutheran, but for 
 forty-five years has been a member of the Episco- 
 pal church. He is a man of fine presence and 
 pleasing features, a good conversationalist, and has 
 a happy faculty of making and keeping friends. 
 
 He was married in April, 1858, to Miss Lucy 
 J. Bascom, of Lansing, Michigan, formerly of Wy- 
 oming, New York. 
 
 GENERAL J. G. LAUMAN, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 JACOB GARDNER LAUMAN, late resident of 
 Burlington, Iowa, was born at Taneytown, Mary- 
 land, on the 20th of January, 1812. His parents 
 were early settlers of Pennsylvania, and of German 
 descent. He is the son of George and Margret 
 Lauman nee Gardner. His education was gained 
 at the public schools and at York County Academy. 
 Immediately after leaving school he went to Bal- 
 timore and was engaged in the hardware business, 
 and afterward engaged as clerk in a dry-goods 
 house for several years; at the end of which time 
 he commenced business for himself at Dillsburg, a 
 small village in York county, Pennsylvania, and 
 afterward removed to York Springs, Adams county, 
 where he remained successfully in business till 
 1844, when he moved west and located at Bur- 
 lington, Iowa, in business of a general character. 
 In the winter of 1848 he formed a partnership with 
 his brother under the firm name of J. G. Lauman 
 and Bro., continuing in business till 1838, when he 
 sold out, and in connection with Thomas Hedge 
 formed the banking house of Lauman, Hedge and 
 Co., which they continued till the outbreak of the 
 rebellion, when he was tendered the colonelcy of the 
 7th Iowa Infantry, which he accepted on the nth 
 
 of July, 1861. On the 6th of November they moved 
 on the Belmont expedition, in which the battle was 
 fought, and his conduct in the engagement, to- 
 gether with that of his regiment, gave him his early 
 popularity as a military leader. In this engagement 
 he was severely wounded in the thigh, which dis- 
 abled him for some time. Having recovered from 
 his wound he rejoined his regiment, and at Fort 
 Donelson he was placed in command of a bri- 
 gade, and for gallantry and bravery was promoted 
 to brigadier-general and assigned a command in 
 General Hurlburt's division, which fought in the left 
 wing of Grant's army at Shiloh. He continued in 
 command through different engagements till July, 
 1863, when he was relieved by General Ord and 
 ordered to report to General Grant at Vicksburg. 
 This was the result of jealousy and ill-feeling of 
 General Ord for him. He was sent by General 
 Grant to an eastern department and assigned a 
 command in northern Virginia, but before his ar- 
 rival the command was given to another, and he 
 was ordered to his home in Burlington to await 
 further orders, which never came. He made fre- 
 quent efforts to find the cause of his treatment, but 
 without success, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY'. 
 
 407 
 
 He was a sufferer from paralysis, which ultimately 
 caused his death. In person, he was slender, had 
 a nervous, excitable temperament, and a mild, intel- 
 ligent countenance. 
 
 As a military leader, he was brave to a fault, 
 and was very popular with officers and men. As a 
 citizen, he was always held in the highest esteem, and 
 was noted for his kind-heartedness and liberality. 
 
 ADAM OGILVIE, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 THERE are but few of the old settlers of the 
 counties of Muscatine, Scott, Cedar, Linn, John- 
 ston and Louisa, who do not remember the kind 
 and genial face of Adam Ogilvie. He was one of 
 those whose heart and home were ever open to his 
 friends, and who was ever ready to relieve the wants 
 of the needy. He had the esteem and affection of 
 all who knew him, and his praises were spoken by high 
 and low. Many poor settlers did he aid with means 
 to enter their quarter-sections, whose families are 
 now living in affluence and comfort, while they 
 mourn the loss of their great benefactor. 
 
 Mr. Ogilvie was the tenth son of William Ogilvie 
 and Margaret nde Anderson, who was born, lived and 
 died on the beautiful farm in the parish of Keith, 
 Banffshire, Scotland, known in Scottish history as 
 the Mains (Manse) of Glengerrick. The same farm 
 had been in possession of the forefathers of Wilham 
 from generation to generation, during a period to 
 which neither history nor tradition run to the con- 
 trary, and it is still in possession of the family. 
 
 Adam Ogilvie was born at the old Manse, in the 
 month of January, 1804, where he remained till he 
 was eighteen years of age, when he was apprenticed 
 for three years to learn the mercantile business with 
 John Ingraham, Esq., in the city of Keith. After 
 the completion of his apprenticeship, which was 
 both creditable to him and profitable to his employer, 
 he was engaged as head man of the establishment, 
 a position which he retained for three years, after 
 which he commenced business for himself in the 
 same line in Keith where he did a very prosperous 
 trade for some eight years. 
 
 In the spring of 1836 he sold out his stock of mer- 
 chandise, and in June of the same year emigrated 
 to the United States, and one month later landed 
 in the city of New York, where he remained a few 
 days with relatives who had preceded him a short 
 time, after which he started for the far west, and 
 about the ist of September, 1836, he touched the 
 western shore of the "Father ofWaters," at Bloom- 
 
 ington, novv Muscatine, Iowa. After partaking for 
 a few days of the hospitality of Colonel John Van- 
 atta, one of the few pioneer settlers of the place, he 
 determined to make Bloomington his future home, 
 purchased a few town lots and made other arrange- 
 ments, after which he set out on a tour of observa- 
 tion. He visited all the principal points on the 
 river as far north as Dubuque, then crossed the river 
 and came down through Illinois to Galesburg, from 
 whence he crossed the country to Burlington, Iowa, 
 and from thence north again to the place of start- 
 ing, walking on foot all the way, and most of the 
 time in snow twelve inches deep. Soon after his re- 
 turn he became one of the proprietors of the place, 
 and during the remainder of his lifetime was one of 
 the most influential men of the community. 
 
 His next step was to open a store in a log cabin on 
 Water street, where he sold a general assortment of 
 dry goods and groceries. He soon after built a 
 larger house on the same street, the dimensions of 
 which were 22 x 40, two stories high, — a very fine 
 house for that day. To this he transferred his busi- 
 ness, occupying the first story as a store and the 
 second as a residence. This structure occupied the 
 same site for thirteen years, when it was removed to 
 make way for a brick edifice of much greater pre- 
 tensions, which is still standing and owned by H. W. 
 Monroe. 
 
 It may be of interest to those who settled in 
 Bloomington after it had become the somewhat pre- 
 tentious city of Muscatine, to learn that the timbers 
 of which the old structure alluded to above was 
 built were all felled, squared and framed on the lot 
 where the house stood, so that no teams were re- 
 quired to haul them. The joists, studding, rafters 
 and weather-boarding were all split off the trees that 
 stood in close proximity to the lot, while the floor- 
 ing, which was of oak, was brought from Drury's 
 mills in Illinois ; and the fine lumber for doors and 
 finishing and all the shingles were brought from Cin- 
 cinnati, Ohio, at great expense. 
 
4o8 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 His next enterprise of note was the building of 
 his magnificent homestead in 1844, on a tract of 
 about sixty acres adjoining the city of Muscatine, 
 which, in fond remembrance of his happy boyhood 
 days passed in "bony Scotland," he named "The 
 Mains of Glengerrick," where he spent the balance 
 of his days with his beloved family. 
 
 He made more improvements in the city and sub- 
 urbs of Muscatine than any of his contemporaries. 
 
 He was liberal and generous to all charitable and 
 religious objects, and was the largest contributor 
 toward the erection of the beautiful Presbyterian 
 Church of Muscatine, of which he lived and died a 
 devoted member. 
 
 His natural traits were of the amiable and genial 
 kind. The agreeable and useful were combined in 
 him in an unusual degree. Courteous, affable, and 
 anxious to do business, he was a model retail sales- 
 man ; this was his forte. He was always glad to be 
 and do anything for his customers if he could only 
 hold their good word and their patronage. Of this 
 line of business he was a perfect master. But his 
 ambition and desire for extending his business, and 
 the improvement of the city, led him into the prod- 
 uce and real-estate 'business, which was beyond his 
 capacity fully to control or correctly to estimate. 
 This led him somewhat beyond his depth, and later 
 in life to some embarrassment. 
 
 In the early settlement of the city of Muscatine, 
 the thirty-fifth section, located in the center, fell to 
 the county for public purposes. The county com- 
 missioners appointed Mr. Ogilvie as their agent to 
 receive payment and deed to every one his separate 
 lot. This was a most important trust, requiring 
 
 great financial ability with strict integrity of charac- 
 ter to do justice to all parties interested. He dis- 
 charged this important and very critical business to 
 the entire satisfaction of all concerned, — a most nota- 
 ble proof of his native honesty and sterling business 
 qualities. 
 
 In his later years Mr. Ogilvie became a zealous, 
 loving disciple of the Master, and took a warm in- 
 terest in his church, and an active and leading part 
 in all its exercises and duties, bearing a large propor- 
 tion of its burdens in his habitually generous and 
 kindly spirit. Thus this sociable, generous and hon- 
 orable citizen lived universally loved and esteemed. 
 
 He was married in New York city, on the 7th of 
 August, 1837, to Miss Isabella Milne, daughter of 
 Peter and Isabella Milne, of Keith, Scotland, who, 
 in June, 1837, with her father, emigrated to America, 
 her mother having died in Scotland. Of this union 
 there were born four sons and one daughter : Henry, 
 William H., Charles B., Frank A. and Isabella. 
 
 Charles B., born on the 14th of January, 1845, is 
 a graduate of Princeton (New Jersey) College of 
 1867 ; studied law at Columbia College, New York, 
 was admitted to the bar in 1872, and is now en- 
 gaged in the practice of his profession in Muscatine. 
 Frank A. is a merchant in the same city, while Isa- 
 bella is the wife of Colonel C. C. Horton, of the 2d 
 Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, now a resident of Musca- 
 tine. Charles Duff, the eldest, died when a child. 
 William H. is devoting his attention to farming. - 
 
 Mr. Ogilvie died on the 5th of February, 1865, in 
 the sixty-first year of his age. His widow still lives 
 in the enjoyment of good health, at the old home- 
 stead near Muscatine. 
 
 THOMAS J. STONE, 
 
 SIOUX CITY. 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON STONE was born at 
 Royalton, Niagara county. New York, on the 
 13th of August, 1825, his parents being Isaiah P. and 
 Mercy (Sawyer) Slone. Thomas worked upon his 
 father's farm until he was fifteen years of age, at- 
 tending the district school three or four months each 
 year; he then went to Oberlin College, intending to 
 take a full course, but while in the freshman year, 
 his health failed and he abandoned his intention of 
 further prosecuting his literary studies. He came 
 farther west and spent some time in surveying in 
 
 Wisconsin and Iowa, pursuing this business at times 
 until 1856. During this period he spent four years 
 in the office of the treasurer of Linn county, Iowa, 
 going into the field occasionally with chain and 
 compass, doing considerable government surveying. 
 For a short time before leaving Marion, the county 
 seat, he was in the banking business with other 
 parties, the firm being Smyth, Stone and Co. 
 
 In May, 1856, Mr. Stone removed to Sioux City, 
 and engaged largely in the real-estate business, con- 
 tinuing- it up to four years ago. There have been, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 409 
 
 and still are, other active real-estate dealers in Sioux 
 City, but none of them ever equaled Mr. Stone in 
 the amount of work accomplished in this line. For 
 many years he paid taxes for nearly one thousand 
 persons. During the early part of his residence 
 here he was a clerk in the county treasurer's office, 
 and was very careful and efficient in this work, as in 
 everything else to which he has put his hands. 
 
 In 1867 Mr. Stone opened a private bank in con- 
 nection with his land operations, and continued it 
 for three years ; then, in 1870, he organized the First 
 National Bank, and has been its cashier and princi- 
 pal manager ever since. For four or five years he 
 has paid little attention to real estate, giving his 
 undivided attention and energies to the bank, which 
 is a very popular institution. 
 
 In 1 86 1 Mr. Stone was elected treasurer and 
 recorder of Woodbury county, holding that double 
 office three years, and then the office of treasurer 
 alone for the same length of time. 
 
 Mr. Stone was a whig, then a republican, and 
 never anything else. 
 
 On the 1 2th of May, 1852, he married Miss Alice 
 A. Heathcote, of Mount Vernon, Ohio, and has two 
 children, a son and a daughter. The son is in the 
 junior year of Yale College, and stands high. 
 
 Mr. Stone is emphatically a business man. He 
 has done clean, thorough and honorable work all 
 his life, and his friends accumulate with his years. 
 He has seen his fifty winters, but has taken the best 
 of care of himself, and the burdens of life have 
 not bent his tall and symmetrical form an iota. 
 
 GENERAL ANDREW J. BAKER, 
 
 CENTER VILLE. 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON BAKER, son of George 
 L\. Baker, was born on the 6th of June 1832, in 
 Ohio county, Virginia, near Moundsville, now the 
 seat of justice of Marshall county. West Virginia. 
 His father was born on the 26th of April, 1796, 
 in a block-house or fort, known as Baker's Station, 
 near the mouth of Fish Creek, on what was then 
 known as the Virginia Pan-handle ; and his grand- 
 father, George Baker, senior, was one of three broth- 
 ers, Isaac, Henry and George, who' immigrated from 
 eastern Maryland, and built the fort in which his 
 father was born, the fort being put up in 1788. 
 
 The mother of Andrew J. was margaret Reager, 
 and her mother, whose maiden name was Hayes, 
 was from Scotland. 
 
 The subject of our sketch was educated in the 
 public schools of Butler county, Ohio, whither his 
 father removed in 1833, at Furman's Academy in 
 that county, and at the Wesleyan Seminary, Mount 
 Pleasant, Iowa. From early youth his chief delight 
 was in books, and he rarely went into the field on his 
 father's farm to work without taking a book with 
 him. If plowing, he always read while the team was 
 resting ; sometimes forgot himself, let the team rest 
 too long, and received a reprimand from his father. 
 At sixteen years of age he obtained a situation in 
 a store at Burlington, Iowa, but the next year his 
 father took him back to his farm, then in that part 
 of Iowa. The son was so dissatisfied with farming 
 41 
 
 that his father finally consented to give him his 
 time, but not a cent of money. Andrew was satis- 
 fied with the offer, and it was at this period that he 
 went to Mount Pleasant to a school, now known as 
 the Wesleyan University. He joined the first class 
 ever formed in that institution, and paid his way 
 by doing work of various kinds for his board, and 
 sawing wood at the college for his tuition. Professor 
 Alexander Nelson was principal, and his wife was 
 sole assistant. 
 
 In 1851 and 1852 Mr. Baker taught school in Des 
 Moines and Henry counties, and pursued his studies 
 alone, except during the latter year, when he recited 
 to Professor Gunnison of the Burlington Collegiate 
 Institute. During the next two or three years — 
 1853 to 1855 — Mr. Baker read law with Hon. C. B. 
 Darwin, of Burlington, teaching three or four months 
 each year to meet expenses. He was admitted to 
 practice in 1855, opening an office at Winterset, 
 Madison county, his fortune at that time consist- 
 ing of just fifty cents. In the winter following he 
 became the partner of Hon. H. J. B. Cummings, 
 now member of congress from the seventh Iowa 
 district. In 1856 he was a candidate for prosecuting 
 attorney on the democratic ticket, against Mr. Cum- 
 mings, who was elected. For the next three or four 
 years Mr. Baker took a very active part in politics. 
 In 186 1 he became disgusted with the action of the 
 peace wing of the democratic party in the state con- 
 
4lO 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 vention, shook the dust off his feet and voted for 
 Samuel J. Kirkwood, the republican nominee for 
 governor. 
 
 In the winter of 1861-62 Mr. Baker raised part of 
 a company for the 17th Iowa Infantry, and went 
 into the service as first lieutenant, Company E, of 
 that regiment, resigning on account of sickness in 
 the spring of 1863. 
 
 In January, 1864, lieutenant Baker settled in Lan- 
 caster, Schuyler county, Missouri; in 1868 was the 
 republican elector in the eighth district of that state, 
 and at the same time was elected representative to 
 the legislature for the term of two years. During 
 the adjourned session of that body he took an active 
 part in submitting an amendment to the constitution 
 repealing what was known as the " iron-clad " oath. 
 
 In 1870 the republican state convention split on 
 the question of indorsing the submission of the res- 
 olution of amendment, and nominated two tickets, 
 headed respectively by Joseph McClurg and B. 
 Gratz Brown, as candidates for governor. Lieu- 
 tenant Baker was on the Gratz Brown ticket for at- 
 
 torney-general of the state, and was elected by more 
 than forty thousand majority. 
 
 In May, 1875, he removed to Centerville, his pres- 
 ent home, and formed a law partnership with Gen- 
 eral Francis M. Drake, the firm name being Baker 
 and Drake, and they have a very remunerative prac- 
 tice. General Baker has been in the legal business 
 constantly since 1855, except when in the army. 
 His title of " general " is civic, being derived from 
 his office held in Missouri. 
 
 He has been a republican since the outbreak at 
 the south. 
 
 He is past grand and past chief patriarch in the 
 Odd-Fellows order, and is representative in the 
 grand lodge of the state. 
 
 His parents were Methodists. He is a member of 
 the Presbyterian church. 
 
 His wife, who was Miss Sophia Parker, and mar- 
 ried on the 19th of August, 1858, is a daughter of 
 Rev. Leonard Parker, a Methodist minister, and au- 
 thor of a work on " Infant Baptism " and " Immer- 
 sion not Bible Baptism." They have six children. 
 
 HON. HIRAM PRICE, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 HIRAM PRICE was born in Washington coun- 
 ty, Pennsylvania, on the loth of January, 
 1 8 14. He had very few of the advantages of edu- 
 cation in his early youth, receiving instruction only 
 in the common branches, and having few opportuni- 
 ties for mental improvement. He early developed 
 so strong a taste for reading, that everything read- 
 able that could be borrowed was eagerly devoured. 
 After leaving school he entered a retail dry goods 
 store as clerk, was afterward chief clerk at an iron 
 works, and still later was employed in a forwarding 
 and commission house. 
 
 He removed to Iowa, in 1844, and located in 
 Davenport, which place has been his residence ever 
 since. On his arrival he went into the mercantile 
 business, with a very small capital, not exceeding 
 one hundred dollars, and by perseverance, energy 
 and business tact, succeeded in acquiring a compe- 
 tence, retiring from the business in 1848. In 1847 
 he was elected the first school fund commissioner of 
 Scott county, which office he held for nine years. 
 In 1848 he was elected recorder and treasurer of 
 the county, holding them for eight years. 
 
 Mr. Price is entitled to an infinite deal of credit 
 for the part he has taken in advancing the construc- 
 tion of our railroads. He was one of the first men, 
 west of the Mississippi, who agitated a railroad con- 
 nection with the Atlantic, and it is owing to his 
 efforts, as much or more than to those of any one 
 else, that the people were induced to subscribe to 
 this object. He accepted the position of secretary 
 of the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad Company, 
 in which capacity he served seven years, and until 
 his election to congress. He was president of the 
 State Bank of Iowa during its entire e^tistence after 
 the first year, and closed the affairs of that institu- 
 tion to the entire satisfaction of all concerned, hand- 
 ling millions of dollars. He was elected to the 
 thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth and fortieth congresses, 
 each time by largely increased majorities, and then 
 declined being a candidate again ; but was nomi- 
 nated against his will for the forty-fifth congress, 
 and was elected by nearly two thousand majority. 
 During the war of the rebellion he was paymaster- 
 general of the State of Iowa, 
 
 Mr. Price has always taken a decided and con- 
 
>^A/Milh.. 
 
 (IaA4j 
 
 S'>i^l?IBJCdLkSmsI3S<u~J^STllT 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 413 
 
 sistent position in favor of the cause of temperance. 
 He was one of those who, in February, 1848, organ- 
 ized the Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance 
 for the State of Iowa, and was elected first Grand 
 Worthy A , and afterward Grand Worthy Pa- 
 triarch for the state. He was elected for a number 
 of years as representative to the National Division 
 of North America. In 1847 he was instrumental in 
 organizing a division of Sons of Temperance in 
 Davenport, and was elected the first Worthy Patri- 
 arch. His views, and the position he took upon 
 the temperance subject, have given him a promi- 
 nence possessed by no other private citizen in the 
 state, and yet there was not a man of his opponents 
 who did not respect the singular honesty of his 
 endeavors, and his entire freedom from all effort to 
 gain either personal or political popularity. 
 
 In religious views, he is a Methodist, having joined 
 that church in his seventeenth year. He was treas- 
 urer for the Scott County Bible Society for the 
 years 1851, 1852, 1856 and 1857, and president for 
 the years 1876 and 1877. 
 
 Mr. Price was raised in the democratic school of 
 politics, 'and remained in that party until an attempt 
 was made to force slavery into free soil, when he 
 
 helped to organize the republican party of Iowa, 
 and has been ranked as a radical republican ever 
 since. 
 
 He has passed some time in travels, having visited 
 nearly every state in the Union, and has traveled 
 over England, France, Switzerland, Ireland and 
 Scotland. 
 
 He was married on the 27th of April, 1834, to 
 Miss Susan Betts. 
 
 His son, M. M. Price, was United States consul 
 to Marseilles, France, and one of his daughters is 
 the wife of Hon. John F. Dillon, af the United 
 States circuit court, one of the ablest jurists in the 
 west; another daughter married the Rev. Laird Col- 
 lier, and another married Alfred Sully, of Brook- 
 lyn, New York. His youngest son, W. H. Price, 
 is a resident of Denver, Colorado. 
 
 In the various changes of an active life, Mr. Price 
 has gained the respect of a large circle of friends, 
 and the confidence of his business connections, and 
 while making constant use of his natural powers, he 
 has never wasted or weakened them, so he is still in 
 possession of much of his native vigor and strength. 
 At over three score his step is still firm, his form 
 erect, and his countenance cheerful. 
 
 WILLIAM S. BOYD, M. D., 
 
 VINTON. 
 
 ONE of the oldest and best educated physicians 
 and surgeons in Benton county is William 
 Swan Boyd, a resident of Vinton twenty-two years. 
 He is a son of John and Rachel Waters Boyd, who 
 resided in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, when 
 the son was born, on the 20th of June, 18 14. His ma- 
 ternal grandfather and also his paternal were from 
 Ireland. His father was a major in the war of 
 181 2-15. William farmed on the homestead until 
 about eighteen; attended the preparatory depart- 
 ment of the college at Meadville, Pennsylvania, two 
 years; read medicine with Dr. Thomas Brinker, of 
 Unity, in the same state ; attended medical lectures 
 at Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated in February, 
 1849. After practicing between six and seven years 
 in West Salem, Ohio, Dr. Boyd came to Iowa late 
 in the autumn of 1854, stopped a short time at 
 iowa City, and at the close of January, 1855, settled 
 permanently at Vinton. Early in the winter of 1868 
 he went to Philadelphia, and attended a full course 
 
 of lectures in Jefferson Medical College. The ben- 
 efits of that course he has reaped in increased effi- 
 ciency and skill in his profession, and the increased 
 confidence of the people in him as a medical prac- 
 titioner. Dr. Boyd was examining surgeon for pen- 
 sions in Benton county about eight years, but has 
 never held a political office of any importance. 
 
 He is a strong republican, and usually votes, but 
 his life work has been in his profession, and there 
 he excels. 
 
 He was reared a Presbyterian, but inclines to the 
 sentiments of the Methodists. He has no church 
 connection, but is a man of very pure character. 
 
 He belongs to the blue lodge in the Masonic 
 order, but pays very little attention to anything out- 
 side of his profession. 
 
 Dr. Boyd has a third wife. His first, Miss Jane 
 Sloan, of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, mar- 
 ried in 1839, died in about two months. His second, 
 Miss Elizabeth Carothers, of West Newton, in the 
 
414 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARV. 
 
 same county, married in 1842, died in 1852, leaving 
 four children, two of them since following her into 
 the spirit world. His present wife was Miss Cath- 
 erine Winegardner, of West Salem, Ohio, married in 
 1853. She is a model step-mother, obliging, kind 
 and affectionate. The eldest child of the second 
 wife, John R. Boyd, has a wife, and is a physician and 
 surgeon at Lost Nation, Clinton county. Rachel Ann 
 is the wife of Henry Miller, shoemaker, of Vinton. 
 
 Dr. Boyd is a member of the Iowa Union Medical 
 Society, and has an excellent standing in the pro- 
 fession. His character is such as to command the 
 high respect of the community inside and outside 
 the medical fraternity. 
 
 He has a fine brick residence located in the cen- 
 tral part of the city, with umbrageous and delight- 
 ful surroundings^ one of the most pleasant homes in 
 Vinton. 
 
 JAMES M. SHELLEY, 
 
 KEOKUK. 
 
 T AMES M. SHELLEY, the pioneer dry-goods mer- 
 J chant of southern Iowa, was born in Guilford 
 county. North Carolina, on the 26th' of January, 
 1813, and is the son of Francis Shelley and Nancy 
 Shelley ne'e Brown. Both his grandparents served 
 during the war of the revolution. He was an apt 
 scholar, and having the best advantages offered 
 by the schools of his time, acquired a good English 
 education, and, besides, a thorough knowledge of 
 Latin. His early ambition was to become a law- 
 yer, in which profession he would doubtless have 
 excelled. His pecuniary circumstances, however, 
 were not such as would allow him to gratify his de- 
 sire, and accordingly, when he was twenty-two years 
 of age, he engaged in mercantile pursuits, a line of 
 business which has engaged his constant attention 
 during a period of forty-one years. His first effort 
 in mercantile life was with Governor Morehead, at 
 Leaksville, North Carolina, and continued during 
 the years 1836, 1837 and 1838. Aside from their 
 regular mercantile trade he formed a partnership 
 with P. S. Hamlin and Co., and carried on the 
 manufacture of tobacco, then the staple product of 
 their section of the south. Mr. Shelley, stationed 
 at New Orleans, personally superintended the sales 
 in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and 
 Mexico — a great undertaking before the advent of 
 railroads, — and by his extensive travels gained a 
 most valuable experience and knowledge of men 
 and things. 
 
 In 1838, returning to his native state, he remained 
 one year, and at the expiration of that time removed 
 to Kentucky, where for ten years he was engaged in 
 a successful mercantile trade ; and during the same 
 time he served as justice of the peace of Calloway 
 county, having been appointed by Governor Clark, 
 
 The judicial district, comprising twenty or more 
 counties, was very thinly populated. The district 
 judge not being able to hold his court in some of 
 the counties oftener than once in twelve months, 
 the legislature passed an act authorizing him to 
 select one magistrate of each county, and to endow 
 him with the power of issuing writs, determining 
 habeas corpus, granting injunctions, etc. This honor 
 was conferred upon Mr. Shelley by one 6f Ken- 
 tucky's most noted jurists, the Hon. Willey P. 
 Fowler. 
 
 Closing his affairs in Kentucky in the spring of 
 1850, he removed to Keokuk, Iowa, whose commer- 
 cial future he was able to forecast. Forming a 
 partnership with James and James F. Cox, he at 
 once engaged in the wholesale dry-goods jobbing 
 trade ; two years later James Cox retired from the 
 firm, and James F. Cox, by reason of ill health, 
 withdrew in 1865. 
 
 Mr. Shelley is preeminently a business man, and 
 succeeds in whatever he undertakes ; as a counselor, 
 his advice is freely sought, and many of his wealthy 
 customers admit that they owe their prosperity to 
 him. A rule of his business life has been never 
 to harass or oppress his customers by useless law- 
 suits. When he traveled through the country doing 
 his own collecting, by his agreeable manners he 
 won his way to his debtors' confidence, and it was 
 a trite saying among commercial travelers, during 
 the financial crisis of 1857, that "it was of no use 
 to go after a customer when Colonel Shelley had 
 been before them, for if a man who owed him had 
 any money, or could borrow it, he was paid first." 
 He has never brought suit unless compelled to do 
 so, and then has always given it his personal at- 
 tention ; and by his remarkable memory of minor 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 415 
 
 details, and shrewd judgment in determining the 
 strong points, he has been enabled so to direct his 
 attorneys as seldom to lose a case. He is probably 
 the most widely known of any man in his line of 
 business in the state, his name being as familiar 
 as household words among all country merchants. 
 Beginning life without means, he has carved his 
 own history and made his own fortune. Though 
 now sixty-three years of age, he is as active and 
 energetic as when fired by youthful ambition; noble- 
 hearted, public-spirited and generous, his character 
 has ever been unsullied and above reproach. 
 
 Politically, Mr. Shelley was formerly a Henry Clay 
 whig, and later identified himself with the repub- 
 lican party. He was a warm supporter of the Union 
 cause during the war, but believing that the tend- 
 ency of the republican party was toward central- 
 ization, he abandoned it in 1870, and two years 
 later was the liberal and democratic candidate of 
 his district for congress. Although he carried his 
 own county, he was defeated by his talented op- 
 ponent, Hon. George W. McCrary. He was demo- 
 cratic candidate for state senator in 1873, but was 
 defeated by a majority of fifteen. He has never 
 sought political honors, and allowed his name to 
 be used only at the urgent solicitations of friends. 
 He made a gallant canvass for congress, and as a 
 public speaker, though not trained to the rostrum, 
 was logical, illustrative and eloquent ; a man of 
 commanding presence, finely-formed head, a clear 
 ringing voice of great capacity, he easily won the 
 attention and admiration of his auditors. He is 
 now in full sympathy with the democratic party. 
 
 and believes in the old political tests of character, 
 honesty, capacity and fidelity to the constitution. 
 As a writer, he is clear and happy in expression, 
 while as a conversationalist, he is fluent and mag- 
 na:ic, being thoroughly posted in history, poetry and 
 current literature. 
 
 At the present time (1876) Mr. Shelley is president 
 of the Iowa Life Insurance Company, located at 
 Keokuk, which is fast winning its way to public 
 confidence. 
 
 .His religious training was under the influence 
 of the Quakers, and though not a member of any 
 church, he makes the rule of his action that ex- 
 pressed in the words, " whatsoever ye would that 
 men should do to you, do ye even so to them," giv- 
 ing justice to all and oppressing none. 
 
 Personally, he is generous and courteous, and by 
 his habitual suavity, impresses even the casual ob- 
 server as a man among men capable of great things. 
 
 Mr. Shelley was married on the 13th of October, 
 1842, to Miss Louise J., daughter of the late Beverly 
 B. Stubblefield, a prominent name in Kentucky. 
 Mrs Shelley is an estimable lady of fine native en- 
 dowments, well educated, a devoted wife and fond 
 mother. 
 
 Of their two sons, both of whom were educated 
 at Princeton College, New Jersey, William F. is a 
 partner of his father at Keokuk, and George M. a 
 partner at Kansas City in the wholesale dry-goods 
 jobbing trade ; both were trained to mercantile pur- 
 suits, and inherit the business talent and personal 
 popularity that have so signally marked the career 
 of their father. 
 
 HON. SHERMAN G. SMITH, 
 
 NEWTON. 
 
 SHERMAN GRISWOLD SMITH, son of Ste- 
 phen F. Smith and Amanda M. n^e Cole, is a 
 native of Green county. New York, dating his birth 
 on the 22d of May, 1831. His branch of the Smith 
 family is of German pedigree, his grandfather com- 
 ing to this country subsequently to the revolution, 
 and settling in Green county. The Coles are an old 
 New England family. Sherman G. spent the first 
 twenty years of his life on farms in Green and Mad- 
 ison counties in his native state, then came as far 
 west as Oberlin, Ohio, where he entered the pre- 
 paratory department of the college, pursuing his 
 
 studies through the first term of the junior year, 
 when he left and began to teach school and study 
 law. He read at Urbana, Ohio, with James and 
 Duell, and was admitted to the bar at a term of the 
 supreme court of Ohio held at Columbus in March, 
 1857. 
 
 On the nth of November of that year Mr. Smith 
 opened an office in Newton, Jasper county, Iowa, 
 and here has since been his home and the field of 
 his operations, except a little more than two years, 
 which he spent in the military service. He went 
 into the army in September, 18(12, as major of the 
 
4i6 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 40th Iowa Infantry, and was with that regiment 
 through all its marches, expeditions, raids and 
 battles until late in 1864, when he resigned at Little 
 Rock, Arkansas, on account of ill-health. 
 
 Prior to going into the army, in the autumn "of 
 
 1 86 1, Major Smith was elected to the state senate, 
 and served in the regular and special sessions of 
 
 1862, heartily supporting every war measure of the 
 general assembly. 
 
 He was elected district attorney of the sixth judi- 
 cial district in 1870, and served four years. But 
 such positions are of very little consequence to him, 
 as his professional business is much better than the 
 emoluments of any office pertaining to the bar or 
 bench. He is an excellent office lawyer and a pow- 
 erful advocate, standing second to no man at the 
 Jasper county bar. 
 
 Major Smith has always acted with the republican 
 party, and is an influential member of it. He was 
 
 a delegate to the national convention in 1876, his 
 favorite candidate for presidential nominee being 
 the Hon. James G. Blaine. 
 
 He has been mayor of Newton one term ; has 
 done good work at sundry times on the city school 
 board, and is a trustee of the State Normal School 
 located at Cedar Falls. 
 
 He is a Royal Arch Mason, and has been master 
 of the Newton Lodge. 
 
 The religious connection of Major Smith is with 
 the Congregationalists, where he has held a mem- 
 bership nine or ten years. 
 
 His wife was Miss Louisa J. Dixon, of Newton, 
 their union occurring on the 28th of April, 1859. 
 They have three children, and have lost two. 
 
 Major Smith is a man of solid build, physically, 
 morally and intellectually, having a stainless record. 
 It is fortunate for Iowa that she has a large class of 
 just such men. Her honor rests upon them. 
 
 JACOB H. BRUSH, 
 
 OSAGE. 
 
 AT an early period in American history three 
 L brothers came from England and settled in 
 Huntington, Long Island, and from them have 
 sprung the Brushes now scattered over the western 
 as well as eastern states. Jacob Henry Brush, son 
 of Albert and Julia Burchard Brush, is one of these 
 descendants, and was born in North Salem, West- 
 chester county. New York, on the 9th of July, 1833. 
 Albert Brush is a farmer, one of the proprietors of 
 Brewster, a town in the edge of Putnam county, on 
 the Harlem railroad, and he and his wife are still 
 living in Brewster. The Burchards were early set- 
 tlers in Norwalk, Connecticut. Jacob spent his early 
 years in Westchester and Putnam counties, receiv- 
 ing his education at the North Salem Academy and 
 Amenia and Charlotteville seminaries, teaching the 
 district school one winter at Brewster. 
 
 About the time he arrived at his majority Mr. 
 Brush became interested in the west, and concluded 
 that here was a good field for young men of any 
 business tact and a disposition to work. Thus 
 impressed, he left Putnam county in May, 1855 ; 
 reached Dubuque about the time the land office- 
 was being removed ; followed it to Decorah ; there 
 opened a real-estate office and bank, and again fol- 
 lowed the United States land office when it was 
 
 removed to Osage in July, 1856. The next year 
 Mr. Brush was joined in the banking business by his 
 younger brother, Francis Albert, the firm name 
 being J. H. Brush and Co. In 1861 another brother, 
 Jesse Piatt, and in 1866 the youngest brother, Avery, 
 engaged with the subject of this sketch in banking, 
 and they are still in business together. In 1865 
 their private bank was changed to the Osage Na- 
 tional Bank, of which J. H. Brush is president, J. 
 P. Brush, cashier, and Avery Brush, assistant cashier. 
 
 Of the land-office business Mr. Brush has had 
 special charge since he began it. Few men have 
 located as many acres of land in the Turkey river 
 land district for non-residents as he, and probably 
 fewer still have accommodated as many men who 
 wanted to find homes in this district. During all 
 these years he has never needlessly distressed a 
 man — never took advantage of his necessities to 
 foreclose on him, but has uniformly shown all possi- 
 ble leniency. Indeed, he has seldom had occasion 
 to resort to law. 
 
 Mr. Brush has engaged in other business when he 
 could command the time to attend to it. In 186 1 
 he built the Osage flouring and saw mills, and oper- 
 ated them until October, 1873. He is one of the 
 half-dozen Osage men who were most active in 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 417 
 
 securing the railroad which reached this city in 
 1868, and one of those who labored and gave to 
 establish the Cedar Valley Seminary, and also one 
 of the very few to advocate and work for the total 
 prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquors in 
 Osage. Few men in this section are more public- 
 spirited or have labored harder to bring settlers, and 
 those of the very best class, into northern Iowa. In 
 his own city he has always been prompt to furnish 
 means to men of real enterprise and stamina, who 
 wished to put up blocks or single stores, and in 
 addition to the mills and his own bank he has built 
 some elegant residences. 
 
 Mr. Brush is a republican in politics, and a strong 
 supporter of the party, but has held no office. 
 
 He has been a member of the Methodist Episco- 
 
 pal church since about 185 1, and is generous in his 
 support of religious, educational and benevolent in- 
 stitutions. 
 
 On the 4th of May, 1862, Miss Julia Buckmaster, 
 daughter of Francis Buckmaster, of Osage, became 
 his wife, and has been the mother of five children. 
 A son and two daughters are living. 
 
 Francis Albert Brush, of whom we have spoken, 
 who was killed in the battle of Pleasant Hill, in April, 
 1864, was first lieutenant, company K, 27th Iowa In- 
 fantry. He entered the service in the fall of 1862 ; 
 was a brave soldier, and most highly esteemed by 
 his comrades in arms, as well as by the community 
 in which he enlisted. Few men who went from 
 Mitchell county and laid down their lives for their 
 country were, in their fall, more deeply lamented. 
 
 JAMES H. BROOKS, 
 
 TAMA CITY. 
 
 TAMES HARPER BROOKS comes of good pa- 
 J triotic fighting stock, both grandfathers being in 
 the revolution. His grandsire Harper was a colonel; 
 his grandsire Brooks a private. His parents were 
 James Brooks, farmer, steamboat owner and con- 
 tractor, and Mary Harper, industrious, well-to-do 
 people, residing, at the time of the son's birth, on 
 the 3d of April, 1829, at Conneaut, Ashtabula coun- 
 ty, Ohio. His father was a private under General 
 Harrison during the second contest with the mother 
 country. James Harper made Ashtabula county his 
 home until past age, although he was absent, more 
 or less, nearly every year after sixteen. He finished 
 his education at Kingsville Academy, in his native 
 county. 
 
 In his seventeenth year his father sent him to 
 Illinois with two thousand sheep, the only assistance 
 he had being a boy one year younger than himself. 
 His eighteenth year he spent mainly on the farm at 
 home. 
 
 During the seasons of 1848 and 1849 he acted as 
 clerk on the steamer Ohio, owned by his father, and 
 run on Lake Erie. 
 
 In the spring of 1851 Mr. Brooks moved to Kane 
 county, Illinois ; there farmed for three years, then 
 took a contract on the Chicago and Northwestern 
 railroad, furnishing the ties and some other wood- 
 work for the track from the junction to Dixon. 
 
 In the spring of 1856 he removed to Iowa, set- 
 
 tling in Otter Creek township, Tama county, alter- 
 nating between farming and railroading for ten or 
 eleven years ; most of this time, when off the farm, 
 he was an employe rather than a contractor. 
 
 In the spring of 1866 Mr. Brooks moved his 
 family into the new village of Tama City, then 
 springing up on the Northwestern railroad, two 
 miles south of Toledo. He went on the Union 
 Pacific railroad and spent fourteen months there 
 as a contractor, in company with Lewis Carmichael, 
 the work done being largely between the Black 
 Hills and Ogden. The operations of Mr. Brooks 
 at this period were very successful. 
 
 Since leaving the Union Pacific Mr. Brooks has 
 done some heavy work on the Chicago and North- 
 western railroad in Monroe county, Wisconsin, on 
 the Baraboo division. 
 
 Meantime he is also farming, merchandising and 
 banking, mainly by proxy, and, strange to say, mak- 
 ing a success of every branch. He has a thousand 
 acres of land in Tama county, all under good im- 
 provement, most of it cultivated by renters. He is 
 of the firm of Brooks and Holmes, dry-goods mer- 
 chants, Tama City, the business being managed 
 principally by his partner, Ryland A. Holmes, a 
 promising young man, son of Rev. O. A. Holmes. 
 This store was opened two years ago, and is one of 
 the largest and best in the place. 
 
 Mr. Brooks has been in the banking business for 
 
4i8 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 seven years, and is of the firm of Brooks and Moore 
 at Traer, Tama county, and of Brooks and Moore 
 Brothers at Reinbeck, Grundy county, both places 
 on the Pacific branch of the Burlington, Cedar 
 Rapids and Northern railroad. 
 
 Mr. Brooks has great energy and pluck, usually 
 pushing his business rather than allowing his busi- 
 ness to push him. He has kept all the irons in the 
 fire, but let none of them become overheated. 
 
 Latterly he has let other parties assume most of 
 the labor, and having a competency, he lives very 
 much at his ease. He has one of the most delight- 
 ful residences in the county, located in a two-acre 
 lot most tastily embellished. The house alone cost 
 twenty-five thousand dollars, and the entire home- 
 stead, as it stands, must be worth twice that sum. 
 
 Mr. Brooks was in early life a whig; since 1855 
 he has been a republican ; is very decided in his 
 
 political sentiments; is ready to help a worthy friend 
 to office, but has no aspirations himself in that di- 
 rection. 
 
 His wife was Miss Harriet Hartshorn, of Erie 
 county, Pennsylvania. Married at Meadville, on 
 the 5th of December, 1850. Both are active mem- 
 bers of the Baptist church, filling their places, and 
 generously responding to the calls and requirements 
 of the church, and of religious and charitable objects 
 generally. Few kinder-hearted men live than James 
 H. Brooks. He not only pities the poor and un- 
 forturfate, but is always ready to help them. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Brooks have had two children, and 
 lost one of them. Arthur Lee Brooks, their only 
 child, has a famity, and is managing the home farm, 
 paying particular attention to the stock department. 
 He is energetic like his father, a hard worker, and a 
 young man of sterling worth. 
 
 CHARLES SWEATT, 
 
 WEST MITCHELL. 
 
 ONE of the oldest merchants and bankers in 
 West Mitchell, Iowa, and the man who built 
 one of the first frame houses in Mitchell county, is 
 Charles Sweatt, for twenty-two years a resident of 
 this state. He is a Vermonter by birth, a native 
 of Thetford, Orange county, dating his birth on the 
 30th of May, 1832. He is a son of William Sweatt, 
 a physician, and Zylpha (Baxter) Sweatt. The 
 Sweatts are an old New Hampshire family. His 
 father was a surgeon in the war of 1812-15. 
 
 Charles was educated at the Thetford Academy ; 
 commenced clerking in his native town at fifteen ; 
 at the end of four years he went to Post's Mills, in 
 the same township, and there and at Stanstead, Can- 
 ada, continued clerking three years more, when, in 
 1855, he removed to Iowa, settling at West Mitchell. 
 Here, in company with his elder brother, John 
 Sweatt, he opened a general variety store, continuing 
 in trade together until 1862, when Charles sold out 
 to his brother, and rested on his oars one season. 
 
 In 1863 Mr. Sweatt resumed mercantile business, 
 by buying out his brother, continuing alone until 
 1870, when he sold out to two younger brothers, W. S. 
 and F. Sweatt, and started a bank in company with 
 Calvin S. Prime. It is still in operation under the 
 firm name of Sweatt and Prime. Mr. Prime was 
 for several years clerk of the court for Mitchell 
 
 county. The bank is doing a fair business, being the 
 only one in the place. 
 
 In 1875 Mr. Sweatt took back the store and stock 
 of his younger brothers, and is running it with fine 
 success. 
 
 When first settled in Iowa, Mr. Sweatt entered 
 government lands, and has dealt more or less in real 
 estate during all these years. In this branch of his 
 business, as well as the others, he has done well. He 
 still owns some lands, but has his funds mainly in 
 the bank, in merchandise and in mortgages. Few 
 better business men ever operated in Mitchell coun- 
 ty. He has always dealt fairly, and his reputation 
 for honesty has never been marred an iota. It is 
 such enterprising men as Charles Sweatt that have 
 made the Cedar Valley what it is — one of the most 
 blooming gardens in the State of Iowa. 
 
 Mr. Sweatt has voted the republican ticket since 
 there was such a party, but does not allow his name 
 to be used in political conventions. 
 
 On the 17th of January, 1865, Miss Cornelia E. 
 Lyons, a native of New York, and then living in 
 West Mitchell, became his wife, and they have one 
 child. 
 
 Mr. Sweatt has gray hazel eyes, a fair complexion, 
 and a symmetrical form, is five feet ten inches tall, 
 and weighs one hundred and eighty-five pounds. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 419 
 
 He is social, cordial and gentlemanly, shrewd and 
 keen, and well calculated to make friends and to 
 succeed in life. 
 
 John Sweatt, who catne with his brother to Iowa 
 
 in 1855, still lives in West Mitchell, dealing in real 
 estate, and loaning money. Like his brother Charles, 
 he has been an eminent success. He has a wife and 
 one child, and is among the sterling men of the place. 
 
 EDGINGTON BROTHERS, 
 
 ELDORA. 
 
 THE pioneer merchants of Eldora, IoA*a, were 
 Edgington Brothers, a firm which for more 
 than twenty years was a household word in Hardin 
 county. Samuel R. and Jonathan Edgington reached 
 the present site of Eldora on the ist of January, 
 1853, when there was not a building of any kind to 
 be seen. Six miles north, on the Iowa river, was a 
 saw-mill, and there they obtained the lumber for the 
 first frame structure of any kind erected in Hardin 
 county. They built it for a store, on the southwest 
 corner of what ig now the public square, part of it 
 being used by Jonathan Edgington two or three 
 years as a dwelling-house. This first building in the 
 place was followed, the coming spring and summer, 
 by four or five log houses, all the improvements 
 made that year. Hardin county was organized in 
 February of that year, and Alexander Smith, the 
 first county judge, received twenty-eight votes. 
 
 It was in the latter part of the same month, seven 
 weeks after they reached their future home, that 
 Edgington Brothers opened their store, putting in a 
 stock of goods costing between two hundred and 
 three hundred dollars. It was drawn from Iowa 
 City, distant one hundred and ten miles, by one 
 team. 
 
 Trade increased as settlers came in, and the stock 
 of merchandise was enlarged from month to month. 
 Before the close of the first year Jesse J. Edgington, 
 a younger brother, was taken into the firm, and in 
 1856 Joseph Edgington, the eldest of the four, joined 
 the firm. With each additional member the capital 
 was enlarged, and business expanded with the town 
 For several years the four brothers, operating to- 
 gether, filled all the places of salesman, book-keeper, 
 teamster and porter. Their stock slowly worked its 
 way up from less than three hundred dollars to more 
 than twenty thousand dollars. For several years 
 they did from thirty thousand dollars to forty thou- 
 sand dollars annually, being the leading merchants 
 in the town and county. 
 
 In 1869, on the completion of the railroad from 
 42 
 
 Ackley to Eldora, Joseph and Jonathan went out of 
 the firm and engaged in other business. Samuel 
 and Jesse remained until January, 1875, when the 
 firm was dissolved and the mercantile business dis- 
 continued. 
 
 These brothers were sons of Jesse and Hannah 
 
 Edgington, of Springfield township, Richland county, 
 
 Ohio, originally a family of twelve children, only 
 
 seven of whom are living. The four brothers were 
 
 reared on a farm. All had only a common-school 
 
 education. 
 
 j Joseph was born on the 28th of January, 1820; 
 
 was married in 1844, and has no children. He was 
 
 I two years in the Union army, enlisting a company 
 
 i for the 32d regiment Infantry, and going out and 
 
 j returning as captain of company F. Failing health 
 
 ' compelled him to resign. He served eighteen 
 
 [ months as justice of the peace in Eldora, to fill a 
 
 vacancy, and has been postmaster between four and 
 
 five years. He has a beautiful home, with vineyard 
 
 and other pleasant surroundings. 
 
 Jonathan, born on the 30th of September, 1824, 
 went from the mercantile directly into the grain 
 trade, which he still follows, being one of the lead- 
 ing men in that line in Eldora. He was deputy 
 sheriff six years, and justice of the peace four. He 
 has a wife and four children. 
 
 Samuel, better known as Colonel Edgington, was 
 born on the 12th of March, 1827. Was a soldier in the 
 war with Mexico, going out in the 3d Ohio Infantry, 
 and serving one year. Raised a company for the 
 i2th regiment Iowa Infantry in September, 1861, and 
 went out as captain of company A, and returned as 
 lieutenant-colonel of the regiment. He resigned at 
 the end of two years, because of the illness of his 
 wife. He was the first school-fund commissioner 
 of Hardin county, and is now chairman of the 
 board of supervisors. He was married in 1849, and 
 has a family of three boys. The eldest, Melvin, is 
 a partner of his father in the Commercial Hotel, 
 which stands on the original site of the Edgington 
 
420 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 store. It was opened in September, 1875, and is 
 the best hotel building in Eldora. 
 
 Jesse, born on the 23d of February, 1831, like the 
 other three brothers, continues to reside in Eldora, 
 delighted, as they all are, with the elevated location 
 and beauty and healthfulness of the city. For two 
 years he has been in no especial business. Has a 
 wife and four children. 
 
 The four brothers are members of the Masonic 
 order, and the three younger are also Odd-Fellows. 
 Jesse has been grand master of the Independent 
 Order of Odd-Fellows of the state. 
 
 Jonathan is a Universalist in sentiment ; the others 
 Methodist in their preferences. None are members 
 of a church. 
 
 All are republican in political faith. 
 
 Identified as their interests are with Eldora, being 
 among its " nursing fathers," they have always been 
 public-spirited, and promptly lent a hand in every 
 enterprise that would build up the place. During 
 the rebellion those of them who were not able to 
 give their time to aid in crushing it cheerfully gave 
 of their substance. They are a patriotic band of 
 brothers. 
 
 OLIVER McMAHAN, 
 
 I. TONS. 
 
 OLIVER McMAHAN, banker and capitalist, 
 was born in Ohio in 1819. His father, Joseph 
 McMahan, served as a soldier during the entire pe- 
 riod of the American revolution, and was highly 
 esteemed for his patriotism and sterling integrity. 
 He was killed on the ill-fated steamer Moselle, at 
 Cincinnati, in 1838. His ancestry reaches back to 
 the first settlers of Pennsylvania, and is thence 
 traced to the Protestant section of the north of 
 Ireland. His mother, a worthy and estimable lady, 
 was likewise a native of the same state. 
 
 After pursuing his studies in the common school 
 of the vicinity during his early childhood, the ne- 
 cessities of his family compelled him to provide for 
 himself At the early age of twelve or thirteen 
 years, with a very delicate and slender body, weigh- 
 ing only sixty pounds, he sought and obtained, at 
 length, employment on a farm at four dollars per 
 month ; and during the following six years labored 
 in a stone-quarry without adequate compensation. 
 These years of severe toil and trial tended ultimately 
 to develop the latent sterling qualities in the boy, 
 and bring them forth into active manhood. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that although the parentage 
 of the subject of this sketch was humble, yet it was 
 honorable and justly respectable. The resources 
 of the country immediately subsequent to the war 
 of independence, having necessarily been neglected 
 and undeveloped, left the people extremely impov- 
 erished. Many families were compelled to endure 
 poverty and destitution. The heroes of many a 
 well-fought field found it difficult to keep the wolf 
 from the door of their humble dwelling; hence 
 
 many worthy youths, thrown upon their own re- 
 sources, were forced to seek and obtain their own 
 livelihood. In 1837 he was induced to seek a home 
 in the west. Having taken his farewell look of Cin- 
 cinnati, and of all in it that was near and dear, with 
 the world all before him, he set his face westward. 
 " The child is father of the man," says the poet, an 
 aphorism happily illustrated on this occasion. Ar- 
 riving in due time at his destination with very 
 limited resources, and without means to grapple 
 successfully with the obstacles that opposed him in 
 his new and rugged sphere in which he was called 
 to labor, he spent years struggling with the adverse 
 circurnstances that surrounded and hedged him in 
 on every side. Fortune at last seemed to change in 
 his favor. His brother, unitedly with himself, entered 
 into a profitable and successful enterprise of steam- 
 boating on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In 
 this employment they continued several years work- 
 ing hard and faithfully, and advancing step by step, 
 showing what indomitable energy and intelligence 
 can accomplish. 
 
 He married in 1840, and settled in Illinois. 
 
 In 1842 the connection with his brother having 
 been mutually dissolved, he embarked in the lumber 
 business, and during the eight following years was 
 widely known as a very successful lumber merchant. 
 At this period of life every enterprise on which he 
 entered was crowned with success. In 1863 he 
 united with other capitalists and organized the First 
 National Bank in Clinton county. As a banker, he 
 has been highly successful, and is greatly esteemed 
 by the business community for his integrity and 
 
(^IJ^^ Of^, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BTOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. . 
 
 423 
 
 thoroughness. In the various transactions of busi- 
 ness in which he has been engaged during the past 
 quarter of a century he had acquired such a reputa- 
 tion for financial abiHty and tliorough acquaintance 
 with monetary affairs, that when the panic of 1857 
 occurred he carried all the public interests intrusted 
 to him successfully and triumphantly through that 
 financial crisis. 
 
 Mr. McMahan is likewise, at this time, heavily in- 
 terested in the well known house of Stiles, Goldy 
 and McMahan, a firm that justly enjoys the con- 
 fidence of the business community in which it is 
 located. The extent and variety of his business 
 relations, and his reputation for financial ability, is 
 so extensive that he is made the custodian of im- 
 portant trusts, not only in his own, but in neighbor- 
 ing communities. His entire business and financial 
 career has been characterized by eminent success. 
 
 Educational topics have always had for him a 
 very strong attraction, and he has in the education 
 of his children always patronized the best institu- 
 tions in the counlrv. 
 
 Although generally eschewing politics, he is a de- 
 cided republican in principle and sentiment, yet has 
 no sympathy with the party hacks who make politics 
 a trade. 
 
 In religion, he has been a worthy and prominent 
 member of the Methodist Episcopal church more 
 than twenty years, contributing liberally to its sup- 
 port, and working zealously for its interests and 
 welfare. 
 
 He has always manifested public spirit, and has 
 contributed materially to the improvement of his 
 immediate vicinity and county. Though of slender 
 and delicate organism, he has led since his early 
 childhood an eminently busy life ; and the honorable 
 position to which he has attained has been won 
 by his own unaided and indefatigable efforts. He 
 ground his wealth out of poverty, by never exceed- 
 ing his means, and by always laying up some portion 
 of his earnings for capital. Whatever spoils he took, 
 he won, and became what he is by the development 
 of his faculties and resources. He is widely esteemed 
 for his intrinsic worth and social qualities. 
 
 JAMES S. KELSO, M. D., 
 
 ACKLE)- 
 
 ONE of the best read physicians of Hardin 
 county is James Seaton Kelso, a graduate of 
 the University of Glasgow, Scotland. He is a na- 
 tive of Ireland, and was born in Lisburn, county of 
 Antrim, on the 25th of December, 1820. His father. 
 Rev. Joseph Kelso, was a Presbyterian clergyman 
 of some eminence, and pastor of the United parishes 
 of Ballinderry and Maghragal. Hismother, Rebecca 
 Johnstone, before her marriage, was distantly con- 
 nected with the Johnstone family of Annandale, 
 Scotland. 
 
 Dr. Kelso obtained his preliminary education at 
 an ordinary parish school, and was prepared for 
 college by a private tutor, completing his classical 
 education at the Royal Academical Institution, Bel- 
 fast. After being examined at Apothecary's Hall, 
 in Dublin, he was articled to an apothecary, and 
 learned carefully the art and mystery of that busi- 
 ness, in connection with hospital practice, at Belfast. 
 He commenced the study of medicine at the Uni- 
 versity of Glasgow in the winter session of 1838-39, 
 and completed his course at the session of 1841-42, 
 obtaining not only a degree from the University of 
 
 Glasgow, but a diploma from the Royal College of 
 Surgeons, Edinburgh. He was thus qualified to 
 enter the civil service of the East India Company, 
 which step he had in view, and after waiting a short 
 time for his commission he concluded to visit the 
 United States before going to the Indies. He came 
 over in the autumn of 1844, and soon afterward his 
 commission followed him; but he liked this country 
 too well to exchange it for any other, and has never 
 left it. 
 
 In the spring of 1845 Dr. Kelso opened an office 
 in La Fayette county, Wisconsin, and there remained 
 steadily in practice until i860, when he made a 
 short trip by the overland route to California, to 
 attend to some business. Not completing it as soon 
 as he expected, he took charge of the " Shasta 
 Courier," changing it from a democratic to a repub- 
 lican paper, and conducting it during the campaign 
 which ended in the election of Leland S. Sandford 
 for governor. 
 
 On the breaking out of the rebellion, in 186 1, Dr. 
 Kelso returned to Wisconsin, and the same year 
 was commissioned as one of the surgeons of the 
 
424 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 2d Wisconsin Cavalry, continuing in that position 
 until the close of the war. 
 
 On returning to the north he located at Ackley,- 
 Iowa, then a new town on the Iowa branch of the 
 Illinois Central railroad, and here we still find him 
 devoted to the practice of medicine. He has long 
 been the leading physician of the place, and here, 
 as he was in Wisconsin, is popular and influential. 
 One of the early settlers in Ackley, he has constant- 
 ly labored for its welfare. He projected the Sabula, 
 Ackley and Dakota railroad, the first division of 
 which, from Sabula on the Mississippi to Marion, 
 Linn county, is completed. He was at one time a 
 director of the Central Railroad of Iowa, which runs 
 north and south through Ackley. He is president 
 of the Ackley Agricultural Works. 
 
 Dr. Kelso is a ready writer on various subjects,, 
 and has been a contributor to the London " Lan- 
 cet '' and different American medical journals. 
 
 In politics, he was a whig, then a free-soiler, then 
 a republican of the strictest sect. 
 
 He is a member of the Presbyterian church. 
 
 In December, 1847, Dr. Kelso riiarried Mrs. Ann 
 Washburn, widow of Frank Washburn, of Raynham, 
 Massachusetts. She died in 1867, leaving no chil- 
 dren by this union. In September, 1873, he married 
 Miss Emma Ogden, of Ackley. 
 
 Dr. Kelso originated the Union Agricultural So- 
 ciety, which for several years has held an annual 
 fair at Ackley, and has done much to cultivate a 
 spirit of emulation among farmers, stock-raisers and 
 manufacturers. 
 
 JAMES BARR, M. D., 
 
 ALGONA. 
 
 DR. BARR is a native of Lanarkshire, Scotland, 
 the son of John Barr, a stone-cutter, and Janet 
 Shearer, and was born on the 25th of July, 1836. 
 Both families from whom he sprung were Cove- 
 nanters, and some of the Barrs were in the battle of 
 Drumclog. 
 
 At nine years of age James was apprenticed to 
 the weavers' trade. His health failing at the end of 
 four years, he was placed on a farm ; at seventeen 
 came to this country with the family ; worked in a 
 coal mine near Sharon, Pennsylvania, a short time; 
 removed to Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1854, and 
 worked on a large dairy farm until the spring of 
 1856, when he removed to Iowa, locating at Fayette, 
 Fayette county. After spending one season on a 
 farm, at twenty one he entered a district school, up 
 to that date not having had, in the aggregate, more 
 than one year's schooling. In a short time he en- 
 tered the Upper Iowa University, then recently lo- 
 cated at Fayette, and diligently pursued his studies 
 until the civil war commenced. During this time 
 he had no means of support except the earnings of 
 his own hand. Every dollar he ever possessed came 
 in the same way. 
 
 In September, 1861, Dr. Barr enlisted as a private 
 in the 12th Iowa Infantry, and soon after the battle 
 of Shiloh was appointed hospital steward, serving in 
 that capacity for three years. During the year 1865 
 the surgeons of the 12th were absent most of the 
 
 time on detached duty, when he had charge of the 
 regiment, and in September of that year was ap- 
 pointed assistant surgeon. In that capacity he served 
 until mustered out in February, 1866. 
 
 Returning to Fayette, he read medicine with Dr. 
 C. C. Parker, surgeon of the 12th Infantry; attend- 
 ed lectures at Rush Medical College, Chicago, and 
 there graduated in February, 1868. 
 
 After spending a short time in Mindoro, Wiscon- 
 sin, Dr. Barr located at Clermont, Iowa, practiced 
 there until May, 1869, when he settled in Algona, 
 and where he now has probably the most extensive 
 practice of any physician in Kossuth county, though 
 such information could not be obtained from him. 
 The doctor is a modest, quiet, unassuming gentle- 
 man, attending to the duties of his profession with 
 the utmost assiduity. 
 
 In 187 1 Dr. Barr was appointed United States 
 examining surgeon for pensions, and still holds that 
 office. 
 
 In February, 1876, he became a volunteer weather- 
 reporter for this immediate section of the state, and 
 makes his daily observations, reporting to Professor 
 Hinrichs, of Iowa City. 
 
 Dr. Barr has always voted with the republican 
 party, is firm in his political views, but not very 
 active in a political canvass. His profession has the 
 first claims on his time. 
 
 He is a Master Mason. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARV. 
 
 425 
 
 On the 15th of June, 1871, Miss Selina M. Brad- 
 shaw, of Davenport, Iowa, became his wife, and they 
 have three children. 
 
 Mrs. Barr is a graduate of the high school and 
 training school in Davenport ; was a teacher there 
 several years, and is a woman of no small degree of 
 intellectual polish. She and her husband are mem- 
 bers of the' Methodist Episcopal church; both are 
 active in the Sunday school, and the doctor is its 
 superintendent, and has been most of the time since 
 he settled in Algona. 
 
 Dr. Barr's experience in the army hospitals, as 
 steward and assistant surgeon, was an excellent 
 school to him, and aided him in laying a good foun- 
 dation on which to build in medical science, of 
 which he is a very close student. When he entered 
 the army he took some of his books with him, and 
 at first pursued his literary studies when not busy in 
 the hospital. He fitted himself, finally, for a sur- 
 geon's duties, often studying two hours or more be- 
 fore any one else was astir. Industry in so noble a 
 direction has been amply rewarded. 
 
 JOSEPH J. HUTCHINGS, 
 
 WINTERSET. 
 
 JOSEPH J. HUTCHINGS, son of Francis and 
 Elizabeth Turner Hutchings, is a native of In- 
 diana, and was born in Clark county, on the 29th of 
 November, 1825. His ancestors on his father's side 
 were from England ; settled first in Maryland, and 
 spread thence into Virginia and the southern and 
 western states. Francis Hutchings moved with his 
 family from Clark into Hendricks county when Jo- 
 seph was ten years old, where he was reared on a 
 farm, attending, during three or four months each 
 year, an excellent Quaker school. By dint of hard 
 study in that school he fitted himself to instruct, 
 and after teaching one term he moved to Iowa, 
 spending one year in Davis county. In the sum- 
 mer of 185 1 Mr. Hutchings taught in Jasper coun- 
 ty ; came into Madison county, and taught in the 
 country two winters, moving into Winterset, in the 
 interim, in the spring of 1852. Here he com- 
 menced trading in land, and success attended him 
 from the start. He took unwearied pains to show 
 new-comers and home-seekers the rich and beauti- 
 ful lands, the " unshorn prairies " of Madison coun- 
 ty, and aided hundreds to locate here, many of 
 whom are now among the most thrifty farmers in 
 this vicinity. Probably no man in Madison coun- 
 ty has done more to settle it with this class than 
 Mr. Hutchings. 
 
 In the autumn of 1872 he was one of the fore- 
 most men in organizing the Citizens' National Bank, 
 of which he has since been president. It is a pros- 
 perous institution. Indeed, almost everything the 
 hand of Mr. Hutchings touches is sure to thrive. 
 He is a shrewd business manager, strictly honest 
 and reliable, and has the full confidence of the 
 
 people. He keeps a land office separate from the 
 bank. 
 
 Mr. Hutchings was originally a whig, and for 
 twenty years has been a zealous, untiring worker 
 in the republican ranks. He helps his friends into 
 offices which he refuses to accept himself. His 
 heart is in the cause, and no man rejoices more 
 than he in the success of the republican candi- 
 dates. 
 
 Mr. Hutchings is a Chapter Mason, and here, as 
 in politics, he keeps out of office as much as possible. 
 He is a member of no church, but has a partiality for 
 the Quakers. 
 
 The wife of Mr. Hutchings was Miss Mary Bell, 
 of Winterset; married on the 28th of January, 1856. 
 They have one child, Flora, who was educated in 
 the female seminary at Mount Pleasant, Henry 
 county. 
 
 Mr. Hutchings has a dark complexion, a keen 
 hazel eye, is six feet tall, and weighs one hundred 
 and sixty-five pounds. He is quick on the feet, 
 alert for a bargain, and has a business education 
 and business tact second to no man in Winterset. 
 There is a good lesson in his life. He came to 
 Iowa a poor young man, bringing, it is said, his 
 worldly effects in a carpet-bag. When he came 
 into Madison county he walked from Newton, Jas- 
 per county, reaching Winterset, a distance of sev- 
 enty miles, in three days, through trackless prairies 
 and across bridgeless streams. He had to " rough 
 it " at times, in fare as well as travels, but took 
 things cheerfully as they came, had a hand willing 
 and ready for any work, and by his industry, pluck, 
 energy and good business capacities has become 
 
426 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 one of the most independent and wealthy men in 
 Madison county. 
 
 It is men like him who have made Iowa what it 
 is — one of the best states in the great northwest. 
 
 It was through his influence and that of a few 
 other men that Winterset has an outlet by rail via 
 Des Moines. A few such enterprising men in a 
 place are a guarantee of a thriving city. 
 
 HON. CARL W. VON COELLN, 
 
 DES MOINES. 
 
 CARL WILHELN VON COELLN, state su- 
 perintendent of public instruction, is a Ger- 
 man by birth, and was born near Minden, West- 
 phalia, on the 31st of August, 1830. His parents 
 were Theodore Von Coelln, a clergyman, and Char- 
 lotta Evers. 
 
 He received his education at a Prussian gymna- 
 sium, and in the Universities of Bonn and Berlin, 
 serving one year as a volunteer in the artillery ser- 
 vice in the army. 
 
 He came to this country in 1855; soon mastered 
 our language ; taught in academies in Ashtabula, 
 Trumbull and Summit counties, Ohio, for five years, 
 and in 1861 became a resident of Iowa, still pur- 
 suing the vocation of a teacher. At first he was in 
 the public schools of Des Moines ; then at the head 
 of the graded school in Cascade, Dubuque county ; 
 and a little later he took the chair of mathematics 
 in Iowa College, Grinnell, occupying that chair for 
 nearly seven years, serving also part of the time as 
 deputy county superintendent of schools of Powe- 
 shiek county. 
 
 In 1872 he became principal of Westside Schools 
 in Waterloo, Black Hawk county, occupying that 
 position, with great acceptance, until September, 
 1876, when he was appointed state superintendent 
 
 of public instruction, to fill a vacancy caused by the 
 resignation of Colonel Alonzo Absonathy, now presi- 
 dent of the University of Chicago. In November of 
 the same year Mr. Von Coelln was elected to that 
 office by one hundred and fifty-three thousand ma- 
 jority, and reelected in October, 1877. He is filling 
 the office with marked ability. 
 
 He seems to be a born educator, and has the 
 happy faculty of infusing into others the mental life 
 and enthusiasm which he possesses in a large meas- 
 ure. His executive abilities are also good, and the 
 people of Iowa would seem to indicate by their vote 
 that he is admirably adapted to his position. His 
 manners, as well as mind, are polished, and, in the 
 noblest sense of the term, he is a gentleman. As a 
 scholar, he. has few superiors in the state. 
 
 Mr. Von Coelln came to this country just as the 
 great " party of freedom " were being formed, and 
 has uniformly acted with that party. 
 
 On the 19th of November, 1857, Miss Celia A. 
 Goodrich, of Ashtabula county, Ohio, became his 
 wife, and they have five children. 
 
 Mr. Von Coelln has the broad German face and a 
 very kindly look. If he ever had a bad habit, no 
 traces of it are in his countenance, which beams not 
 only with intelligence, but with the higher virtues. 
 
 HON. ELBRIDGE G. BOWDOIN, 
 
 ROCKFORD. 
 
 ELBRIDGE GRIDLEY BOWDOIN, of Floyd 
 , county, Iowa, was born at South Hadley 
 Falls, Hampshire county, Massachusetts, on the 
 i6th of February, 1820. His father, Hon, William 
 Bowdoin, of Huguenot origin, and a descendant of 
 the same ancestor as the Bowdoins of Boston, was 
 for more than forty years a practicing attorney of 
 the Massachusetts bar, and for several terms a mem- 
 ber of the Massachusetts senate. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was educated at Am- 
 herst College, Massachusetts, where he graduated in 
 1840. After graduating he commenced the study 
 of law, but subsequently, for some time, taught an 
 academy at Spencertown, Columbia county. New 
 York; and again, from 1842 to 1845, was similarly 
 ^gaged at Milton, Caswell county. North Carolina. 
 Returning to Massachusetts the latter year, he re- 
 sumed his legal studies with Judge Henry Morris, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 427 
 
 at Springfield, where, in May, 1847, h^ ^^s admitted 
 to practice by the supreme court of Massachusetts. 
 Immediately after he removed to Amherst, where 
 he entered into partnership with the Hon. Edward 
 Dickinson, with whom he continued in the practice 
 of his profession until 1855, when, owing to ill- 
 health, he made a journey to Iowa, which eventu- 
 ated in his becoming interested in real estate in 
 Floyd and the adjoining counties, and a resident of 
 the town of Rockford, of which he was one of the 
 original proprietors. In 1856 he was admitted to 
 the bar of Floyd county, but he never practiced 
 there. In 1859 he was elected a member of the 
 Iowa house of representatives, which met in i860, 
 from the district then composed of the counties of 
 Floyd, Cerro Gordo, Worth, Hancock and Winne- 
 bago, in which session he was a member of the 
 judiciary committee and chairman of the commit- 
 tee on schools and state universities. He was re- 
 
 elected to the assembly which met in 1862, in which 
 session he was chairman of the committee on ways 
 and means, and a member of the committee for 
 apportioning the state into congressional districts. 
 In 1860 he was a member of the Iowa delegation 
 to the national republican convention at Chicago 
 which nominated Mr. Lincoln. In December of 
 1863, going to Washington, he was made clerk of 
 the judiciary committee of the house of represen- 
 tatives, of which the Hon. James F. Wilson, of 
 Iowa, was chairman, which position he retained 
 for nearly ten years, six of them with Mr. Wilson 
 as chairman, and the remainder with Hon. John A. 
 Bingham, of Ohio, as chairman. Since that time 
 he has resided at Rockford, where he is the princi- 
 pal proprietor of the unoccupied town property, 
 and is engaged in farming and dealing in real es- 
 tate. He is one of the most public-spirited men in 
 the Shellrock valley. 
 
 WILLIAM H. REDMAN, 
 
 MONTEZUMA. 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY REDMAN, one of the 
 youngest and most prosperous attorneys of 
 Montezuma, was born in the town of Genesee 
 Grove, Whiteside county, Illinois, on the sth of 
 March, 1840; his parents being Eli and Catherine 
 Owen Redman. His father, born in western Vir- 
 ginia, was a soldier in the war of 1812-15, receiving 
 a land warrant in consideration of his services. 
 
 William H. completed his academical education 
 at the Mount Carroll Seminary, Carroll county, Illi- 
 nois, and from that town enlisted as a private in 
 company C, 12th Illinois Cavalry, serving three 
 years in the ranks, being promoted from sergeant 
 to corporal, and thence through second and first 
 lieutenants to captain of the company. He partici- 
 pated in all the raids, skirmishes and battles of the 
 gallant 12th. That regiment was in the battle of 
 Bunker Hill, Virginia ; siege of Harper's Ferry ; 
 Williamsport, Maryland ; Dumphries, Virginia (all 
 in the autumn of 1862). At the last-mentioned 
 place Captain Redman was a prisoner eighteen 
 hours, and then made his escape. He was in the 
 Stoneman raid; at Gettysburg; at Williamsport a 
 second time ; at Falling Water ; at Chester Gap and 
 Culpepper Court House ; at Germany Ford and 
 Raccoon Ford on the Rapidan ; and ' at Stevens- 
 
 burg, Rappahannock Station and Brentsville. In 
 November, 1863, the regiment was sent to Chicago; 
 recruited to full strength the next month ; was sent 
 to Saint Louis in February, 1864, and veteranized ; 
 sent to New Orleans, and thence up the Red river, 
 under General Banks ; was subsequently in cavalry 
 raids at Liberty, Mississippi, and in Louisiana, and 
 still later in Arkansas. The regiment was reorgan- 
 ized at Memphis, Tennessee, in March, 1865, the 
 4th Illinois Cavalry being consolidated with it, 
 under the name of the 12th; and soon afterward 
 was in the famous Ripley raid, going thence to 
 Texas. There Captain Redman did provost-mar- 
 shal duty for a few months, by order of General 
 Mowry, and a little later commanded a post at 
 Livingston, Polk county, Texas, holding that posi- 
 tion from February, i866, until he mustered out his 
 company, at Houston, Texas, on the 29th of May, 
 1866; and a neater muster-roll than Captain Red- 
 man still possesses the writer never saw. 
 
 During the time he was in the service he was 
 never sick a day, never off duty, never failed to face 
 the enemy, and never received a wound. His mili- 
 tary record is as noble as his life is pure. 
 
 On leaving the service Captain Redman entered 
 the law department of the State University at Iowa 
 
428 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 City, and there graduated in December, 1869; since 
 practicing law with a growing business and rising 
 reputation, at Montezuma, where he settled in April, 
 1870. 
 
 He is in company with Major Carr (elsewhere 
 mentioned in this volume), and they are doing a 
 thrifty business in the abstract line and real estate, 
 as well as law. 
 
 Captain Redman has twice been mayor of Monte- 
 zuma, and has a high standing in the community. 
 
 In politics, he trains in the republican ranks. 
 
 He is connected with the Odd-Fellows. 
 
 The wife of Captain Redman was Miss Su€ P. 
 Ferguson, of Jefferson, Harrison county, Ohio ; mar- 
 ried on the 3d of March, 1870. They have had three 
 children, and lost two of them. 
 
 MOSES M. MOULTON, 
 
 MONTICELLO. 
 
 SOME early settlers in a town are purely selfish ; 
 they identify themselves with no public enter- 
 prises ; live wholly for themselves, and, dying, are 
 soon forgotten. Others, from the. start, make the 
 interests of the place their own ; promptly enlist in. 
 the movements likely to benefit the place, and are 
 foremost in every good work. Of this class is Moses 
 Montgomery Moulton, who settled in Monticello 
 when it had only a postoffice, one very small store 
 and a single mechanic shop. Here he has lived for 
 twenty years; has seen the stores gradually increase 
 to thirty, and banks, manufactories, churches, schools 
 and library associations spring up around, him ; and 
 he now has two thousand neighbors who take pleas- 
 ure in honoring him from time to time with different 
 official positions. 
 
 Mr. Moulton was born in Sandwich, Carroll coun- 
 ty. New Hampshire, on the 12th of January, 1832. 
 His father, Jeremiah Moulton, occupies the home- 
 stead, which has been in the hands of the Moulton 
 family more than a century. Many of the apple 
 trees standing on it are a hundred years old. The 
 mother of Moses was a Rice, a family long settled 
 in New Hampshire. She was a woman of excellent 
 principles, and reared her children, like many New 
 England mothers, in the ways of rectitude. Moses 
 worked on his father's farm until he was sixteen 
 years of age, attending the common school a few 
 months each year; he then connected himself with 
 the high school in his native town for a year or two, 
 laying a good foundation on which he subsequently 
 built as best he could alone. He learned the car- 
 penter's trade, and worked at it until he was twenty- 
 six years old, part of the time in New Hampshire, 
 two years in Dixon, Illinois, and two years in Monti- 
 cello. The last named place he reached on the 2 2d 
 of September, 1856. 
 
 In 1858 he opened an insurance and collecting 
 office, a business which he has steadily continued 
 with marked success for eighteen years. 
 
 Mr. Moulton was elected township clerk in 1857, 
 and held the office for ten years; has been notary 
 public since 1858, and secretary of the board of 
 education since the same date, except the year 1868, 
 when he was president of Jhe board. 
 
 The writer has known Mr. Moulton intimately 
 during all the time of his connection with educa- 
 tional matters, and has no hesitation in saying that 
 a more efficient man in such a cause it would be 
 difficult to find in Jones county. To him, with the 
 assistance of a few good backers, is owing the ex- 
 cellent system of instruction in Monticello. His 
 efforts in this line have been untiring, and are thor- 
 oughly appreciated by his fellow-citizens. 
 
 Mr. Moulton was appointed United States com- 
 missioner in 1867, and still holds the office. He has 
 been elected mayor twice, holding the office in i86g 
 and 1870. 
 
 Soon after coming to Iowa he began to read law, 
 his studies being much interrupted by a press of 
 business. He was admitted to the bar of Jones 
 county on the 23d of June, 1869, but has never 
 made a specialty of legal practice. He lets nothing 
 interfere with the insurance and collecting agency, 
 which is quite profitable. He is widely known and 
 eminently trustworthy. 
 
 Mr. Moulton is an Odd-Fellow, and member of 
 the grand lodge of the state; also a Knight Tem- 
 plar, and member of Trinity Commandery, No. 16, 
 of the Masonic fraternity. 
 
 He was a democrat until the rebellion broke out ; 
 has since voted the republican ticket. 
 
 On the loth of December, 1858, he married Miss 
 Amelia McDonald, of Monticello. She has five 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 429 
 
 children, " and looks well to her household." She 
 heartily sympathizes with her husband in his efforts 
 to educate the children. 
 
 Mr. Moulton is compactly built and of the me- 
 dium" height, bordering on embonpoint, and weigh- 
 ing two hundred and twenty-five pounds. His 
 
 habits are of a strictly temperate character, and he 
 bears the image and superscription of good living 
 and superb health. He is a well-read and well- 
 posted man, talkative, lively and genial, and can 
 enjoy a good joke, whether it be at his own expense 
 or of his own originating. 
 
 ABRAHAM H. NEIDIG, A.M., 
 
 MARSHALLTO WN. 
 
 AMONG the truly representative men of the 
 . northwest there is none who has exerted 
 and obtained a more universal respect than the 
 subject of this sketch. Colonel Abraham H. Nei- 
 dig was born at Carlisle, Cumberland county, Penn- 
 sylvania, on the 5th of September, 1839, and is of 
 Swiss origin. His ancestors came to America in 
 1615. His father, Johnathan Neidig, was born in 
 Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, in 1812 ; married 
 Catherine Hershe in 1833; came west in 1850, and 
 settled at Muscatine, Iowa. Being a man of con- 
 siderable means, he contributed liberally to our pub- 
 lic improvements. He was one of the founders of 
 Western College, Linn (bounty, Iowa, and moved to 
 that place in the year 1857. He died there in 187 1, 
 leaving a wife, one son and two daughters to mourn 
 his loss. He was a christian gentleman of the old 
 school, possessing thorough qualities of mind and 
 heart, that rendered him universally loved as well 
 as revered. Abraham spent his early years, or until 
 the age of seventeen, as most of the sons of the 
 substantial and energetic men of the past generation 
 were accustomed to spend them, namely, in attend- 
 ance upon the public schools and in being useful in 
 the store or on the farm as occasion seemed to re- 
 quire. At this age he entered Cornell College, 
 Iowa, and his name appears in the first printed 
 catalogue of that flourishing institution. After 
 completing the usual preparatory course of study 
 he entered college proper at Western, and pursued 
 the classical course until two terms prior to the 
 graduating of his class, when he entered the army, 
 enlisting in company D, 44th Iowa Infantry. Being 
 so thoroughly prepared to graduate before leaving, 
 the college faculty several years ago conferred on 
 him the degree of B.A. and A.M. 
 
 In 1865 he took a thorough business course at 
 the Iron City Commercial College, Pittsburgh, Penn- 
 sylvania, to prepare himself for mercantile pursuits. 
 43 
 
 He purchased a dry-goods store at Western, which 
 he managed for several years, then changing bought 
 a drug store which he operated for almost five years, 
 the last year of which he also had charge of the 
 Western " Gazette." As an editor, his ability was 
 soon widely acknowledged, and while yet dealing in 
 drugs he was invited by the stockholders of the 
 Cedar Rapids " Daily and Weekly Republican " to 
 remove to Cedar Rapids and take editorial charge 
 of that influential paper, which offer he accepted, 
 although he knew that to do so would be at a finan- 
 cial sacrifice, as he would be compelled to lock up 
 his drug store and finally sell it out at a loss. He, 
 however, had so strong a taste for editorial work 
 that he determined to make it his life business and 
 enter a wider field than the " Gazette " furnished. 
 In 1873, -the second year of his connection with the 
 Cedar Rapids " Republican," he was elected chair- 
 man of the republican state central committee, and 
 had the management when the anti-monopoly move- 
 ment was at its height, threatening a dissolution of 
 the republican party. He threw great energy into 
 the campaign, and had the credit of carrying one of 
 the most difficult and successful campaigns in the 
 state. In 1874 he purchased a three-fourths interest 
 in the Marshalltown " Republican." In 1875 he in- 
 augurated another edition to the paper, now issuing 
 two papers per week, semi-weekly and weekly " Re- 
 publican." It has the largest circulation of any 
 newspaper in the fifth congressional district. At 
 this writing Mr. Neidig is secretary of the Iowa 
 Press Association, now serving a second term, also 
 president of the Marshalltown Public Library As- 
 sociation. In March, 1878, he was appointed a 
 member of Governor Gear's staff, with rank of lieu- 
 tenant-colonel of cavalry. He has a thorough ac- 
 quaintance and an extensive correspondence with 
 the leading politicians.of the state, with whom he ex- 
 changes information upon leading topics of the day. 
 
430 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 In politics, he is an enthusiastic, uncompromising 
 republican, and has always been active in politics. 
 Though a young man during the campaign of Lin- 
 coln and Johnson, he took great interest in elec- 
 tioneering and making political speeches. He was 
 always foremost in public enterprises wherever he 
 has lived. Has a natural taste for choice litera- 
 ture, and enjoys perusing histories, both ancient and 
 modern. Has traveled in most of the states and 
 territories; while traveling in the latter he visited 
 Salt Lake City as a member of the Iowa Press As- 
 sociation. Mr. Neidig is a man of thorough culture 
 and noble and generous principles. 
 
 He is liberal in his views toward all denomina- 
 tions, but attends the Presbyterian church, of which 
 his wife is a member. 
 
 While at school at Western College he became 
 acquainted with Miss Lou A. Davis, daughter of 
 Rev. William Davis, at that time president of that 
 growing institution. He married her on the 3d of 
 January, 1867. She is a model wife, a woman of 
 culture and rare social attainments. Some six years 
 prior to her marriage she was engaged in teaching 
 in the public schools of Iowa. They have three 
 bright and promising children, one boy and two 
 girls. 
 
 At the writing of this sketch Mr. Neidig's mother 
 still lives, also his two sisters, the eldest of whom 
 married Mr. F. P. Steele, a stock dealer in Butler 
 county, Nebraska ; the younger became the wife of 
 J. B. Overholsen, an attorney at Grundy Center, 
 Iowa. 
 
 ABRAIM P. HOSFORD, 
 
 CLINTON. 
 
 ABRAIM P. HOSFORD, capitalist and lumber 
 ii. merchant, and one of the pioneer settlers of 
 Iowa, was born in Orange county, Vermont, on the 
 8th of December, 181 1. He is the son of John and 
 Lydia Perkins Hosford, whose ancestry is among the 
 most respected and earliest in that state. His pa- 
 ternal grandparent, Joseph Hosford, and likewise 
 his maternal grandparent. Colonel Perkins, were 
 both soldiers in the war of independence, and were 
 highly esteemed in their day for their sterling in- 
 tegrity and disinterested patriotism. On his father's 
 side his pedigree is of Welsh origin, his ancestors 
 having einigrated to this country during the first 
 settlement of the old Plymouth colony. 
 
 He was educated principally in common schools 
 of his neighborhood, but subsequently received a 
 thorough and practical course of instruction, both 
 literary and scientific, in an academic institution, 
 intermediate between the common school and col- 
 lege. 
 
 Having devoted the usual number of years, al- 
 lowed New England youths, to qualify himself for 
 the duties of life, at the early age of nineteen he 
 engaged in teaching, and during the following five 
 years made this his special vocation. He seems to 
 have been remarkably gifted as a teacher, and his 
 fitness for that pursuit was widely known and duly 
 acknowledged. He possessed the happy faculty of 
 making study attractive to the youths committed to 
 
 his care, and his success as an educator may be 
 attributed to the accuracy and thoroughness with 
 which pupils were required to work, and above all, 
 to the active sympathy between himself and his 
 scholars. 
 
 In the fall of 1834, having long entertained the 
 desire to visit the west, he left home, and on foot 
 traveled throughout several of the southern coun- 
 ties of New York, possibly with the intention of 
 locating, and also for the purpose of obtaining in- 
 formation regarding the country. His impressions 
 of the various points examined not being satisfac- 
 tory, he retraced his steps and finally returned to 
 Vermont by way of Utica and Albany. His pedes- 
 trian powers were amply tested on his return route 
 by a walk from Syracuse to Utica in one day, a dis- 
 tance of fifty-two miles. 
 
 In the fall of 1835, having devoted the previous 
 winter in teaching school in New Hampshire, he 
 again visited the west as far as Ohio, and after hav- 
 ing engaged in teaching during the winter of 1835- 
 36, in Fairfield county, returned to his home in 
 Vermont. 
 
 The west, with its rolling prairies, elysium fields 
 and attractive climate, still haunting his imagination, 
 he resolved to pass the following summer at the old 
 venerated homestead, and then, after taking fare- 
 well of the parental mansion and the loved ones 
 within its hospitable walls, to turn his face to the 
 
(T-^oLJ 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 433 
 
 setting sun, and follow, for the third time, " the star 
 of empire westward." 
 
 Having gathered together all the little worldly gear 
 he possessed, he left home finally for the last time, 
 and turned his steps toward Chicago, then the great 
 Mecca of the entire west, as his point of destina- 
 tion. 
 
 The lateness of the season, at the time he em- 
 barked at Buffalo in a vessel for Chicago, inter- 
 cepted the voyage, and he wa-s left at the mouth of 
 the Maumee river, where the city of Toledo is now 
 located. Leaving his baggage at this point, he con- 
 tinued his journey on foot to La Salle county, Illi- 
 nois, where he determined to settle. Having defi- 
 nitely decided upon "the above location, he walked 
 back to the Maumee river, and taking twenty-eight 
 pounds of his baggage on his shoulder returned to 
 La Salle county on foot, averaging thirty-five miles 
 daily for the entire distance, and requiring some 
 seven days to accomplish the journey. Such feats 
 need no comment, they are their own commenta- 
 tors. 
 
 The history of his agricultural career in this lo- 
 cality; his progress, step by step, in opening up the 
 virgin soil; his subsequently extensive investments, 
 and, as years passed on, his costly improvements, 
 vying with many an eastern establishment, all re- 
 lated in minute detail, would be exceedingly inter- 
 esting, not only in each particular itself, as exhibit- 
 ing the material growth and development of that 
 locality, but also as showing the ability and energy, 
 as well as business capacity and indefatigable in- 
 dustry and perseverance, of him who planned and 
 achieved it all. But the studied brevity of this 
 sketch will not permit in detail their introduction. 
 
 Soon after locating himself in this vicinity he 
 built a log-house, and in 1837 married Julia C. Car- 
 ter, daughter of Joel Carter, formerly a resident of 
 New York. He subsequently built a commodious 
 frame-house, and still later a large barn.- During 
 the following five years he added to his original 
 purchase of two hundred and forty acres four hun- 
 dred and eighty acres more, making his entire estate 
 seven hundred and twenty acres. 
 
 In 1853, having found a favorable opportunity, 
 he disposed of his entire landed property in this 
 vicinity, with all the personal property, reserving 
 only some twenty acres for his own use and con- 
 venience. This closing up of his agricultural busi- 
 ness, with the intention of seeking some more genial 
 occupation, was the necessary result of his growth 
 
 of mind and unconscious mental development. His 
 life required greater mental activity than agricultural 
 pursuits could give, and thus a vague unrest of an 
 unsatisfactory existence weighed heavily upon his 
 spirits, and daily increased. Those who will study the 
 philosophy of the human mind will learn that only 
 in the midst of pressing activities and responsibili- 
 ties is there either peace or happiness. Having dis- 
 possessed himself of all his material interests in Illi- 
 nois, he located himself, in 1854, in Black Hawk 
 county, Iowa, and during the subsequent three years 
 was actively engaged in various enterprises, and es- 
 pecially in securing the removal of the county seat 
 from Cedar Rapids to Waterloo. 
 
 While a resident of Waterloo his public spirit was 
 manifested in the organizing of schools and churches 
 and other public improvements. 
 
 In 1857 he established himself in Lyons, Clinton 
 county, Iowa, and built a saw-mill. After having 
 manufactured a large quantity of lumber the busi- 
 ness prostration of the entire county during that 
 financial crisis prohibited any sales, and in 1858 he 
 returned to Waterloo. 
 
 In 1859, while his partner devoted himself to the 
 mutual business interests in Waterloo, the subject of 
 this 'sketch removed his saw-mill from Lyons to 
 Clinton, Iowa, and the firm of Hosford and Miller 
 continued in successful operation, increasing and 
 extending its business during the following seven 
 years. 
 
 In 1866 the company was mutually dissolved, A. 
 P. Hosford having purchased the entire interest of 
 his former partner. Soon after, during the same 
 year, the Clinton Lumber Company was organized, 
 a majority of the stock being held and owned by 
 A. P. Hosford. 
 
 In 1867 he took an active interest, and likewise a 
 stock interest, in the Dubuque Lumber Company, 
 and in 1868 became an active participant in the 
 Clinton Paper Company. He is president of the 
 Clinton Lumber Company, and also of the Clinton 
 Paper Company. 
 
 In 1870 he purchased the entire property of the 
 Union Works for fifty-one thousand dollars, the 
 original cost of which was seventy-two thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 In all these varied business establishments he 
 furnishes employment for not less than one hundred 
 and seventy-five men. The amount of lumber manu- 
 factured annually is from thirteen to fourteen mill- 
 ion feet, independent of the daily manufacture of 
 
434 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 thirty thousand shingles and eleven thousand lath, 
 besides the productions of the planing machines. 
 
 As a developer of the resources of the west, great 
 credit must be awarded to him. It is through the 
 agency of men of his nature and energy that the 
 material interests of our country are forwarded and 
 expanded. He is emphatically a self-made man. 
 His career has been most successful, and the prob- 
 lem of life may be said to be solved in his own ex- 
 perience. He ground his wealth out of poverty. 
 
 As a public-spirited citizen, few men have done 
 more to advance the general interests of the com- 
 munity than he, and during his long business career 
 he has been an active and liberal patronized of use- 
 ful institutions. Every public improvement has 
 
 found in him a quiet but influential advocate, and 
 he has ever shown his readiness to extend substan- 
 tial aid to all projects calculated to benefit the com- 
 munity. 
 
 In politics, he is a republican, although not a 
 partisan. He has no sympathy with party " hacks " 
 j who make politics a trade. 
 
 In person, he has a strong and vigorous constitu-- 
 tion ; of a solid, compact organism and a clear and 
 active intellect; his • countenance is pleasant and 
 agreeable; his manners courteous and affable to all, 
 indicating benevolence, generosity and kindness. 
 
 In religious matters, he belongs to the Congrega- 
 tional church, of which he is a valuable and consci- 
 entious member. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM H. TUTHILL, 
 
 TIPTON. 
 
 THE Tuthills in this country are of English 
 pedigree, and descended from John Tuthill, 
 who settled at Southold, Long Island, in 1640. The 
 grandfather and great-grandfather of William Henry 
 Tuthill were participants in the struggle for Ameri- 
 can independence. His father was James M. Tut- 
 hill, for many years a merchant in New York city, 
 where the son was born on the 5 th of December, 
 r8o8. His mother was Emma Townsend, a descend- 
 ant of a prominent English family, a representative 
 of it early settling on Long Island. 
 
 The subject of this biographical sketch was edu- 
 cated in a private school in New York city, re- 
 ceiving instruction, in addition to the rudimentary 
 branches, in Latin, French and the higher mathe- 
 matics. From early youth he had a very studious dis- 
 position, and mastered other branches after leaving 
 school. Having completed his school education, 
 young Tuthill learned the art of copper and steel- 
 plate engraving, working at it a few years, when his 
 health gave way and he was obliged to quit the 
 business. In 1832, during the first year that the 
 cholera was in this country, he acted, by appoint- 
 ment, as assistant secretary of the New York board 
 of health, and as secretary of the special medical 
 council ; and among his duties was the compiling of 
 the daily reports of cholera cases. Subsequently he 
 entered the Chemical Bank, noW the Chemical Na- 
 tional Bank, of his native city, and was a clerk there 
 a number of years. 
 
 In 1840 Dr. Tuthill immigrated to Cedar county, 
 Iowa Territory, spending one year in the southern 
 part, and in the spring of 1841 located permanently 
 in Tipton. When he first came to Cedar county 
 there was not a house of any kind on the site of the 
 present seat of justice. Tipton was surveyed and 
 laid out early in the spring of 1840, and when he 
 opened a store there the next year there were not 
 more than a dozen families in the place. After 
 continuing in trade about two years he turned his . 
 attention especially to law, which he had read some 
 before, and on the 13th of November, 1846, was ad- 
 mitted to the bar. Two years later he was admitted 
 to practice in the United States court. He con- 
 tinued in practice until elected judge of the eighth 
 district in 1855, he wearing the ermine five or six 
 years. During this period he was also engaged in 
 banking. He has been in that business since 1850, 
 and is known as the literary banker of Iowa. 
 
 Dr. Tuthill was prosecuting attorney at an early 
 period in his legal profession, and has been notary 
 public constantly for the last thirty-six years. 
 
 He was originally a whig, and attended all the state 
 conventions of that party in Iowa, until its dissolu- 
 tion in r854, when he united with the republicans. 
 He has been nominated at different times for both 
 houses of the general assembly, when a nomination 
 was' equivalent to an election, but he peremptorily 
 refused to accept the nominations. The offices which 
 he has held were urged upon him. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 435 
 
 Judge Tuthill is an Odd-Fellow, and has been 
 grand master of Iowa, and grand representative of 
 the Grand Lodge of the United States. He is an 
 honorary member of several historical and literary- 
 societies ; is an ardent bibliopolist and antiquarian ; 
 has a large law library and more than five thousand 
 miscellaneous volumes — one of the largest and best 
 collections of scientific and literary works in the 
 state. His collections in genealogy and heraldry 
 are quite extensive. His editions of the ancient 
 classics, Livy, Virgil, etc., are of the richest kind. 
 He possesses numerous" editions of the Bible, from 
 the " Breeches," three hundred years old, down to 
 the present time. One edition is in six royal folio 
 volumes, the pages being of the size of an ordinary 
 quarto newspaper, with numerous engravings by the 
 best British artists. Only a few of the publications 
 from the pen of Judge Tuthill have been published : 
 among them a very able and exhaustive review of 
 the " Dred Scot Decision," delivered as an address 
 
 in i860, and which is said to have swelled the re- 
 publican vote of that year ; a few historical sketches 
 for the " Annals of Iowa," and an address delivered 
 on the occasion of the gathering of the Tuthill 
 family at Southold in 1867. 
 
 Physically, he is small and frail, having more mind 
 than body. A stranger conversing with him would 
 say that the engine is much stouter than the ma- 
 chinery which holds it. Although five feet and eight 
 inches tall, his greatest weight ever reached was one 
 hundred and twenty-six pounds. Of late years it 
 has averaged about one hundred and eight pounds. 
 
 He is a member of the Lutheran church, and a 
 man of very pure character. 
 
 Judge Tuthill has had two wives. The first wife 
 was Miss Sarah Smith, of New York city. She was 
 married in 1833, and died without issue in 1841. 
 The second was Miss Dorothy Platner, of Cedar 
 county, married in 1843 ; she has one child, James 
 William Tuthill, a druggist in Tipton. 
 
 WILLIAM W. BLACKMAN, M. D., 
 
 WEST MITCHELL. 
 
 WILLIAM WALLACE BLACKMAN, who 
 represents Mitchell, Floyd and Butler coun- 
 ties in the Iowa senate, is a native of New York, and 
 was born in Bridgewater, Oneida county, on the 7th 
 of January, 1823. He is a son of Lorrain S. Black- 
 man, a farmer, who is still living, his home being in 
 Stoughton, Dane county, Wisconsin, and whose an- 
 cestor on the maternal side, four generations back, 
 came from Scotland. 
 
 The Blackraans were early settlers in New Eng- 
 land. The mother of William was Olive Hulburt. 
 She has had seven children, of whom William is the 
 third child, and all, with herself, are still living. 
 
 William was educated in the common school and 
 academy at Bridgewater, and the Hamilton Acade- 
 my; commenced teaching a winter school at seven- 
 teen, and followed it five or six seasons, aiding his 
 father each summer on the farm, and attending an 
 academy in the autumn. * 
 
 At twenty-one he commenced reading medicine 
 with Dr. Erastus King, of Unadilla Forks, Otsego 
 county, still teaching three or four months every 
 alternate winter to keep himself in funds, as he had 
 no other resource. 
 
 He graduated from the medical department of the 
 
 New York State University, in March, 1848; during 
 the same spring immigrated to Wisconsin, and there 
 practiced medicine nineteen years, in Rock and 
 Dane counties. 
 
 In the autumn of i866 Dr. Blackman settled in 
 West Mitchell, having built a store here the summer 
 before, and he brought with him a heavy stock 
 of merchandise, including drugs and medicines. 
 Since that date, in addition to his professional busi- 
 ness, he has had a large trade, and is a successful 
 merchant as well as physician. As a medical prac- 
 titioner, he stands high, and is one of the leading 
 physicians in this part of the Cedar valley. 
 
 While a resident of Wisconsin Dr. Blackman 
 served three sessions in the legislature — in 1859, 
 i860 and 1864 — and took part in adopting the " Re- 
 vised Statutes " of that state. He was also in the 
 general assembly of Iowa in the sessions of 1872 
 and 1873, and aided in the revision of its statutes. 
 In the autumn of 1876 he was elected state senator 
 to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Judge Arad 
 Hitchcock. He has an excellent mind, and makes 
 a prudent legislator. He has been postmaster since 
 the spring of 1873. 
 
 Dr. Blackman is a humanitarian in the broadest 
 
436 
 
 THE UNITED S,TATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 sense. Was originally, in politics, a liberty man, 
 and since 1854 has been a strong and influential re- 
 publican. 
 
 In religious sentiment, he is a Baptist, and has 
 been a member of the church many years. 
 
 On the 24th of April, 1848, he married Miss Lucy 
 A. Brewer, of Unadilla Forks, New York, and they 
 have had two children, only one of them, Eva 
 Louise, now living. Mother and daughter are com- 
 municants in the Baptist church, and active in the 
 Sunday-school and other christian enterprises. 
 
 Dr. Blackman is a very influential man in Mitch- 
 ell county, and his influence is wholly on the side of 
 good morals. He nobly strives to give an elevated 
 tone to society. At an early day he took a very 
 
 active part in educational matters, and was town 
 superintendent of schools in New York and Wis- 
 consin. He has not lost his interest in such mat- 
 ters, but in Iowa has had less time to attend to 
 them. He believes that intelligence and virtue are 
 the safeguards of a republic, and he encourages 
 both to the extent of his abilities. He is a posi- 
 tive man — makes up his mind what to do and 
 does it. 
 
 Dr. Blackman is a member of the Mitchell Coun- 
 ty Medical Society and the American Medical As- 
 sociation, and was a delegate to the National Med- 
 ical Association which met at St. Louis in 1873. 
 He has an excellent standing in the medical pro- 
 fession, and is a leading man in the community. 
 
 HON. ROBERT H. TAYLOR, M. D., 
 
 MARSHALL TO WN. 
 
 THE present mayor of Marshalltown, R. Howe 
 Taylor, is of Norman-French stock. His orig- 
 inal ancestor in England came to that country at the 
 time of the invasion by William the Conqueror, in 
 1066. The name was then spelt Tellefaire. At 
 what period the Taylors came to this country we 
 are unable to state, but the grandfather of Robert 
 Howe was arwofficer in the first war with the mother 
 country. His maternal grandfather Howe also was 
 an officer in the same war. 
 
 The subject of this sketch, a son of Charles C. 
 Taylor, a mechanic, and in later years a farmer, and 
 Mary Howe, was born at Newport, Rhode Island, on 
 the ist of October, 1825. 
 
 When he was about ten or eleven years old the 
 family moved to Dutchess county, New York, where 
 the son did a little work on his father's farm, and 
 served as clerk a short time, finishing his education 
 at the Poughkeepsie Collegiate Institute, in 1845. 
 He taught school awhile in New York, moved to 
 Wisconsin in 1850, and resumed teaching, reading 
 medicine while so doing, in both states. He at- 
 tended lectures while in New York, and after being 
 in Wisconsin one year attended a course at the 
 University of St. Louis, now St. Louis Medical Col- 
 lege, graduating in 1851. 
 
 Dr. Taylor commenced practice in Sheboygan, 
 Wisconsin, came to Marshalltown in 1854, and con- 
 tinued in the profession until about 1862. He had 
 been elected county judge the year before, and in 
 
 1863 was elected treasurer and recorder of the 
 county, serving two years in each position. 
 
 He went into the drug business in 1864, and con- 
 tinued in that trade until the spring of 1877. 
 
 Dr. Taylor was state senator from the ist of 
 January, 1872, to the ist of January, 1876; was- 
 chairman of the committee on penitentiary the first 
 session, chairman of the committee on senatorial 
 districts the second, and also acted on ways and 
 means and railroads, two committees of much im- 
 portance. He was presidential elector for the fifth 
 district in 1876, on the republican ticket. 
 
 Dr. Taylor has served in various capacities in the 
 municipality of Marshalltown, and is now at its 
 head. He was elected mayor in the spring of 1877, 
 and makes a very judicious executive. The people 
 have great confidence in his integrity as well as 
 capability. He is faithful in every trust confided to 
 him. 
 
 The doctor was examining surgeon for Marshall 
 county in the early part of the civil war, and after- 
 ward was United States examining surgeon for pen- 
 sions, resfgning the office several years ago. 
 
 D/. Taylor is a Royal Arch Mason, and has been 
 grand high priest of the Grand Encampment of the 
 Odd-Fellows of the state. 
 
 His religious connection is with the Unitarian 
 church ; is a trustee of the Marshalltown society; his 
 life seems to be without a blemish. Such citizens 
 are an honor to the city, the county and the state. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 437 
 
 He was originally a whig, and clung to the party 
 as long as it had an existence; voted the American 
 ticket in 1856, and has since been an unwavering 
 republican. He edited the Marshalltown " Times " 
 in 1858, and by pen and tongue has ably advocated 
 the tenets of his party. 
 
 He was quite active in getting the Chicago and 
 Northwestern railway through Marshalltown, and 
 
 has been among the leaders in all local enterprises 
 of the least consequence. 
 
 Dr. Taylor has a second wife, his first being Miss 
 Delia A. Pratt, of Marshalltown; married in June, 
 1857, and dying in less than a year. His present 
 wife was Miss Rachel Dunn, of La Porte, Indiana ; 
 married in April, i860. She has had three children, 
 two of them, girls, now living. 
 
 HON. DANIEL MOOAR, 
 
 KEOKUK. 
 
 AMONG the prominent citizens of Keokuk is 
 . Judge Daniel Mooar, at this time president of 
 the Keokuk Gas Light and Coke Company. 
 
 He was born in Hillsboro county, New Hamp- 
 shire, and was the youngest of fifteen children, 
 fourteen of whom lived to grow up to man and 
 womanhood. 
 
 He is just two generations from England, on his 
 father's side, and two from Scotland, on his moth- 
 er's. His grandfather, David Mooar, came from the 
 interior of England when quite a boy, and settled 
 in New England. He was of the Anglo-Norman 
 race, and hence the peculiarity in the spelling of the 
 name. 
 
 He was in the revolutionary war, and at the time 
 the English propagated the small-pox through the 
 American camps he fell a victim to that disease. 
 
 Judge Mooar's father, Jacob Mooar, was also in 
 the revolutionary war, and fought in the battle of 
 Bennington under General Stark, when in his sev- 
 enteenth year. 
 
 The Judge, while quite small, was sent to a coun- 
 try district school, but some time after the death 
 of his father, which occurred when he was in his 
 twelfth year, he was placed in an academy in Ches- 
 ter, Vermont. While in that institution one of his 
 teachers was the Hon. Horace Maynard, now mem- 
 ber of congress from Tennessee. 
 
 The remainder of his academical education was 
 in a classical school in Milford, New Hampshire. 
 
 In the spring of 1839, while quite a youth, he 
 came to Cincinnati, and finding nothing to do there 
 he went over into northern Kentucky, and for some 
 time taught a district school in Grant county, in 
 that state. After having earned sufficient to war- 
 rant his undertaking the study of the law, he became 
 a student in the law office of the Hon. M. M. Ben- 
 
 ton, at Covington, and subsequently attended the 
 law college in Cincinnati, and graduated in that in- 
 stitution, and was admitted to the bar in March, 
 1843. He settled in Covington, immediately upon 
 the opposite side of the river from Cincinnati, which 
 enabled him to enjoy all the advantages of that 
 beautiful and thrifty city. 
 
 In the spring of 1844 he was married to Lydia A. 
 Southgate, eldest daughter of the Hon. George M. 
 Southgate, of Kentucky. 
 
 Immediately upon going to the bar he was neces- 
 sarily thrown in contact and competition with the 
 very best legal talent the country afforded; it being 
 a well-known fact that at that day Kentucky was 
 celebrated for her able statesmen and jurists. With 
 the bright examples before him of the statesmanship 
 and legal ability of such men as Clay, Crittenden, 
 Hardin, Robertson, the Wickliffs and Marshalls, to- 
 gether with the able lawyers that he daily was 
 brought in contact with, coupled with the fact that 
 he was poor in purse and with a family to support, 
 placed him in a position at once well calculated to 
 inspire afid bring out the entire energies of the man. 
 
 As an evidence that he fully comprehended and 
 appreciated the position he was placed in from the 
 time he went to the bar, he exhibited an energy and 
 advancement in his profession that meant success, 
 and enabled him in a very short time to acquire 
 sufficient business for an ample support. 
 
 He continued to prosecute his profession in Ken- 
 tucky for about twenty-five years, most of which 
 time he had a large and lucrative practice. He es- 
 tablished the reputation of being a profound lawyer, 
 a safe counselor, and a man of high sense of honor 
 and business integrity ; hence his success. 
 
 During his professional career he never exhibited 
 much taste for politics nor let them interfere partic- 
 
438 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 ularly with his business, although he was a member 
 of the city council as far back as 1844, and was a 
 member of the legislature of Kentucky in 1849- 50. 
 By a provision of the constitution of Kentucky, 
 the members of the bar in that state are authorized 
 to fill temporary vacancies in judgeships. Judge 
 Mooar was several times, during his professional 
 career, put upon the bench by a vote of the members 
 of the bar of his district. This we consider no or- 
 dinary compliment, inasmuch as the members of the 
 bar are presumed to be more competent than the 
 general voting community to judge of the necessary 
 qualifications of persons for such an office. The re- 
 sult of his labor in Kentucky was an ample fortune. 
 In 1865 his health, in consequence of constant 
 •application to business, had become very much im- 
 paired. In that year, having interests in Keokuk, 
 he came out to look after them, and after having 
 remained for some time and finding that his health 
 was very much improved by the change, and in the 
 meantime two of his daughters having been married 
 to gentlemen in Keokuk, he concluded to make 
 Iowa his future home ; since which time he has 
 been settling his affairs in Kentucky, and from time 
 to time transferring his property to Iowa. He is 
 now among the substantial and solid men of 
 Keokuk. Besides owning the controlling interest 
 in the Keokuk Gas Light and Coke Company, of 
 which he is now president, his good judgment has 
 been marked by the purchase of a large amount of 
 the best business property on Main and other streets 
 of the city of Keokuk. He has also purchased a 
 
 large amount of unimproved property in and adjoin- 
 ing the city. 
 
 Judge Mooar is at this time between fifty and 
 sixty years of age, and, like a true philosopher, put- 
 ting aside much of the details of business, although 
 he is at his office in the city nearly every day when 
 not absent from home. He has taken up his resi- 
 dence at " Floral Hill," a beautiful farm of one 
 hundred and thirty acres adjoining the city, which 
 he is improving from time to time in a manner that 
 exhibits the sound judgment and refined taste of 
 the true gentleman. He is a man of decided ability 
 and varied information. 
 
 Although very positive in his character, he is at 
 the same time kind and obliging in his nature, and 
 is possessed of high social qualities. Such men are 
 really ornaments to any community, and Keokuk 
 has been fortunate in adding such a one to her 
 citizens. 
 
 Judge Mooar has added largely to his real- estate 
 possessions in the vicinity of Keokuk, and is now 
 one of the largest farmers in Lee county. 
 
 He is also a member of the banking firm of H. G. 
 Booti and Co., Mr. Boon being his son-in-law. 
 
 One of the striking characteristics of Judge 
 Hooar is his rigid method, care and accuracy in all 
 his business matters, a quality worthy to be imitated 
 by every business man. 
 
 As a writer, he has the reputation of being ac- 
 curate, pungent and forcible. His letters and pub- 
 lished communications give evidence of strong 
 practical judgment and good descriptive powers. 
 
 HENRY T. BALDY, M. D., 
 
 TOLEDO. 
 
 THE oldest physician in Toledo is Henry Tom- 
 linson Baldy, a graduate of the medical col- 
 lege at Louisville, Kentucky, and a man of good 
 reputation, both personally and professionally. He 
 is a son of Christian Baldy, a farmer, and Mary 
 Tomlinson, and was born on the 29th of December, 
 1819, in Catawissa, Columbia county, Pennsylvania. 
 His grandfather, Paul Baldy, was a trader with the 
 Indians, residing at Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Baldy 
 is an Italian name, and was originally spelled Baldi. 
 During the thirteenth or fourteenth century the fam- 
 ily was driven by wars from Italy into Germany, 
 from whence the ancestor of Henry T. came to 
 
 this country. About 1830 Christian Baldy moved 
 to Sunbury; two years later to Newfane, Niagara 
 county. New York, and in 1835 to White Pigeon 
 Prairie, Michigan, the son aiding his father in all 
 these places at farming, receiving only a common 
 school education. 
 
 In 1840 Henry T. concluded to become a physi- 
 cian ; read medicine with an older brother, Peter L. 
 Baldy, at Constantine ; then seeing that his father 
 was likely to lose his property unless he received 
 aid, returned to the farm and worked four years, 
 thus freeing the property from incumbrance. He 
 then resumed medical studies, attended lectures at 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 439 
 
 Rush Medical College, Chicago, in the winter of 
 1847-48, and the next winter at Louisville, Ken- 
 tucky ; commenced practice at Constantine in Feb- 
 ruary, 1850; at the end of two years went to Cali- 
 fornia, doing poorly at mining but well at trading ; 
 returned in July, 1854, and the following November 
 located at Toledo, where he is still found in good 
 practice. His calls are both numerous and, some of 
 them, remote, extending all over Tama county. The 
 doctor is well-known in every township, and the re- 
 spect shown him is as wide as his acquaintance. 
 He is very kind to the poor, and has ridden hun- 
 dreds of miles to administer to their necessities 
 without expectation of any compensation. At all 
 seasons of the year, at all hours of the night, he 
 has answered calls, regardless of the pecuniary cir- 
 
 cumstances of the summoner. He has been exam- 
 iner for the insane of the county for the last eight 
 years, the only office he has ever held, this being 
 directly in the line of his profession. 
 
 He is a republican, with whig antecedents, but of 
 late years has done little more than vote. Years 
 ago he was very active in politics, and in 1858 pub- 
 lished the Toledo " Tribune," the first paper in Tama 
 county. He published the first delinquent tax-list 
 in the county. He has been a very active, enter- 
 prising and useful man. 
 
 On the gth of December, 1857, Mrs. Elizabeth 
 B. Miller, of Tama county, became his wife. They 
 have a cozy little home, with pleasant and beau- 
 tifully ornamented grounds, a fitting place of rest 
 from professional care and labor. 
 
 EDMUND MILLER, 
 
 WATERLOO. 
 
 SOME business men live an act'ive life, accumu- 
 late a large amount of property, but act self- 
 ishly, and, dying, make no sign; Others run the 
 same active career, are equally as successful in busi- 
 ness, accumulate a fortune, yet become noted for 
 their public spirit and their munificent benefactions, 
 and, dying, are profoundly lamented in a circle as 
 wide as the)' were known. Of this character was 
 the subject of this sketch. 
 
 Edmund Miller was born on the 20th of Decem- 
 ber, 1823, at Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. His parents 
 were Henry and Ann Miller. In addition to the 
 common school, Edmund attended an academy a 
 short time in his native town ; but as early as his 
 seventeenth year he went to Hollidaysburg, and 
 became a clerk in a store connected with iron-works. 
 In a short time he became assistant superintendent 
 of the works, showing at a very early age remark- 
 able efficiency in business. 
 
 In 1848 he removed to Ottawa, Illinois, became a 
 real-estate dealer, and there began to show his great 
 capacity for business. 
 
 In the spring of 1854 he came to Waterloo, enter- 
 ing immediately in partnership with A. P. Hosford, 
 tion real-estate speculations, in a short time connect- 
 ing with it the banking business. Success attended 
 both branches. Mr. Miller kept the land office 
 open in Waterloo for twenty years, or till his death, 
 though not always living here. From 1856 to 1866 
 44 
 
 he was in the lumber business in Clinton, Iowa, 
 with A. P. Hosford, under the name of Hosford and 
 Miller, a firm widely and favorably known. At Clin- 
 ton, Mr. Miller had a very remunerative trade, and 
 left with the rich rewards of his industry. 
 
 In the autumn of 1866, in connection with M. H. 
 Moore, he built a saw-mill in Dubuque, but re- 
 mained there only a short time. Returning to Water- 
 Iqo, we find him again adding banking to his real- 
 estate business, and continuing in both until his 
 death, which was caused by apoplexy, and which 
 occurred on the 4th of March, 1874. No death in 
 Black Hawk county ever caused deeper sorrow. 
 
 Mr. Miller was a member of the Methodist Epis- 
 copal church for many years, and lived a consistent 
 and very active christian life. He was liberal in its 
 support, and munificent in his contributions to lit- 
 erary and benevolent institutions. Though quiet, 
 he was generous in his charities. 
 
 Edmund Miller was one of the class of men who 
 never was idle, he made every day tell for his own 
 advantage or the public good. He was preeminently 
 a leader in all important movements for the benefit 
 of society. He came to Waterloo in 1854, with 
 small means, and during the twenty years he was in 
 the state he accumulated a fortune. This he did 
 by energy, shrewdness and close application to busi- 
 ness. 
 
 While president of the National Savings Bank of 
 
440 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Waterloo, during the last two or three years of his 
 life, he encouraged persons of small means to be 
 economical; and by his own brilliant example he 
 taught all classes to combine industry with a pru- 
 dent husbanding of resources. 
 
 The influence of Mr. Miller was in all respects 
 eminently praiseworthy. When he opened an office 
 in Waterloo he sold lands to men of limited means, 
 by contracting with them to pay him the proceeds 
 in grain, of a specified number of acres each year, 
 until the debt was liquidated. If there were a 
 failure of the crops any one year, the party paid 
 nothing, and had an extension of time for payments. 
 
 In this way Mr. Miller aided many persons to secure 
 farms without paying a dollar in money. In multi- 
 tudes of ways he benefited people by plans and de- 
 vices that ordinary business men would not think of. 
 It may be truly said of him that he "proved by the 
 ends of being to have been." Mr. Miller was a firm 
 republican in politics, but never sought office. 
 
 On the i8th of October, 1855, he was married to 
 Miss Cornelia A. Manning, daughter of Colonel Joel 
 Manning, of Lockport, Illinois. She resides at her 
 beautiful home in east Waterloo, possessed of every 
 comfort in life except of him who was the light of 
 that home. 
 
 HON. BUREN R. SHERMAN, 
 
 DES MOINES. 
 
 BUREN R. SHERMAN was born in Phelps, 
 Ontario county, New York, on the 28th of 
 May, 1836, and is the third son of Phineas L. Sher- 
 man and Eveline n^e Robinson, both of whom were 
 natives of New York. His parents were persons of 
 advanced ideas, who fully realized their responsibil- 
 ities and rightly understood their duty in providing 
 for the future of their children, and, as they were 
 unable to bestow wealthy possessions, adopted the 
 wise course of giving them a liberal and thorough 
 education. They spared no pains in rearing their 
 children to habits of industry and economy, and .in 
 impressing upon thern the value of a noble charac- 
 ter, and to the influence of their teachings is due, in 
 a large measure, the success that has attended their 
 family. 
 
 The father died on the 27th of December, 1873, 
 and the mother on the 7th of February, 1876. Of 
 their children, the two eldest died in infancy. Buren 
 R. is auditor of state of Iowa ; John W. is deceased ; 
 Wright P. is a book-keeper in Waterloo, Iowa; 
 Ward B. is manager of a life insurance company at 
 Davenport ; Eugene L. is a Congregational minister 
 at Prairie City, Iowa ; James P. is a publisher at 
 Waterloo, Iowa, and George D. is a teacher, of Tama 
 City, Iowa. 
 
 The subject of this sketch received his early ed- 
 ucation in the public schools of his native place, 
 and concluded his studies at Elmira, New York, 
 acquiring a thorough knowledge of the English 
 branches. He never had the advantage of a colle- 
 giate course,' but being a close observer has gained 
 
 a practical knowledge of men and things, that ad- 
 mirably fits him for active business life. At the 
 close of his studies, acting upon the advice of his 
 father, who was a mechanic (an axe maker), he ap- 
 prenticed himself to Mr. S. Ayres, of Elmira, to learn 
 the watchmaker's trade. In 1855, with his family, 
 he removed to Iowa and settled upon an unbroken 
 prairie, in what is now Geneseo township, Tama 
 county, where his father had purchased lands from 
 the government. At that time the nearest postoffice 
 was Waterloo, a distance of sixteen miles, and the 
 nearest mill fifty miles. There young Sherman la- 
 bored on his father's farm, employing his leisure 
 hours in the study of law, which he had begun at 
 Elmira. He also engaged as book-keeper in a 
 neighboring town, and with his wages assisted his 
 parents in improving their farm. In the summer of 
 1859 he was admitted to the bar, and the following 
 spring removed to Vinton, and began the practice 
 of law with Hon. William Smyth, formerly district 
 judge, and J. C. Traer, conducting the business 
 under the firm name of Smyth, Traer and Sherman. 
 They built up a flourishing practice and were pros- 
 pering when, upon the opening of the war, in 1861, 
 Mr. Sherman enlisted in company G, 13th Iowa 
 Volunteer Infantry, and immediately went to the 
 front. He entered the service as second sergeant, 
 and in February, 1862, was made second lieutenant 
 of company E. On the 6th of April following he was 
 very severely wounded at the battle of Pittsburgh 
 Landing, and while in the hospital was promoted 
 to the rank of captain. He returned to his com- 
 
^J V-toJunM -KUJ-Bi.TS^- 
 
 ^-^>»^ ^ f-'^?^^'^^^- 
 
 ^.^^^^^ 
 
 <S>2--g-'Z^ <!«^-Z-^ 
 
THE UNITED STATES BTOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 443 
 
 pany while yet obliged to use crutches, and remained 
 on duty till the summer of 1863, when by reason 
 of his wound he was compelled to resign and return 
 home. Soon after returning from the army he was 
 elected county judge of Benton county, Iowa, and 
 reelected without opposition in 1865. In the fall of 
 1866 he resigned the judgeship, and accepted the 
 office of clerk of the district court, to which he was 
 reelected in 1868, 1870 and 1872, and in December, 
 1874, resigned in order to accept his present office, 
 auditor of state. He now resides at Des Moines, the 
 capital of the state. 
 
 Captain Sherman was married on the 20th of 
 August, 1862, to Miss Lena Kendall, of Vinton, Iowa, 
 a young lady of rare accomplishments and strength 
 of character. The union has been happy in every 
 respect, and her counsel has ever been characteris- 
 tic of the true wife who desires the good name of 
 her husband. They have two children : Lena Ken- 
 dall, born in 1863, and Oscar Eugene, born in 1866. 
 Mr. Sherman is personally popular with all classes 
 of the people. Possessed of a quiet manner and 
 generous disposition, he is surrounded by warm per- 
 sonal friends, with whom his relations, both of busi- 
 ness and socially, are of the most pleasant character. 
 
 Politically, Judge Sherman has been a republican 
 since the organization of that party. From early 
 boyhood he was taught the fundamental truth that 
 the people were the true sovereigns, from whom 
 emanated all political power, and to whom should 
 
 be direct and certain responsibility. He has ever 
 remained religiously true to that faith, and has con- 
 tributed largely of his time and talents in promoting 
 the success of those principles. He is decided and 
 uncompromising in his views of political right and 
 responsibilit)', and believes in the largest liberty to 
 every citizen, compatible with good government. 
 
 As a public speaker, he is one of the ablest in 
 the state ; always clear and convincing, he never 
 fails to interest his auditors. His services are in 
 frequent demand, especially during the times of po- 
 litical canvassing, now so common throughout the 
 country, in which he takes an active part, and from 
 which he retires with honor. 
 
 As an officer, Mr. Sherman has been fortunate in 
 every capacity in which he has served, and has made 
 an enviable record. In his present prominent posi- 
 tion of auditor of state he has fulfilled the expecta- 
 tions of his warmest friends. His office is, perhaps, 
 the most arduous and responsible of the state depart- 
 ments, requiring constant care, and affording ample 
 opportunity for the exertion of the best business 
 ability ; but his administration has been character- 
 ized by an efficiency eminently true of the man. 
 Himself honorable and thorough, his management 
 of public business has been of the same character, 
 and such as has commended him to the hearty ap- 
 proval of the citizens of the state, by whom he is 
 regarded as a prudent manager, a reliable officer, 
 and a generous and conscientious man. 
 
 HON. JOHN N. W. RUMPLE, 
 
 MARENGO. 
 
 T OHN N. W. RUMPLE, state senator from Iowa 
 •^ county, and one of its ablest attorneys, dates his 
 birth on the 4th of March, 1841, in Seneca county, 
 Ohio. His parents are William Rumple, many years 
 a hotel keeper in Ohio, and Mary J. Rosenberger. 
 The Rumples are an old Pennsylvania family, the 
 grandfather of John having been in his day a staunch 
 Dunker, and a man of great firmness of christian 
 character. The maternal grandfather of John immi- 
 grated from Virginia to Ohio in the youth of the latter 
 state, and opened a farm in Seneca county. Will- 
 iam Rumple died of cholera in 1851, and his widow 
 moved with her family to Iowa, in 1853, and settled 
 on a farm in Iowa county, near Marengo, where the 
 subject of this sketch had a little experience in agri- 
 
 culture, but in two or three years left home for 
 school. 
 
 He received his academic and preparatory edu- 
 cation in Ashland Academy, Wapello county, and 
 Western College, Linn county, and was attending 
 the Iowa State University when the south took up 
 arms to destroy the Union. This nefarious act ex- 
 cited his mind, unfitted him for study, and led him, 
 in August, 1 86 1, to enlist as a private in Company 
 H, 2d Iowa Cavalry. He was in the service a little 
 more than four years, and during that period he 
 was promoted from corporal, step by step, to cap- 
 tain of the company. He was in more than a hun- 
 dred skirmishes and fights, and received only a 
 slight wound in the face. 
 
444 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 In December, 1865, Captain Rumple entered the 
 law office of H. M. Martin, of Marengo, and read 
 until February 1867, when he was admitted to prac- 
 tice at the Iowa county bar. Here he has since 
 followed his profession, with a growing reputation, 
 particularly as a jury lawyer. He enters heartily 
 into sympathy with his clients' rights, makes an im- 
 passioned argument, and has great power with a jury. 
 
 Captain Rumple was elected to the state senate, 
 to fill a vacancy, in 1872; attended the adjourned 
 session of the fourteenth general assembly, the fif- 
 teenth and sixteenth sessions, and as we write is 
 preparing to attend the seventeenth. He was re- 
 elected in 1875, and his present term will expire 
 at the close of 1879. 
 
 He has been chairman of the committee on col- 
 leges for the blind, and was on the judiciary commit- 
 
 tee during every session. He is the father of the 
 three-card monte bill, which became a law in 1876. 
 As a legislator, he is attentive to business, and shows 
 much practical good sense. 
 
 Senator Rumple has served at home on the school 
 board, and lends his influence and aid in local 
 causes generally, which tend to the public good. 
 
 Politically, he has uniformly acted with the re- 
 publican party. 
 
 He is a Royal Arch Mason, and a church-goer, 
 but a communicant in no religious body. 
 
 Senator Rumple has a second wife. His first 
 was Miss Addie M. Whittling, of Marengo; married 
 in December, 1866. She died in February, 1869, 
 leaving one child. His second wife was Miss Mary 
 E. Shepherd, of Iowa City, chosen on the 7th of 
 December, 1872. She has one child. 
 
 COLONEL WILLIAM T. SHAW, 
 
 ANAMOSA. 
 
 THE brick town of Anamosa, Jones county, the 
 best built city of its size in Iowa, owes more 
 of its beauty and solidity to Colonel Shaw than to 
 any other ten men in the city. He is a town builder, 
 a railroad builder and a rebellion smasher, and 
 would be a man of mark in a much larger city than 
 Anamosa. 
 
 William Tuckerman Shaw, a native of Maine, was 
 born in Steuben, Washington county, on the 22d of 
 September, 1822. His parents were William Nich- 
 olas Shaw and Nancy D. Stevens Shaw. His pater- 
 nal grandfather was a distinguished officer in the 
 revolutionary army : aid-de-camp to General Knox ; 
 was promoted to the rank of captain of artillery in 
 1780, and served until the close of the war. 
 
 Young Shaw was educated in the common schools 
 of his native town, and the Wesleyan Seminary at 
 Readfield, attending the latter institution two or 
 three years. At nineteen he started for the west, 
 spending one year in teaching a private school in 
 Greencastle, Indiana. He then went to Harrods- 
 burg, Kentucky, and continued teaching until the 
 Mexican war broke out. 
 
 In 1848 Mr. Shaw strayed into Arkansas and the 
 Indian Territory, among the Cherokees, Chocktaws, 
 and other tribes, and the next year found his way 
 into California. He remained there, digging in the 
 mines with fair success, until 1851, when he returned 
 
 as far eastward as Anamosa, then little more than a 
 four-corners, on the banks of the Wapsipinecon 
 river. Here he bought lands and opened a farm, 
 with more " yellow boys " of the mines all the time 
 before the eye of his imagination, and in 1852 he 
 returned to the Golden State again by the overland 
 route. Two years later he returned to Anamosa and 
 speculated in real estate, being fortunate in many of 
 his investments. He built the Dubuque Southwest- 
 ern railroad from Farley to Anamosa, and was at 
 work on this road when the rebellion broke out. For 
 the last ten or twelve years he has been engaged in 
 banking, real estate, and the building of brick blocks 
 in Anamosa and railroads to help the town. The 
 Iowa Midland road, running from Clinton to Ana- 
 mosa, is the work of his hands. He is of the bank- 
 ing firm of Shaw, Schoonover and Co. Nearly every 
 business block in Anamosa was put up by him. His 
 energy, business tact and executive power are un- 
 matched in Jones county. 
 
 In 1846 he enlisted as a private in the 2d regi- 
 ment of Kentucky Volunteers, and remained with it 
 till the close of the Mexican war. He was in the 
 battle of Buena Vista, where both the colonel and 
 lieutenant-colonel were killed. Mr. Shaw returned 
 as a non-commissioned officer. 
 
 On the 24th of October, 1861, he was commis- 
 sioned colonel of the 14th regiment Iowa Infantry, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 445 
 
 and served the full three years for which it enlisted. 
 His regiment was in the second brigade, third divi- 
 sion, sixteenth army corps, and after being fearfully 
 cut up at Pittsburgh Landing, it composed for a 
 time part of the " Iron Brigade," which consisted of 
 the 8th, 12th and T4th Iowa and 58th Illinois regi- 
 ments. No better fighting regiment went from Iowa 
 than the 14th, and no braver, more daring officer 
 than Colonel Shaw. 
 
 For a while he commanded the third division of 
 the sixteenth army corps, and when finally relieved 
 at the end of the three years, on the 29th of Octo- 
 ber, 1864, Major-General A. J. Smith paid a high 
 compliment to him for his " courage, patriotism and 
 skill " during the fifteen months that he had its com- 
 mand. When about to leave the division which he 
 had so bravely commanded, the officers made him a 
 present of a beautiful sword and scabbard, a token 
 of their kindly regard, which he cherishes highly. 
 
 The Shaws are a patriotic family. A cousin of 
 the Colonel, Robert G. Shaw, commanded the first 
 colored regiment, and was killed at Fort Wagner. 
 
 Colonel Shaw was originally a federalist, then a 
 whig, and latterly a republican. He is now a mem- 
 ber of the lower house of the general assembly, and 
 one of the leading members of that body. He is 
 not a member of any religious body.. 
 
 Colonel Shaw has had three wives. In 1854 he 
 married Miss Helen A. Crane, of Jones county. 
 She had two children, and died in 1865. One child 
 survives her. His second wife was Rhetta Harmon, 
 who lived only one short year. His present wife 
 was Mrs. Elizabeth Higby, of Kalamazoo county, 
 Michigan. 
 
 Colonel Shaw is a tall, sparely built man, of nerv-' 
 ous temperament, quick to act and to think, and 
 always ready at repartee. He is as full of humor 
 as an egg is of meat. He is a good hater, and would 
 have pleased Dr. Johnson, hating hypocrisy, shams 
 of every description, and traitors preeminently. He 
 is attached to his friends and to every true, fair- 
 dealing person, and will travel a long distance to 
 render aid to the needy. In every respect he is a 
 valuable citizen. 
 
 JACOB W. ROGERS, 
 
 WEST UNION. 
 
 JUDGE ROGERS, as he is universally called in 
 Fayette county, and who was a pioneer in West 
 Union, is a native of the Granite State, being born 
 in Moultonboro, on the 15th of August, 1820. His 
 father, John Rogers, was a farmer, whose ancestors 
 came from England, and settled at an early day in 
 the eastern part of New Hampshire. The wife of 
 John Rogers was Anna Wentworth, a descendant of 
 Governor Wentworth, and a relative of Hon. John 
 Wentworth of Illinois. In England it is one of the 
 noble families, but Judge Rogers places no weight in 
 pedigree. In this free country every man builds 
 his own ladder. 
 
 Jacob lost his father when the son was only four 
 years old ; at seven the family moved to Ossipee, in 
 the same state, and in 1831 to Bethel, Vermont. 
 There the subject of this notice worked out more 
 or less on farms, purchasing, after four or five years, 
 his time of his stepfather, Samuel Rogers, for one 
 hundred dollars. At this time, seventeen years of 
 age, he had had but a few months' schooling, and 
 now alternated between laboring in the summers, 
 attending academies at Randolph and Royalton 
 
 in the autumns, and teaching during the winters. 
 This course he pursued for three or four years. 
 
 In 1843 Mr. Rogers came as far west as McHenry 
 county, Illinois, where he taught steadily until 1845, 
 going thence to Monroe, Green county, Wisconsin, 
 where he taught four or five terms. He then went 
 into the mercantile business with Jacob Lybrand ; 
 continued in trade there until the summer of 1849, 
 and on the 7th of the following September he and 
 his partner took a stock of goods to the spot where 
 West Union, Fayette county, Iowa, now stands. The 
 town was not laid out, and there was no building 
 on the site. William Wells had a log house half a 
 mile away. Mr. Rogers built the first house, which 
 was made of hewn logs, in the place, and moved 
 into it on Christmas day, 1849. The goods were put 
 into Mr. Wells' log house, and the partnership was 
 soon dissolved. 
 
 In 1850 Mr. Rogers, Mr. Lybrand and Mr. Wells 
 laid out the town, and that year Mr. Rogers was 
 appointed postmaster, the nearest postoffice before 
 that date being at Elkader, Clayton county, twenty- 
 five miles distant. Provisions were brought from 
 
446 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPtllCAL DICTIONART. 
 
 Quasqueton, on the Wapsipinecon, in Buchanan 
 county, forty-five miles southward. For two or three 
 years Mr. Rogers acted as compulsory landlord, 
 there being no hotel in the place. 
 
 In 1850 the, lands in northern Iowa were not in 
 the market ; so Mr. Rogers, dropping the mercan- 
 tile business, took up claims, opened farms and sold 
 the claims, and when the lands came into market, 
 continued to deal in them, thus operating until 1857, 
 when the financial panic put a stop to the business 
 for a few years. 
 
 Prior to this date Mr. Rogers had read law, and 
 'was admitted to the bar as early as 1853, but did 
 not practice much until of late years. 
 
 In 1854 he was elected to the legislature, and 
 served two years. He was an anti-slavery man in 
 those days, and was the first man in Fayette county 
 to suggest the organization of the republican party. 
 
 He was elected county judge in 1857 ; reelected 
 in 1859, and resigned in January, 1861, soon after- 
 ward, for a few months, trying his hand, for a tem- 
 porary purpose, at journalism, he naming his paper 
 the " Republican Era." 
 
 In August, 1862, Judge Rogers raised company F, 
 of the 38th regiment, became its captain, and served 
 
 until January, 1865, when the 34th and 38th regi- 
 ments were consolidated. 
 
 On returning to West Union, Judge Rogers en- 
 gaged in farming a few years, dealing also in real 
 estate at the same time. During this period, in 1871 
 and 1872, he was also editor and proprietor of the 
 West Union " Gazette," doing good service in the 
 republican cause, and showing himself a writer of 
 much sharpness and power. 
 
 In 1873 'he judge went to California and spent a 
 year, and since his return has been engaged in the 
 practice of law, giving his whole time to his profes- 
 sion. He is of the firm of J. W. Rogers and Son, his 
 son, Oscar Wentworth, being in practice with him. 
 
 The judge was united in marriage with Miss Sarah 
 Jane Simons, of McHenry county, Illinois, on the 
 25th of February, 1848, and has five children, all 
 married except Omar A., who resides at Los Angeles, 
 California. Ada A. is the wife of Elisha M. Eggle- 
 ston, of Los Angeles ; Anna A., of Charles F. Bab- 
 cock, of Cedar Falls, Iowa, and Frances, of John S. 
 Sampson, of West Union. Oscar W., already men- 
 tioned, and who was married in May, 1874, to Miss 
 Mary F. Putnam, of Lynn, Massachusetts, is a young 
 lawyer of decided promise. 
 
 JAMES D. CARTER, 
 
 WINTERSET. 
 
 THE baptismal name of James Dyhouse Carter 
 was derived from his maternal ancestors, who 
 were among the early colonists from England. The 
 ancestors of his father were also from England. 
 James Carter was a native of Yorkshire, England, 
 who, with a company of others from the High Church 
 of England, landed in America in 1729; passed 
 through Albemarle sound up the Roanoke river, and 
 settled in Guilford county. North Carolina. There 
 he was married to Charity Vincent, by which union 
 they reared a family of eight children, one daughter 
 and seven sons. FiVe of the latter were lost in the 
 revolutionary war, three of them being killed at the 
 battle of Guilford Court House, on the 15th of 
 March, 1781. After the battle the tories took pos- 
 session of all they had, and he then engaged in the 
 saddle and harness business. Benjamin, the young- 
 est son, died of sickness, and the father did not long 
 survive, his death occurring in 1783. Having sold 
 his entire possessions for Continental money, Charity, 
 
 the only daughter, and Jesse, the only surviving son, 
 inherited the entire estate in this currency. The 
 money greatly depreciated in value while in their 
 hands, and Jesse at one time gave a hundred-dollar 
 bill for a jack-knife. Jesse Carter, father of the 
 subject of this sketch, was born in Guilford county. 
 North Carolina, in 1764. When he was quite young 
 he married Mary Hains. The spirit of adventure 
 which animated their forefathers would seem to have 
 been inherited by the descendants, for with the west- 
 ward march of civilization they were found among 
 the pioneers. Soon after their marriage they moved 
 to near Murphysboro, Tennessee, where she died, 
 leaving two children. They were sent back to her 
 friends in North Carolina, and Jesse moved to Crab 
 Orchard, Lincoln county, Kentucky, in 181 1. In 
 1812 he married Sarah Dyhouse, and by this union 
 they had ten children, five of them now, living. She 
 died in April, 1831. In 1832 he married Mary 
 Sword, with whom he lived but one year, when she 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 447 
 
 died. In 1835 he was married to Ann Starns. By 
 this marriage they had three children. 
 
 In religion Jesse was a Baptist. One of his prin- 
 cipal characteristics was excessive benevolence ; his 
 charity to the poor was often more than his personal 
 interests would admit. In appearance he was tall 
 and commanding, and slightly stooped ; in disposi- 
 tion very quiet, speaking but little, and never in a 
 boisterous way. He was hale and hearty, and almost 
 youthful, for one of his age, and the day of his death 
 walked over his farm giving instructions, remarking 
 that he should soon die. On his return to the house 
 he died while resting in his chair, on the 8th of 
 April, 1853. His wife survived him till 1874. 
 
 The maiden name of James' mother was Sarah 
 Dyhouse. Her father,- George Dyhouse, came to 
 America in 1772, and settled in Maryland. At the 
 breaking out of the revolution he espoused the 
 American cause, and served through the war. For 
 four years he belonged to Washington's life-guards, 
 and was for three years messenger, bearing informa- 
 tion and dispatches through the British lines. He 
 was present at the surrender of Cornwallis, at York- 
 town ; at the battles of Brandywine and Valley 
 Forge. At the latter place he was obliged to cut 
 his way out, in doing which he had the cap of his 
 knee cut off, which caused him to be ever afterward 
 a cripple. One's hand could not be placed on his 
 person without touching a scar from wounds received 
 in passing the pickets. While messenger he formed 
 the acquaintance of Mary Adams, who, in order to 
 promote the American cause, assisted in conveying 
 news of the enemy by secreting dispatches in her 
 clothing, and carrying them through the lines. Her 
 career through the revolution was almost as noted 
 as that of Lucretia Mott. She was married to Dy- 
 house at the close of the war, when^ they settled in 
 With county, Virginia. They were among the early 
 pioneers of Kentucky, settling at English Station. 
 During the interval of peace he worked at the black- 
 smith trade in Garrard county, Kentucky, and reared 
 a family of nine children. At the commencement 
 of the war of 1812 one of his sons enlisted, and 
 though a cripple for life from wounds received in the 
 previous war, Dyhouse could not let him go alone, 
 and not being able for active service he enlisted as 
 drum-major in Colonel Richard M. Johnson's regi- 
 ment. He was present at the battle of the Thames, 
 and others. At the close of the war, while crossing 
 the river on his way home, jubilant and enthusiastic 
 over the victory and declaration of peace, he was 
 
 joyously beating his drum, which caused a dispute 
 between parties on board, ending in an encounter in 
 which the drum-major received injuries from the 
 effects of which he died at Fort Meigs in 1815, leav- 
 ing a wife and nine children. The former lived to 
 be one hundred and four years old. The last fifteen 
 years of her life she was blind, but could distinguish 
 persons whom she had not met for years, and tell 
 the color and material of their clothing, as readily 
 as though she possessed her sight. She, with an old 
 negro who had gained his freedom by his services 
 in the war, and was termed " Revolutionary Jack," 
 lived with her son-in-law, Austin Adams, till her 
 death in 1854. After the death of George Dyhouse 
 his heirs employed Robert P. Letcher, then a prom- 
 inent lawyer of Kentucky (afterward governor of 
 that state), as their agent to England to settle their 
 estate, an inheritance of forty thousand dollars. On 
 presenting the claim, owing to the children having 
 changed the last letter of their name, he obtained 
 nothing, and the entire sum went to the crown. 
 
 James was brought up on the farm. He received 
 at intervals, in all, about three months' schooling in 
 the common schools of Lincoln county, but by 
 perusal of studies alone he acquired a liberal edu- 
 cation, — keeps his own books and transacts all his 
 own business ; is a constant reader, and well versed 
 in • literature, there being no subject, religious or 
 national, ancient or modern, on which he is not well 
 posted and enjoys a discussion. After the third 
 marriage of his father he left home, from choice. 
 When thirteen years old Hiram Roberts obtained 
 for him a situation with Archibald Shanks, to be 
 educated and taught the mercantile business; but 
 owing to his having read Dr. Franklin's warnings, 
 and Mr. Shanks placing him in a saloon to sell liquor, 
 he would not remain with him. Leaving Mr. Shanks 
 being destitute of means, and too young to earn any, 
 he engaged to learn the saddle and harness trade 
 with Henry Beddow. At the end of four years he 
 had finished learning the trade. At the age of nine- 
 teen he started north as a traveling saddler, and 
 worked at many places. The following are some of 
 the incidents that had a decided influence in form- 
 ing his habits and course of life. At Salem, Indi- 
 ana, he engaged to work for a man who proved to 
 be a grand rascal. After having worked some time 
 the man, in order to cheat him of his wages, circu- 
 lated the report that he was a runaway apprentice. 
 James produced his indentures and proved to the 
 contrary ; but the fellow being worthless, he received 
 
448 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 no remuneration for his work. Ever after, in seek- 
 ing employment, one of his first objects was to 
 ascertain if the parties were reliable. His early 
 resolutions to form temperate habits were prompted 
 by the example of William Batterton, with whom he 
 worked at Bloomington, Indiana. Mr. Batterton 
 had been a very intemperate man, but resolved total 
 abstinence, and in order that he might overcome the 
 temptation of drinking he worked five years with a 
 pint of liquor hanging over his work-bench. The 
 bottle hung there till all its contents had evaporated, 
 without his once tasting liquor. James thought if 
 Mr. Batterton, who had been an habitual drunkard, 
 could so manfully resist the temptation of a culti- 
 vated appetite, that he could surely benefit by his 
 example, and resolved to live a temperate man. He 
 continued working at different places until he would 
 procure sufficient amount of means to proceed on 
 his journey northward. He did his last work at 
 Greencastle, Indiana, and arrived at Bainbridge, In- 
 diana, on the 6th of March, 1836, with his kit of 
 tools and seventy-five cents in money, where he 
 commenced business" for himself There were but 
 three log cabins in the place. His first shop was 
 made of buckeye poles. The fireplace consist€d of 
 a hole in the floor, and one in the top of the roof for 
 the smoke to escape. The only store was heated by 
 a kettle of coals. The citizens being anxious for 
 him to commence business, John W. Cooper, one of 
 the citizens, proposed to furnish him one hundred 
 dollars, providing he would return him one hundred 
 and fifty at the end of a year for the use of it ; but 
 as he succeeded so nicely in the business, when the 
 time arrived for the payment Mr. Cooper only re- 
 quired the original sum with ten per cent interest. 
 He boarded with Mr. Cooper, at seventy-five cents 
 per week, and he was to take the amount in stock 
 from the shop. His business increased till it became 
 necessary to build a larger shop. The main build- 
 ing in the place was a grocery and saloon, and in 
 building it was more convenient to build near it; 
 but he had such' an abhorrence for liquor that he 
 would not build in range of such an establishment. 
 Some of the citizens were determined unless he 
 placed it in range they would not help him in rais- 
 ing it, so they all left him. Some of the old pioneers 
 of temperate habits came and assisted him, and after 
 the other parties found he would build v/here he 
 chose they offered to help him if he would treat to 
 a galloh of whisky ; this he would not do. In that shop 
 was placed the first stove that was in the vilage. 
 
 While boarding at Mr. Cooper's he formed the 
 acquaintance of Miss Cintha Graves, a sister of 
 Mrs. Cooper and daughter of Peter Graves, formerly 
 of Knox county, Tennessee, and one of the first 
 pioneers of Indiana. They were married on the 
 13th of October, 1836. She died on the 8th of 
 April, 1854. By this union they had eight children, 
 four of whom are living, one boy and three girls. 
 
 On going to housekeeping, himself and wife carried 
 their cupboard ware and cooking utensils home in 
 their arms. By industry and economy they were so 
 successful that in 1840 they had accumulated three 
 thousand dollars. After a time, in order to improve 
 the country and town, he engaged in speculating in 
 fine horses ; but it was at too early a day to make it 
 a success, and he lost some nine thousand dollars. 
 During 1841 and 1842, there being no demand for 
 merchandise, he cut and split rails at fifty cents per 
 hundred, to support his family. Business opening 
 again, he took a sub-contract to carry the mail from 
 Indianapolis to Montezuma. The mail he had car- 
 ried by a boy whom he had found in the woods, 
 almost starved to death, and was afterward bound to 
 him by the overseers. He obtained sufficient amount 
 of funds from this contract to reestablish business, 
 and met with great financial success. He resolved 
 to become a public benefactor, and spent much 
 money in making plank roads, railroads, building 
 churches, school-houses and academies. The con- 
 tractor of the academy failed, so he superintended, 
 built and paid for the Bainbridge Male and Female 
 Academy. He was afterward reimbursed by the 
 community for a part of it. To improve the place 
 he built and furnished a fine residence on Main 
 street, on one of the most desirable building lots in 
 town. Close confinement to the shop and business 
 was injurious to his health, and for a recruit he took 
 a contract on the Louisville, New Albany and Chi- 
 cago railroad. After the completion of the road 
 he engaged in buying mules and horses, and ship- 
 ping them to the southern markets. In 1859 he 
 lost thirteen thousand dollars' worth of stock by 
 overheat on the train and disease which followed. 
 From this embarrassment he did not fully recover 
 till 1869. 
 
 In 186 1 he left the shop and purchased a farm 
 three miles south of Bainbridge, where he remained 
 ten years. In 187 1 he moved to near Winterset, 
 Iowa, and engaged in raising thoroughbred stock. 
 He still continues in that business, with marked 
 success. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAUr. 
 
 449 
 
 In politics, he is a firm republican. 
 
 Mr. Carter is gifted with a fine constitution, which 
 alone could have borne him through .the labor of 
 this life. His mental and moral standing is suffi- 
 ciently given in his record. Sound in judgment, 
 thoroughly conscientious, broad in views as in cul- 
 ture, well informed on a great range of subjects, 
 one who sounds the depth of everything he handles 
 
 and judges accordingly, affable in manner yet firm 
 in purpose, he is one in which implicit confidence is 
 placed by all who know him. Mr. Carter is a kind 
 and indulgent parent, devoting his whole time to the 
 education and interest of his children. 
 
 He married Miss Pricilla, daughter of Michel 
 Daggy, on the 19th of October, 1854. By this union 
 they have one child, a girl. 
 
 HON. LEWIS W. ROSS, 
 
 COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 LEWIS WILLIAMS ROSS was born in Butler 
 ^ county, Ohio, on the 15th of October, 1827. 
 His lineage is from the Scotch. The annals of the 
 family show that his ancestors were Protestants, and 
 were driven from Scotland into north Ireland, and 
 thence to the New World. Daniel Ross, one of the 
 colonists of New Jersey, was the first representative 
 of the family in this country. The Rosses, from 
 time immemorial, have followed agriculture, and it 
 is believed that the subject of this sketch is the only 
 one of the name who has made a departure from 
 that pursuit and kindred vocations. His father, 
 Amos Ross, and grandfather, Ezekiel Ross, were 
 pioneers in Ohio, settling there in 1812, when the 
 country was an unbroken wilderness. At the age of 
 twenty Lewis W. left his father's farm, with such 
 education as the log school-house of those days 
 furnished, and studied at Farmers' College, near Cin- 
 cinnati, for two years. He then entered Miami 
 University, Oxford, and there graduated in 1852. 
 At Farmers' College his studies were mainly under 
 Dr. R. H. Bishop, a Scotchman of great learning and 
 singular abilities as a teacher. At the university 
 he had among his instructors James C. Moffett, now 
 of Princeton College, and James Mathews, the father 
 of Stanley Mathews, United States senator. Among 
 his classmates we find the names of David Swing, 
 now of Chicago, Benjamin Harrison, of Indianapolis, 
 and Milton Saylor, of Cincinnati. 
 
 From college Mr. Ross passed into the law office 
 of Scott and McFarland, Hamilton, Ohio, and there 
 remained two years, gaining admission to the bar in 
 1854. , In 1856 he visited Cass county, Iowa, partly 
 on business and partly home-hunting. Being pleased 
 with the Nishnabotna country, and being assured 
 that the Mississippi and Missouri River railroad 
 would soon be constructed to the Missouri river, 
 4.'; 
 
 he settled in Lewis, then the county seat, intending 
 to follow his profession after the manner of pioneer 
 lawyers ; but he was soon crazed by the mania for 
 speculation then prevailing throughout the west, and 
 made such investments of his limited means as to 
 require his undivided attention for the next two 
 years, resulting at the end of that time in a total loss 
 of capital and labor. His experiences in this respect 
 are like those of many early settlers in Iowa. He 
 is not the only lawyer who has tried to gain wealth 
 by buying and running a saw-mill. 
 
 In 1858 Mr. Ross opened a law office in Lewis, 
 and soon found full, but not very lucrative, employ- 
 ment in settling up the mistakes and failures of 
 the hard times of 1857-58. In i86i he removed 
 to Council Bluffs, where he has since quietly but 
 persistently followed his profession. 
 
 In the autumn of 1863 he was the nominee of the 
 republican party for the state senate in a district 
 then considered close, and was elected by a majority 
 of several hundred votes. His record as a legisla- 
 tor is without spot or blemish. He was a member 
 of the judiciary committee at the sessions of 1864 
 and 1866, and chairman of the committee on public 
 lands at the latter session. Perhaps he did more to 
 shape legislation, and to prevent the enactment of 
 unwise laws, than in the origination of subjects of 
 legislation. Of conservative mind and painstaking 
 habits, he was regarded as a safe leader. In 1864 Mr. 
 Ross was elected by the legislature a trustee of the 
 State University of Iowa for a term of four years ; was 
 reelected in 1868, and served until the reorganiza- 
 tion of the university, and the creation of a board of 
 regents. Without any solicitation on his part, he 
 was elected regent in the session of 1874 for a term of 
 six years, and now holds that office. As trustee and 
 regent, he has done much in developing and enlarg- 
 
450 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 ing the work of that institution. The establishment 
 of the departments of law and of medicine has been 
 the especial subject of his labors. Here, as in the 
 legislature, his faculty as an organizer has shown 
 itself. The idea being furnished, he has found the 
 ways and means for its practical operation. Politi- 
 cally, Mr. Ross has always been a republican. 
 
 Religiously, he comes of Presbyterian stock, but 
 since settling in Iowa has been in connection with 
 the Congregational church. 
 
 Domestically, he is the husband of one wife, Zoe 
 M. Brown, taken on the 12th of July, 1855, -at Leb- 
 anon, Ohio. Is the father of five children, and is 
 happy in the society of this wife and these children. 
 
 SAMUEL A. JAMES, 
 
 SIGOURNET. 
 
 SAMUEL ADAMS JAMES, capitalist, was born 
 in Botetourt county, Virginia, on the 27th of De- 
 cember, 1823, his parents being Thomas James and 
 Barbara nh Britts. His father was of mixed Scotch 
 and Welsh lineage, while his mother was of pure 
 German stock. The former had a very limited 
 common-school education, but was nevertheless a 
 man of great shrewdness and considerable general 
 information, while the latter never attended school 
 so much as a single day. Although English was 
 sometimes spoken in her father's family, yet the 
 German was that most commonly used. By the 
 time she was grown, however, she could read quite 
 fluently in both English and German. Among the 
 earliest youthful recollections of our subject is that 
 of hearing his mother reading alternately from her 
 English and German bibles. She was a pious and 
 exemplary woman, a member of the Christian church, 
 and left the impress of her pure and practical char- 
 acter upon her son. The father inclined to the 
 Baptist faith, but never united with any church. 
 
 In the year 1829 the family removed from Vir- 
 ginia to the State of Indiana, and settled in Hen- 
 dricks county, in which and the adjoining county 
 of Montgomery Samuel A. obtained a common- 
 school education. His school opportunities, how- 
 ever, did not commence until after he had attained 
 his eighth year, at which period he was able to both 
 read and write. At this period books were not as 
 easily obtained as now; especially was this the case 
 in the wilds of Indiana; but he possessed a peculiar 
 fondness for study, that would, doubtless, under 
 more favorable auspices have carried him to distinc- 
 tion in the world of letters. His early library was 
 composed of the Bible, Weem's " Life of Washington 
 and Marion," and "Peter Parley's" young reader. 
 The first and only newspaper taken by the family 
 for many years was Joseph C. Neal's " Saturday 
 
 Gazette," published at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 
 embracing the time of his charcoal sketches, from 
 the perusal of which Samuel derived much profit 
 and general information. , 
 
 As soon as he was old enough he had recourse 
 to the usual expedient of aspiring youths, school 
 teaching. In 1840 he taught the Byrd School in 
 Montgomery county, Indiana, many of his former 
 schoolmates being now his pupils, the- school term 
 at that period consisting of the three winter months. 
 This he continued three terms, being at the same 
 time an industrious and diligent student himself. 
 
 In the spring of 1842 he resolved to pitch his 
 tent still farther west, and turning his back upon 
 the scenes of his boyhood, he started alone and on 
 foot, with a pair of leather saddle-bags straddled 
 over his shoulders, and crossed the states of Indiana 
 and Illinois into the then territory of Iowa, and to 
 the town of Washington, which he reached on the 
 25th of March, 1842. The troubles of the Black- 
 hawk war were now over, and everything being 
 settled upon a sure foundation, Iowa was considered 
 the most promising state of the Union, a promise 
 which has been amply fulfilled in the case of our 
 subject. 
 
 In the fall of the same year he taught one term of 
 school in Washington ; but in the year following 
 (1843) he removed to Keokuk county, and made a 
 claim about four miles north of Sigourney. In the 
 autumn of the year, however, he returned to Wash- 
 ington and spent the following winter in the study 
 of law, and was admitted to the bar in Sigourney 
 soon after. 
 
 As yet the territory now forming Keokuk. county 
 was still a part of Washington, and in March, 1844, 
 Mr. James was appointed clerk of the district court, 
 with a special commission to organize the county of 
 Keokuk, and accordingly, equipped with the same old 
 
'i^l^Cvc^ 
 
 iaj*--&-r^^n-'- r 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 453 
 
 saddle-bags, he journeyed to the southeastern part 
 of the county, where he arranged places for holding 
 the first election, and designated the judges thereof, 
 after which he canvassed the returns and qualified 
 the first set of county officers. On the loth of May of 
 the same year Sigourney was selected as the seat of 
 justice, and about the ist of June our subject ar- 
 rived upon the spot, the luxuriant prairie grass as 
 yet undisturbed by ought save the long pole which 
 had been set up to designate the site of the court- 
 house. Finding board and lodging at the only 
 claim cabin in the vicinity, he erected on the town 
 quarter a log court-house twelve by sixteen feet, in 
 which primitive structure was held the first district 
 court of the county, commencing on the first Mon- 
 day of July, Judge Williams, of Muscatine, then 
 Bloomington, presiding. Soon after this he was 
 appointed postmaster of Sigourney, simultaneously 
 with which Governor Clarke sent him, without so- 
 licitation, a commission as notary public. He re- 
 mained at Sigourney till the autumn of 1847, when 
 the seat of justice having been removed by a vote of 
 the county to Lancaster, he followed the office to 
 the latter place. The removal of the county seat 
 had engendered considerable local feeling, and the 
 movement having been strenuously opposed by Mr. 
 James, the same vote that decided the question in 
 the affirmative subsequently defeated his reelection 
 to the office of clerk, and in the autumn of 1849 
 he shook the dust of Keokuk county off his feet 
 and removed to the city of Keokuk, in Lee county, 
 where he was soon after appointed deputy clerk of 
 the district court, with headquarters then at Fort 
 Madison. In 1852 he was elected clerk of the 
 county, and reelected in 1854. Having no resources 
 with which to command the public favor other than 
 the hardest industry and the sternest faithfulness 
 in the discharge of duty, he worked so laboriously 
 and incessantly that his health gave way, and after 
 struggling for a year in the vain hope of recuper- 
 ation, he was finally obliged to resign as the only 
 means of prolonging his life. In the autumn of 1853 
 he returned to Keokuk county in time to cast his 
 vote in favor of the removal of the county seat back 
 to Sigourney. 
 
 In May, 1861, he was appointed by President 
 Lincoln postmaster of Sigourney, a position which 
 he retained over five years, but refusing to " Andy- 
 Johnsonize," as the movement was then phrased, 
 he was superseded in August, 1866. The interval 
 between that date and the present time he has 
 
 devoted to private pursuits, giving his attention 
 mainly to transactions in real estate, the preparation 
 of abstracts of titles, and in the brokerage and 
 money-loaning business. The large advance in real 
 estate, together with prudent investments in other 
 property, have combined to make him one of the 
 richest men of his county. 
 
 In politics, he was raised in the democratic faith, 
 but was always opposed to slavery ; like the pious 
 John Wesley, he regarded the institution as " the 
 sum of all villainies " ; and although he found it hard 
 to break with old friends, still, when the political 
 issue came to be hinged on this question, he hesi- 
 tated not as to duty, and took his stand with the 
 party of freedom. Owing to defective eyesight, from 
 which he has suffered .since the age of sixteen, he 
 was unable to enter the military service during the 
 slaveholders' rebellion, but he did excellent work 
 for the Union cause with his pen in the columns of 
 the Sigourney " News," of which he was the princi- 
 pal editor during the first years of the war. In 
 addition to the offices already named, he held the 
 position of alderman of Fort Madison in 1854, and 
 that of mayor of Sigourney in i86c. He has also 
 served a number of terms on the school board, and 
 took a prominent part in advocating the erection of 
 the magnificent school-house which is now the glory 
 and ornament of the southern part of the town. 
 
 He has always been a man of public spirit, advo- 
 cating every measure calculated to benefit the city ; 
 and when the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific 
 Railroad Company proposed extending their line to 
 Sigourney, he was one of fifty citizens of the county 
 to pledge and pay for the right of way. 
 
 In 1847 he became a member of the Independent 
 Order of Odd-Fellows, and was for several terms 
 district grand master, and also served as representa- 
 tive to the grand lodge of the state. During the 
 centennial year of the republic he made an extended 
 sojourn at the Philadelphia exposition, and contrib- 
 uted a series of very valuable letters on that sub- 
 ject to the Sigourney " News," which were among the 
 most interesting and graphic of any that were pub- 
 lished in the state on that subject. 
 
 He was brought up in the " Campbellite " or Chris- 
 tian church, that being the faith of his mother. In 
 1850, however, he united with the Methodist Episco- 
 pal church at Keokuk. Seventeen years later his at- 
 tention was directed to the writings pertaining to what 
 is called the " Second Advent " of Christ, and he was 
 not a little surprised at the large number of passages 
 
454 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 of holy scripture which emphasized this doctrine 
 which had hitherto failed to arrest his attention. 
 His study of the prophecies of Daniel and the Rev- 
 elation of St. John led him to adopt the peculiar 
 views of the Adventist, and he now looks for the 
 •' second coming '' of our Lord in person at a period 
 in the near future — the exact time not being re- 
 vealed to man. — when this earth shall be renovated 
 and become the paradise it was intended to be from 
 the beginning, and be the everlasting habitation of 
 the saved of the human race of all ages. In con- 
 nection with this subject, he also considered the 
 question of the change of the Sabbath from the 
 seventh to the first day of the week. To his 
 equal surprise he was unable to find a single- text of 
 scripture that to him authorized, much less directed, 
 the change ; on the contrary, finding many injunc- 
 tions to observe the royal law, he decided to ob- 
 serve the fourth commandment of the decalogue, 
 and, true to himself as he has always been to others, 
 he has, ever since January, 1873, laid aside business 
 on the " seventh " day, regarding it, as Elihu Burritt 
 did, as the only Sabbath to be observed in holy writ. 
 He was married in Sigourney on the 2d of Sep- 
 tember, 1847, to Miss Sarah Moody, daughter of the 
 late Thomas Moody, of Licking county, Ohio, an 
 extensive manufacturer of pottery ware, and one of 
 the most genial men of his time ; a most excellent 
 woman, to whose good sense, careful prudence, pa- 
 tient forbearance and holy influence is largely owing 
 the success which has crowned his efforts in this 
 life. They have had six children, three of whom 
 
 died in infancy, and three survive. The eldest, a 
 son named George Stover, is now in business with 
 his father. The others are daughters, named Libbie 
 Ann and Ida Bell, the elder of whom is said to be 
 the best pianist in Sigourney. 
 
 In physical appearance, Mr. James is about five 
 feet ten inches high, and weighs about one hundred 
 and sixty-five pounds. In demeanor, polished and 
 gentlemanly, courteous, graceful and dignified, mod- 
 est and unassuming, he is known at sight by 
 almost every inhabitant of the county. He is, 
 moreover, a man of undoubted integrity and of the 
 highest moral character ; steady and sober in all 
 his habits, prompt and transparent in all his deal- 
 ings, and a most generous contributor to benevolent 
 and religious enterprises. His experience in this re- 
 gard has been, that the more he has given, the more 
 he was prospered ; and yet his gifts have been so 
 quietly and unostentatiously bestowed, that his right 
 hand has not known of the doings of the left. In 
 the decline of life the sun of God's love shines upon 
 him, surrounded by a happy family, and by kind and 
 trusting friends and neighbors. In the struggle of 
 life, and in battling for the right, he has sometimes 
 been reviled because wrong, injustice and decep- 
 tion did not prevail. 
 
 With a competency for old age accumulated by 
 honest industry and by painstaking forethought, a 
 comfortable and happy home, together with a con- 
 science void of offense toward God or man, he 
 awaits calmly the summons that ^hall call him to a 
 higher state of existence. 
 
 HON. HARDIN NOWLIN, 
 
 WATERLOO. 
 
 HARDIN NOWLIN was born on the nth of 
 October, 1804, in Saint Clair, Illinois. His 
 parents were Lewis and Mary (Whiteside) Nowlin. 
 He lived at home until of age, working on the farm 
 and attending a district school in the winters. 
 
 At the age of twenty-one he went into the mining 
 business in Missouri, and in 1829 removed to Jo 
 Davies county, Illinois, settling near Galena and 
 continuing to mine. In June, 1833, immediately 
 after the Sac and Fox Indians were removed from 
 Iowa, he went to Dubuque, and in that county 
 made his home for nearly forty years. Part of the 
 time he was in the mercantile business in the vil- 
 
 lage, now city, of Dubuque, and part of the time 
 on a farm. The first year he was in Dubuque he 
 owned, at one time, about ten acres of land near 
 the center of the present city, and sold the whole 
 at one sale for one hundred dollars. About the 
 same time he sold lots on Main street for seventy- 
 five cents each. He secured those lots by placing 
 four logs in the form of a square on each of them. 
 In 1 87 1 Mr. Nowlin removed to Waterloo, Iowa, 
 where he still resides. During his middle life, and 
 up to a few years ago, he was the recipient of re- 
 peated honors at the hands of the people. 
 
 Mr, Nowlin was a member of the first Wisconsin 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 455 
 
 territorial legislature held at Belmont, Wisconsin, in 
 1836. The next year he was a member of the same 
 body, when it met at Burlington, then in Wisconsin 
 territory, now in Iowa. When Iowa became a sep- 
 arate territory he was for three or four years a mem- 
 ber of what is now called the general assembly, 
 the last two sessions in which he served being held 
 at Iowa City. He was always in the lower house, 
 and serving so long and always being a diligent 
 man, he became quite influential. For twelve or 
 fourteen years he was surveyor of Dubuque county, 
 and very accurate in all his work. During part 
 of this time he was also engaged in government 
 surveys in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. He was 
 careful and reliable, and enjoyed a good reputation 
 in this line of work. 
 
 Mr. Nowlin has been a faithful member of the 
 Methodist Episcopal church for a period of more 
 than forty years. 
 
 He was a democrat until the rebellion broke out, 
 since then he has been a republican. 
 
 On the isth of May, 1825, he was married to 
 Miss Martha Eckert, of Kentucky. They have had 
 four children, and two are living. One of them, 
 James L , is a merchant at Peosta, Dubuque county, 
 the other, Mary C, is the wife of Henry B. Allen, 
 Esq., an attorney at Waterloo. 
 
 Though living a frontier life for many of his 
 younger years, Mr. Nowlin has always been a man 
 of exemplary habits, and now, past his three-score 
 years and ten, he has a steady nerve and writes a 
 neat hand, almost as good as in middle life. 
 
 JOHN F. McGUIRE, 
 
 CLINTON. 
 
 JOHN F. McGUIRE, lawyer, and brevet-major 
 in the Union army, was born in a small town 
 among the Adirondacks, New York, on the 2 2d of 
 February, 1838. He is of Irish ancestry, as his name 
 denotes, his forefathers having early emigrated to 
 this country. His father was a country merchant, 
 and having failed in business in 1850, the son was 
 sent to Canada to be educated. He, however, be- 
 coming homesick, the mother's tender sympathies 
 for her absent child induced his father to recall 
 him. At the age of thirteen, being of an active 
 and independent temperament, he apprenticed him- 
 self, without his father's knowledge, to learn the 
 nail-making trade. In this occupation he contin- 
 ued nearly three years, working in Troy, New York, 
 and other localities. While in Troy, he was pur- 
 suaded by a Scotchman, a deserter from the British 
 army, to accompany him to South America. Arriv- 
 ing at New York city, on their way thither, they were 
 disappointed in securing immediate passage, and, 
 being destitue of means, his companion enlisted in 
 the United States army. Soon after, his own funds 
 becoming exhausted, he endeavored to find employ- 
 ment, but without success. As a last resort, he 
 pawned his dress coat for a small consideration, and 
 with the proceeds he, like the Prodigal Son, sought 
 the paternal mansion. Previously, while in Brook- 
 lyn, with an eye to the navy, he visited the receiv- 
 ing ship North Carolina, then lying in the navy- 
 
 yard, and decided not to become a sailor, wisely 
 concluding that a sailor's life was not as poetical 
 and romantic as the imagination of Ned Buntline 
 has pictured it. Having resumed again home-life, 
 he devoted his time principally to reading law and 
 teaching, alternately. His limited means at this pe- 
 riod precluded his entering college, and he finally 
 determined, at least for the present, to relinquish the 
 design for a more extended course of study. He con- 
 tinued the study of the law, however, and labored to 
 qualify himself for the duties of this profession. 
 
 At the breaking out of the rebellion he retired to 
 Montreal, Canada, partly with the view to learn 
 French, but more especially to gratify his mother, 
 who feared he might be persuaded to unite in the 
 pending struggle. At this time the Canadian senti- 
 ment was very bitter against the north. While pur- 
 suing his studies quietly as an American youth, his 
 patriotism was often insulted and his country vilely 
 traduced. On the following 4th of July, however, 
 unitedly with two or three other American students, 
 he publicly vindicated his country by displaying the 
 American flag and firing a national salute. The 
 love of country had often led him to walk the en- 
 tire length of the wharfs at Montreal to obtain one 
 look at his country's flag; and when he saw the 
 stars and stripes floating only over the American 
 consul's house his eyes filled with tears and his 
 young heart with emotion. 
 
456 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 After the disastrous battle of Bull Run, the Cana- 
 dian feelings became so abusive and vindictive, he 
 left the school and returned home. He felt that his 
 country demanded his services, and his patriotism 
 would not permit him longer to withhold it. In his 
 native town not one man had responded to the call 
 of the government. In two weeks a draft would be 
 made to fill the quota. In this emergency he was 
 appointed, young as he was, first lieutenant, with 
 power to secure enlistments. At his own expense 
 he opened an office, hung out the stars and stripes, 
 and by canvassing the adjacent section, in due time 
 obtained forty-five good and able-bodied men for 
 his country's service, and took charge, under the 
 title of lieuteng.nt commanding. He had so ex- 
 hausted his limited means in securing his company, 
 that on arriving in New York city he had no funds 
 to purchase himself a uniform. In this extremity 
 his company made him a present of a sword, sash, 
 belt and a revolver, and Lieut.-Colonel Thomas Arm- 
 strong presented him with a suit of military clothes. 
 
 His military career was throughout varied and 
 honorable. The first duty of his company was to 
 be sent on detached mission with the provost-mar- 
 shal south of the Potomac. He subsequently did 
 difficult and responsible duty in the vicinity of 
 Washington. Having been called to the depart- 
 ment of the Gulf, he served with Banks in his Red 
 river expedition, participating in all the skirmishes 
 and fights in his subsequent harassing retreat, and 
 commanded the rear guard after the battle of the 
 Sabine Cross-Roads. Leaving New Orleans in July, 
 1863, he subsequently participated in the various 
 battles and skirmishes in defending the capital from 
 the invading rebel army under Early, and assisted 
 in driving him back across the Potomac. He like- 
 
 wise participated in all the marches, skirmishes and 
 battles of General Sheridan in the Shenandoah val- 
 ley, and after the assassination of President Lincoln 
 was on picket duty in and around Washington un- 
 til the capture of Booth, and guarded the United 
 States arsenal during the trial of Mrs. Surrat and 
 the other conspirators. Having discharged faithful- 
 ly and with honor these high and responsible duties, 
 he was subsequently ordered to Savannah, Georgia, 
 where he was detailed as assistant provost-marshal 
 of the city, until October, .1865, at which period he 
 was ordered to New York to be mustered out of 
 service. He was promoted by the governor of New 
 York to brevet-major, for gallant and meritorious 
 services. He had previously been made captain in 
 command of the company he recruited and led into 
 service. His distinguished services have won for 
 him the esteem and respect of his fellow-citizens 
 and the gratitude of his country. 
 
 Having returned to civil pursuits, he resumed his. 
 law studies, and in 1867 was admitted to the bar. 
 In 1868 he located in Clinton, Iowa, where he has 
 devoted himself energetically and most successfully 
 to his profession. 
 
 He has manifested commendable public spirit in 
 the growth and prosperity of the town, and has ta- 
 ken an active part in every public improvement, 
 and contributed liberally to every enterprise. His 
 well-known and acknowledged activity and zeal 
 have tended greatly to advance the public improve- 
 ments in and around the vicinity of Clinton. 
 
 He is emphatically a self-made man, and a most 
 laborious student and worker. Possessing a sound 
 constitution and robust figure, he promises many 
 years of useful labor to the state, in whose growth 
 he has always been so profoundly interested. 
 
 WILLIAM LOCKRIDGE, 
 
 NEVADA. 
 
 AMONG the successful business men of Story 
 £\. county residing at the seat of justice is Will- 
 iam Lockridge, a native of Virginia. He was born 
 in Augusta county, on the 23d of June, 1832, his 
 parents being John and Eliza (Erwin) Lockridge. 
 The Lockridges are of Scotch-Irish descent, the 
 progenitor of the family in this country settling in 
 Virginia at an early day. John Lockridge was a 
 soldier in the second war with the mother country. 
 
 and at the time of William's birth was a farmer in 
 the Old Dominion. William was the sixth child in 
 a family of seven children. He remained at home 
 until of age, farming in the summers and attending 
 a very ordinary common school in the winters. At 
 twenty-one he attended a graded school a full year; 
 in his estimation, as we once heard him intimate, a^ 
 precious expenditure of time and money, as it fitted 
 him for a prosperous business life, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 457 
 
 John Lockridge located a quarter-section of land 
 in Story county as early as 1852, and when William 
 was of age promised the land to any one of his sons 
 who would accept and improve it. William accepted 
 the proposition, and after the year's schooling which 
 his father had the thoughtfulness to suggest, and 
 some subsequent delays, including teaching for five 
 months, he came to Iowa, reaching Nevada in May, 
 1856. He had no immediate means of improving 
 the land, which was one mile southeast of Nevada, 
 and, luckily, the next month obtained a situation as 
 deputy treasurer and recorder of the county under 
 Mr. J. C. Moss. The next April Mr. Moss resigned ; 
 the judge appointed Mr. Lockridge to fill the va- 
 cancy, and in August, 1857, he was elected by the 
 people for the term of two years, at the end of which 
 time the legislature extended his terra from August 
 to January. He held the office nearly three years, 
 and made a competent and faithful servant of the 
 people. 
 
 In i860 Mr. Lockridge went on his land, worth 
 then less than one thousand dollars; carefully culti- 
 
 vated it for ten years; sold it in 1870 for fifty-six 
 hundred dollars, and went into the lumber business, 
 which he still follows, and in which he has marked 
 success. He receives about three hundred car-loads 
 of lumber annually, selling, on an average, about 
 three million feet. 
 
 Mr. Lockridge has held various offices in the 
 municipality of Nevada, and is a very useful citizen. 
 
 In politics, he has always been a democrat, but is 
 not very active. Business with him takes the prece- 
 dence of everything else. 
 
 He is a Master Mason, and a chapter member of 
 the Odd-Fellows fraternity. 
 
 Mr. Lockridge's wife was Miss Lydia A. Letson, a 
 native of Ohio, residing at Nevada when married, 
 on the 19th of February, i860. She has had seven 
 children, six yet living. 
 
 Since a resident of Iowa, and all his life as far as 
 we can ascertain, Mr. Lockridge has been very in- 
 dustrious, doing everything he undertakes carefully, 
 expeditiously and thoroughly. In all his business 
 transactions he leaves a clean balance sheet. 
 
 WILLIAM BRADLEY, 
 
 CENTER VILLE. 
 
 THE biographical history of the self-made men 
 of Iowa affords very few such brilliant examples 
 of success resulting purely from industry, economy, 
 prudence and sagacity, as the life of William Brad- 
 ley. Left an orphan when just merging upon his 
 teens, thrown upon the world, and left entirely to 
 himself for support, he pushed on, working at first 
 upon farms for food, clothes and schooling ; then 
 carrying a mail at six dollars a month ; a little later 
 peddling on foot from door to door, rising step by 
 step as his means accumulated, until he is now 
 president of five banks, with a controlling interest 
 in all of them, and owns at least five thousand acres 
 of land in the State of Iowa. 
 
 Mr. Bradley was the son of James Bradley, car- 
 penter, and Phebe Fulton, and was born in Beaver 
 county, Pennsylvania, on the i8th of December, 
 1825. His mother died when he was twelve and 
 his father when he was thirteen .years of age, leav- 
 ing him no legacy but a strong constitution, inherited 
 from his father, and the wholesome counsel of an 
 affectionate, christian mother. Left parentless, he 
 sought a home among farmers for four or five years, 
 
 laboring for his support, with the privilege of at- 
 tending a district school during the winters. For 
 four months, in 1843, he carried a mail from Wash- 
 ington, Pennsylvania, to Georgetown on the Ohio 
 river, receiving six dollars a month and his board. 
 With twenty-four dollars in his pocket he went to 
 Pittsburgh ; bought two tin boxes ; started off on 
 foot ; peddled four years in Pennsylvania and Ohio ; 
 cleared sixteen hundred dollars, and never spent 
 a cent of it for tobacco, liquor, or any kind of per- 
 nicious or vicious indulgence. 
 
 In 1850 Mr. Bradley went to California by the 
 overland route ; mined sixteen or eighteen months ; 
 returned by way of the isthmus, with two thousand 
 dollars in his pocket ; commenced peddling again, 
 mainly jewelry and oilcloths ; went through from 
 Keokuk, Iowa, to Des Moines, on a prospecting as 
 well as peddling trip; returned to Pennsylvania; 
 bought a peddler's wagon at Pittsburgh ; shipped it 
 to Keokuk, and run it two years. 
 
 In April, 1856, Mr. Bradley located at Centerville, 
 bought a lot, built a house, and started in the mer- 
 cantile trade, with a capital of four thousand dollars, 
 
458 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 continuing in the business for ten years, and being 
 very successful. Meantime he farmed more or less, 
 and dealt at times quite heavily in live stock. He 
 continued to add to his lands from time to time 
 until he had three thousand acres in Appanoose 
 county, half of it in farms under improvement, and 
 two thousand acres of wild lands in Woodbury county. 
 
 In 1863 Mr. Bradley organized the First National 
 Bank of Centerville, of which he owns nearly four- 
 fifths of the stock. He has been its president from 
 the start. It is one of the soundest institutions in 
 southern Iowa. In 1872 he organized the First 
 National Bank of Trenton, Missouri; in 1873 the 
 Mercer County Bank, Princeton, Missouri ; and in 
 1874 the First National Bank of AUerton, Wayne 
 county, Iowa ; he owning a half interest in these last 
 three banks. In the spring of 1877 he organized 
 Bradley's bank at Bloomfield, Davis county, he own- 
 ing all the stock. He is president of all of them, 
 managing them with consummate skill. 
 
 Mr. Bradley has had something to do with rail- 
 roads ; has been a director of two or three of them, 
 but banking is his main business, and he may with 
 propriety be called its king in southern Iowa. 
 
 In politics, he is an independent democrat with 
 whig antecedents. He shuns political offices. 
 
 He is a jnember of the Presbyterian church ; an 
 elder in the same, and an enthusiastic worker in the 
 Sunday-school cause. He is superintendent of the 
 Presbyterian school in Centerville, the largest in this 
 
 part of the state, and is doing a noble work among 
 the young, who all know him. The poor, also, know 
 him, to their great joy. Having the means as well 
 as the disposition to relieve distress, Mr. Bradley has 
 thoroughly tested the scripture adage regarding the 
 pleasure of giving. A kinder heart than his does 
 not beat in Centerville. Its pulsations are the 
 sweetest music of humanity. 
 
 On the 26th of September, 1855, Mr. Bradley was 
 married to Hiss Amanda T. Campbell, of Madison 
 county, Iowa, and they have four children living, and 
 have lost two. 
 
 Whatever money Mr. Bradley obtained in early 
 life was the proceeds of faithful, closely-applied la- 
 bor, and he early learned the value of a dollar. As' 
 far as we can ascertain, though he was exposed to 
 strong temptations in youth, he never deviated a 
 step from the path of integrity; kept clear from the 
 vicious habits into which many young men fall; 
 early learned to be prudent and saving, as well as 
 honest, and has since learned that wealth thus ob- 
 tained is the kind that affords comfort and satisfac- 
 tion. Having obtained his accummulations by fair 
 means, and using them for the benefit of others, as 
 well as himself, Mr. Bradley is a happy man. The 
 indices of his public spirit are seen in more than one 
 splendid block which fronts the public square of his 
 adopted home, and his generosity is like the gulf 
 stream from the tropics, sending its warming influ- 
 ence into many a heart chilled by penury. 
 
 • REV. THADDEUS McRAE, 
 
 CEDAR RAPIDS. 
 
 THADDEUS McRAE, was born in Marlboro 
 district, south Carolina, on the loth of October, 
 1831. His grandparents all came from Scotland 
 prior to the revolutionary war, and some of his im- 
 mediate ancestors participated in the struggle for 
 independence. His father, James McRae, moved 
 to Mississippi soon after that state was admitted to 
 the Union, and losing his means through the dis- 
 honesty of others, had to begin life anew. He im- 
 proved a farm, brought up his family in habits of 
 industry, and at the breaking out of the rebellion 
 possessed a moderate fortune. 
 
 He was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church, 
 and was highly esteemed for .his strict integrity and 
 large liberality. 
 
 The earher years of Thaddeus were spent on his 
 father's farm, where he was trained to hard work. 
 From childhood he was fond of books. He at- 
 tended school in De Kalb during the winter, and 
 in summer labored in the field, but kept up with 
 his class in school by studying at home. At the 
 age of sixteen he began Latin, and mastered the 
 rudiments of the reader and several books of Csesar, 
 all while at work on the farm, studying at noon and 
 night. He theri thought of the law as a profession. 
 Some of his youthful companions were addicted to 
 social drinking and card-playing. On one occasion, 
 being solicited to join them, he reflected on the evil 
 of such habits, and formed a resolution to abstain 
 from all such indulgences. This resolution he has 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 459 
 
 kept, and to it he attributes much of his success in 
 life. About the same period another incident oc- 
 curred which probably tended to elevate his mental 
 and moral tone. A novel fell into his hands, and 
 he read it; the story stirred his sensibilities intensely, 
 so that he read and wept alternately. After finisli- 
 ing the book he felt ashamed of himself for wasting 
 his time and expending his sympathies on mere 
 fiction, and concluded that he would henceforth 
 avoid such unrealities. This resolution he has also 
 observed, having read only a few standard novels to 
 this day. 
 
 He next entered the high school at Salem, Mis- 
 sissippi, in 1849, where he remained three years, at 
 the end of which time he had accomplished a four- 
 years' course, leaving his class one year behind. 
 Such close application impaired his health, and he 
 would not advise anyone else to attempt it. He 
 entered the college of Hanover, Indiana, in 1853 ; 
 but, having read more Latin and Greek than was 
 required by the curriculum, and his health being 
 feeble, he left before graduating. He then taught 
 school in Mississippi, completing his course in math- 
 ematics and the sciences in the meantime. His 
 early tastes were literary, and his ambition thorough 
 scholarship. He was always fond of metaphysics, 
 the natural sciences and the standard poets, and 
 still finds time to read up in these studies. Besides 
 the Latin and Greek, he has studied the Hebrew 
 and French languages. Having resolved to enter 
 the gospel ministry, he studied theology with Rev. 
 John Morrow, at Columbus, Mississippi. This was 
 advised by his presbytery. He was ordained in 
 November, 1855, by the presbytery of east Missis- 
 sippi. His first pastoral charge was at Jackson, 
 Louisiana, where he remained three years. In 186 1 
 he was called to Port Lavaca, Texas. Here he 
 took a decided stand for the Union. He had always 
 been opposed to slavery, and was often denounced 
 as an abolitionist. His life being in danger, he 
 escaped to New Orleans in December, 1863, leaving 
 his family behind. He served in the Union army 
 one year as chaplain, getting his family through the 
 lines in the meantime. Then, to the close of 1865, 
 he supported himself and family with his pen. At one 
 time he was associated with ex-Governor Flanders 
 in the treasury department. Returning to Texas in ' 
 January, 1866, he found that his property had been 
 confiscated by the confederacy, some of which he 
 .recovered. At this time he received and accepted 
 a call to the First Presbyterian Church at Austin 
 46 
 
 City, Texas ; both he and the church refusing con- 
 nection with the Southern church. He was the 
 subject of much political abuse for this bold stand for 
 reunion, but he remained firm, and succeeded in 
 winning over to his cause two other ministers and 
 their churches ; with these the presbytery of Austin 
 was organized, which was admitted to representation 
 in the general assembly in 1869, Whilst pastor of 
 that church he served also as private secretary to 
 Governor Pease, and wrote considerably for the 
 press. 
 
 Several flattering offers were made him by prom- 
 inent statesmen of Texas to enter politics, but he 
 persistently declined. Tired of strife, having put 
 the church of Texas on a sure union basis, and 
 desiring better advantages for his family than Texas 
 afforded, he accepted a call to McVeytown, Penn- 
 sylvania, in 1869. There he wrote a work entitled 
 " Lectures on Satan," which was published by Gould 
 and Lincoln. The book was well received and 
 highly commended by the leading reviews. The 
 publishers failed soon afterward, so that he did not 
 realize much from it. In 1873 he accepted a call 
 to the First Presbyterian Church at Renovo, Penn- 
 sylvania, and in 1875 he removed to Cedar Rapids, 
 and at this writing is pastor of the Second Presby- 
 terian Church of that city. In the pulpit Mr. McRae 
 is earnest, plain, concise and forcible. In the dis- 
 cussion of his subjects he is argumentative and con- 
 clusive, never leaving a point unsettled, an argument 
 unfinished, a conclusion not clearly arrived at, nor 
 a proposition not definitely established. His lan- 
 guage is peculiarly forcible, his manner attractive, 
 and while his eloquence may not be regarded as of 
 the highest order, his forcible manner, his argumen- 
 tative style, his clear, concise statements, and his 
 powers of description, place him in the front rank of 
 the pulpit orators of the west. 
 
 In 1855 he was married to Miss Anna T. Brad- 
 shaw, daughter of Rev. Fields Bradshaw, of Alabama. 
 By this union they had five children, two boys and 
 three girls. She died at McVeytown, Pennsylvania, 
 in 1872. He was married to Miss Susan D. Potter, 
 daughter of General James Potter, of Pennsylvania, 
 on the 2ist of May, 1873. Mrs. McRae belongs to 
 an historic family, one of the oldest, and at one time 
 the wealthiest, in Pennsylvania. Her great-grand- 
 father. General James Potter, was a major-general in 
 the revolution, and for several years an officer on 
 the staff of Washington. He possessed the entire 
 confidence of his commander-in-chief, and at the 
 
460 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 close of the revolutionary struggle was sent at the 
 head of a detachment of troops into central Penn- 
 sylvania to overawe the Indians and protect the 
 settlers. Potter's Fort in Penn's Valley, Center 
 county, Pennsylvania, was built and fortified by this 
 expedition; and at. the termination of the Indian 
 troubles the commander was so charmed with the 
 natural beauties and advantages of that region that 
 
 he took up his permanent residence near the site 
 of the "Old Fort," and here her father was born. 
 Mrs. McRae is also heir to a flag captured from 
 Colonel Monckton at the battle of Monmouth, by her 
 grandfather, William Wilson, on the 28th of January, 
 1778. By this marriage Mr. McRae has one child. 
 He is a kind husband and indulgent parent, and 
 a loved and much-respected pastor. 
 
 SUMNER B. CHASE, M. D., 
 
 OSAGE. 
 
 ONE of the oldest and most eminent physicians 
 of Mitchell county, Iowa, is Dr. Sumner 
 Burnham Chase, who platted the village, now city, 
 of Osage, gave the streets their names, and assisted 
 in giving the town its first start by aiding to secure 
 the location of the United States land office here. 
 He is one of those New England men who seem to 
 be reared expressly for town builders, and who have 
 been the founders of scores of thriving villages and 
 cities in every western state. 
 
 Dr. Chase is the son of Moses and Mary (Libby) 
 Chase, and was born in Limington, Maine, on the 
 4th of October, 1821. He was educated at Par- 
 sonfield Seminary and Limerick Academy ; read 
 medicine with Dr. Seth L. Larrabee, of Scarboro, 
 Maine ; graduated from the medical department of 
 Bowdoin College in the spring of 1849; practiced 
 in Portland until September, 1855, and then moved 
 to Decorah, Iowa, where the United States land 
 office had recently been located. On the 20th of 
 the next January he settled permanently in Osage, 
 coming hither partly in the interest of the land 
 office, which was soon after moved, and he was sub- 
 sequently (September i, 1857) appointed its register. 
 In laying out the town late in the winter of 1855-6, 
 he drew the stakes on a hand-sled, the town plat con- 
 sisting of nine hundred and sixty acres. Dr. Chase 
 bought eighty acres and built a one-story frame house 
 immediately after locating. Believing with Lord Ba- 
 con that " true dispatch is a rich thing, for time is 
 the measure of business as money is of wares," the 
 doctor put up his house in a hurry, it being a fear- 
 fully cold winter, as the residents of Iowa twenty- 
 two years ago will recollect. The frame house into 
 which he moved one Saturday night was in the 
 standing trees the Monday morning before. The 
 roof was double-boarded, there being no shingles 
 
 in the place. The house was sixteen by twenty- 
 four feet, with a partition in the middle, and the 
 doctor and his family occupied one end and two 
 brothers-in-law, Edward F. and James H. Merrill, 
 with their families, the other. Cold as it was, the 
 lumber dried rapidly, and before " the ides of 
 March " the cracks were an inch wide, and called 
 for a liberal supply of batten. There the families 
 lived not only contented but happy ; and there be- 
 ing only thirteen members in the aggregate, all of 
 these families took boarders ! In the spring of 
 1856 the doctor was appointed postmaster, and, as 
 he had an abundance of room, his half of the 
 building being just twelve by sixteen feet, he kept 
 the post-office in his house — the mail itself in a 
 small tin milk-pan. 
 
 Dr. Chase was register of the land office until 
 September, 1859, when it was closed. The office 
 of postmaster he had resigned on being appointed 
 register. With the exception of the autumn of 
 i860 spent in Des Moines, he has been in prac- 
 tice at Osage since leaving the land office, and 
 while register did not wholly abandon it. Of late 
 years it seems to have grown upon him ; he was 
 never more popular, and never busier. 
 
 Dr. Chase aided in organizing the Mitchell Coun- 
 ty Medical Association in 1861, and was its first 
 president. He also helped organize the Upper 
 Cedar Valley Medical Association, which embraces 
 nine counties, and was its first president also. He 
 is also a member of the State Medical Society and 
 the American Medical Association. The Mitchell 
 County Society holds a semi-annual meeting, which 
 the wives of the physicians attend. 
 
 Dr. Chase has a pretty little farm of fifty or sixty 
 acres near the city, and raises his own grain and 
 other produce. He owns and lives in the largest 
 
Lff^ 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 463 
 
 and perhaps the best brick house in the county, 
 with brick barn and pleasant surroundings, the re- 
 ward of skill in his profession and industry that 
 never remits. 
 
 In politics, he is a democrat. In religion, a Con- 
 gregationalist, and a member of the Osage church. 
 
 On the 3d of September, 1846, Miss Almira B. 
 Cobb, of Limington, Maine, became his wife, and 
 she has been the mother of five children, four of 
 them, two daughters and two sons, yet living. Ada 
 M. is the wife of Dr. John L. Whitley, partner of Dr. 
 Chase ; Mary A. is unmarried ; Frank W. is a grad- 
 uate of Rush Medical College, Chicago, and is prac- 
 ticing at Shenandoah, Iowa, and Charles S., a gradu- 
 ate of the Iowa State Agricultural College, is a law- 
 yer. All the children have graduated from the Ce- 
 dar Valley Seminary. 
 
 Dr. Chase is a very warm friend of this seminary, 
 located at Osage, and has been its secretary from its 
 organization. It is annually sending out a class of 
 young men and young women to different colleges 
 in the east as well as the west, and they show a high 
 grade of scholarship. 
 
 No enterprise in the city or county which is cal- 
 culated to benefit the people, either in a pecuniary, 
 literary or moral sense, fails to receive the doctor's 
 earnest support ; usually he is among the originators 
 of such projects. 
 
 He was a director of the old Cedar Valley rail- 
 road, surveyed as early as 1858, and which came 
 through, under the management of another com- 
 pany, about ten years later. 
 
 For years he has been accustomed to report cases 
 and write essays to be read before medical socie'- 
 ties. One of these essays, read before the Iowa 
 State Medical Association in- 1876, has been pub- 
 lished in the proceedings of that body. It is on 
 the subject of alcohol and tobacco, taking strong 
 ground against the use of either, and it would be 
 well if it could have yet wider circulation. 
 
 Dr. Chase has gray eyes, a nervous-sanguine tem- 
 perament and a compact body, is five feet eight 
 and a half inches tall, and weighs one hundred and 
 sixty pounds. He wears gold glasses, dresses very 
 neatly, usually in black, and would be taken by a 
 stranger for a college professor or a presiding elder. 
 
 THOMAS J. ROSS, 
 
 NEVADA. 
 
 LIKE most members of the Ross family, the sub- 
 j ject of this notice is of Scotch descent. His 
 great-grandfather came from the " auld " country 
 prior to the American revolution, settled in New 
 Jersey, and with a brother fought valiantly for 
 freedom from British rule and taxation. Thomas 
 Johns Ross sprung from the industrial class, is the 
 son of an Ohio farmer, Samuel Ross, and was born 
 in Knox county, on the 14th of September, 1832. 
 His mother was Charity Montgomery, whose older 
 relatives were Marylanders. Thomas J. was reared 
 to agricultural pursuits, and had, in addition to a 
 common school education, two years' discipline at 
 the Martinsburg Academy. He remained in his na- 
 tive county until twenty-three years of age, leaving 
 there in the autumn of 1855, and coming directly to 
 Story county, Iowa, where he remained. During 
 the first year that Mr. Ross was in the county he 
 sold goods at Iowa Center, in the- southern part of 
 the county, farmed the second and taught school 
 the third; the last of these three years being di- 
 rectly after the financial tornado of 1857, when all 
 
 money seemed to be swept out of the country. 
 ■Central Iowa, then very sparsely settled, was about 
 as destitute of it as a sand-bank is of clover. The 
 year 1858 was especially hard in this part of the 
 state, and Mr. Ross was glad " to teach the young 
 ideas how to shoot " at twenty-eight dollars a month, 
 the highest wages, with one exception, paid to any 
 teacher in the county. 
 
 In 1859 he was elected recorder and treasurer of 
 the county ; removed to Nevada, the county-seat, 
 just before the close of that year ; assumed the du- 
 ties of his office on the ist of January, i860, and 
 held it by reelections six years, the longest term of 
 anyone in that office in the county. He discharged 
 its duties to the thorough satisfaction of his constit- 
 uents. 
 
 Since 1866 Mr. Ross has been in the real-estate 
 business, and for the last three years has dealt quite 
 largely in live stock. He has a farm adjoining the 
 town, on which he has lived since he came to Ne- 
 vada, and another farm in the county, both under 
 good improvement. He has made a success in real 
 
464 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 estate and in his ventures generally. He is a very 
 shrewd, reliable business man, with capacities far 
 above the average. 
 
 Mr. Ross is a Master Mason. In politics, he is a 
 republican. In religion, a liberal. ► 
 
 He has been a married man since the 24th of Oc- 
 tober, 1854, his wife being Miss Julia A. McCreary, 
 of Martinsburg, Ohio, daughter of William Mc- 
 Creary, at one time a member of the Ohio legis- 
 lature, and an associate judge for several years. 
 
 Mrs. Ross has been the mother of four children, 
 only two of them, both girls, now living. Ida is a 
 graduate of the agricultural college located in the 
 western part of Story county, and Carrie is attend- 
 ing the graded school in Nevada. 
 
 Mr. Ross is above the medium height, compactly 
 built, and has a very robust appearance. His hair is 
 light, his whiskers are sandy, his eyes blue and his 
 expression that of a matter-of-fact, intelligent citi- 
 zen, in whom it would be perfectly safe to confide. 
 
 BENJAMIN HERSHEY, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 BENJAMIN HERSHEY, merchant and farmer, 
 was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, 
 on the loth of April, 1813, and is the son of Joseph 
 and Hester (Hostetter) Hershey. His father was a 
 large and prosperous farmer of that county; a strict 
 and exemplary member of the Mennonite faith, in 
 which he died in the year 1830, in the sixty-seventh 
 year of his age. He had a taste for fine stock, es- 
 pecially horses, and owned some of the best animals 
 in the state. At the time of his death he was worth 
 about one hundred thousand dollars — quite a large 
 fortune at that period. He had a family of three 
 sons and two daughters : Joseph, Benjamin, John, 
 Magdalen and Catherine. Joseph became a farmer 
 m his native county, and accumulated considerable 
 wealth; he died in 1865. John still resides on the 
 old homestead, but has long since retired from busi- 
 ness on a competence. Magdalen is the widow of 
 the late Jacob Huber, Esq., of York county, Penn- 
 sylvania. Catherine remains a maiden. 
 
 The great-grandfather of our subject was a native 
 of Switzerland, born near Lake Geneva, and emi- 
 grated to America about the close of the seven- 
 teenth century, being driven out of his fatherland 
 by religious persecution. He sought the western 
 continent, where he might worship the God of his 
 fathers according to the dictates of his conscience, 
 and the creed (Mennonite) which he inherited from 
 his ancestors. The descendants are not numerous, 
 and are still mostly residents of the Keystone State. 
 
 Benjamin Hershey was raised on the farm, where 
 he acquired a taste for agricultural pursuits, and 
 especially for the raising and training of fine horses. 
 He attended the common schools of the period, or 
 rather what was then termed subscription schools. 
 
 the teacher renting a room or cabin, where he could 
 procure one, and teaching at so much per pupil. 
 His attainments, as derived from this primitive in- 
 stitution of learning, hardly carried him beyond 
 the three R's, " 'Readin', 'Ritin' and 'Rithmetic," but 
 he was a man of large natural gifts, which he has 
 never since ceased to cultivate, so that he is now 
 among the best informed men of the age. 
 
 From an early period he had a strong desire for 
 travel, and always contemplated settling in the west. 
 In the year 1832, at the age of nineteen, he made 
 what was considered at that day quite an extensive 
 tour in the western states. Starting from Lancaster 
 in the spring, he traveled to Pittsburgh in a " Yankee 
 wagon," with wooden springs, thence by steamboat 
 to Wheeling, Virginia, and thence by stage to Saint 
 Clairsville, Ohio, where he bought a horse, saddle and 
 bridle, on which he rode to Cincinnati and Dayton, 
 thence westward through Indiana by way of the 
 National Road, just blazed out as far as the eastern 
 border of Illinois, visiting many of the farmers on 
 his route, and gathering information of the country 
 and the prospects of the west as he progressed. 
 After a period of three months spent in this way 
 he returned to Pennsylvania in company with a 
 drover, who was driving a herd of cattle to the 
 eastern market. 
 
 In 1833" he commenced farming on the home- 
 stead, of which he became possessed soon after his 
 father's death, which he carried on for eighteen 
 years with very satisfactory results, raising and own- 
 ing, during that period, some of the finest blooded 
 horses in the state. 
 
 In 1 85 1 he disposed of his farm to his brother 
 John, and in pursuance of his long cherished scheme 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 465 
 
 moved west, and settled in Muscatine, Iowa, where, 
 in May, 1853, he rented a saw-mill, on what was 
 then known as the Muscatine Slough, now as South 
 Muscatine, bought raft-timber on the river, and in 
 this unpretentious way laid the foundation of what 
 has since grown into one of the largest and most 
 prosperous concerns on the Mississippi river. 
 
 In 1855 he bought out the property he had pre- 
 viously rented, and in the year following commenced 
 the erection of the Monmouth establishment, since 
 known as the Hershey Saw-mill, then one of the 
 largest, if not the largest, on the Mississippi river. 
 At that time the enterprise was regarded by many 
 as wild, reckless and visionary, and certain to entail 
 ruin and disaster upon its projector (the whole state 
 of Iowa, it was thought, could not consume lumber 
 enough to keep it profitably employed) ; a few years, 
 however, amply vindicated his wisdom, and demon- 
 strated the soundness of his judgment. The original 
 cost of the structure, which was put in operation in 
 the spring of 1857, was seventy thousand dollars, and 
 its capacity was fifty thousand feet of lumber in 
 twenty-four hours. This was the first gang saw-mill 
 put in operation on the " Father of Waters," and it 
 was then the largest in the country. Since then it 
 has been several times enlarged and improved, pro- 
 vided with the best machinery, and at this juncture 
 it is the best and most economical mill on the river, 
 capable of producing one hundred thousand feet of 
 lumber in eleven hours, giving steady employment 
 to about two hundred hands, its annual sales amount- 
 ing to almost half a million dollars, while its pro- 
 prietor has become one of the wealthy men of the 
 valley of the Mississippi. 
 
 In 1872 the institution was furnished with what is 
 known as the Sumner dry-house apparatus, one of 
 the most important and valuable auxiliaries of the 
 establishment, by means of which green lumber is 
 put through a process of drying, which fits it for 
 house-building purposes in seven days, as thorough- 
 ly as the old system of weather-drying was wont to 
 do in six months. 
 
 In 1876, the lumber business still increasing, and 
 Mr. Hershey having become the owner of a large 
 farm which required much of his time, in order to 
 gain some relief from the responsibility incident to 
 so large a concern, turned his lumber business into 
 a stock company, taking some five of his principal 
 employes and four outside gentlemen into partner- 
 ship, but retaining three-fourths of the interest in 
 his own hands; since that date the business has 
 
 been conducted under the style of the Hershey 
 Lumber Company. The company cut down their 
 own logs in the Wisconsin pineries, and tow the 
 rafts down stream by their own tow-boat, the Ben. 
 Hershey; own their own rolling stock or freight cars, 
 on which they distribute the products of their mill 
 to their customers as far west as the base of the 
 Rocky Mountains. 
 
 Mr. Hershey is also a member of the Mississippi 
 Logging Company, of the Beef-slough Boom Com- 
 pany, of Wisconsin, and various other corporations: 
 He was a member of the constructing committee for 
 the building of the Muscatine Western railroad, of 
 which he was also one of the largest stockholders. 
 He served as mayor of Muscatine two terms, during 
 the years 1862 and 1863, but this was the extent of his 
 office holding, his own business furnishing as much 
 work as he could conveniently attend to. 
 
 In politics, he was first a member of the whig 
 party, and in early life voted what was known as 
 the "Anti-mason" ticket, expressive of the strong 
 prejudice then existing against the Masonic frater- 
 nity, arising from the supposed murder on their part 
 of the man (Morgan) who had revealed the secrets 
 of the order. Since 1856 he has been an uncom- 
 promising supporter of the republican party. 
 
 In 1866 he purchased the beautiful farm alluded 
 to above, consisting of eight hundred acres, situated 
 partly on the bluff and partly on the bottom skirt- 
 ing Muscatine Island, some two miles from town, on 
 which, in 1870, he built a stately mansion, said to 
 be the finest farm-house in the state, designed on 
 the Swiss model, by I. P. Walton, of Muscatine, to- 
 gether with barns, stabling, and all the appurtenances 
 of a model agricultural establishment. Here he has 
 collected the finest stud of blooded horses in the 
 state, together with Shetland ponies and draught 
 horses to the number of one hundred and fifty, 
 besides splendid short-horns, Alderneys, sheep and 
 hogs of the best varieties ; while his barn-yards are 
 overrun with domestic fowls of every feather. His 
 trotting stud comprises representatives of the Henry 
 Clay, Royal George, and Marabrino breeds. His 
 young horse. Envoy, is one of the handsomest and 
 most symmetrical specimens of the equine race in 
 the country, while his mare, Fleta, is among the 
 fleetest in the west. The catalogue of this cele- 
 brated stud contains many other names well known 
 on the turf; while among his Shetlands are found 
 such names as Huckebery, a pibald stallion, forty- 
 four inches high, and weighing three hundred and 
 
466 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 fifty pounds, imported from Gibralter. Anna Dick- 
 inson and Fanny Fern, mares of the same breed, of 
 still smaller dimensions, besides many others. At 
 this beautiful retreat, and in the care and training 
 of those animals,, most of the mornings and even- 
 ings of Mr. Hershey are passed, while the remainder 
 of the day is devoted to his other business. 
 
 His efforts to improve the various breeds of farm 
 stock has had a most salutary effect upon the farmers 
 generally, to whom he has been ever ready and anx- 
 ious to extend every courtesy they may ask or re- 
 quire. 
 
 He has always had in his employment a large 
 force of hands, to whom he has invariably given 
 the largest wages and the kindest and most con- 
 siderate treatment. If all employers were like him, 
 strikes and discontent would be unknown. Sys- 
 tematic in his business, each man knows his place, 
 and is promptly at his post of duty, and, as a con- 
 sequence, everything moves on smoothly and har- 
 moniously, without one jarring exception. He has 
 ever been ready to extend a helping hand to those 
 in his service who have shown themselves worthy 
 and deserving, and many of them are now the own- 
 ers of handsome and pleasant homes, which they 
 chiefly owe to his generosity. 
 
 From what has been said it will readily be inferred 
 that Mr. Hershey is a man of broad and capacious 
 mind and of remarkable sagacity and foresight. All 
 his undertakings of any considerable magnitude have 
 had strict reference to the enlargement of business 
 and broader and more extended fields for the em- 
 ployment of capital, and he has so arranged his 
 business as to adapt it to all the changes and de- 
 mands of after years. He is also a man of large 
 public spirit, ready at all times to give of his means 
 to every enterprise of real public utility, while his 
 private benefactions are given freely, and have been 
 the means of relieving and cheering many a needy 
 and suffering household ; but these deeds are done 
 so quietly and unostentatiously that they become 
 known only by means of the recipients themselves. 
 He is, moreover, a man of great frankness and hon- 
 esty of speech, never attempting to conceal his views 
 or opinions, and what he has to say is generally 
 said without any regard to person or place. 
 
 On the 6th of February, 1836, he married Miss 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel Wittmer, of Lancaster 
 county, Pennsylvania, also of Swiss origin, a lady of 
 rare mental and moral gifts and attainments, who 
 has since been his companion and helpmeet. They 
 
 have had four children : Sarah J., Mary Amanda, 
 Elizabeth and Elmira. Elizabeth died in early 
 maidenhood in Muscatine, Iowa, on the 7th of Octo- 
 ber, 1856, and Amanda died in Munich, Bavaria, 
 whither she had gone to complete her studies, on 
 the 24th of December, 1876. Her remains were 
 brought home for interment, and were buried in 
 Muscatine, on the 13th of February, 1877, amid the 
 tears and regrets of a large circle of friends and 
 acquaintances. 
 
 From the very earliest dawn of reason the children 
 gave evidence of the possession of the rarest talents 
 and gifts, which were fostered and encouraged by 
 their affluent and indulgent father. Their early 
 education was conducted under the parental roof 
 by the best private tutors and governesses then to 
 be found ; and having passed through the full cur- 
 riculum of studies in all the branches of art and 
 literature afforded by the schools of America, they 
 were sent to Europe to be perfected. 
 
 Sarah J., the eldest, developed an extraordinary tal- 
 ent for music. She studied under the best maestros 
 in London, Berlin and Milan for five years, and is 
 now perhaps the most perfect mistress of harmony 
 in the United States. She is also an accomplished 
 linguist, speaking the German, Italian and French 
 languages only less fluently than the English. Nor 
 is she less cultured in the fine arts, to which she 
 also gave much attention ; her extensive study and 
 travel having made her quite a critic in sculpture 
 and painting. She is, withal, a queenly woman ; 
 majestic in appearance, graceful and elegant in all 
 her motions, and peerless in every noble and ami- 
 able quality. She was married on the 2d of Sep- 
 tember, 1857, to Hon. William F. Brannan,of Musca- 
 tine, Iowa; one daughter, Miss Bessie, a young lady 
 destined to equal if not excel her mother in the line 
 of art and elocution, is the fruit of this union. In 
 1876 Mr. Hershey built the large and magnificent 
 conservatory of music in Chicago, known as the 
 Hershey Music Hall — the finest institution of the 
 kind in the country, and destined to add much to 
 the fame of that city — over which Mrs. Brannan is 
 now presiding with a success commensurate with her 
 great talents. She has recently appeared in operas 
 in New York, London, and several cities of the con- 
 tinent of Europe, where she has been regarded as a 
 "star" of the first magnitude, and is destined to a 
 career of fame and success second to no artist of 
 the century. 
 
 The younger sister, Miss Elmira, is following close- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 467 
 
 ly in the same line and is learned in all the sciences, no 
 less than in the more ornamental accomplishments. 
 She has been for a number of years a student of the 
 old masters of Berlin and Munich, where she is still a 
 sojourner; at present making a specialty of painting 
 and music. She is a lady of towering talents, has 
 drank largely of the purest founts of literature, and 
 has stored her mind with the best thoughts of the 
 best authors of the world in all ages and in all lan- 
 guages. She is, moreover, of a cheerful and breezy 
 disposition, dispensing gladness and sunshine where- 
 ever she goes. 
 
 It remains only to add a brief memorial of the 
 recently deceased Mary Amanda, who was among 
 the most gifted, noble and beautiful of her sex. 
 Prominent among her characteristics was her great 
 strength of purpose to attain a high standard or aim 
 in her pursuit of art, science, or whatever branch of 
 knowledge she might be in pursuit of; with anything 
 short of perfection she was never satisfied, and to a 
 broad, deep culture of mind she added the more 
 substantial ornaments of a meek and virtuous spirit, 
 joined to strong independent opinions and actions, 
 when occasion required, were the more tender and 
 lovable ways : sympathy for those who needed con- 
 solation, confidence in her friends, without a trace of 
 suspicion, and an indescribable charm of character 
 which surrounded her always with a loving circle 
 of friends, in whose hearts must remain a void for- 
 ever. Her friends have often thought that could her 
 
 talents have been distributed among others, many 
 might have been richly dowered with those which 
 she possessed alone. Her acquirements in music, 
 art, science, language, rhetoric, coupled with refine- 
 ment of thought and manner, seemed to make her a 
 meet illustration of the character in the gospel to 
 whom was intrusted "ten talents,'' all of which she 
 had improved ; and although carried to an early 
 grave, she had brought much fruit to perfection. 
 That one so gifted, so precious, so endeared to all 
 who knew her, should be called from a busy and use- 
 ful life here, the dew of youth still freshly resting on 
 her brow, while the indolent, vicious and ignorant 
 remain behind, is one of those inscrutable mysteries 
 of Divine Providence which are past finding out. 
 Doubtless the Supreme Governor of the Universe 
 had a mission for her in another and more exalted 
 sphere, whence she will be restored to her friends 
 hereafter inexpressibly improved in every noble and 
 endearing accomplishment. While she was abroad 
 she was the recipient of many sincere expressions of 
 encouragement and praise for her great and varied 
 attainments, and of commendation for her adherence 
 to what she esteemed christian principle, as at vari- 
 ance with Old World customs, and by her beauty of 
 person and mind, and her consistency of conduct, 
 drew to herself many noble hearts, who not less sin- 
 cerely lament her untimely death than do those who 
 were more closely connected by ties of blood and 
 early association. 
 
 SIMON G. STEIN, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 SIMON G. STEIN, one of the most sagacious 
 and successful business men of Muscatine, was 
 born in East Hanover, Lebanon county, Pennsyl- 
 vania, on the 17th of March, 1817. 
 
 His father. Captain Abraham Stein, was born in 
 the same county on the nth of January, 1788, and 
 was a soldier in the war of 1812, after which he 
 returned to his farm, where he remained during the 
 balance of his life. He was a man of considerable 
 influence and popularity in his community, serving 
 constantly in the various civil positions in the gift of 
 his fellow-citizens for a period of over forty years. 
 He died in 1858, in the seventy-first year of his 
 age. He was married to Miss Anna Barbara Ger- 
 berich, of the same place, on the 2d of April, 181 1, 
 
 who survived him about eighteen months. They 
 had four sons and one daughter, of whom our sub- 
 ject was the youngest, and of whom only two are 
 now living: S. G. and his brother, A. G., residing 
 in Philadelphia. 
 
 From a genealogical record of the family, running 
 back some five generations, we learn that the great- 
 great-grandfather of our subject, Sebastian Stein, 
 was born in Germany in the year 1696; the great- 
 grandfather, Abraham Stein, was born in Krum- 
 bach, ''Aus der Rheinromischen" Germany, on the 
 ist of October, 1724; was married to Anna Maria 
 Rohrer in the year 1750, and soon afterward emi- 
 grated to America and settled in Berks county, 
 Pennsylvania, where they raised a family of five 
 
468 
 
 THn UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 sons and eight daughters, among whom was John 
 Philip Stein, born on the 2d of December, 1760, 
 who was married to Susanna Wilt in 1787 ; removed 
 to East Hanover, Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, 
 where they raised a family of eight sons and five 
 daughters, of whom Abraham, the father of our sub- 
 ject, was the eldest of the sons. 
 
 After receiving a common-school education Simon 
 G. Stein launched out for himself at the age of sev- 
 enteen; served an apprenticeship to the milling bus- 
 iness, which he subsequently followed in Berks and 
 Chester counties, Pennsylvania, for about two years. 
 But having heard of the greater possibilities of the 
 west and the inducements which the country beyond 
 the Alleghanies offered, he removed to Ohio in the 
 year 1836, and continued his trade in the cities of 
 Springfield and Hamilton, of that state, for several 
 years. Meantime " The West," as then located, had 
 removed to the valley of the Mississippi, whither the 
 tide of empire was then setting, and our subject, to 
 keep abreast of the movement, resolved to follow. 
 Accordingly having made a short visit to the pater- 
 nal homestead and seen the '' old folks '' again, in 
 1839 ^^ removed to Illinois, and followed his trade 
 in Putnam, Peoria and Rock Island counties, of that 
 state, until 1846, when he engaged with D. Over- 
 myer, under the firm name of Stein and Overmyer, 
 in the manufacture of lumber and flour, in Moline, 
 Illinois, which they carried on successfully for three 
 years. In 1849 he crossed the river to Muscatine, 
 Iowa, which has since been his home, and has con- 
 tinued in the lumber business there ever since. In 
 1875 he became connected with the Hershey Lum- 
 ber Manufacturing Company, one of the largest and 
 most successful lumber companies in the west, and 
 of which he has been vice-president since his con- 
 nection. In 1854 he engaged with Philip Stein, a 
 cousin, in the furniture business, under the style of 
 S. G. and P. Stein, and has since conducted one of 
 the largest wholesale and retail establishments of 
 this kind in the valley of the Mississippi. 
 
 In 1852 he engaged, in company with the late 
 Colonel S. G. Hill, in the manufacture of sash, doors 
 and blinds, which was carried on successfully until 
 1 86 1, when the firm was dissolved, Mr. Hill going 
 into the army. The business has since been con- 
 ducted alone by Mr. Stein. In 1855 he engaged 
 with G. P. Vesey in the manufacture of bedsteads 
 and chamber furniture. This business continued in 
 operation until 1859, when it was discontinued. He 
 is also largely interested in farms and in farming 
 
 lands in Muscatine, Louisa, Cedar, Jackson, Benton, 
 Hamilton and Calhoun counties, Iowa, and in Rock 
 Island county, Illinois ; in all, fifteen hundred acres 
 of improved lands. He is also the owner of three 
 of the finest buildings in the business part of Mus- 
 catine. He is also engaged in business with Messrs. 
 Barnhardt Brothers, Spindler and Co., in the Great 
 Western Type Foundry, of Chicago, one of the 
 most extensive type manufacturing establishments 
 in the west. 
 
 Mr. Stein is president of the Muscatine Steam 
 Ferry Company. Has been president of the Mer- 
 chants' Exchange National Bank, of Muscatine City, 
 for ten years past. Was president of the Muscatine 
 Western Railroad Company at the organization of 
 the company and during the construction of the 
 road. He is also president of the Muscatine, Tip- 
 ton and Anamosa Railroad Company. During the 
 years 187 1 and 1872 he held the office of chief 
 magistrate of the city of Muscatine, being twice 
 elected without opposition, and receiving the unani- 
 mous nomination of both the republican and demo- 
 cratic parties, an honor unprecedented in the history 
 of the city. In 1872 he was appointed one of the 
 capitol commissioners, for the purpose of selecting 
 plans and overlooking the construction of the' new 
 State-house at Des Moines, and served two years in 
 this capacity with zeal and great wisdom. 
 
 He was admitted a member of the Independent 
 Order of Odd-Fellows in 1844, and continues in fel- 
 lowship, being at the present time a member of the 
 grand lodge of Iowa. He is also a distinguished 
 member of the Masonic fraternity, to which he was 
 admitted in 1850. 
 
 He is one of the most benevolent of the citizens 
 of Muscatine, always contributing liberally to pub- 
 lic and private charities. 
 
 He was raised in the communion of the Lutheran 
 church, and was admitted to membership in that 
 society by confirmation at the age of sixteen years. 
 
 In politics, he was originally a whig, and since the 
 organization of the republican party he has been 
 identified with it, and was during the war a staunch 
 supporter of the government, and in favor of the 
 emancipation and enfranchisement of the negro. 
 
 On the 20th of May, 1841, he married Miss Anna 
 Catherine Bernthisel, who was a native of Lebanon, 
 Pennsylvania, of German origin, and a lady of rare 
 good sense, modest, amiable and kind-hearted. The 
 union has been blessed with two children, a daugh- 
 ter and a son. The daughter, Angle S., was born in 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 469 
 
 1844, and is the wife of A. M. Earnhardt, of Chi- 
 cago, Illinois, to whom she was married in 1869. 
 The son, Simon G., who was born in 1861, resides 
 with his parents. 
 
 Mr. Stein is one of those fortunate individuals 
 who almost invariably succeed in whatever they 
 undertake, and whose enterprises always seem to 
 come out right in the end, however mazy they may 
 have appeared while in process of development. 
 From small beginnings, by energy, perseverance, 
 faithful industry, and above all, consummate wis- 
 dom, he has gradually amassed a fortune, and his 
 fair and honorable dealing has made his name a 
 tower of strength in the community where he is 
 known. For the railroad interests of the state, 
 especially those communicating with Muscatine, he 
 has worked with unabated zeal and energy, and 
 spent both time and money freely, looking for his 
 remuneration in the growth and progress of the city 
 of his adoption. To know that any public interest 
 was intrusted to him was to be assured that it would 
 receive the most faithful attention and be carried to 
 the most successful issue. In the various positions 
 
 of trust and honor to which he has been called he 
 has discharged his official duties with scrupulous 
 care and fidelity, and to-day he stands in the front 
 ranks of the most valued, judicious and successful 
 citizens of the state. Two more useful, unassuming 
 and universally beloved individuals than Mr. Stein 
 and his estimable wife it would be difficult to point 
 out, or a pair possessing more of that plain, sterling 
 common sense and good judgment, a little rare in 
 these days, and yet of no less value than pure gold 
 tried in the fire. While abundantly able to make a 
 display in the world, they have preferred the quiet 
 and sedate walks of life in a well balanced medium 
 between extravagant pomp and sordid parsimonious- 
 ness, remote from the least ostentation, yet in all 
 points exemplary. Satisfied with the discharge of 
 their daily duties in the domestic circle, they have 
 been content to allow others to wear the tinsel and 
 display the gildings of fashionable life, reserving to 
 themselves the more substantial comforts resulting 
 from prudent habits and moderate desires. They 
 have thus become models of domestic virtue, and 
 patterns of social life and manners. 
 
 M. L. TEMPLE, 
 
 OSCEOLA. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch was born in Monon- 
 galia county. West Virginia, on the i6th of 
 September, 1848. His father's name was Nathaniel 
 Temple, who was born and raised in Green county, 
 Pennsylvania, and removed to West Virginia in 1844. 
 His mother's maiden name was Henrietta Rice. 
 His father was a farmer. M. L. Temple worked 
 upon his father's farm until he was twenty years of 
 age, when he obtained a scholarship and cadetship 
 in the West Virginia University, which he attended 
 for five years, and from which he graduated in June, 
 1873, in the classical and military departments. 
 
 He began the study of law prior to graduation, 
 in the office of Jujdge John H. Dice, at Morgantown, 
 West Virginia. He left this office on the 30th of 
 September, 1873, and came to Osceola, Iowa, and 
 commenced the practice of law, which he still con- 
 tinues. 
 
 He early in life evinced a great desire for study, 
 and although he never had more than one hundred 
 and twenty-six days of schooling previous to enter- 
 ing the university, he attributes the advancement he 
 47 
 
 made by virtue of close application to books while 
 at home under the guidance of a devoted mother, 
 who was well educated and possessed of a disposi- 
 tion befitting her for teaching. At sixteen he com- 
 menced teaching in the public schools when the free^ 
 school system was first inaugurated in West Virginia. 
 He early formed a great desire to study history and 
 solid literature generally, which induced him to ob- 
 tain, if possible, a collegiate education. 
 
 Mr. Temple married at Morgantown, West Vir- 
 ginia, on the 30th of September, 1873, Miss Julia 
 M. Protzman, who has borne him one boy. 
 
 In religious matters, he inclines toward Method- 
 ism, though he is allied to no church organization. 
 
 In politics, he is an active democrat. 
 
 Mr. Temple is in the enjoyment of a large and 
 lucrative practice throughout Clark county. He is 
 physically and mentally a strong, active man. In 
 the twenty-ninth year of his age we find him well 
 established in reputation and profit in the* practice 
 of his profession, a noble example of what pluck, 
 guided by well earned scholarship, can do to advance 
 
470 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 the interests of a rising man. What a commentary 
 the success of such a man is to the thousands on 
 thousands of comparatively briefless lawyers who 
 are rotting away in dingy offices in the great Atlan- 
 tic cities, who have book knowledge enough, but who 
 lack the nerve to strike out for themselves .amid 
 the thousand and one opportunities which continu- 
 ously present themselves in the great west for men 
 
 of tact and energy of character. Mr. Temple is a 
 climbing man, and notwithstanding just now he 
 seems to be .unambitious, yet it will by no means 
 surprise us to find him, ere he reaches the meridian 
 of life, making an indelible mark upon the history 
 of the state of his adoption. 
 
 He became a member of Clark Lodge, No. 95, in 
 December, 1875. 
 
 HON. SUMNER B. HEWETT, 
 
 EAGLE GROVE. 
 
 SUMNER BARSTOW HEWETT, a pioneer set- 
 tler in Wright county, Iowa, and second judge 
 of the county, is a son of Sumner B. Hewett, sen- 
 ior, a millwright and carpenter, and Mary E. Allen, 
 and was born in Northbridge, Massachusetts, on the 
 22d of June, 1833. The Hewetts are of English 
 pedigree, and were early settlers in the Old Bay 
 State. The grandfather of our subject was in the 
 war of 1812. Sumner spent his boyhood in Sutton, 
 Worcester county, Massachusetts, near his birth- 
 place, finishing his education at the East Douglas 
 Academy. He was a clerk in a store at East Doug- 
 las and other places a few years ; afterward an ac- 
 countant in Boston four years, and in 1854, at the 
 age of twenty-one, settled in Wright county, which 
 has since been his home. His father and brother- 
 in-law, Nathaniel B. Paine, came with him, and they 
 were the first settlers who remained. With the ex- 
 ception of narrow belts of timber on the streams 
 and around Walled Lake and other bodies of water, 
 and here and there a grove, the county twenty-four 
 years ago was an open prairie, " unshorn and beau- 
 tiful," waiting for the plow. Buffalo, elk, deer and 
 other wild animals were abundant, but no white man 
 had turned a furrow. 
 
 Judge Hewett selected his home in Eagle Grove 
 township, in the southwestern part of the county, and 
 started what is now known all over northwestern 
 Iowa as Eagle Grove Farm. It consists of six hun- 
 dred acres of the best quality of land, under good 
 improvement, and well stocked with short-horn and 
 graded cattle. Stock raising has been a specialty 
 with Judge Hewett. He has taken much pains to 
 acquaint himself with the science of the business ; 
 is well posted on matters generally pertaining to agri- 
 culture; has a small orchard, and is a good repre- 
 sentative of Iowa men engaged in this pursuit. 
 
 He was appointed county judge in April, 1861, 
 and the following October was elected to the same 
 office for the term of two years. In 1862 he was 
 appointed revenue collector for the sixth district, 
 and held the latter office until turned out by Andrew 
 Johnson, the bolting republican president. Prior to 
 taking this office in January, 1862, he was appointed 
 engrossing clerk of the senate in the general assem- 
 bly, and most of the time acted as second assistant 
 secretary of the senate. 
 
 Judge Hewett was elected to the general assembly 
 in the autumn of 187 1, and in the session held the 
 next January-March served on the committees on 
 agricultural college, railroads and public buildings, 
 being chairman of the first-named committee, and 
 doing good work on all of them. He was for some 
 time a director of the Iowa State Agricultural Soci- 
 ety, and quite active and efficient in the board. 
 
 He seems to be always ready for public service, 
 and prompt in the discharge of every duty. 
 
 The records of the fourteenth general assembly 
 indicate that representative Hewett was usually in 
 his place when votes were taken. He was a dis- 
 creet legislator, doing very little public talking, but 
 prompt and untiring in the committee room. 
 
 He has always been a republican, and is vigilant 
 in his efforts to advance the interests of the party, 
 after attending congressional and state conventions. 
 Politically and in all respects he is an influential 
 man. 
 
 He has been a Freemason since 1862, having, 
 however, taken only three degrees. 
 
 The wife of Judge Hewett was Miss Abbie S. 
 Parker, of Blue Hill, Maine, a woman of good edu- 
 cation, and in her younger years a popular school 
 teacher. They were married on the 24th of October, 
 1854. They have two adopted children, recently 
 
■'■irXSMZi.SanslSSa^d.^Sijrr 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 473 
 
 taken, a boy and a girl, whom they are intending to 
 educate and fit for usefulness. 
 
 The judge has been engaged from time to time 
 in trying to secure a railroad for his part of the state ; 
 was one of the first men to suggest the Iowa Pacific 
 
 road, now graded through Wright county, and pass- 
 ing within a mile and a half of his farm ; and is one 
 of the foremost men in his section in prosecuting 
 enterprises calculated to develop the wealth of the 
 soil or the best qualities of the people. 
 
 WILLIAM H. BAXTER, M.D., 
 
 WILTON. 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY BAXTER was born in 
 Cannonsburg, Washington county, Penn- 
 sylvania, on the 28th of December, 1828, and is the 
 eldest child of Joseph Baxter and Isabella n^e Por- 
 ter, both natives of the Keystone State. His father 
 was an industrious blacksmith, and wrought at the 
 anvil all his lifetime, but having a family of ten 
 children to support, his utmost efforts were ex- 
 hausted in hammering out a bare subsistence for 
 them, so that beyond the then crude and irregular 
 public schools he was unable to provide for their 
 education ; consequently the children were early 
 thrown upon their own resources. Both parents 
 are descended from Scotch Covenanter ancestors, 
 who took refuge in the north of Ireland to escape 
 the bitter persecution visited upon the non-con- 
 formists under the Stuart dynasty, from, whence 
 they emigrated to Pennsylvania previous to the 
 revolution. 
 
 The father of our subject in early life had a taste 
 for military tactics, and was for many years captain 
 of a military company under the militia laws of the 
 state. Of his ten children, two died in infancy and 
 eight lived to maturity, namely, five sons and three 
 daughters. Four of the sons were soldiers in the 
 Union army during the late rebellion. Robert was 
 a member of an Ohio regiment and was killed while 
 on a "scout" in Braxton county, Virginia, in 1862. 
 James was a member of the nth Iowa, and was 
 wounded in the battle of Shiloh, from the effects of 
 which he died in 1863. The other two, Joseph and 
 John, were also through the war, but escaped un- 
 hurt. Mary Jane is the wife of John W. Guard, of 
 Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Elizabeth Ann is the wife of 
 Joseph Herron, of Clay City, Illinois, and Martha 
 Matilda is the wife of Samuel Comer, of Moscow, 
 Iowa. The father died in 1857, in Leesville, Carroll 
 county, Ohio, and the mother, a most worthy lady, is 
 still living, in the enjoyment of good health, in the 
 family of her daughter at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 
 
 At the age of twelve years William Henry re- 
 moved with his parents to Leesville, Carroll county, 
 Ohio, where, by working in the summer months, he 
 was enabled to pay his way through an academic 
 course in the New Hagerstown Academy, in that 
 county. At the age of sixteen he taught a district 
 school for several winters. 
 
 From a very early period in his history he enter- 
 tained a controlling desire to become a physician, 
 and in 1847 an opportunity offered for preparation 
 for the profession which had been the aim of his 
 life. In that year he entered the office of Dr. John 
 H. Stephenson, of Leesville, Ohio, where for four 
 years he was a diligent student. Ambitious to at- 
 tain to a full knowledge of the science of medicine, 
 and indefatigable in his pursuit of experimental 
 skill, he was in high favor with his preceptor, who 
 during the last years of his pupilage was accus- 
 tomed to place the knife into the hands of his 
 pupil and superintend while the latter performed 
 some of the most critical operations coming with- 
 in the practice of a country physician of that day. 
 Dr. Stephenson has often been heard to say that he 
 would never relinquish the practice in Leesville until 
 Dr. Baxter would remove there and take his place. 
 
 In 1850 Dr. Baxter commenced the practice of 
 his profession at Leesville (without a college diplo- 
 ma), and remained one year longer under the eye of 
 his preceptor. In 1851 he removed to New Franklin, 
 Harrison county, Ohio, where he practiced a year; 
 and in 1852 he immigrated to Moscow, Muscatine 
 county, Iowa, where he practiced with very flatter- 
 ing success for fifteen years. In 1867 he removed 
 to Wilton, which has since been his home, where he 
 has long since attained to the highest rank in the 
 profession, and built up a large and lucrative prac- 
 tice extending many miles into the country, and be- 
 ing often called upon by his brother practitioners in 
 other towns to consultations on the most serious and 
 critical cases. 
 
474 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 In 1865 he attended a course of lectures at the 
 College of Physicians and Surgeons, Keokuk^ Iowa, 
 from which he graduated with honors ; and during 
 the winter following he graduated at the Medical 
 College, Chicago, Illinois, receiving addendum de- 
 gree. He is one of the assistant surgeons of the 
 Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad, and at- 
 tends to all the accidents occurring on the line in 
 the vicinity of Wilton Junction. He is a member 
 of the Muscatine County Medical Society, of the 
 Iowa and Illinois Medical Association, the Iowa 
 State Medical Society and the American Medical 
 Association. He was president of the Iowa and 
 Illinois Association in 1874, and in 1870 was a del- 
 egate from Iowa to the national convention of the 
 American Association held at Washington, District 
 of Columbia, and served as the representative of 
 his state on the committee for the nomination of 
 officers for the ensuing year. 
 
 He is a member of the Masonic, order, and has 
 been twice master of Wilton lodge, No. 167, also a 
 member of the Muscatine Chapter of Royal Arch 
 Masons. 
 
 His religious views are orthodox, but he is not in 
 union with any church, though an attendant of the 
 services of the Presbyterian church, and is gener- 
 
 ous in his contributions toward religious and benev- 
 olent objects generally. In politics, he is a republi- 
 can of the radical school. 
 
 In personal appearance, the doctor is rather be- 
 low the middle size, of fair and ruddy complexion 
 and solid build, weighing one hundred and ninety 
 pounds, of a bright and cheerful disposition. His 
 presence and breezy manners in the sick room be- 
 ing often not less beneficial to the desponding pa- 
 tient than his professional treatment. He is known 
 as a kind-hearted, whole-souled and generous gentle- 
 man. He possesses considerable professional pride 
 and courtesy, and is very highly esteemed by his 
 brother practitioners for his eminent ability, skill 
 and integrity. In a word, he is an amiable gentle- 
 tleman and an exemplary citizen. 
 
 He has been twice married : on the i8th of Janu- 
 ary, 1852, to Miss Matilda J., daughter of William 
 Wright, Esq., of New Franklin, Harrison county, 
 Ohio, by whom he has two children, Clara and Ida. 
 She died on the 9th of February, 1863. On the 14th 
 of April, 1864, he was married to Miss Mary Eliza- 
 beth, daughter of Alexander Small, of Washington, 
 Tazewell county, Illinois. They have had four chil- 
 dren, one of whom died in infancy, and three sur- 
 vive, namely, Nelly, Lizzy and Willie. 
 
 SANFORD W. HUFF, M.D., 
 
 SIGOURNET. 
 
 SANFORD WILLIAMS HUFF was born in 
 Hamburg, Erie county. New York, on the 25th 
 of December, 1826, and is the son of Timothy 
 ,Hnff and Phebe nee Potter. His father was born 
 near Vergennes, Vermont, and removed, at the age 
 of twenty-one years, to the wilderness known as the 
 " Holland Purchase," which composed several of the 
 westernmost counties of that great state, and in- 
 cluding the sites of the present cities of Buffalo and 
 Rochester. The former was but a village of a few 
 rustic houses when, with knapsack in hand, this 
 stalwart youth, six feet one in his stocking feet, hair 
 black, dark eyes, and erect symmetrical figure, first 
 set foot upon its streets as a pioneer of the newly- 
 opened-up annexation to the state. Locating his 
 claim of a tract of wild land purchased from the 
 Holland Company, at their office in Buffalo, near 
 the present thriving town of Hamburg, he com- 
 menced opening up a farm, Success crowned his 
 
 industrious efforts, and he subsequently became a 
 well-to-do farmer, and a man locally renowned for 
 his integrity of character. He was often called upon 
 to perform important public duties, and intrusted 
 with responsible official positions. For many years 
 he held a magistrate's commission, and " Esquire 
 Huff's" court was always the synonyme of justice 
 and impartiality. His death occurred in 1854. 
 
 The mother of our subject was Phebe Potter, a 
 sparkling young Quakeress, daughter of Nathaniel 
 Potter, descended from one of the solid old fami- 
 lies of that persuasion, of New England historical 
 stock, which suffered persecution and martyrdom at 
 the hands of the Puritans of the Colonial days, in 
 that era of religious intolerance which was marked 
 by edicts of banishment, and often capital punish- 
 ment, for heresies against orthodox creeds. Out of 
 these persecutions grew a hatred of sectarianism in 
 religion by this exemplary and otherwise amiable 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 475 
 
 persuasion that lasted through generations, and which 
 is still manifest in many of the descendants of the 
 old stock. To the influence of his mother's liberal 
 and genial views of christian duties may possibly 
 be attributed the disinclination to the restraints of 
 creeds, and the large and liberal views of christian 
 duties, and the faith upon which they are based, so 
 eminently characteristic of our subject. 
 
 The first of the family known to the American 
 genealogical records is Angalus Huff, of German 
 nativity. (The family chronicler has said German, 
 but it has been thought by some branches of the fami- 
 ly that this is an error of some copyist of the records 
 in confounding in his own mind the terms Dutch 
 and German, so common in conversation in this 
 country; if so, it has served to make the extraction 
 somewhat doubtful to all future generations). An- 
 galus Huff seems to have been a man of consider- 
 able local celebrity for his scholarship, which was 
 thought remarkable for that early day and locality. 
 He was also noted for his dashing horsemanship, 
 and for his great longevity. He died in the one 
 hundred aijd twenty-first year of his age. 
 
 The family records fade into indefiniteness for a 
 generation or two after. The Huffs are next found 
 on the banks of the Hudson, in Dutchess county, 
 in one of the thriving neighborhoods of that ancient 
 county, where the grandfather of our subject, John 
 Huff, was born. 
 
 He joined the revolutionary army at the age of 
 sixteen, and for the next six years he carried a 
 musket. Except his participation in the battles of 
 Saratoga and Brooklyn, little is known of his army 
 career. 
 
 He returned home, after the achievement of the 
 independence of the colonies, to find his father 
 ruined in property by the devastations of the sev- 
 eral armies. 
 
 He removed soon after to the newly formed state 
 of Vermont, where he married, and where most of 
 his children were born, including the father of our 
 subject, who was one of the eldest of several broth- 
 ers, and was educated under the sparing facilities of 
 that then new state. However, the proclivity for 
 education was predominant in the blood, and most 
 of the children, especially the younger members, 
 overcame the obstacles of the situation and ob- 
 tained good educations, and became men and wom- 
 en of more or less intellectual prominence. 
 
 The fruit of his marriage with Phebe Potter was 
 five children, of whom our subject is the youngest. 
 
 and four of whom are still living : the oldest brother 
 named Levi, two sisters and the doctor, each the 
 head of a family, and residents of different states 
 of the Union. 
 
 A sister, Mrs. Charlotte Gould, residing on a farm 
 adjoining the homestead, remains the sole repre- 
 sentative of the family in its native state of New 
 York; while Adalia is the wife of a merchant named 
 Scott, in Indianapolis, Indiana. 
 
 As the youngest of the family Sanford W. came 
 into the world after the first wild roughness of pio- 
 neer life had passed away. He grew up in vigorous 
 usefulness on the farm, passing much of his boyhood, 
 however, in the school-house on the hill. The Huff 
 family, as noted above, were all lovers of knowledge. 
 
 Financial embarrassments which overtook the 
 father in his declining days prevented in a measure 
 the carrying out of a cherished design to give our 
 subject the advantage of a thorough collegiate edu- 
 cation, so that he was left to achieve his own mental 
 discipline as best he could. He was able by dint of 
 perseverance, economy and industry to avail himself 
 of the advantages of academical schools. During 
 his boyhood the state, by a legislative enactment, 
 provided for the establishment of circulatory libra- 
 ries in the school districts, of one of which his father 
 became the custodian and librarian. To our sub- 
 ject, who had been starving for something more to 
 read than the few scattering books in the families of 
 the neighborhood, this was a God-send. It was a 
 fountain from which he drank largely, and upon 
 which he grew intellectually. He graduated from 
 the medical department of the University of Buffalo 
 in the spring of 1 851, and in the summer of the same 
 year commenced practice as the partner of a prac- 
 titioner of high standing in that city. But the severe 
 application incident to his professional studies now 
 began to recoil upon his health, demanding the more 
 vigorous exercise, and healthful atmosphere of the 
 country, and after twelve months of city practice 
 he was obliged to flee to the country for dear life. 
 Opening an office in the pleasant village of North 
 Evans, in his native state, he was soon crowded with 
 business that kept him in the saddle or the sulky al- 
 most constantly, under the stimulus of which he grew 
 strong and vigorous, regaining the ancestral vitality 
 and physical development. In 1857 he removed to 
 Iowa, and located at Iowa City. During the first 
 two years of his western experience his attention 
 was divided between his profession and outside op- 
 erations and speculations, which in the main were 
 
476 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 not remunerative. Afterward, relinquishing all sub- 
 sidiary affairs, he devoted himself exclusively to his 
 profession, and when the war opened in 1862 he 
 accepted the surgeoncy of the 12th Iowa Infantry, 
 which he joined in August of that year at Corinth, 
 Mississippi, and of which he retained medical com- 
 mand until it was mustered out nearly four years 
 after, being separated from it only when ordered to 
 positions of greater responsibility as surgeon-in- 
 chief of division or department. From the battle of 
 Corinth, one of the most fiercely contested of the 
 war, which occurred in October, 1862, he partici- 
 pated in nearly all the great achievements of the 
 army of the southwest, among which may be in- 
 stanced those of Vicksburg, Jackson, Nashville, Mo- 
 bile, and many lesser engagements, and in various 
 expeditions and raids that occupied the time be- 
 tween great battles, filling, in the meantime, all the 
 grades of responsibility to which a regimental sur- 
 geon is eligible. As surgeon of brigade, he served 
 on the staff of the gallant General Mathias, of Iowa; 
 as surgeon-in-chief of division, on the staff first of 
 General Mower and afterward of General McArthur. 
 As surgeon-in-chief of the department of Alabama, 
 on the staff of General Davies; this latter service 
 was rendered in 1865. The capitulation of Lee 
 found him at Montgomery, Alabama, but his division 
 was transferred soon after to Selma. Scarcely were 
 the troops fairly encamped in the environs of pictu- 
 resque Selma, than the doctor was ordered to pro- 
 ceed at once to visit the several confederate general 
 hospitals in his department, take possession of them 
 in behalf of our government, and convert such of 
 their stores as were available into use for the Union 
 troops, who were to be organized for the present into 
 an army of occupation. 
 
 He was afterward immediately ordered to Mont- 
 gomery, Alabama, to take charge of the central de- 
 pot of supplies for the department, the business of 
 which was in great confusion. He discharged the 
 duties of surgeon-in-chief to the department until 
 he was mustered out of the service in the winter of 
 i865--6, after a period of nearly four years of active 
 and arduous labor, interrupted only by a few days' 
 leave of absence in the winter of 1863-4, when he 
 was called home to see his dying wife. Returning 
 home in the spring of 1866, he entered again upon 
 the business of his profession, which he soon rebuilt. 
 
 Soon after his return he was elected to the posi- 
 tion of secretary to the State Historical Society and 
 -editor of its " Annals." The little publication grew 
 
 in his hands from a pamphlet of some thirty odd 
 pages to a dignified quarterly of magazine propor- 
 tions. Hitherto the state had been parsimonious 
 in its patronage of this noble enterprise. Feeling 
 deeply the need of more generous aid by the state. 
 Dr. Huff visited the legislature during its session 
 of 1868-9 at his own expense, and after a few weeks' 
 lobbying, secured an appropriation of seven thou- 
 sand dollars, with which to defray the expense of 
 printing and preserving the records and accumula- 
 tions of the society for the benefit of the future his- 
 torian of the state. The sum was carefully ex- 
 pended under the direction of the curators, and the 
 result is now a part of the archives of the State 
 University. After three years of toilsome but suc- 
 cessful labor in this work, more imperative demands 
 of private business compelled him to resign the po- 
 sition, and the work has since been measurably sus- 
 pended. Soon after this he was induced to engage 
 in a newspaper enterprise, the Iowa "Tribune," then 
 about to be started, and of which he afterward took 
 the editorial management ; but his professional du- 
 ties which he had never relinquished requiring his 
 attention, the paper soon after passed by absorption 
 into the hands of the "Republican." 
 
 In this connection we should not omit to notice 
 the fact that a very flattering unofficial invitation to 
 a " chair " in the medical department of the State 
 University was declined by Dr. Huff in favor of 
 the last-named enterprise. 
 
 The doctor was for several years, during his resi- 
 dence in Iowa City, president of the medical asso- 
 ciation of that county. He is also a member of the 
 State Medical Association, and in 1877 was a dele- 
 gate to the annual meeting of the National Medical 
 Association held at Chicago. 
 
 In the. spring of 1872 he removed to Sigourney, 
 where he has since been in active practice, with an 
 industry that would have broken down a constitu- 
 tion less vigorous. 
 
 In politics, he has always been a republican, al- 
 though for the past five years he has been other- 
 wise too fully occupied to devote much attention to 
 political matters. However, the late financial em- 
 barrassments of the country having called his at- 
 tention to the causes leading thereto, he was drawn 
 into sympathy with what is known as the greenback 
 movement, and having written and published in the 
 Sigourney " News " a series of articles on what may 
 be termed "the philosophy of the paper money 
 question," which attracted much attention, he was 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 477 
 
 naturally put forward as the standard bearer of the 
 party in his district, and nominated for the office of 
 state senator by that party. 
 
 The doctor has been twice married: first, in 1853, 
 in his native state, to Miss Harriet E. Borland, then 
 aged eighteen. She died in 1863, after ten years of 
 harmonious companionship, leaving an only child, 
 Alice, who has been educated at the State Univer- 
 sity of Iowa, and is now completing her musical 
 studies at an eastern institution. After a period of 
 seven years he married, in 1870, Miss Laura S. 
 Nickerson, a lady of New York parentage, born in 
 the historical town of Ticonderoga ; of high educa- 
 tion and refinement, and of fine artistic talents. The 
 fruits of the last union have been three children, 
 
 the eldest of whom, a darling boy, was accidentally 
 killed at his father's gate by a runaway team. The 
 others are named respectively Laura and Francis. 
 
 Dr. Huff is a man of fine physical proportions, 
 measuring six feet and weighing over two hundred 
 pounds, dark hair, fair skin, majestic and pleasing 
 countenance. His life has been full of work, and 
 he seems destined to wear out rather than rust out. 
 
 His taste for literature has not prevented him 
 from concentrating his intellectual forces on the 
 great sciences belonging to his profession. In it he 
 h;is always been a success, taking leading parts in 
 professional gatherings, making an enviable reputa- 
 tion as a practitioner and winning a large share of 
 patronage wherever he has been located. 
 
 GEORGE M. STAPLES, A.M., M.D., 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 GEORGE McLELLAN STAPLES was born 
 at Buxton Center, Maine, on the 26th of April, 
 1827. His parents were Hall J. and Abigail Staples. 
 His mother, nearly ninety years of age, is still hale 
 and vigorous. His grandfather on the father's side 
 was an officer of the revolution. When George was 
 fifteen years old a select school was opened four 
 miles from his home, and so anxious was he for an 
 education that he walked that distance twice a day, 
 and did not miss a day during the term. Prior to 
 that period he had had only common-school privi- 
 leges. In 1844 he entered Gorham Academy, and 
 by studying sixteen or seventeen hours a day he 
 was enabled to enter Waterville College, now Colby 
 University, in one year. He was graduated in 1849, 
 and was among the first scholars of his class. His 
 natural taste led him to select the medical profes- 
 sion. He studied with Dr. Allen Phillips, of Farm- 
 ington, in his native state. Before concluding his 
 medical studies he was a short time principal of 
 Hebron Academy, and two years at the head of the 
 Center grammar school for boys, in Portland. He 
 graduated as doctor of medicine in the medical 
 department of Harvard University, Boston, in March, 
 1855, and immediately formed a partnership with 
 his medical preceptor, with whose daughter, Abbie 
 Crosswell Phillips, he had formed a partnership in 
 August of the previous year. 
 
 Not fancying midnight rides over deep snowdrifts 
 in a rural town. Dr. Staples, before the end of the 
 
 first winter month, concluded to move to the west, 
 and found himself, an entire stranger, in the city 
 of Dubuque, Iowa, on the 3d of January, 1856. He 
 had acquired a lucrative and growing practice be- 
 fore the civil war broke out ; soon after that event, in 
 November, 1861, he accepted the office of surgeon 
 of the 14th regiment Iowa Infantry, and saw much 
 hard service. On the opening of the battle of Fort 
 Donelson he was ordered to the general hospital, 
 and for six days did not remove his clothing, and 
 found very little time for sleep. At Pittsburgh Land- 
 ing on the morning of the battle he was appointed 
 surgeon-in-chief of Wallace's division, and provided 
 for all his wounded, between seven hundred and 
 eight hundred men. Soon after the occupation of 
 Corinth, from excessive labor, his health gave way, 
 and he was compelled to ask for leave of absence to 
 return north. About this time complaint was made 
 that many disabled men had been enlisted in the 
 new regiments, and at Adjutant-general Baker's re- 
 quest General Grant ordered Dr. Staples to proceed 
 to Dubuque and examine the four regiments forming 
 there in August, 1862. The autumn of that year 
 found him again at the front, and in the spring of 
 1863 he was transferred to Columbus, Kentucky, 
 and appointed medical director of the sixth division, 
 sixteenth army corps, on General Asboth's staff. 
 When this officer was relieved by General A. J. 
 Smith Dr. Staples continued with the latter officer, 
 accompanying him on General Sherman's raid from 
 
478 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Vicksburg to Meridian in the winter of 1863-4, and 
 subsequently, as medical director of right wing, six- 
 teenth army corps, up the red river to cooperate with 
 General Banks, then back to Mississippi, where at 
 Tupelo, after a brilliant victory over General For- 
 est won by General Smith, Dr. Staples had thrown 
 upon his hands, as before upon the Red River cam- 
 paign, hundreds of wounded men, most of whom 
 had to be dressed and transported in wagons a dis- 
 tance of fifty or sixty miles over the worst kind of 
 roads. Still acting as medical director, he accom- 
 panied this command into Missouri, sent there to 
 repel General Price. The term of service of the 
 14th Iowa Infantry had now about expired, and the 
 regiment had started for home ; but General Smith 
 refused to part with his medical director until the 
 campaign closed. When finally Dr. Staples was 
 relieved from duty General Smith sat down and 
 hastily wrote as follows : 
 
 Headquarters Right Wing Sixteenth Army Corps, 
 
 Harrisonville, Missouri, October 28, 1864. 
 
 Surgeon G. M. Staples: 
 
 Dear Sir, — You have acted as the medical director of the 
 right wing of the sixteenth army corps since April of this 
 year, and been attached to my personal staff. You are now 
 about to leave the service, and in justice to you I must ten- 
 der you my most hearty thanks for the very able manner 
 you have discharged the various duties devolved upon you. 
 fc)ur intercourse has always been most friendly, and I hope 
 our friendship may die only with us. Wishing you health 
 and prosperity, I remain, ever your true friend, 
 
 A. J. Smith, Major-General. 
 
 Dr. Staples was mustered out of the service at 
 Davenport, Iowa, on the i6th of November, 1864. 
 The following winter he was breveted lieutenant- 
 colonel by the President, for " faithful and meritori- 
 
 ous services during the war." He immediately 
 resumed practice in Dubuque, and has built up an 
 extensive business both as medical practitioner and 
 surgeon. It is said that he performed the first suc- 
 cessful case of ovariotomy in this section of country, 
 removing, in the spring of 1872, a tumor, weighing, 
 with its contents, forty pounds. The woman is still 
 alive and well. He was also among the first to 
 resort to amputation of the leg through the knee 
 joint, now so popular. 
 
 Dr. Staples has filled all the offices of the Dubuque 
 Medical Society, and has long been a member of the 
 American Medical Association. He has contributed 
 several valuable papers to the medical journals of 
 the country, and is a close student and enthusiastic- 
 ally devoted to his profession. His reputation is 
 widespread, and the benefit of his experience is 
 extensively sought for in difficult cases. 
 
 Dr. Staples has been a republican from the origin 
 of the party, and a member of the Methodist church 
 for more than twenty years. As a christian citizen 
 and medical practitioner, he has always exhibited 
 the finest traits of character. His sympathies are 
 enlisted in every benevolent enterprise. The great 
 resources of his art and skill are always at the com- 
 mand of the public, and he has never been known 
 to refuse medical aid to the worthy poor whenever 
 it was possible for him to render it. 
 
 Dr. Staples has a sandy complexion and a san- 
 guine temperament ; is a little above the medium 
 height, with symmetrical proportions, and though 
 nearly fifty years of age is still as vigorous as in 
 middle life. 
 
 JESSE C. WARE, M. D., 
 
 FAIRFIELD. 
 
 TH E pioneer physician in Jefferson county, 
 Iowa, was Jessie Corfield Ware, a resident of 
 Fairfield since 1840 He practiced here long be- 
 fore there were any roads or bridges in the county, 
 visiting his few scattered patients, in some case.s, 
 by following Indian trails across a prairie ten or 
 twelve miles wide, sometimes going thirty or forty 
 miles. He was at one time the family physician of 
 Keokuk, then at the Indian agency in Wapello coun- 
 ty, twenty miles from Fairfield ; was also the physi- 
 cian of other Indian agencies. He was appointed 
 physician to the agencies by General Street. 
 
 When he located at Fairfield, thirty-eight years 
 ago, there were not more than half a dozen families 
 in the place; Cranmore Gage and the widow of Ellis 
 Woods being the only persons, now living there, that 
 were there when he came. 
 
 Dr. Ware was born near Blairsville, Pennsylvania, 
 on the 6th of March, 181 2, and was the son of 
 Hugh and Rebecca (Hanson) Ware. The Wares 
 are Scotch-Irish, and were an early family in Vir- 
 ginia. The parents of Jessie moved to Hillsboro, 
 Highland county, Ohio, when he was six years old. 
 The son was educated at Oxford College, from 
 
TtiM UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL BlCTlOMART. 
 
 479 
 
 which he was graduated in 1831. He read medi- 
 cine at first with Dr. McCollum, of Petersburg, and 
 then with Dr. Kirby, of Hillsboro, and attended lec- 
 tures in Cincinnati. 
 
 In 1846, after practicing several years, he attend- 
 ed a course of lectures in Saint Louis, and received 
 his diploma in 1846. He practiced two years in 
 Knox county, Illinois, and two years in Saint Louis, 
 Missouri; removed to Iowa in 1837, and after prac- 
 ticing three years at Fort Madison and West Point, 
 in Lee county, he located permanently in Fairfield, 
 where he has since spent nearly all his time in gen- 
 eral practice. 
 
 In 1846 he went to Saint Louis, attended a course 
 of medical lectures, and received his diploma. 
 
 In 1850 he took a trip to California, was absent 
 about eighteen months, and part of that time was in 
 practice at Sacramento. In 1864 he spent a few 
 months at Virginia City, Montana Territory. 
 
 The doctor is still in practice, doing all the busi- 
 ness that a man of his age could reasonably wish 
 for — more than he desires. He stands perfectly 
 erect, and is as active, seemingly, as he was at forty 
 
 years of age. No stranger would take him to be 
 even sixty years old. 
 
 He has seen Fairfield grow from an embryo vil- 
 lage to a city of thirty-five hundred inhabitants, in- 
 cluding nine or ten doctors. He has attended to 
 his profession with the utmost closeness, having held 
 only one office, that of marshal, to take the census 
 in i860, an office almost forced upon him. 
 
 He has been a life-long democrat, and for years 
 attended most of the state conventions. He is well 
 known all over the state, especially among politi- 
 cians. By all classes he is highly respected. 
 
 On the 5th of July, 1833, Miss Jenny Ware, a 
 cousin, and daughter of James Ware, of Bourbon 
 county, Kentucky, was joined in wedlock with Dr. 
 Ware, and they had one child that died in infancy. 
 He has educated three orphan boys, two of them 
 now lawyers in Dubuque and one of them an edi- 
 tor in California, also two orphan girls. He now 
 has a fourth boy, whom he is raising and educating. 
 The doctor is a man of humane and very generous 
 impulses, kind to everybody. His friends are many, 
 his enemies few, if any. 
 
 JOHN MACLAY AND COMPANY, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 THE growth and prosperous condition of this 
 house is a fine illustration of what industry 
 and integrity, coupled with energy and a prudent 
 oversight of business, can accomplish in a few years, 
 though starting on a very small capital. John Mac- 
 lay and J. C. Green opened a stove and tin store 
 at No. 768 Main street, in 1853, with a capital of 
 about one hundred dollars. A wagon shop then 
 stood on the leased lot, and they cut thirty feet off 
 the front part and put up a frame front, using the 
 rest of the wagon shop for a tin shop. At the end 
 of five years Mr. Maclay bought out Mr. Green. 
 The business steadily increased, and at the end of 
 five more years Mr. Maclay put a man into the field 
 and gradually branched out in the wholesale line. 
 In 1866 he purchased the lot, tore down the old 
 store, removed the debris of the wagon shop in the 
 rear and put up a three-story brick store nineteen 
 by one hundred and thirteen feet, and filled it from 
 bottom to top with merchandise. At the close of 
 187s his business capital had" increased from fifty 
 dollars, his share in the original investment, to thir- 
 48 
 
 ty-five thousand dollars, and his sales that year 
 amounted to one hundred and forty thousand dol- 
 lars. In March, 1876, he took into partnership 
 two young men who had been in his employ for 
 several years, their names being James W. Concher 
 and Charles Schreiber. They had become thor- 
 oughly posted in the business and had proved them- 
 selves to be faithful, energetic business men. The 
 wholesale trade of this house has had a healthy in- 
 crease from year to year, and has spread over north- 
 ern Iowa, southern Minnesota, northwestern Illinois 
 and western Wisconsin. Stoves and tinners' stock 
 have long been made a specialty, the stoves being 
 selected from the best foundries in the United 
 States. Since Mr. Maclay opened a store in 1853 
 at 768 Main street, that store has never wavered an 
 iota in financial firmness. 
 
 John Maclay is of Scotch parentage, and was born 
 in New York city, on the i8th of August, 1826. In 
 his infancy his family removed to Pittsburgh, and 
 three or four years afterward to Galena, Illinois. He 
 attended a common school for a few weeks each 
 
48o 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DlCTIONAttr. 
 
 winter until he was fifteen, when he was appren- 
 ticed to a tinsmith. He left Galena for Dubuque, 
 Iowa, in 1845, and worked at his trade here as a 
 journeyman until he went into business as before 
 stated. 
 
 He has been a member of the Presbyterian church 
 since 1842, and an elder for more than twenty years. 
 He is now the senior elder of the Second Presbyte- 
 rian church, Dubuque. 
 
 Mr. Maclay is a- republican, unwavering in his 
 political principles, but not an office-seeker. He 
 served, against his wishes, two years as alderman, 
 maintaining in that position, as in every other, his 
 high sense of integrity. 
 
 In 1847 he was married to Miss Anna Alexander, 
 a lady of Scotch descent and most estimable char- 
 acter. They have seven children living, and have 
 lost one or two. 
 
 GEORGE H. WARREN, 
 
 TAMA CITT. 
 
 AMONG the younger class of men whose names 
 . appear in this book is George Henry Warren, 
 who was born in Whitingham, Vermont, on the i8th 
 of December, 1844. His parents were Linus Austin 
 Warren, a well-to-do farmer, and Sophronia Parker, 
 both industrious, religious and much respected peo- 
 ple. They had five children, three boys and two 
 girls, and strove to bring up all of them carefully, 
 early instilling into their tender hearts the pure 
 principles of Christianity. George H. was the fourth 
 child. His paternal grandfather, Deacon Jarties 
 Warren, moved from Conway, Massachusetts, to 
 Whitingham at an early date, settling in the wil- 
 derness, and residing in that town until old age, 
 dying at Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, where he 
 lived a short time. The maternal grandfather of 
 George H. was Captain Samuel Parker, of Whiting- 
 ham, a revolutionary soldier, who was detailed for 
 special service under General Washington, with 
 whom he was a favorite. Both the Warren and 
 Parker families were remarkable for their physical 
 strength and longevity. 
 
 From what we can learn in regard to the early 
 life of Mr. Warren, it would appear to have been 
 unusually happy. He had a pleasant home, affec- 
 tionate parents, a love for books, and an opportunity 
 to gratify it. He preferred mental to physical labor, 
 and for that reason some of his bucolic associates 
 called him "lazy," and that annoyed him; it was, 
 perhaps, the sole grief of childhood years. He had 
 so much literary ambition that at fifteen he was 
 prepared to teach, and commenced his first district 
 school. For three years he taught during the winter 
 and studied in the summer. 
 
 At eighteen he entered the old and famous acade- 
 my at Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, paying his 
 
 way by teaching a part of each day, while carrying 
 on a regular and full course of studies. At nine- 
 teen, owing to mental overwork, his health began 
 to decline, and he gave up the idea, fondly cher- 
 ished, of going through Brown University. He be- 
 came teller of the Shelburne Falls National Bank, 
 and soon afterward cashier of the same. Prior to 
 this period he had been looking to the law as his 
 profession, but relinquished this hope and made up 
 his mind to be a banker. 
 
 In the winter of 1868 he resigned his position in 
 the bank at Shelburne Falls, came to Tama .City 
 and carried on a private banking business until 
 October, 187 1, when the First National Bank of 
 Tama City was organized, of which institution he 
 has since held the position of cashier, and has man- 
 aged its business with a great deal of clerical and 
 executive ability. 
 
 During the last three or four years he has like- 
 wise given a great deal of attention, and all the 
 energy at his command, to the development of the 
 water-power on the Iowa river at this point. He 
 seems to be deeply impressed with the importance 
 of encouraging manufactures at the west, as a hand- 
 maid of railroads in embracing the true interests of 
 all classes. The water-power enterprise, started here 
 in 1874, has proved a grand success, several manu- 
 factories being already in operation. While others 
 wavered and became indifferent as regarded this 
 noble scheme, Mr. Warren, with characteristic per- 
 sistency, continued his efforts to keep it before the 
 people. 
 
 At a grand jubilee held on the completion of this 
 work, on the 13th of November, 1874, Rev. O. A. 
 Holmes read a historical essay, in which he thus 
 spoke of Mr. Warren's part in the work : 
 
^:^^^^'F^^-^^ 
 
 '-l,rjirj..i '.n^'-lB-'.hyStJT 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAItT. 
 
 483 
 
 It is just to say, of all those who have labored for the 
 accomplishment of this work, G. H. Warren is deserving 
 of the highest credit. It is safe to say, only for Mr. Warren 
 it would not have been undertaken, and no one but he 
 could have carried it through. It was his strong faith, his 
 dogged persistence, that did it. Some men do not know 
 when they are defeated, and will always manage to turn a 
 defeat into a victory. Such a man is G. H. Warren. 
 
 In 1875 Mr. Warren formed the Union Plow Com- 
 pany, which bids fair to become one of the most 
 successful enterprises in the interior of Iowa. 
 
 He joined the Freemasons in Massachusetts in 
 1867, and took the chapter degrees at Tama City 
 in 1870. 
 
 He has been a member of the Baptist churgh 
 since ten years of age, and has been accustomed 
 from youth to make every business enterprise, or 
 project or charge of any kind, a subject of especial 
 prayer. He is convinced that his petitions have 
 been answered, and evidently believes his Heavenly 
 Father regards the minutest as well as greatest in- 
 terests of the trusting one's life. He superintends 
 the Sunday-school, and aims to make himself useful 
 in many ways. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Warren is republican, but is not 
 very active. 
 
 He married his wife at Shelburne Falls, Massa- 
 chusetts, on the 14th of April, 1866, she being Miss 
 
 Kate Louise Gardner, only child of Joseph W. Gard- 
 ner, a celebrated cutlery manufacturer of that place. 
 Mr. Gardner is a native of England, and is a man 
 of wealth and high standing. Mrs. Warren is the 
 mother of one child. 
 
 Mr. Warren has a light complexion, is five feet 
 and nine inches tall, and weighs one hundred and 
 thirty-five pounds. Persons who know him best 
 call him very conscientious and considerate. It is 
 not likely that he ever intentionally injured any 
 one. He has been wronged himself by trusting 
 too implicitly in the promises and pledges of other 
 persons whom he took to be honest and reliable. 
 He believes there is a great deal of goodness in 
 mankind in the concrete, but has found it rather 
 diluted in some cases where he expected to find it 
 in its full strength. He, however, is more to be 
 commended who is overtrustful and confiding, 
 though he may sometimes lose in the game of life, 
 than he who distrusts everybody, approaches every 
 man with his fists doubled up, and whose life is a 
 warfare with the better elements of his own nature. 
 Experience has taught Mr. Warren that caution may 
 be a virtue; of late years he has made liberal use of 
 it, and his life thus far, in a pecuniary and in every 
 sense has been a splendid success. 
 
 REV. GAMALIEL C. BEAMAN, 
 
 KEOSAU^UA. 
 
 GAMALIEL CARTER BEAMAN was born at 
 Winchendon, Massachusetts, on the 20th of 
 March, 1799, and was a son of Captain David Bea- 
 man, of that place. He graduated at Union College 
 and Andover Theological Seminary, and entered the 
 Presbyterian ministry in 1831. He was married the 
 sarae'year to Elizabeth G. Jacobs, and removed to 
 Piketon, Pike county, Ohio, and there organized a 
 Presbyterian church ; became a prominent leader in 
 the anti-slavery movement of those days, and par- 
 ticipated in the conflict in that county with the pro- 
 slavery element, coming near losing his life several 
 times at the hands of pro-slavery mobs. While 
 there, in 1834, his wife died. 
 
 In 1836 he was married to Emelia Crichton, who 
 was born in Perthshire, Scotland, in 1814, and was 
 a descendant of the Crichton family to which the 
 Admiral Crichton beloiiged. 
 
 Mr. Beaman removed to Burlington, Lawrence 
 
 county, Ohio, in 1837, and for five years was princi- 
 pal of the academy there. 
 
 In 1846 he removed to Montrose, Lee county, 
 Iowa, and organized one of the pioneer Presbyterian 
 churches in the midst of the Mormon settlements 
 of that region. The Mormon war was then in pro- 
 gress, and soon after the Mormon temple at Nauvoo, 
 Illinois, just across the Mississippi river opposite 
 Montrose, was burned, and a general exodus of Mor- 
 mons took place. The temple stood upon an emi- 
 nence about a mile from the river, which at that 
 point is over a mile in width, making its distance 
 from Montrose over two miles. Notwithstanding 
 this distance a newspaper of the finest print could 
 be easily read by the light of the burning temple, 
 and for more than four miles in the surrounding 
 country people got out of their beds and chickens 
 crowed, supposing it to be daylight. The conflagra- 
 tion occurred about two o'clock in the morning. 
 
484 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 Having placed the church at Montrose on a sure 
 footing, and having, as it were, a desire for more 
 aggressive work, he removed in 1852 to Croton, in 
 the same county and on the Des Moines river, into 
 the midst of the infidel colony of Abner Kneeland. 
 Kneeland had been imprisoned in Boston, Massa- 
 chusetts, a few years before for blasphemy, and on 
 his release had sought this beautiful location when 
 almost entirely unsettled, and had written to his 
 friends in the east to come out and locate there, as 
 he had found a place where there was "no priest, no 
 God, no heaven, no hell." 
 
 Soon, however, he was overtaken by the onward 
 march of Christianity, and Mr. Beaman organized 
 there another pioneer church and planted the stand- 
 ard of the cross in the very center of the infidel's 
 stronghold. For twenty-one years the contest be- 
 tween infidelity and religion was carried on ; several 
 other churches were organized in the neighborhood 
 by Mr. Beaman ; the influence and spread of infi- 
 delity was checked, and finally its organization was 
 wholly overthrown, its followers dead or scattered 
 until almost every vestige of it has disappeared, and 
 the benign influence of the religion of the Redeemer 
 
 is felt and revered where once the icy pall of atheism 
 covered the land like a dark cloud. 
 
 Having thus accomplished a great work at that 
 place, Mr. Beaman received a call in 1873 to return 
 to his old charge at Montrose, which was accepted. 
 He continued at Montrose until 1875, when, being 
 quite old, his declining strength compelled him to 
 desist from ministerial labors, which he had prose- 
 cuted without cessation for forty-four years. This 
 he did with great reliictance, having continued to 
 preach as long as his strength enabled him to go 
 from his house to the church. 
 
 .In 1875, being evidently near the close of his life, 
 he removed to the residence of his son, D. C. Bea- 
 man, at Keosauqua, in Van Buren county, where on 
 the 26th of October, 1875, he died a peaceful death, 
 at the advanced age of seventy-six years, after an 
 eventful and well spent life of more than forty-four 
 years as a soldier of the cross, bearing its banner 
 continually in the forefront of the conflict and upon 
 the high places of the field. 
 
 He was always an advocate of temperance and 
 abolitionism, and lived to see a part of his desire 
 realized in the overthrow of slavery in this country. 
 
 DAVID C. BEAMAN, 
 
 KEOSAUQUA. 
 
 DAVID CRICHTON BEAMAN, was a son of 
 Rev. Gamaliel C. Beaman, and was born at 
 Burlington, Lawrence count)', Ohio, on the 22d of 
 November, 1838. He moved with his parents to 
 Montrose, Iowa, in 1846, and to Croton, Iowa, in 
 1852. 
 
 He was educated at Denmark Academy, Iowa, 
 and Oberlin College, Ohio, but did not take a regu- 
 lar collegiate course nor graduate. 
 
 After leaving school, and in i860, he entered the 
 employ of a railroad company as station agent, that 
 being at that time congenial to his taste. 
 
 He was married on the 31st of December, i860, 
 to Miss Luella A. Smith, daughter of Dabzell Smith, 
 of St. Louis ; granddaughter of Arthur Thome, of 
 Athens, Missouri, and niece of Professor James A. 
 Thome, of Oberlin College. 
 
 He removed in 1862 to Independent, Van Buren 
 county, continuing in the employ of the railroad 
 company until 1867. He then engaged in merchan- 
 (lising at Independent, in which he remained for 
 
 about two years. He began the study of the law, 
 with the intention of adopting it as a profession, in 
 1867, having prosecuted it during the time he was 
 engaged in other employment, being obliged to con- 
 tinue in business as a means of support ; was admit- 
 ted to the bar in September, 1869, at Keosauqua, 
 and has been engaged in constant practice since that 
 time. 
 
 In November, 1874, he removed to Keosauqua, 
 and there formed a law partnership with Rutledge 
 Lea, one of the most reputable firms in this part of 
 the Des Moines valley. Their business is extensive 
 and extending, built on their high character as law- 
 yers and their integrity as men. 
 
 Coming from New England and Scotch ancestors, 
 Mr. Beaman was naturally a republican in politics, 
 and has always been an ardent supporter of repub- 
 lican principles. 
 
 Prior to engaging in the practice of the law he 
 had always taken a somewhat active part in politics, 
 but since that time his attention has been almost 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 485 
 
 wholly devoted to his profession. He has held several 
 minor offices and responsible positions. He was the 
 republican candidate for the legislature in Van Buren 
 county in 1875, but was defeated by a small ma- 
 jority. He attended the national republican con- 
 vention in Cincinnati in 1876, when President Hayes 
 was nominated. He belongs to the Masonic fra- 
 ternity, having joined in 1876. 
 
 Mr. Beaman is a believer in the truth of Christi- 
 anity, but is not a professor of religion. In moral 
 character he is above suspicion, and is active in all 
 commendable enterprises. 
 
 Mr, Beaman is a hard-working, methodical lawyer, 
 of good judgment and knowledge of the law. As 3, 
 speaker, he is conversational in style, but exhaustive, 
 aiming to cover the whole case and leave no point 
 of benefit untouched. In law, as in everything else, 
 he does no slipshod work. He has been a resident 
 of Keosauqua but three or four years, yet is thor- 
 oughly known by the citizens, and his usefulness in 
 the community seems to be well appreciated. The 
 firm name of Lea and Beaman stands in this com- 
 munity for a good deal of moral as well as legal 
 weight. 
 
 DANIEL O. FINCH, 
 
 DBS MOINES. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch was born in Una- 
 dilla, Otsego county. New York, on the 6th of 
 June, 1829. His parents were David and Ruth Ann 
 Finch, natives of Connecticut. His paternal grand- 
 father. Ransom Mallory, was a captain in the revo- 
 lutionary war, and, at its close, was married to Ruth 
 Ann Wooster. 
 
 At the early age of eleven Mr. Finch was de- 
 prived of the care and counsel of his father by 
 death. Prior to this event he had attended the com- 
 mon school in his own neighborhood, but shortly 
 afterward he was sent by his mother to the Dela- 
 ware Institute, at Franklin, Delaware county. Here 
 he remained four years, and after attending the Ox- 
 ford Academy, Chenango county, was qualified to 
 enter the sophomore class in college. At that period, 
 however, he gave up his hope for a classical educa- 
 tion and commenced the study of law. For two 
 years he remained in the office of Judge C. C. Noble, 
 at his native place, when he entered the Fowler Law 
 School, then at Cherry Valley. After graduating at 
 this school he went to Poughkeepsie and remained 
 there until November, 1847, when he left for the 
 west, locating at Monroe, Green county, Wisconsin. 
 The following spring he was admitted to the practice 
 of his profession, being then nineteen years of age. 
 Mr. Finch remained there for two years, diligently 
 engaged in his profession. In the spring of 1851 he 
 came to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where, in addition to 
 the duties of his profession, he edited a democratic 
 paper. 
 
 On the i6th of September, 1851, he was married 
 to Miss Ellen Maria Calder, daughter of Joseph 
 
 Calder, formerly of New York. Her parents were 
 natives of England, but were married after coming 
 to America. Her mother, whose maiden name was 
 Keeling, has recently celebrated her seventy-seventh 
 birthday. Mrs. Finch's grandfather. Keeling, was a 
 very successful farmer, and had attained the ad- 
 vanced age of ninety years when he was accidentally 
 killed by the fall of a tree. He was a man of much 
 influence, and owned one of the finest farms on 
 Otsego Lake. 
 
 Mr. Finch was for some three years a member of 
 the law firm of Ware, Finch and Co., of which com- 
 pany Judge George Greene was a member. This 
 latter gentleman was the author of " Greene's Re- 
 ports," the first law book published in Iowa. In 
 the spring of 1853 Mr. Finch closed his business 
 affairs in Cedar Rapids, and the following summer 
 removed to Des Moines, then a place of two hun- 
 dred and fifty inhabitants. Here he at once engaged 
 in the practice of law, being associated with Judge 
 Curtis Bates. Mr. Finch was also interested in the 
 banking business. In addition to the arduous labors 
 these pursuits gave him, he found time to write 
 many articles, and for some time was editor of the 
 " Iowa Star." In 1855 Judge Bates left the firm, and 
 was succeeded by General M. M. Crocker. Since 
 that time Mr. Finch has been associated with Judge 
 Mitchell; Hon. J. A. Kasson, present United States 
 minister to Austria; George Clark, Esq., now of 
 Saint Louis; Byron Rice, and John D. River. His 
 present partner is W. S. Sickman. 
 
 During the campaign of 1856 he was on the elec- 
 toral ticket for Buchanan, and canvassed one half 
 
486 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 the counties in the state. In i860 he was a dele- 
 gate to the national democratic convention held at 
 Charleston, and took an active part in the nomina- 
 tion of Hon. Stephen A. Douglas. In 1862 he ran 
 for congress in the fifth district, but was defeated 
 by a small majority. In 1864 he was a member of 
 the same convention held at Chicago, and supported 
 General George B. McClellan for the Presidency. 
 When the convention was held in New York, in 1868, 
 Mr. Finch was again a delegate, and an earnest sup- 
 porter of Horatio Seymour. In 1876 he was chair- 
 man of the Iowa delegation, in the national demo- 
 cratic convention which met at Saint Louis, and was 
 president of the democratic state convention in 1877. 
 Mr. Finch is one of the oldest law practitioners in 
 Iowa, having been engaged in his profession some 
 twenty-eight years. His practice, both civil and 
 criminal, has been large, and he has been very suc- 
 cessful. To his excellent oratory and earnest appli- 
 
 cation much of this is due. He attended the earliest 
 courts in more than fifteen counties, some of which 
 have since become the most populous and wealthy 
 in Iowa. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Finch have always been faithful 
 members of the Episcopal church, and have given 
 their children a careful christian training. Their 
 first-born son, Willie, died at the age of four years; 
 the second son, Joseph Calder, has prepared himself 
 for the Episcopal ministry, — he was born on the 8th 
 of January, 1855 ; the iiext son, Daniel Mallory, 
 born on the 17th of May, 1858, is at home and will 
 probably adopt the profession of his father; Edward 
 Douglas, born on the isth of October, i86t, is in 
 the Des Moines High School ; the youngest, Charles 
 Marcus, born on the 8th of February, 1864, is still 
 in the city graded school. The boys are all intelli- 
 gent and promise a good future, based on the train- 
 ing given them in early childhood. 
 
 COLONEL MILO SMITH, 
 
 CLINTON. 
 
 COLONEL MILO SMITH, financier, soldier, 
 and one of the first railroad pioneers west of 
 Chicago, was born on the 25th of January, 1819, in 
 Shoreham, Addison county, Vermont. His ancestors 
 were among the oldest families of the state, and came 
 originally of a good old Saxon stock. He is the 
 son of James Smith, and grandson of John Smith, 
 a revolutionary hero, well known in his day for his 
 disinterested patriotism and sterling integrity. The 
 mother of Colonel Smith was a lady of great per- 
 sonal worth and benevolence, who was highly es- 
 teemed in all the relations of life ; her maiden name 
 was Sarah Cochran. The family estate descended 
 from the grandfather, who received it in considera- 
 tion of services rendered during the war of inde- 
 pendence. The original and only deed of the prop- 
 erty is dated 1798. The farm upon which James 
 Smith lived and 'died, at the age of eighty-five, was 
 given to him in his boyhood ; the domain is still 
 in possession of the family, the property having been 
 inherited by one of the sons. The longevity of this 
 family is most remarkable : of eleven children, all 
 but one attained the age of eighty-five. Colonel 
 Smith, like his ancestors, is a man of strong and 
 vigorous constitution, of a solid, compact organiza- 
 tion, and a clear and active intellect. 
 
 His early education was received in the public 
 schools, supplemented by a thorough and liberal 
 course of instruction in the Newton Academy, a sci- 
 entific and literary institution of some eminence in 
 his native town. 
 
 During the four years subsequent to the age of 
 sixteen his time was devoted alternately to laboring 
 on the farm in summer, and in teaching school in 
 winter. 
 
 At the age of twenty he left home, and, following 
 the star- of empire westward, reached Chicago in 
 1840. In this locality he devoted a few years, both 
 as teacher and likewise as land surveyor, and sub- 
 sequently settled in Belvidere, Boone county, Illi- 
 nois. In 1848 when the first railroad enterprise was 
 originated west of Chicago, he assisted as civil engi- 
 neer in the construction of the first one hundred 
 miles of the Galena and Chicago Union railroad. 
 In 1852 he was appointed chief engineer and super- 
 intendent of the Elgin and State Line railroad. 
 In all these responsible positions his sterling quali- 
 ties and marked ability have been conspicuously 
 displayed. In 1855 he came to Iowa, and was made 
 chief engineer and superintendent of the Chicago, 
 Iowa and Nebraska railroad. In this position his 
 ability as a financier, and his skill as an engineer. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTlOiSTART. 
 
 487 
 
 were severely tasked. During the panic of 1 85 7, all the 
 directors having abandoned the road, Colonel Smith 
 carried the company successfully and triumphantly 
 through that financial crisis. To facilitate transpor- 
 tation, and utilize the entire line already completed, 
 he built a bridge across the east half of the Missis- 
 sippi river, and constructed, at the same time, a boat- 
 transfer to convey loaded cars over the west half. 
 The enterprise was crowned with entire and perfect 
 success. Although unprecedented and hitherto un- 
 known to the engineering fraternity, the impediment 
 to be overcome was the periodic rise and fall of 
 the river of more than eighteen feet. It was neces- 
 sary that the surface of the stream should be brought 
 (when needed) on the same horizontal plane with 
 the railroad track ; in short, it was a problem for the 
 engineer to bring into practical harmony or union 
 this rising and falling bosom of the river with the 
 land-track of the road. By a most ingenious device 
 Colonel Smith solved the problem, and was the first 
 to bring it into practical application. The under- 
 taking had been previously denounced by the oldest 
 engineers as an impossibility, and the president of 
 the road himself had so little faith in the success of 
 the enterprise, that he pronounced its author crazy. 
 The same opprobrious epithet, it will be remembered, 
 was likewise applied to Mr. Stephenson, the father 
 of railways. The world has too few such crazy men. 
 It is not easy, at this day, when the railroad system 
 is thoroughly organized and acknowledged success- 
 ful, to appreciate how onerous and responsible those 
 duties were. The respective rights of the public 
 and the road were yet undefined, and the immense 
 labor of organization had all to be performed with- 
 out the light of precedent or example.- Although 
 the company justly recognized that one mind must 
 control the whole untrammeled by its interference 
 or conflicting opinions, yet the bold and original 
 plan practically executed by Colonel Smith was by 
 many sound and cautious men deemed a hazardous 
 and even chimerical experiment, likely enough to 
 bankrupt its stockholders. In his broad and com- 
 prehensive grasp of railroad interests he has few, if 
 any, equals, and certainly no superiors. Hence for 
 years he may be said to have been the autocrat of 
 western railways, carrying his plans with little oppo- 
 sition, and using his influence with such discretion 
 that neither employes nor stockholders ever pre- 
 ferred just ground of complaint against his manage- 
 ment. It may not be inappropriate, in this connec- 
 tion, to call attention to a fact not generally known, 
 
 thai the American Zanzibar trade, on the east coast 
 of Africa, is almost monopolized by a Salem, Massa- 
 chusetts, man, Captain John Bertram, formerly pres- 
 ident of the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska railroad, 
 at the time Colonel Smith held the position of chief 
 engineer and superintendent. It was chiefly through 
 the action of this gentleman himself that the trade 
 recently has been transferred to Boston, having been 
 many years controlled by him against all American 
 and foreign competition. Against the antagonism 
 of such masterly minds as this Colonel Smith carried 
 the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska railroad through 
 the panic of 1857, and continued to superintend 
 the operation of the road after its completion to 
 Cedar Rapids until leased to the Galena and Chi- 
 cago Union railroad. 
 
 In 1862, a call having been made for three hun- 
 dred thousand men. Governor Kirkwood, without 
 his knowledge or solicitation, commissioned him 
 colonel of the 26th Iowa Infantry. His military 
 career has been equally varied and honorable, and 
 characteristic of the man. He did not seek a posi- 
 tion, but his country claimed his services, and duty 
 and patriotism assigned him a place in the Union 
 army. 
 
 His regiment formed a part of the first division 
 of the fifteenth army corps, and continued in service 
 until the close of the war. He was with General 
 Sherman in his movements in and around Vicks- 
 burg and Atlanta, and in his march to the sea; and 
 during eighteen months he was in command of the 
 first brigade of the first division of that corps. His 
 distinguished services have won for him just enco- 
 miums from his brother officers and government offi- 
 cials. Although his acknowledged military talents 
 and ability justly entitled him to promotion, yet the 
 marked modesty of his character induced him to 
 decline all advancement and remain with the men 
 he had led to the field. Prominent and foremost 
 in all civil enterprises, and equally so in military 
 undertakings, he led his men in all the services they 
 rendered, as three honorable wounds will ever bear 
 sufficient record and ample testimony. Since the 
 close of the rebellion he has been engaged in various 
 railroad enterprises, and in building up Clmton, the 
 city of his adoption. His energy, foresight, thorough- 
 ness of action, and ability to overcome all obstacles, 
 are proverbial. Nothing that he undertakes is a 
 failure. From the moment that he grasps an enter- 
 prise, be it regarded by other minds as a chimera, or 
 at best but of doubtful expediency, from that mo- 
 
488 
 
 TUn UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DtCTIONARi'. 
 
 ment it acquires a life, a character and a success. 
 He has invariably declined every solicitation to take 
 office, preferring the reputation of a worthy and pri- 
 vate citizen. 
 
 In politics, Colonel Smith is a decided republican, 
 although not strictly a partisan. 
 
 His religious views are liberal, and although not a 
 member, is a regular attendant of the Episcopal 
 church. 
 
 In 1847 he married Mary J. Dodge, of Shirley, 
 Massachusetts, who was lost on the steamer Atlan- 
 tic, on Lake Erie, in 1852. He was again united in 
 
 matrimony with Miss D. E. Oatman in 1854. After 
 a few years of conjugal happiness, this lady died in 
 
 1868. He is now living with his third wife, for- 
 merly Mrs. C. A. Baker, to whom he was married in 
 
 1869. He has no children living. 
 
 Colonel Smith is emphatically a self-made man. 
 He may be described as the embodiment of the 
 genius of young America. Bold and successful in 
 all his undertakings, by his never-questioned ability 
 and indefatigable industry he has secured wealth, 
 and at the same time maintained a high reputation 
 for integrity and benevolence. 
 
 JAMES C. TRAER, M.D., 
 
 VINTON. 
 
 THE oldest settler and first physician in Vinton, 
 Benton county, Iowa, is James Clarkson Traer, 
 a native of Knox county, Ohio. His birth dates the 
 7 th of September, 1825, he being a son of James 
 Traer, then a farmer in the town of Berlin, and Par- 
 thenia Fletcher. His paternal grandfather, William 
 G. Traer, a native of London, came to this country 
 prior to the revolution, and was a soldier in General 
 Montgomery's army when that brave commander 
 fell. At the close of the war he settled in Fayette 
 county, Pennsylvania, and lost his life by the blow- 
 ing up of a powder-mill. The Fletchers were of 
 Irish descent, settling at first in western Pennsyl- 
 vania, and after the second war with England mov- 
 ing into Ohio. 
 
 James C. remained in Knox county until twenty 
 years of age, working on his father's farm, with win- 
 ter schooling, until sixteen, and no education except 
 what he picked up after that date. He was not idle, 
 however, and by the careful husbanding of leisure 
 time prepared himself, as it will be seen, for a life of 
 diversified pursuits. 
 
 His father moved to West Liberty, Muscatine 
 county, Iowa, in 1844, and the son followed the next 
 year, aiding his father in breaking and improving 
 wild land one season. In the spring of 1846 he 
 commenced reading medicine with L)r. Henry Mer- 
 edith, of Rochester, Cedar county, continuing such 
 studies two years. Practiced at Cedar Rapids from 
 1848 to 1851, and in August of the latter year made 
 a permanent settlement in Vinton, "There was then 
 on the town plat one man, who soon left, and there 
 were not more than five hundred people in Benton. 
 
 county. At the election twelve months later the 
 county had only four organized towns, and cast one 
 hundred and twenty votes. Vinton had been desig- 
 nated as the county seat three years prior, and when 
 Dr. Traer settled there only three buildings of any 
 kind had been erected. John S. Tilford laid out 
 the town that year, and moved his family thither the 
 next year. 
 
 After practicing three years Dr. Traer opened a 
 drug and grocery store; in February, 1856, started 
 a bank, with George Greene, of Cedar Rapids, and 
 others, and has been in that business steadily for 
 twenty-one years. At first the firm was Greene, 
 Traer and Co., and afterward J. C. Traer and Co., 
 and still later Traer and Williams; for the last few 
 years it has been Traer Brothers, J. W. Traer, a 
 prominent- railroad man being his partner. 
 
 Mr. Traer read law in 1856 and 1857 ; was admit- 
 ted to the bar of Benton county in the spring of 1858, 
 and has done an extensive legal and collecting busi- 
 ness. In 1 86 1 and 1862 he was in partnership with 
 Colonel William Smyth, of Marion, Linn county, and 
 Buren R. Sherman, of Vinton, now auditor of the 
 state, the firm name being Smyth, Traer and Sher- 
 man. Latterly the firm has been Traer and Burn- 
 ham, the junior member being G. W. Burnharn, late 
 of Ohio. Their legal and collecting business is very 
 extensive, and constantly growing. Mr. Traer makes 
 a success of every branch he embarks in. 
 
 He has a stock farm near town, under the man- 
 agement of Thomas Wright, a native of England, 
 and an experienced cattle-raiser, who has an interest 
 in the short-horn cattle, the Berkshire, Poland-China 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 489 
 
 and Yorkshire hogs, and other blooded stock, on 
 this farm. 
 
 Mr. Traer was in the constitutional convention 
 which was held at Iowa City, January-March, 1857, 
 and was one of the youngest members of that body. 
 He represented the twenty-fifth district, embracing 
 Benton, Buchanan, Black-Hawk and part of Linn 
 counties, Hosea W. Gray, of Linn county, being 
 with him in the same body, representing the twenty- 
 fourth district, Linn alone. Mr. Traer was clerk of 
 the district court in 1852 and 1853, and has been 
 mayor of the city two years. He rarely seeks office, 
 is contented with private life and the honor of being 
 a straightforward, first-class business man. 
 
 He is a Freemason, and has been master of the 
 Vinton Lodge, No. 62, the last three or four years. 
 
 He is a Presbyterian, and one of the deacons of 
 the Vinton church. 
 
 In politics, he has been republican since the whig 
 party dissolved. He was a member of the conven- 
 
 tion which organized the great party of freedom; 
 has attended most of its district and state conven- 
 tions ; is an influential man in political circles, and 
 has helped many men to highly honorable offices, 
 which he did not covet liimself. 
 
 His wife was Miss Marcia W. Ferguson, of Cedar 
 Rapids, married on the 4th of November, 1849. She 
 has had eight children, five sons and three daugh- 
 ters, and all are living. The eldest child, William 
 M. Traer, the first person born in Vinton, has a fam- 
 ily, and is cashier of the bank of Traer Brothers; 
 George, another son, is also in the bank ; Glenn 
 Wood, a third son, is a telegrapher. 
 
 Vinton, which Mr. Traer saw laid out in 185 1, has 
 in twenty-six years grown into a city of between 
 three and four thousand inhabitants, and has three 
 banks, six or eight churches, two graded schools, a 
 flourishing Scademy and the Iowa College for the 
 Blind ; and one of the foremost men in making the 
 city what it is is John C. Traer. 
 
 HON. EDWARD L. BURTON, 
 
 OTTUMWA. 
 
 MOST of the following sketch is taken from 
 "Andrea's Historical Atlas." The closing 
 portion, relating to his qualities and acquirements as 
 a lawyer, has been furnished us by one of his pro- 
 fessional brethren of the Ottumwa bar. 
 
 Mr. Burton was born at Waterloo, Seneca county, 
 New York, on the 17th of February, 1831. His 
 father, John Burton, was one of the earliest settlers 
 of Seneca county, and a prominent lawyer in that 
 part of the state. On the completion of his edu- 
 cation at Waterloo Academy, Mr. Burton engaged 
 in teaching school. He also devoted considerable 
 time to the practice of land surveying, of which he 
 had acquired a thorough knowledge. Subsequently 
 he studied law, first at Waterloo, in the office of his 
 brother, William H. Burton, also a lawyer of promi- 
 nence in the county, and afterward at the law 
 school of Professor Fowler, at Ballston Springs, 
 New York. 
 
 In June, 1855, Mr. Burton, turning his steps west- 
 ward, came to Lancaster, Keokuk county, Iowa, 
 where, at the following November term of the dis- 
 trict court, he was admitted to the bar. In January, 
 1859, he removed to Ottumwa, Wapello county, and 
 there entered into a law copartnership with Judge 
 49 
 
 Henry B. Hendershott, who had then just retired 
 from the bench of the district court. This copart- 
 nership he continued for a period of twelve suc- 
 cessive years. 
 
 In 1872 Mr. Burton professionally united in prac- 
 tice, in Ottumwa, with the Hon. Edward H. Stiles, 
 a gentleman widely and very favorably known to 
 the legal profession as the author of the new Iowa 
 Digest, and as official reporter, during several years, 
 of the decisions of the Iowa supreme court. Messrs. 
 Stiles and Burton have a large and increasing, as 
 well as a highly respectable and lucrative, practice, 
 ranking among the most able and eminent members 
 of the bar in the southern part of the state. 
 
 In the years 1861, 1862 and 1863, Mr. Burton 
 represented, as an alderman, the first ward of Ot- 
 tumwa in the city council. In 1864 and 1865 he 
 was city solicitor. Both the honorable positions, 
 among others more prominent, have been filled also 
 by Mr. Stiles. 
 
 In 1865 Mr. Burton was nominated to the de- 
 mocracy of Wapello county as a candidate for rep- 
 resentative in the state legislature, and notwithstand- 
 ing a decided republican majority in the county, 
 failed of election by only four votes. 
 
490 
 
 THE, UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 In 1868, and again in 1872, he received the regu- 
 lar democratic nomination for judge of the circuit 
 court. The democratic party being in the minority 
 in the counties composing the circuit, however, Mr. 
 Burton was, of course, doomed to defeat. 
 
 In 1861 Mr. Burton purchased a newspaper at 
 Ottumwa, entitled the " Democrat Statesman," and 
 changing that name to the "Ottumwa Democratic 
 Mercury," continued its publication, in connection 
 with Samuel B. Evans, until the latter went to the 
 war. Thereafter he remained sole publisher of the 
 paper for nearly four years. In the editorial con- 
 duct of the " Democratic Mercury " Mr. Burton was 
 assisted by Judge Hendershott, who historically tes- 
 tifies to the fact that Mr. Burton " wielded a forci- 
 ble and spicy pen." 
 
 Mr. Burton was, during its entire existence, secre- 
 tary and a director of the Saint Louis and Cedar 
 Rapids Railroad Company, having its offices at 
 Ottumwa, and which was organized in 1865. 
 
 It is as a lawyer, however, that Mr. Burton ap- 
 pears in his strongest light, and the high position 
 which he has attained at the bar is alone attribut- 
 able to his thorough accomplishments and mental 
 qualities as a lawyer. 
 
 It is perhaps not too much for a professional 
 brother, who has had the advantage of a close and 
 intimate observation and acquaintance, not only in 
 respect to Mr. Burton, but of the leading lawyers 
 of the state, to say that he possesses a legal mind 
 of the choicest order, which, enriched by thorough 
 study, and ripened by the long experience of a large 
 and varied practice, entitled him to stand in the 
 very front of the highest professional rank. 
 
 The writer of this portion of the foregoing sketch 
 has had the good fortune to frequently witness, either 
 before the state or federal courts, the efforts of near- 
 ly, if not quite, all the lawyers who figure promi- 
 nently at our bar, and he has no hesitation in saying 
 that while as an advocate he has perhaps many su- 
 periors in the state, yet for readiness, legal accuracy, 
 resources and strength of argument, he has yet to 
 see Mr. Burton's superior in a forensic effort before 
 the court. Nor is it to be inferred from this that his 
 powers as an advocate are of an ordinary character, 
 for the same fertility of resources, strength and clear- 
 ness that distinguish him in a purely legal argument 
 characterize his efforts in summing up the case to 
 the jury, and invest them with a persuasiveness not 
 frequently excelled. 
 
 ALBERT W. PARSONS, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 AS a prominent, influential and thorough-going 
 business man, the subject of this brief biog- 
 raphy is worthy of an honorable mention. 
 
 He is a native of Parsonfield, York county. State 
 of Maine, and was born on the 5th of December, 
 1828. When about ten years of age he removed 
 to the west with his father, and settled in Missouri, 
 but afterward returned to the east. He attended 
 school at Lancaster, in Cook county, New Hamp- 
 shire, and also studied at Derby Academy, in Derby, 
 Vermont. He was early trained to studious, indus- 
 trious and upright habits, and the fruits of the dis- 
 cipline then received have shown themselves in all 
 his subsequent life. 
 
 In 1842 his father established himself in New 
 York city, and ten years later (1852) became the 
 publisher of the " New York Daily Sun." He also 
 became a part owner of that sheet, and retained his 
 connection with its publication till his death, which 
 occurred in the year 1865. He was a man of very de- 
 
 cided character and fixed principles, and was highly 
 esteemed by the many who knew him. 
 
 In political sentiment, he was a decided democrat. 
 
 In 1852 our subject, being then twenty-four years 
 of age, left his eastern home and removed to the 
 west, settling at Burlington, Iowa, which place he 
 has since made his home. Soon after settling there 
 he became a book-keeper in the dry-goods house of 
 Messrs. Copp, Parsons and Co., and continued his 
 connection with that house until 1866. 
 
 He was afterward engaged in the First National 
 Bank of Burlington, and about December, 1870, be- 
 came connected with the Merchants' National Bank, 
 acting in the capacity of assistant cashier. 
 
 Throughout his entire business career Mr. Par- 
 sons has shown a spirit of enterprise and business 
 tact that have won for him universal respect, and 
 made him known as a prompt, thorough and reli- 
 able business man. 
 
 His dealings have always been marked by the 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 493 
 
 Strictest integrity ; and not only has he won a high 
 place in the esteem of his fellow-citizens, but he 
 has also met with that financial success which is the 
 natural result of honorable and continuous effort. 
 
 In political sentiment, Mr. Parsons is a democrat. 
 He has not, however, taken any active part in po- 
 litical matters, and has never sought after political 
 honors, finding in his legitimate business employ- 
 ment for the exercise of his highest powers. Al- 
 though he has not desired political distinction, he 
 has been honored with various trusts, and in 1876 
 his fellow-citizens, without regard to political views, 
 elected him mayor of his city, without opposition. 
 In this capacity he has served with eminent success. 
 
 and won for himself universal confidence and re- 
 spect. 
 
 As a man, Mr. Parsons is known for his gener- 
 osity and frankness, and for his estimable social and 
 personal qualities. He has been intimately con- 
 nected with many of the public enterprises of his 
 city, and in all shown a worthy public-spiritedness. 
 
 He has been especially active in the Working- 
 men's Building Association, an organization which 
 has done much for the improvement of the city. 
 
 In his religious communion, he is identified with 
 the Episcopal church, and is a zealous member and 
 one of the wardens of Christ's Episcopal Church of 
 Burlington. 
 
 HON. STEPHEN N. LINDLEY, 
 
 NEWTON. 
 
 ONE of the most emphatically self-educated men 
 in central Iowa is Stephen N. Lindley, late 
 circuit judge in the sixth district. With no school 
 privileges, except those of the lowest grade, and those 
 very limited, but with a strong love for books, he 
 fitted himself, in early life, by private study, for a 
 teacher ; and later in life paid much attention to 
 certain scientific branches, mastering the principles 
 of geology and archeology, and established a repu- 
 tation as one of the best versed in history in his 
 county. In boyhood he read all the books he could 
 borrow in the neighborhood. Poor as his early lit- 
 erary opportunities were, he applied himself with 
 great industry for many years, and is now a good 
 scholar. His love for study, early cherished, never 
 has left him. 
 
 Mr. Lindley is a son of Josephus Lindley, a tailor 
 by trade, and for nearly twenty years postmaster at 
 Merrittstown, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where 
 our subject was born on the 7th of May, 1817. The 
 maiden name of his mother was Jane Chandler, 
 daughter of Mary and George Chandler, a soldier of 
 the revolution. Some of the latter family are now 
 living near Brandywine, Chester county. The Lind- 
 leys were early settlers in New Jersey. Josephus 
 Lindley volunteered in 1813, about the time that 
 Hall surrendered, and for some reason was not 
 called into the service. 
 
 Judge Lindley spent his youth in Fayette county, 
 attending school some, until sixteen years of age; 
 at eighteen he immigrated to Athens county, Ohio, 
 
 where he taught school in the winters, and read law 
 with A. G. Brown, of Athens, receiving from him a 
 certificate. In 1851 he came to Iowa, spent three 
 years in Lee county, teaching and fitting himself 
 for the law; in 1854 he removed to Jasper county, 
 still teaching during the winters. He was admitted 
 to the bar at Newton in 1855, and to practice in 
 the supreme court soon after, and has been in the 
 practice ever since. His legal qualifications are of 
 the best material, there being nothing superficial in 
 his nature or attainments. 
 
 Judge Lindley was a drainage commissioner at an 
 early day after settling in Jasper county, and when 
 the ofiice was one of some pecuniary consequence ; 
 and in 1870 was appointed circuit judge, to fill a 
 vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Wins- 
 low ; the next year he was elected by the people to 
 the same office. He filled this position in a very 
 creditable manner, retiring therefrom on the 31st of 
 December, 1873. 
 
 Judge Lindley was originally an anti-slavery whig, 
 and promptly joined the republican party when it 
 was organized. He has been quite active as a poli- 
 tician. In the autumn of 1864 he was one of the 
 commissioners appointed ^o take the vote of the 
 Iowa soldiers, and left Atlanta, Georgia, on the last 
 train before the railroad track was destroyed by 
 Sherman. 
 
 He is a Blue Lodge Mason, and has passed the 
 lower chairs in Odd-Fellowship. He is a member 
 of the Universalist Society, and morally a man of 
 
494 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 excellent standing in the community. He has al- 
 ways regarded the legal profession as one of the 
 most honorable practiced among men, and insists 
 that the standard of qualification for admission to 
 practice should be revised. 
 
 The wife of Judge Lindley was Miss Sarah Mc- 
 
 Cracken, of Washington county, Pennsylvania, their 
 union taking place on the 23d of November, 1843, 
 in Gallia county, Ohio. They have five children 
 living, and have lost two. Ellen is the wife of 
 George Lindley, and resides in Dakota Territory. 
 The others are single. 
 
 SAMUEL G. A. READ, A.M.,M.D., 
 
 ALGONA. 
 
 SAMUEL G. A. READ, son of Daniel and Hul- 
 dah (Jacobs) Read, was born in Moretown, Ver- 
 mont, on the 13th of January, 1817. Daniel Read, 
 who was a farmer in early life, educated himself for 
 the medical profession, and commenced practice, but 
 found himself brought in contact with so many dis- 
 agreeable diseases, that his taste revolted and he 
 returned to farming. 
 
 The family record of the Reads is uncommonly 
 interesting. Hon. Jacob Whittemore Read, member 
 of the New England Historical and Genealogical 
 Society, now deceased, published in 1861 a history 
 of the Reads and Reeds in England and America. 
 He says : " The Reads are numerous, from the fact 
 that they are descended from a clan or nation, and 
 not from an individual. Though they have taken 
 their origin from Aschanaz, the great-grandson of 
 Noah, they have had an opportunity of becoming a 
 numerous people. About five hundred years before 
 the christian era the Persians invaded Greece, in 
 consequence of which a company of merchants from 
 Miletus and other cities of Ionia, to escape the evils 
 of invasion, departed with their ships, goods and 
 retainers. They established themselves at Gades, 
 and there fitted out an expedition against Ireland, 
 which they conquered and divided into two king- 
 doms. The capital of one they called Ballyreda, 
 which in English means Reedstown. The inhab- 
 itants of ancient Erin called them Dalredas, or Dal- 
 redhas; the Caledonians called them Dalraids. They 
 were also called Scuits, or wanderers, — a phrase 
 which gave name to Scotland when they overran that 
 country. Surnames were not in use till about the 
 year 1170, but clans had appropriate names, which 
 some retained. The Dalraids crossed over from 
 Ireland to Caledonia, and Agricola, king of the 
 Romans, built a wall against them ; but Prince Reda 
 and his knights scaled the wall and put the Romans 
 to flight, A.D. 180. Then Adrian, about 210, built 
 
 another wall, to keep them out of his domain. The 
 Dalraids kept possession of the territory between 
 the two walls, and finally, in 843, conquered all Cal- 
 edonia." See also Mitchell's Classical Geography, 
 page 133: "About the middle of the fifth century 
 the Caledonians first received the names of Picts 
 and Scots ; the latter, called also Dalriads, emigrated 
 from the north of Ireland, and finally gave their 
 name to the country.'' The Reads and Reeds of 
 England descend from the above Raids, Reeds, or 
 Readhas, and the principal families have been traced 
 to them. They were connected with the royal 
 family of England long before William the Con- 
 queror. There was Withred, king of Kent in the 
 seventh century ; Ethelred, or Read the Good, king 
 of England in 866 ; Alfred, or Read the Shrewd, in 
 871 ; Eldred, or Read the Elder, in 946 ; Ethelred 
 the Second in 978." 
 
 William, son of Brianu's de Rede, was bishop of 
 Chichester in 1140. From him the descent is as 
 follows : Robert ; Galfrinus ; Thomas of Redydale ; 
 Thomas ; Thomas of Heddington, married Chris- 
 tiana, sister of the lord chancellor ; John, mayor of 
 Norwich in 1388 ; Edward ; William, born 1450, pro- 
 fessor of divinity ; Sir William ; William ; Sir Mathew ; 
 William ; John, who came to America in the " great 
 fleet " in 1630; Samuel; Samuel; Samuel; Daniel; 
 Daniel ; Samuel, the subject of this sketch. 
 
 The John Read who came to America in 1630 
 settled at Rehoboth, where Providence, Rhode Isl- 
 and, is now built, and was one of the original pur- 
 chasers from the Indians of large tracts of land. 
 He died at eighty-five, and was buried in old See- 
 konk cemetery, near Providence, where the rough 
 granite slab is still standing at his grave, though 
 there is a plan on foot among his descendants to 
 replace it by a more suitable monument. Hon. 
 Daniel Read, president of Missouri State University, 
 and many other distinguished men, are among his 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 495 
 
 posterity. As a family, the Reeds are identified with 
 American history. The great-grandfather of Dr. 
 Read, with his nine sons, were all soldiers and offi- 
 cers in the war of the revolution. Whoever would 
 know more of these valiant sons of Aschanaz may 
 iind it set forth in the " History of the Read Family " 
 referred to. 
 
 Samuel attended the Oberlin College in its in- 
 fancy, while it was yet to some extent an uncertain 
 experiment, paying his way there by manual labor. 
 He took his professional course in Cleveland Medi- 
 cal College. 
 
 The doctor experienced in early life an earnest 
 desire for learning, but enjoyed very limited oppor- 
 tunities for its gratification. Hard work on' a new 
 and heavily timbered farm was followed still by hard 
 work, that field might be added to field, and farm to 
 farm, of the paternal estate. Requests for permis- 
 sion to attend school were refused, on the ground 
 that not much education was needful for farming, 
 which was "the best occupation in life.'' Thus, in 
 lieu of the schoolroom, the book was taken to the 
 cornfield, and the pages conned in time gained over 
 others at the end of the row. He early showed a 
 taste for the healing art, by compounding imaginary 
 medicines and administering to imaginary patients. 
 On leaving school he began teaching, for love of the 
 work,'and to enjoy facilities for increasing knowledge. 
 At thirteen the family removed to Saint Lawrence 
 county. New York. After two years they removed 
 to Medina county, Ohio, where he remained through 
 his early manhood, and entered his profession. In 
 1853 he removed to Whitby county, Indiana, thence 
 in 1865 to Algona, Iowa. 
 
 He never sought public office, but was several 
 times elected county superintendent of public in- 
 struction, both in Ohio and Indiana. As an enthu- 
 siastic educator he was identified with the effort to 
 establish an institution of higher learning in north- 
 western Iowa, and was the first and for several years 
 president of the board of trustees of Algona College. 
 
 He was always a temperance worker, often lectur- 
 ing on the subject : was an early Son of Temperance, 
 also a Good Templar, and was the organizer of 
 several lodges, and member of the Grand Lodge of 
 Indiana. Also an Odd-Fellow, and member of en- 
 campment ; a Freemason, and an officer of chapter, 
 and member of Grand Lodge of Iowa. 
 
 He was trained up a Presbyterian, and joined the 
 Methodist Episcopal church in early manhood ; is a 
 republican, and was formerly a whig. 
 
 The doctor was first married to Miss Beulah Smith, 
 who died in i860. On the 4th of March, 1863, he 
 was married to Miss Lizzie Bunnell. 
 
 He is of medium stature, well formed, weight 
 about one hundred and forty-five, light complexion, 
 blue eyes and brown hair. His social qualities are 
 above the ordinary ; active temperament, great per- 
 severance, ambitious, and desirous to excel. He 
 has been a leading practitioner in northwestern Iowa 
 during his whole residence here, being frequently 
 called beyond the limits of his own county. Gifted 
 with a constitution capable of great endurance, his 
 strength has been taxed to the utmost, first in the 
 malarious districts of Indiana, and more lately upon 
 the bleak and comparatively uninhabited prairies of 
 Iowa, where several miles frequently intervene be- 
 tween the homes of patients. Yet he is still hale 
 and hearty when not suffering from overwork. 
 
 The wife of Dr. Read is one of the leading women 
 of Iowa in more than one important movement, and 
 a sketch of her life in this connection cannot be out 
 of place. She was the daughter of Edmund H. 
 Bunnell and Ann Ashley, and was born in Syracuse, 
 New York, on the 24th of December, 1834. Her 
 paternal grandfather and some of his brothers were 
 revolutionary soldiers. Her mother had an excel- 
 lent education; was an able financier, a woman of 
 strong mental faculties, yet exceedingly unobtrusive 
 and retiring in her manners. The education of Liz- 
 zie was embraced in three years' attendance at a 
 public school. She was the fifth child in a family of 
 nine children, who, we are told, made a sort of inde- 
 pendent community by themselves, caring but little 
 for other society so long as they were together. They 
 used to have family lessons, debates and friendly 
 rivalries in work and study. When Lizzie was four- 
 teen her parents removed from New York to Indi- 
 ana, where within six weeks after their arrival her 
 mother died. This was followed in about a year by 
 the death of a brother three years Lizzie's senior. 
 Business ventures also now proved unfortunate, and 
 the happy and affectionate circle was soon widely 
 scattered. Before she was sixteen she commenced 
 teaching school, using part of her scanty wages to 
 help the more helpless younger ones, as did also her 
 elder sister and brother. 
 
 At length a bad cough, weak lungs and pain in 
 the side forced a change of employment. Having 
 an opportunity at Fort Wayne to learn the printing 
 business, she decided to try it. She found it con- 
 genial, though laborious ; served an apprenticeship 
 
496 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 of two years ; was then offered the foremanship of a 
 weekly newspaper and job office in Peru, Indiana, 
 which place she filled about four years. At the end 
 of this time, being then twenty-six, she commenced 
 in Peru the publication of a semi-monthly journal, 
 called the " Mayflower," devoted to literature, tem- 
 perance and equal rights. This paper had a sub- 
 scription list reaching into all the states and terri- 
 tories. 
 
 . On the 4th of March, 1863, she was married to 
 Dr. S. G. A. Read. In 1865 she removed with him 
 to Algona, Iowa. Here she commenced the publi- 
 cation of a weekly county paper, named the " Upper 
 Des Moines," intended to represent the interests of 
 the upper Des Moines River valley, which at that 
 time, 1865, had no other such representative. After 
 a year of this work, combined with the many hard- 
 ships and disadvantages of a new country, failing 
 health compelled the relinquishment of the enter- 
 prise to other hands. She commenced to write for 
 the press when about twenty, and has continued as 
 a contributor to several different journals. A series 
 of articles in the " Northwestern Christian Advo- 
 cate " in 1872, on the " status of women in the Meth- 
 odist church," led to their more just recognition in 
 subsequent Episcopal addresses. 
 
 She was vice-president of Indiana State Woman 
 Suffrage Society while residing there, and president 
 of Iowa State Society ; also one of the original mem- 
 
 bers and promoters of the Woman's Congress. She 
 has lectured occasionally on temperance, education 
 and woman suffrage. 
 
 Mrs. Read has traveled in several of the New 
 England, middle and western states, Canada and 
 the territory of Dakota. Twelve years ago she spent 
 two consecutive nights upon the prairies of western 
 Iowa, out of sight of house or people, except her 
 own small party. On the third day the first sign of 
 distant habitation, we once beard her remark, pro- 
 duced rather strange, but not unhappy, sensations. 
 
 She was educated a Methodist, and remains a 
 Methodist in church relationship and in sympathy, 
 but believes in the final happiness of all created 
 intelligences, which is contrary to the traditions, 
 but not, she thinks, contrary to the doctrines, of the 
 church. 
 
 Her height is five feet, weight one hundred pounds, 
 eyes blue, hair brown ; temperament said to be men- 
 tal vital ; social qualities not well developed. She 
 is fond of friends, and likes an occasional venture 
 into society, but generally prefers to look on from a 
 retired background. Contact with many people, she 
 thinks, robs her of herself; makes her tired and ex- 
 hausted ; disturbs and breaks up her electrical atmos- 
 phere ; takes away from her more than she is able to 
 get in return at the time, though subsequent diges- 
 tion restores the equilibrium and generally ^hows 
 something gained. 
 
 JOHN ST.-CLAIR TILFORD, 
 
 VINTON. 
 
 T OHN SAINT-CLAIR TILFORD, son of John 
 J Tilford, farmer, and Ann Workman, is of Prot- 
 estant Irish descent, his grandsire and grandmother 
 on both sides coming froth the old country. The 
 name was originally spelt Telford, and was changed 
 some fifty years ago. 
 
 John S. was born in a block-house in Clark coun- 
 ty, Indiana, on the 30th of July, 1811, and spent the 
 first twenty years of his life in that county, aiding 
 his father in clearing, breaking and cultivating land, 
 with the poorest opportunities for education in that 
 locality, in the youthful days of the state. He never 
 went to school but six weeks in his life, yet learned 
 to read and write in his early years, and secured, by 
 self-teaching, a fair business education. 
 
 In his sixteenth year he left the farm and com- 
 
 menced learning the cabinet-maker's trade, working 
 at it twenty-six years, with a brief episode in 1833. 
 He was in the army one year under General Scott, 
 being one of his "rangers," and, although in no en- 
 gagement, he saw perilous times from other sources 
 than the musket or tomahawk. On one occasion, 
 while he and other soldiers were near the Red 
 river, Arkansas, they lived sixty-four days on fif- 
 teen days' rations, and had part of them stolen. 
 Their mission in that part of the country was the 
 making of a treaty with the Pawnee and Camanche 
 Indians, which proved a failure at that time. 
 
 In 1834 Mr. Tilford moved to Johnson county, 
 Indiana, continuing his trade there until 185 1, when 
 he located where the city of Vinton now stands, 
 and laid out the southern part of the town. Forty 
 
ttiE Ui^ITED STATES BiOGRAPHlCAL DICtlONART. 
 
 497 
 
 acres, laid off earlier, in the Cedar river, has been 
 called Fremont, and he had the name changed. 
 There was a postoffice, four miles southeast, called 
 Vinton, and the postmaster, James Becket, moved 
 it to the newly platted town, and that was the rea- 
 son why Mr. Tilford gave it the name of Vinton. 
 
 Since settling in Vinton he has been a successful 
 farmer, much of his land, more than three hundred 
 acres, now being, in the corporation. He early 
 added horticulture; was in the nursery business 
 many years, and has two orchards of his own. He 
 also, at an early day, planted a forest of various kinds 
 of trees, half a mile south of his present home, and 
 has in all thirty or forty acres of orchard and forest. 
 
 Mr. Tilford has been a man of great industry, 
 and has not yet folded his hands. Slothfulness is 
 no part of his nature, nor is stinginess. No man 
 in Vinton has shown more public spirit or liberality. 
 He was the original prime mover in securing the 
 location of the Iowa College for the Blind at Vin- 
 ton, and a generous contributor of money as well as 
 time for the institution. Tilford Academy, a flour- 
 
 ishing school, is located on grounds donated by him. 
 He is a man alive to every interest of Vinton, ma- 
 terial, educational, moral and religious. He has 
 been a member of the Presbyterian church some- 
 thing like thirty years; is one of the pillars of the 
 local society, and a well wisher to every genuine 
 christian organization. 
 
 Mr. Tilford was a democrat in early life ; voted, 
 however, for General Winfield Scott, whig, for Presi- 
 dent, in 1852, and since 1855 has acted with the 
 republicans. He has kept out of office, exceptsome 
 local one of trifling importance. 
 
 On the 2 1 St of April, 1835, Miss Margaret J. 
 Young, daughter of Joseph Young, of Franklin, 
 Indiana, was married to Mr. Tilford, and they 
 have had six children, of whom only three lived 
 to maturity. John Young, the oldest living child, 
 has a family, and lives one and a half miles south 
 of Vinton. Ann J. is the widow of W. W. Hanford, 
 many years publisher of the Vinton " Eagle," and 
 Helen A. is the widow of Job R. Tracy, who was 
 also a resident of Vinton. 
 
 LUCIAN Q. HOGGATT, 
 
 AMES. 
 
 AMONG the officers who were in the Mexican 
 . army and who now reside in Iowa is Lucian 
 Q. Hoggatt, a native of Washington county, Indiana, 
 born on the 21st of March, 1815, when this state 
 was a territory. His father was William Hoggatt, a 
 farmer by occupation, but for many years an official 
 of Washington and Lawrence counties. His mother 
 was Elizabeth Coffin. The Hoggatts were from 
 North Carolina and Virginia; the Coffins from Nan- 
 tucket, both families being Quakers or Friends. Some 
 of them left the south early in this century, on ac- 
 count of their anti-slavery views. 
 
 Lucian received a common English education, 
 picking up a good deal of it by his industry, leaving 
 school when thirteen years old. He lived on the 
 farm until about fifteen or sixteen; from 1833 to 
 1853 shipped more or less produce annually on flat- 
 boats to New Orleans, acting at first for others. Part 
 of this time he was salesman in a store. 
 
 In 1845 he raised a company for the Mexican war, 
 and went into the service as first lieutenant company 
 F, 2d Indiana Volunteers, and adjutant of the regi- 
 ment, and served exactly one year. He was at the 
 
 battle of Buena Vista, under General Taylor, the 
 only engagement of any importance that his regi- 
 ment participated in ; and we have heard him de- 
 clare that the official account of that battle is little 
 better than a fiction ; that the letter " V " which it is 
 said Colonel Jefferson Davis formed with his mgn, 
 thus saving the day, is a pure myth. 
 
 After his return from the Mexican war he carried 
 on tanning and merchandising in Union county, 
 Indiana. 
 
 In 1859 he engaged in farming in Lawrence county, 
 in his native state ; at the end of one year, however, 
 he removed to Iowa, settling on wild prairie adjoin- 
 ing the present site of Ames, in April, i860. He is 
 now the oldest settler at the forks of Squaw creek 
 and the Skunk river, farming having been his lead- 
 ing business here. In August, 1861, he lost his right 
 leg in a threshing machine, and since that time has 
 not accomplished much himself on the farm. For 
 about four years he was engaged on the railway now 
 connecting Ames with Des Moines. He was one of 
 the early and principal men in engineering this en- 
 terprise. 
 
49^ 
 
 THE UNITED- STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 While living in Lawrence county, Indiana, Mr. 
 Hoggatt was sheriff four years, and member of the 
 legislature one term ; has also served a similar period 
 as sheriff of Story county, and was a member of the 
 fifteenth general assembly. 
 
 In politics, he was a democrat until 1854; then 
 changing his views, became a republican, but is now 
 known as an independent politician, with powerful 
 greenback convictions. 
 
 He has been a Freemason nearly forty years, and 
 has taken the royal-arch and council degrees. 
 
 He has a wife and nine children, and has lost two 
 children. Three daughters and one son are married : 
 Clorinda E. is the wife of Thomas Grayson, of Ames ; 
 Iris M., of Douglass McAffee, of Lawrence county, 
 Indiana ; and Rebecca S., of George D. Loud, of 
 Dubuque, Iowa. J. Brown Hoggatt, the only son 
 who has a family, resides at Nevada, eight miles east 
 of Ames. The wife of Lucian Q. was Abigail Brown, 
 of Indiana, their union taking place on the i6th of 
 March, 1841. 
 
 Mr. Hoggatt has had a liberal share of backwoods 
 and frontier life. Born in the terf-itory of Indiana, 
 where school-houses, "like angels' visits," were "few 
 and far between," he had to forage on Pike and Dil- 
 worth just where he happened to find them, bidding 
 
 a final adieu to the school-house in his fourteenth 
 year, and aiding to run a flat-boat to the Crescent 
 City before he was seventeen. In those early days 
 from 1833 to 1850 or later, there were many rough 
 people on the Mississippi river and on some of its 
 islands. Sometimes parties landing with well loaded 
 boats at Islands Nos. 66 or 67 would be robbed of 
 their provisions. Now and then a man, and in one 
 or two cases a whole crew, would be missing. There 
 being no law to reach these robbers and murderers, 
 the boatmen themselves took the matter in hand, 
 and the population of the two islands mentioned be- 
 came suddenly very much decimated. Mr. Hoggatt 
 is familiar with the minutest parts of that episode in 
 flat-boating life. 
 
 Before leaving Indiana he formed the acquaint- 
 ance of more than one horse thief and counterfeiter 
 belonging to a branch of the Reno family, of Brown 
 county ; and once or twice he was chosen captain 
 or leader of a band who drove the scoundrels out 
 of that part of the state. He is evidently a stranger 
 to fear, and is just the man to lead in a serious trial 
 of " roughing it." 
 
 Mr. Hoggatt has a strong mind, is well posted on 
 current events, and in talking has probably no rival, 
 male or female, in Story county. 
 
 CHARLES McAllister, m.d., 
 
 SPENCER. 
 
 CHARLES McAllister, who represents the 
 seventy-fifth assembly district in the state leg- 
 islature, is a native of Lee, Berkshire county, Massa- 
 chusetts, dating his birth on the ist of February, 
 1840. His parents were John and Cynthia Heath 
 McAllister. He is of Scotch-Irish descent on his 
 father's side, his grandfather, Alexander McAUister, 
 coming from Ireland in the latter part of the last 
 century, and settling in eastern New York. John 
 McAllister was a farmer, and died in 1873. His 
 wife was of Puritan stock. 
 
 The subject of this sketch prepared for college at 
 Williams Academy, Stockbridge, in his native county ; 
 entered the freshman class of Williams College in 
 1859, and, his health failing, left near the close of 
 the sophomore year. He read medicine with an 
 uncle, Charles McAllister, M.D. ; attended lectures 
 in the Berkshire Medical College, Pittsfield; gradu- 
 ated in the spring of 1865 ; practiced three- years in^ 
 
 Stockbridge, when, his health again failing, he started 
 for the west, reaching Dixon, Illinois, in the spring 
 of 1869. At length, with his health partially restored, 
 he spent the autumn of 187 1 and the following win- 
 ter in traveling through the states of Iowa, Minne- 
 sota, Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado, and the fol- 
 lowing March located in Spencer, the seat of justice 
 of Clay county. Here he has steadily followed his 
 profession, his rides extending over Clay county and 
 into O'Brien, Dickinson, Buena Vista, Emmett, Osce- 
 ola, Cherokee and Palo Alto counties. When first 
 settling in Iowa he purchased land at Spencer; has 
 opened a farm, which he works by proxy, and has 
 dealt more or less in real estate, success attending 
 all his operations. 
 
 In the autumn of 1877 Dr. McAllister was elected 
 to the general assembly, representing Clay, Dickin- 
 son, Osceola and O'Brien counties. He received all 
 but about two- hundred votes, having the largest 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 499 
 
 majority ever given in the district, and the largest 
 received by any member of the house in the seven- 
 teenth general assembly. He was made chairman 
 of a special committee on the practice of medicine, 
 and placed on the committees on railroads, hospital 
 for the insane, asylum for the deaf and dumb, sup- 
 pression of intemperance, and judicial districts. He 
 is a new member, and says very little, but shirks no 
 duties in the committee rooms. 
 
 Representative McAllister is a Master Mason, was 
 made so in Massachusetts, and is a member of the 
 Spencer Lodge. 
 
 He is a communicant in the Congregational church, 
 
 superintendent of the Sunday-school, and an active 
 and true christian man. He is president of the Clay 
 County Bible Society, and has been for years. 
 
 On the ist of January, 1869, he was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Laura McAllister, an adopted daugh- 
 ter of his uncle. Dr. McAllister, and they have one 
 child, a son. 
 
 Representative McAllister is about the average 
 height, being five feet and eight inches tall, and 
 weighs one hundred and forty-five pounds. He is 
 polished alike in mind and manners; is courteous 
 and cordial, frank and communicative, an easy con- 
 verser, and has all the elements of a true gentleman. 
 
 LYMAN H. WASHBURN, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 THE man who, in the battle of life against the 
 odds of poverty and adversity, rises to a posi- 
 tion" of honor, usefulness and independence by his 
 own unaided energy and talents, illustrates a life 
 story worthy of emulation. Such a man is the sub- 
 ject of this sketch. 
 
 Lyman H. Washburn was born at Morristown, St. 
 Lawrence county, New York, on the ist of July, 
 1832, and is the son of Zephaniah Washburn and 
 Phebe nSe Parsons. His father removed to Worth- 
 ington, Franklin county, Ohio, in 1834, where he 
 remained till 1840, when he removed still farther 
 west, and settled in Muscatine, Iowa. About this 
 period he embraced the principles of total absti- 
 nence, and devoted the next four years of his life 
 to the advocacy of temperance in public lectures in 
 Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. He afterward built the 
 Nevada Flouring Mills of Muscatine ; was for many 
 years a justice of the peace, and was the first mayor 
 of Muscatine after its incorporation as a city in 1851. 
 
 Our subject received a common-school education 
 in Muscatine, and as soon as able was put to manual 
 labor to aid in support of the family. In 1852, at 
 twenty years of age, he followed the tide of emigra- 
 tion to the Pacific slope, and there engaged in min- 
 ing for three years, when the premature discharge 
 of a blast brought his career as miner to a sudden 
 termination, and came near ending his life. He es- 
 caped, however, with the loss of his right hand some 
 four inches below the elbow. The expenses inci- 
 dent to this disaster involved his previous earnings, 
 so that he returned to his home poorer than when 
 so 
 
 he left it, with the irreparable loss of his right arm. 
 In 1858 he was elected by his fellow-citizens to the 
 office of justice of the peace, which he retained five 
 years, during which period he was an industrious 
 law student, and in 1862 was admitted to the bar 
 of Muscatine, and since then has been engaged more 
 or less actively in the practice of his profession with 
 very fair pecuniary results. 
 
 Mr. Washburn has always been a man of great pub- 
 lic spirit, giving his best thoughts and energies to the 
 public welfare, in the broadest sense of that term. 
 In 187:^ he took a deep interest in the cause of the 
 Muscatine Western Railroad Company, a new high- 
 way seeking to extend its lines across Iowa. Be- 
 lieving, the enterprise to be for the public good and 
 the especial benefit of his city, he gave three years 
 of his time to it, with but very slight compensation 
 a small part of the time ; but at this period the panic 
 of 1873 being succeeded by a persistent "granger 
 crusade " against all railroads, the company became 
 involved and the work on the line was suspended 
 after thirty-two miles had been built. 
 
 He served as alderman of the city of Muscatine 
 from 1865 to 1869, and during that period, owing 
 mainly to his energy and influence, the city was re- 
 graded and all the principal streets macadamized. 
 He is also a member of the school board of the 
 city, and has left the impress of his vigorous char- 
 acter upon every department of the city's interest 
 with which he has been connected. 
 
 In politics, he has always been a radical republi- 
 can, and for some time edited a party paper. 
 
5O0 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 He was raised under Methodist influence, but on 
 making a public profession of faith in his Redeem- 
 er, united with the Baptist church, on the question 
 of immersion. He is president of the Young Men's 
 Christian Association of Muscatine, and a leading 
 spirit in the temperance organizations of his city, 
 and devotes as much time to the advancement of 
 the cause of religion and morahty as any other lay- 
 man in the community. 
 
 On the 4th of July, 1858, he married Miss Louisa 
 A. Lloyd, at Norwalk, Ohio, a lady of English pa- 
 rentage. They have three children, namely, Jessie 
 M., Frank L. and Charles L. 
 
 Few young men returning to the home of their 
 parents as Mr. Washburn did, at the age of twenty- 
 three, from a California mine, with nothing to show 
 for it but an amputated right arm, would have known 
 what they were still good for, or that they were good 
 for anything. It was a dreary outlook for one whose 
 young heart was thus left to beat itself against the 
 
 bars so cruelly closed and locked upon it. To con- 
 vert the left hand into the right wa.s an immediate 
 religious duty with Mr. Washburn. By dint of the 
 closest practice and the severest discipline this al- 
 most unnatural feat was accomplished, and the odds 
 against him were greatly reduced. True he had but 
 one hand, was an unlettered young miner and pos- 
 sessed not a dollar in the world, but the education of 
 his left hand had wrought the same result for his 
 hitherto left-handed mind — brought it into use in the 
 study of men as well as books, of cause and effect 
 in the world of enterprise and industry around him. 
 He saw that opportunities do not grow by the way- 
 side, but in hot-houses, under constant cultivation ; 
 that cities as well as men make their own circum- 
 stances; that the secret of success in every depart- 
 ment of life is action.. There are few in Muscatine 
 to-day who think of Mr. Washburn as a one-handed 
 man : he is rather Briareus of the hundred hands, 
 and doing the thinking of the god's fifty heads. 
 
 WILLIAM H. STIVERS, 
 
 TOLEDO. 
 
 ONE of the best examples of a self-made man, 
 in the State of Iowa, is William H. Stivers, 
 who never went to school ten weeks after twelve 
 years of age, who worked at the blacksmith trade 
 until twenty-six years old, and who is now a leading 
 man at the bar of Tama county. He is the son of 
 a blacksmith, Benjamin Stivers, a resident of Attica, 
 then Genesee, now Wyoming county. New York, and 
 was "born on the i8th of May, 1830. His grand- 
 father, Daniel Stivers, a German, who settled in New 
 Jersey, was a pensioner of the revolutionary war. The 
 mother of William was Sophronia Strong, and her 
 mother was also from Germany. 
 
 In the spring of 1836 Benjamin Stivers moved to 
 Nyesville, Meigs county, Ohio, reaching there the 
 day his son was six years old. The place is now 
 called Pomeroy. There William learned his father's 
 trade, and worked at it steadily until 1850, when he 
 immigrated to Iowa, working at blacksmithing in 
 Jones county. 
 
 In 1 85 1 he removed to Linn county, and in com- 
 pany with David Zeikenfuse built the first black- 
 smith shop in the embryotic town of Lisbon. He 
 carried on the business five years, studying law dur- 
 ing the latter part of this period, being encouraged 
 
 to so do by Hon. Isaac M. Preston, who is still liv- 
 ing at Marion, in that county. 
 
 In 1856 Mr. Stivers moved to his present home, 
 read law, and in March of the next year returned 
 to Linn county, and was admitted to the bar at 
 Marion, then and now the county seat. 
 
 For nearly twenty-one years Mr. Stivers has been 
 in practice at Toledo. For eight years during this 
 period he was in company with J. G. Safley, the firm 
 name being Stivers and Safley. He is now of the 
 firm of Stivers and Leland. 
 
 During the eight years he and Mr. Safley were 
 together they were the attorneys for Tama county, 
 the only political office of the least importance with 
 which Mr. Stivers has had any connection. Though 
 a republican, and living in a republican county, dis- 
 trict and state, and interested in the welfare of his 
 party, he has given his study, his time and his in- 
 domitable energies exclusively to the law. Begin- 
 ning legal studies late in life, he seems to have come 
 to the conclusion that to succeed in his profession 
 he must make it his sole pursuit. His great strength 
 is before a jury, he being a powerful advocate. Like 
 General Taylor in battle, Mr. Stivers, with his case 
 in court, never knows when he is beaten. He holds 
 
I't^" bylSSall SLSemJiSiLrdayStJIX 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 503 
 
 on with bull-dog tenacity, and usually wins. He is 
 five feet and eleven inches tall, is solidly built, has 
 strong lungs, and knows nothing of physical ex- 
 haustion. 
 
 Mr. Stivers has passed all the chairs in the sub- 
 ordinate lodges of Odd-Fellowship, and belongs to 
 the grand lodge of the state. 
 
 He was a member of the first free-soil convention 
 held in Jones county, and has acted heartily with 
 the republican party since it was formed. 
 
 Miss Emily Baugh, of Jones county, Iowa, became 
 his wife on the 22A of August, 1852, and they have 
 four children, two girls and two boys. Emma, the 
 
 eldest child, is the. wife of Michael J. Boyle, of To- 
 ledo; Seward J. is married, and lives upon a farm 
 near town ; George Sumner is also a farmer, living 
 at home, and Lilly, the youngest child, is a student 
 at the Rockford (Illinois) Seminary. 
 
 Like the Rev. Robert CoUyer, of Chicago, Mr. 
 Stivers can still shoe a horse, and do it well. Dur- 
 ing the past year a journeyman blacksmith, of To- 
 ledo, in attempting to put the shoes on one of Mr. 
 Stivers' horses made a failure with one shoe, and 
 Mr. Stivers did the little job for him neatly and 
 hastily, to the surprise and admiration of those who 
 were present. 
 
 DeWITT c. richman, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 DE WITT CLINTON RICHMAN, attorney 
 and counselor at law, named after Governor 
 DeWitt Clinton, an intimate friend of his father's, 
 who was visiting at the home of his parents about the 
 time of his birth, was born at Somerset, Perry coun- 
 ty, Ohio, on the ist of September, 1826, and is the 
 seventh child of Evert and Mary (Scott) Richman,* 
 natives of Pennsylvania, and brother of Hon. J. 
 Scott Richman (elsewhere sketched in this volume). 
 The father of our subject was a Methodist minis- 
 ter, and died when the latter was but three years of 
 age, leaving the care of a family of seven children 
 upon his excellent mother, who seems to have been 
 one of the noblest of her sex. Her genealogy has 
 not been preserved beyond the fact that she was de- 
 scended of Scotch ancestors, and that she exhibited 
 many of the traits of character for which that utili- 
 tarian race are noted. Her watchful care for her 
 children was unceasing, and her widowed life was 
 apparently planned and lived for the main purpose 
 of so rearing her offspring as that they might be pre- 
 pared for honorable and useful lives. And after 
 they had grown up and gone out into the world she 
 often expressed great satisfaction that her care and 
 watchfulness had been so richly rewarded. Wise 
 judgment and an affectionate heart enabled her to 
 so manage and control her family that they were 
 constrained to obedience; and while they respected 
 her authority they never ceased to love her, and 
 " our mother " with them had no peer in the world. 
 
 * For genealogy of the Richman family, see sketch of J. 
 S. Richman. 
 
 Her memory is precious to her surviving children. 
 She was made perfect through suffering, and died 
 among her loved ones at a good old age. 
 
 DeWitt C. was educated at the primitive public 
 schools of Bucks county,, Pennsylvania, to which 
 place his mother had removed soon after the death 
 of his father; there he studied the usual branches 
 taught in such institutions, and from which he grad- 
 uated at the age of twelve years; and he was always' 
 fond of books, and an incessant reader, brief histo- 
 ries of Greece and Rome being among his earliest 
 studies. Scott's poetical and prose writings were 
 his favorite works of fiction; one of these, entitled 
 " Guy Mannering," he almost committed to mem- 
 ory; while the Bible was his constant companion, 
 his vade mecum, with the sacred teachings of which 
 he became enriched. He was of a thoughtful and 
 contemplative turn of mind, and while at school 
 was addicted to the composition of crude poems 
 and essays on topics suggested by his associations ; 
 one of these juvenile effusions fell into the hands 
 of the teacher, or master, as the pedagogue was 
 then called, which he read aloud to the school, 
 criticising and turning it into ridicule as he pro- 
 gressed, to the no small shame and mortification of 
 the young aspirant to literary fame. The propen- 
 sity was not quenced, however; and although cast 
 down by the rebuff of his teacher, the boy was by no 
 means discouraged. He was also fond of reading 
 in company, and it was his daily practice to read 
 aloud to his grandmother from the family Bible, 
 much to the edification of the good old lady. He 
 
504 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTJONART. 
 
 was also fond of the prevalent juvenile sports and 
 plays, and was an expert skater. He was likewise 
 something of a mechanical genius, and exhibited 
 some skill in the construction of his own sleds and 
 other playthings. He was fond of music, for which 
 he had an excellent ear, and sometimes indulged in 
 the singing of ballads and sentimental songs for the 
 edification of his companions or the family circle. 
 
 He was naturally sensitive and keenly alive to 
 neglect or discourtesy. His feelings were dread- 
 fully lacerated on one occasion by the putting of a 
 small switch in his Christmas stockings. This sym- 
 bolic implication of deserved chastisement tortured 
 him more than the most severe reproof or even 
 castigation could have done, and from the emotion 
 with which he sometimes refers to the incident, it 
 would seem that he has not yet entirely recovered 
 from the effects of the shock to his then ardent and 
 susceptible feelings. 
 
 How carefully should parents try to discern the 
 temperaments of their children and studiously avoid 
 wounding their sensibilities. Especially should this 
 rule be observed on festive or joyous occasions. 
 Many a happy and promising lad has been thus 
 wantonly bruised, and its after life soured and 
 blighted by just such indiscretion. 
 
 From the age of twelve to sixteen years our sub- 
 ject worked on a farm in Bucks county, Pennsylva- 
 nia, except a few months spent in a store in Phila- 
 delphia, Pennsylvania. He served about a year as 
 clerk in a store at Trenton, New Jersey. 
 
 At the age of eighteen he removed to Muscatine, 
 Iowa, where his eldest brother, John W. Richman, 
 lived and kept a grocery house.* Here he remained 
 two years in his brother's employ, when he returned 
 to Trenton, New Jersey, resumed his clerkship, and 
 remained there till 1853, when, at the request of 
 his brother J. Scott, he returned to Muscatine to 
 pursue the study of law in his office. He had pre- 
 viously read a little of Blackstone and Kent, but 
 now he set about the work in real earnest, and in 
 the year following was admitted to the bar, having 
 just recovered from an eight weeks' siege of typhoid 
 fever, the result of overwork as a student. 
 
 Being at the time visiting friends in Knox^'ille, 
 Illinois, at the suggestion of Judge Hannaman, of 
 that city, he was examined and admitted to the bar 
 there, and afterward at Muscatine, Iowa. One of 
 
 * This John W. Richman was one of the earliest settlers 
 and most prominent business men of Muscatine. He was 
 never married, and died in 1S50, 
 
 the examining committee being something of a wag, 
 while young Richman was awaiting with beating 
 heart and bated breath, broke out suddenly with 
 the preliminary question : " Mr. Richman, can you 
 give us a correct outline of female beauty.'" The 
 revulsion of feeling which this question produced 
 was astonishing. The rest of the committee burst 
 into a loud laugh, while the candidate, recovering 
 ing his self-possession, replied: "If you will give me 
 a piece of chalk I'll try." The remainder of the 
 ordeal was easy enough. His examiners soon found 
 that his freshness from the study of general defini- 
 tions rendered him more than a match for their 
 rustiness on the same subject. He was accordingly 
 adjudged quahfied for admission to the bar, and was 
 so certified. 
 
 He was subsequently admitted to the bar of the 
 supreme court of Iowa, and in March, 1869, was 
 admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the 
 United States. 
 
 In 1855 he became a partner with his brother J. 
 Scott Richman, which continued until December, 
 1863, when the latter accepted a seat on the bench 
 of the district court of the seventh judicial district 
 of Iowa, whereupon our subject formed a copart- 
 nership with Mr. J. Carskaden, which continues to 
 the present, being now the oldest law firm in the 
 city of Muscatine. 
 
 Though naturally averse to active litigation, it 
 has been his lot to be engaged in some of the most 
 important and hotly contested suits arising in his 
 district, among which may be mentioned the special 
 railroad tax cases growing out of the special tax 
 voted in aid of the Muscatine Western railroad in 
 1 87 1, the collection of which was strongly resisted 
 by many taxpayers — one of the suits still pending; 
 the State v. Moore, for the murder of Dr. C. Hershe 
 in 1864; the State v. Prosser, for the murder of 
 Silas Ferry; Cole v. Cole, a leading divorce suit; 
 Arzt V. Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad 
 Company, an action for personal injuries; Musser v. 
 Hershey, and Brewster v. Hershey, concerning ripa- 
 rian rights, in the district and circuit courts of the 
 state ; Finlay v. Brewster, and cases of bonds of the 
 city of Muscatine issued to the Mississippi and Mis- 
 souri Railroad Company, in the United States cir- 
 cuit and supreme courts. 
 
 In politics, our subject was raised a whig, and on 
 the expiration of that party united with the repub- 
 lican, to which he still adheres, though he has never 
 held nor sought an office, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 505 
 
 During the late war he was among the staunches! 
 supporters of the government, and gave time, money 
 and labor toward the raising of recruits for the army, 
 and for the benefit of sick and disabled soldiers and 
 their families. 
 
 He was married at Brooklyn, New York, on the ist 
 of September, 1855, to Miss Mary Berdine, daughter 
 of Jacob C. and Matilda Berdine, both of whom were 
 natives of New Jersey, and still living in Davenport, 
 Iowa, to which city they transferred their residence 
 a few years ago, having before that time lived in Mus- 
 catine for many years. They are of revolutionary an- 
 cestry, and of the " true-blue " Presbyterian order. 
 
 Mr. Richman made the acquaintance of his wife 
 during the period of his second clerkship in Tren- 
 ton, New Jersey, while she was but a very young 
 school girl. She had heard of his propensity for 
 verse writing, and banteringly asked him to write a 
 stanza for her, with which request he was more than 
 pleased to comply, and we are sorry we cannot now 
 give the lines to the reader; suffice it to say that 
 they fully met the expectations of the lady. An 
 intimacy resulted, they were soon engaged, and the 
 young poet had the rare fortune to find a jewel of a 
 wife, not less a woman than a lady, able and willing 
 to help her husband ; of sound judgment, fine exec- 
 utive abilities and exquisite tastes ; devoted to her 
 family and domestic affairs, yet enjoying society with 
 a keen relish. Their life has been happy and their 
 home pleasant ; their inclinations run in similar 
 channels, and they seek happiness in the home cir- 
 cle rather than elsewhere. They gladly and grate- 
 fully acknowledge the goodness of God in all the 
 ways of life. They have had two children born to 
 them; the eldest, Scott Clinton, born in 1856, lived 
 but two weeks ; the other, Irving Berdine, born on 
 the 17th of October, 1861, now in his sixteenth year, 
 is quite a student, especially of history and biogra- 
 phy, and like his father, is something of a writer on 
 various subjects, and gives promise of further at- 
 tainments in that line. He is now passing through 
 the curriculum of the high school of Muscatine, and 
 seems to develop a taste and aptitude for the pro- 
 fession of his father. 
 
 D. C. Richman was brought up under Methodist 
 influence, but in early youth mingled with skeptical 
 companions and read Paine's "Age of Reason " and 
 Volney's "Ruins," which for a time unsettled but 
 did not satisfy him ; he was next brought under the 
 influence of Universalism, to which he adhered for 
 a number of years, but in 1868, under the influence 
 
 of his excellent wife, who is a deaconess in the Con- 
 gregational church, he united with that denomina- 
 tion of christians, and still continues in its commun- 
 ion. He is especially distinguished as a Sabbath- 
 school worker, and was for five years president of 
 the Sabbath-school association of the county, and 
 is still indispensable to the efficiency of the associa- 
 tion. He was also president of the Young Men's 
 Christian Association, which position he recently 
 resigned. He is not a strong doctrinarian, having 
 more faith in being and doing than in creeds and 
 dogmas. In one word, he believes in 
 
 " That old, old creed of creeds, 
 The loveliness of perfect deeds." 
 
 In personal appearance, Mr. Richman is rather 
 below the medium stature, with brown hair and blue 
 eyes. His manner in company is rather shy and re- 
 served, except when engaged in conversation, when 
 it is free and frank, and his face wears a pleasant 
 expression. He is an excellent conversationalist, 
 but must be drawn out to appear to advantage, as 
 he is never obtrusive. His familiarity with books, 
 aided by his observation of men and things, affords 
 him ample resources in company, while he is not 
 deficient in the spice of wit and humor. His mind, 
 contemplative and imaginative, naturally runs to 
 imagery and versification ; hence most of his liter- 
 ary efforts have been in poetry. His hitherto fugi- 
 tive pieces were recently collected and given to his 
 friends and the public in book form, under the title 
 of "The Talisman, and other Poems." Most of his 
 productions are of a high order of merit, and entitle 
 the author to rank among the unambitious writers 
 of the day. He does not claim to be a poetic ge- 
 nius. Some of his longer pieces were written for 
 public occasions, as the "Grand Military Review," 
 Washington, May, 1865, which was read at the cele- 
 bration of the 4th of July of that year, at Musca- 
 tine, Iowa, and which was read before the alumni 
 of Iowa State University in 1867, and " Strife for 
 Fame," which was read before the alumni of Gris- 
 wold College, Davenport, 1868. His style is chaste, 
 ornate and sometimes pathetic, often sublime, and 
 frequently pervaded by a deep religious and moral 
 tone. 
 
 As a lawyer, he takes rank with the foremost at 
 the bar where he has practiced. He puts himself 
 in full sympathy with his client, and throws into his 
 argument an earnestness and energy which seldom 
 fail of effect. He has a high appreciation of pro- 
 fessional honor, and would scorn to do an act dis- 
 
5o6 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 honorable or unfair ; nor will he on any considera- 
 tion shield a known criminal from justice. But 
 though an eminently successful lawyer, it must be 
 confessed that his natural tastes seem more adapted 
 to the peaceful and quieter walks of literary life than 
 to excited forensic debate. Such tastes and habits 
 have also doubtless kept him out of politics, where 
 he might have made rapid advancement and won 
 greater renown. 
 
 As a husband and father, he is esteemed a model 
 by those most intimate with him. His beautiful 
 home, called Brookside, in the suburbs of Musca- 
 tine, not specially costly or pretentious, but cozy and 
 comfortable, presided over by his excellent christian 
 wife, is a little " paradise below." 
 
 As a kind and sympathetic friend, he is most ap- 
 preciated by those who have had occasion to need 
 his aid and advice. 
 
 HON. JOSEPH P. AMENT, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 HON. JOSEPH P. AMENT, ex-mayor of Mus- 
 catine, was born at Nashville, Tennessee, on 
 the 20th of October, 1824, and is the son of George 
 Ament and Judith D. n^e Pettis. His father was a 
 native of Kentucky, the son of Gabriel Ament, a 
 native of Hamburg, Germany, where he was edu- 
 cated for the priesthood of the Roman Catholic 
 church, but, fearing conscription in the German 
 army, emigrated to this country, where his theo- 
 logical opinions underwent a change, and he united 
 with the Methodist church, of which he was a con- 
 spicuous member, in Kentucky. His mother was 
 of English origin, daughter of Stephen Pettis, of 
 Virginia. 
 
 Our subject attended district school till the age of 
 fifteen, when he removed to Palmyra, Missouri, de- 
 clining the offers of kind friends to assist with means 
 toward the completion of his education. 
 
 He entered a printing office as an apprentice on 
 a small salary, and spent most of his evenings in 
 study, endeavoring in this way to meet the deficiency 
 in his education. He read with avidity such his- 
 toric and scientific books as he could obtain, and 
 having a retentive memory, he rapidly absorbed 
 what he read, and in time became one of the best 
 informed men of the period. At the age of eigh- 
 teen he became proprietor of the paper on which 
 he had been employed; namely, the " Missouri 
 Courier," which for five years he conducted success- 
 fully, when he sold out his interest, and removed to 
 Hannibal, in the same county. Here he purchased 
 the " Hannibal Gazette," and changing its title to 
 that of the " Hannibal Courier," continued its pub- 
 lication until the winter of 1852, when he disposed 
 of it. During his editorial career he naturally be- 
 came interested in political affairs, and though quite 
 
 young, was frequently called upon to fill prominent 
 and responsible positions in the county and state 
 organizations of the democratic party, of which he 
 was a member. In 1853 he was appointed by Pres- 
 ident Pierce to the position of receiver of public 
 moneys in the United States land office at Palmyra, 
 and was reappointed to the same position in 1857 
 by President Buchanan, and continued to hold the 
 office until September, 1858, when he accepted a 
 seat in the Missouri legislature, to which he had just 
 been elected from Marion county. In i860 he pur- 
 chased an interest in the " Hannibal Daily Demo- 
 crat," which he edited with remarkable skill, during 
 the exciting presidential campaign of that year, ad- 
 vocating the election of Stephen A. Douglas. In 
 i860 he was again elected to the Missouri legisla- 
 ture, and during both terms occupied a prominent 
 position, serving with marked ability and distinction 
 on several important committees. At his second 
 term he was strongly backed for the speakership 
 of the house, and lacked but a few votes of being 
 elected to that responsible position. In January, 
 1861, he was elected by the legislature to the of- 
 fice of pubHc printer for the state. His accept- 
 ance of this position necessitated the resignation of 
 his seat in the legislature, which he tendered early 
 in February, not, however, before he had placed him- 
 self fairly on the record, both by speech and votes, 
 as opposed to the doctrine of secession. In April, 
 1861, he entered upon his duties as public printer. 
 He also became interested in the publication of the 
 " Jefferson Examiner," then the leading paper at the 
 capital, which he continued the oversight of until 
 May, 1864, when he disposed of his interest to his 
 successor in the office of public printer. In the 
 same year he removed to Muscatine, Iowa, where he 
 
TtiE UJViTEB STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTlONART. 
 
 507 
 
 purchased a half interest in the extensive wagon 
 and carriage and manufacturing establishment of 
 his brother, William D. Ament, which was greatly 
 enlarged, and continued under the firm name of 
 Ament and Bro. with success until 1877, when the 
 partnership was dissolved, the business being con- 
 tinued by his brother. In 1872 he was eiected by 
 the citizens of Muscatine to the position of chief 
 magistrate of the city, reelected in 1873, and again 
 in 1876, retiring to private life at the close of the 
 centennial year. During the period of his legisla- 
 tive career in Missouri, the then all absorbing topic 
 of the rebellion, as well as many executive local 
 issues, had combined to send to the assembly men 
 of the ablest and most experienced politicians of the 
 state ; among these Mr. Ament soon took a promi- 
 nent if not a leading position. His industry in the 
 committee rooms, and the clearness, force and vigor 
 with which his views were expressed, gave to him a 
 power and influence in the body not exceeded by 
 that of any other member. As chief magistrate of 
 Muscatine, his administration of the city affairs was 
 flatteringly successful. For many years previously 
 the interests of the city had been languishing undeT 
 a load of municipal indebtedness, originally con- 
 tracted to aid in the construction of railroads ter- 
 minating in or passing through Muscatine. For a 
 number of years no interest had been paid on this 
 indebtedness ; the state courts had held that mu- 
 nicipal corporations had no power to subscribe for 
 stock in railroad enterprises, or ta issue bonds in 
 payment of such subscriptions. The United States 
 courts have, on the other hand, decided that the 
 bonds were negotiable securities in the hands of 
 bona-fide purchasers, and that their payment would 
 be enforced. Accordingly suit was brought to re- 
 cover on these bonds and coupons in the federal 
 courts, and judgments were obtained which were 
 simply appalling in amount, and orders were issued 
 by the courts commanding the officers of the city to 
 levy taxes to pay up these judgments. The effect of 
 this condition of things was to paralyze industry, 
 depreciate the value of property, and spread alarm 
 and dismay among all classes. To rescue the city 
 from the ruin that confronted it was the first object 
 that claimed his attention as chief magistrate, and 
 to effect which he devoted all his time, talents and 
 energies. After a great deal of labor he succeeded 
 in effecting a settlement with the bond creditors of 
 the city, all of whom were non-residents, much the 
 largest portion of them being European capitalists. 
 
 and all clamorous for their money, and not disposed 
 to give any indulgence whatever to a city which 
 had, under the decision of state courts, so persist- 
 ently refused to pay any part of a debt which, aside 
 from its unconstitutionality, had been brought about 
 by systematic fraud and gross deception. He per- 
 suaded nearly all of the bondholders to take new 
 bonds running for twenty-five years, at six per cent 
 interest, instead of the old ones drawing ten per 
 cent interest. Confidence at once became restored, 
 business revived, property appreciated in value, new 
 industries sprang up in various parts of the city, and 
 stately blocks of well-built masonry soon took the 
 place of humbler structures and adorned the princi- 
 pal streets of the city. A spirit of enterprise be- 
 gan to develop. Fire companies were organized ; 
 an excellent system of water-works was put into 
 operation, and other enterprises all betokening a re- 
 newed sense of confidence in the prosperity of the 
 city were inaugurated. It is said of Augustus, the 
 first Roman emperor, that he found Rome brick 
 and left it .marble ; of Mayor Ament it may be most 
 truthfully said, that he found Muscatine stricken 
 and powerless, her commercial interests prostrate, 
 and her business men disheartened, and that he re- 
 tired from office leaving the city full of hope, vigor 
 and confidence, with all the evidences of prosperity 
 and progress in and about it. The treasury orders, 
 for the first time in twenty years, were brought up 
 from forty to fifty per cent discount to par. He also 
 took an active interest in all public enterprises de- 
 signed to benefit the community, having served as 
 a member of the school board, as director in numer- 
 ous business organizations, and as president of the 
 Citizens' Association. His name has also been sev- 
 eral times brought forward by his party as a candi- 
 date for congress. 
 
 He is a distinguished member of the Masonic 
 fraternity, having filled prominent positions in all 
 its organizations, from the lodge to the commandery. 
 In all the relations which he has sustained to his 
 fellow-citizens, his course has been quiet and unob- 
 trusive, and the success in life which he has won, 
 and the public confidence which he has enjoyed, 
 are due to his steady and determined purpose to 
 discharge the duties of every position and avocation 
 he was called upon to fill, with fidelity, integrity, and 
 to the full measure of his abilities. 
 
 He was brought up under the Methodist influence, 
 but. for some years past has been a member and 
 officer of the Protestant Episcopal church. 
 
5o8 
 
 THB UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 He is temperate in his habits, warm in his friend- 
 ships, and ever ready to contribute to the relief of 
 distress. 
 
 Mr. Ament was married in 1849 to Miss Sarah 
 J. Ruff, a native of Virginia, who died in r866, leav- 
 
 ing three children, who survive : Judith D., Mary and 
 Maggie B. In September, 1868, he married Miss 
 Kate A. Robbins, a native of Iowa, who died in 
 1875, leaving four children, who survive: Charles 
 R., George H., Irene D. and Cecil H. 
 
 NORMAN B. HOLBROOK, 
 
 MARENGO. 
 
 NORMAN BRUCE HOLBROOK, the most 
 extensive and successful real-estate dealer in 
 Iowa county, was born in Somerset county, Penn- 
 sylvania, on the 25th of April, 1836. His father, 
 Henry L. Holbrook, was a surveyor and school- 
 teacher, and owned two or three farms in Somerset 
 county, on one of which Bruce, as he was generally 
 called, was reared. His mother was Nancy Con- 
 nelly, of whose family but little is known. The Hol- 
 brooks were from England, and among the early 
 settlers in^ Oneida county, New York. 
 
 Bruce remained in his native county until of age, 
 farming and attending in a scanty measure to his in- 
 tellectual wants, finally supplementing the common 
 school with two or three terms at an academy. 
 
 In the month of April, 1857, Mr. Holbrook came 
 to Iowa ; located at Marengo ; at first surveyed land 
 and taught school ; commenced operating in the real- 
 estate business in four or five years ; read law and 
 was admitted to the bar, but has not practiced, ex- 
 cept in foreclosing mortgages and in other business 
 immediately connected with real estate. He has 
 operated mainly in lands in Iowa county, being the 
 leader in this branch of business. He has paid con- 
 siderable attention to the loaning of money on real 
 estate for eastern capitalists, and has been very suc- 
 
 cessful in his negotiations and transactions generally, 
 being a careful and reliable business dispatcher. 
 
 Mr. Holbrook was elected sheriff of the county in 
 1859, and held the office two terms. He was at the 
 head of the Marengo school board several years at 
 a time when the graded school was being established 
 and the large school-house was being built, and was 
 very energetic and serviceable in that connection ; he 
 was also president of the county board of supervisors 
 four or five years, and is now a member of the gen- 
 eral asseiribly, representing Iowa county. 
 
 He has always acted with the democratic party, 
 and was a delegate to the national convention which 
 met at Baltimore in 1872 and nominated Horace 
 Greeley for the Presidency. 
 
 His wife, Miss Lizzie S. Adams, was a native of 
 Oneida county. New York ; married at Marengo, on 
 the 23d of November, 1861. They have had eight 
 children ; four are now living. 
 
 Mr. Holbrook is a man rather below the medium 
 size ; is five feet seven and a half inches tall, and 
 weighs about one hundred and thirty-two pounds. 
 He has a fair complexion and gray eyes, with a pleas- 
 ant, intelligent expression of the countenance and a 
 cordial address. In business matters and in all the 
 relations of life he is as true as steel. 
 
 HON. ALBERT HEAD, 
 
 JEFFERSON. 
 
 ALBERT HEAD, attorney-at-law, banker, real- 
 estate dealer and extensive farmer, is one of 
 the most stirring and enterprising men in Greene 
 county. He was one of the originators of the 
 County Agricultural Society, furnished the lands for 
 its grounds, and has been one of its officers since 
 its organization. He has a hand in every enterprise 
 tending to develop the resources of Greene county. 
 
 or in any way advance the wealth and welfare? of 
 his adopted home. 
 
 He is a native of Highland county, Ohio, a son of 
 William M. Head, a farmer, still living, a resident of 
 Jefferson, and was born on the 25th of November, 
 1838. His mother was Margaret Ferneau, a de- 
 scendant of a Hessian who fought on ^he British 
 side in the w^r of the revolution, settled in Vir- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 509 
 
 ginia at its close, and later in life was a resident of 
 Ross county, Ohio. The paternal great-grandfather 
 of Albert fought on the American side in 1775-82, 
 and his grandfather in 1812-15. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm 
 in his native county until seventeen years of age, 
 receiving, in the meantime, such education as three 
 months' attendance annually at a common school 
 could furnish, and such as he could pick up at odd 
 moments outside the school-room. In 1855 the fam- 
 ily moved to Montezuma, Poweshiek county, Iowa, 
 where the son spent four years in reading law with 
 Hon. M. E. Cutts, teaching school at the same time 
 during the winters. He was admitted to the bar in 
 April, 1859, and practiced at Montezuma until the 
 American flag was stricken down at Fort Sumter. 
 
 In July, 1861, Mr. Head enlisted in the army as 
 captain of company F, loth Iowa Infantry; was 
 wounded in the head at Corinth and Vicksbnrg, 
 and in the leg at Champion. Hills, Mississippi, and 
 was discharged at the end of three years, having 
 made a brilliant military record. At one period, 
 while in the army, Captain Head was acting assist- 
 ant adjutant-general under General Raum, and he 
 had the capacity to fill any military position which 
 he was called upon to occupy. One of the wounds 
 in the head came very near proving fatal. He was 
 insensible for seven days. 
 
 Returning to Iowa he settled in Jefferson, Greene 
 county, on the 23d of October, 1865, resuming the 
 practice of law, and still continuing it, together with 
 real estate, banking and other branches of business 
 already mentioned. He is owner of one half of the 
 Greene Co.unty Bank, organized in 1866. He has 
 a five-hundred-acre farm adjoining the city, under 
 the best of cultivation; has other cultivated lands 
 ill Greene county, and wild lands in the same, and 
 in Carroll, Boone and other counties. He raised a 
 thousand acres of corn in 1877, and is an extensive 
 raiser of cattle, horses and hogs. Mr. Head owns a 
 hotel, several business houses, residences and other 
 buildings in the city, between twenty-five and thirty 
 of all kinds in the county. In 1867 he made an 
 addition to the city of Jefferson of one hundred 
 and sixty acres, known as " Head's Addition." 
 
 In 1866 he was appointed collector of internal 
 revenue for the old sixth congressional district, re- 
 signing after holding the office two years. He is 
 now mayor of the city. 
 
 Mr. Head has always voted the republican ticket, 
 and is an influential man in the party. 
 
 He is a third-degree Mason ; is a member of the 
 Methodist church and one of its trustees. 
 
 His wife was Miss Minerva Jenkins, of Hardin 
 county, Ohio. They have three children and have 
 lost one. 
 
 JOHN CULBERTSON, 
 
 TIPTON. 
 
 THE log house, the first house of any kind com- 
 pleted in Tipton, was built by John Culbert- 
 son, thirty-seven years a resident of this place. He 
 is a native of Pennsylvania, and was born in the 
 town of Boalsburg, Center county, on the 13th of 
 August, 1814. His father, Jeremiah Cidbertson, was 
 a farmer and inn-keeper ; his mother before her mar- 
 riage was Susan Jack ; both families were early set- 
 tlers in the Keystone State. John was reared on a 
 farm until his fifteenth year, when his father died 
 and he .entered the store, of an uncle, George Jack, 
 at Boalsburg. Subsequently he became the clerk of 
 another uncle, Ezra Culbertson, at Allenville, Mifflin 
 county, remaining there for several years. He then 
 moved to Hollidaysburg, then in Huntington, now 
 in Blair, county, and engaged in mercantile business 
 for himself. At the end of about two years, in June, 
 51 
 
 1838, a flood in the Juniata swept away his store 
 and nearly all his worldly effects. He made up his 
 mind to try his luck elsewhere, and believing that 
 the west afforded the best field for a young man, he 
 prospected a while, and on the 7th of May, 1840, 
 literally pitched his tent where Tipton now stands. 
 He could not do otherwise, as there was no house to 
 shelter him on the town plat. The land had not 
 yet come into market. The commissioners had lo- 
 cated the county seat here early that spring; here 
 in imagination he saw a town rising, and here he 
 resolved to make his home. Soon after completing 
 his log house he opened it to the public; enlarged 
 it in a short time, and kept a hotel for six years. At 
 the end of that period he sold this property, and in 
 company with Preston J. Friend engaged in the mer- 
 cantile business, each one putting in fifteen hundred 
 
5IO 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 dollars. Their business improved until they had a 
 stock of twelve or fourteen thousand dollars' worth 
 on hand at a time, and from a business of perhaps 
 eight or nine thousand dollars the first year it in- 
 creased to thirty or forty thousand a year during the 
 progress of the civil war, and even prior to that date. 
 
 In the summer of 1867 Mr. Friend died, In 1868 
 Mr. Culbertson closed his store, bought a farm near 
 town, and for the last six years has paid considerable 
 attention to agriculture. He has also an interesf in 
 a lumber yard, managed by his only son, John T. 
 Culbertson, an enterprising business man. 
 
 About 1844 Mr. Culbertson was appointed clerk 
 of the district court, the only political office of the 
 least consequence that he would ever accept. 
 
 He has always acted with the democratic party ; 
 during the rebellion was known as a war democrat, 
 he being a firm Union man. 
 
 Mr. Culbertson has been a member of the Meth- 
 odist church since boyhood ; is a trustee of the Tip- 
 ton church, and has been a lay delegate to eccle- 
 
 siastical gatherings. He is a liberal supporter of 
 religious enterprises, and one of the strong pillars 
 of the Tipton Methodist Episcopal church. 
 
 On the T2th of December, 1837, Miss Margaret 
 Jones, of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, became his 
 wife, and they have had four children, all living ex- 
 cept the eldest daughter, Susan M., who, full of prom- 
 ise, and while being educated at Cornell College, died 
 at the age of eighteen years. John T., the eldest 
 child, already mentioned, is married and has a fam- 
 ily ; Ellen is the wife of John Ferguson, junior, of 
 Tipton ; Margaret B., the youngest child, lives at 
 home. 
 
 Mr. Culbertson is a good illustration of what econ- 
 omy and perseverance can accomplish. He came to 
 Iowa territory a poor man ; has always been prudent 
 in his expenditures ; pushed his business, until of 
 late years, day and night, and his labor, pluck and 
 perseverance have been well rewarded. He is one 
 of the wealthy men of Tipton, and every dollar he 
 possesses is the fruit of untiring industry. 
 
 EDWIN MANNING, 
 
 KEOSAU^UA. 
 
 ONE of the earliest settlers and most success- 
 ful business men of Iowa is Edwin Manning, 
 one of the merchant and farmer princes of this noble 
 commonwealth. He is of English descent, the pro- 
 genitor of his branch of the family being a settler in 
 the Bay State a few decades after the arrival of the 
 Mayflower. 
 
 Edwin is the son of Calvin and Desire (Gurley) 
 Manning, and was born in South Coventry, Tolland 
 county, Connecticut, on the 8th of February, 1810. 
 He was raised on a farm, and educated in a common 
 school until sixteen years of age, when he worked 
 for an uncle, Royal Manning, six months in a coun- 
 try store for his board and clothing. 
 
 He had now accumulated about thirty dollars as 
 the proceeds of his industry, and started out to seek 
 his fortune in the beech woods of northern Penn- 
 sylvania. He went by steamboat to New York, and 
 had his first glimpse of babel life in a great city. 
 He kept his eyes wide open, being a careful ob- 
 server, and had the good luck to get safely out of 
 the city with only one exorbitant tax on his verdan- 
 cy — a double price for a cabman's services. He 
 went to Bethany, Pennsylvania ; became a clerk in 
 
 his uncle James Manning's store, at ten dollars a 
 month and board, and at the commencement of the 
 fourth year was taken into partnership, with one- 
 third interest in the business. 
 
 In the summer of 183 1, being of age and possess- 
 ing a strong desire to see more of the country, Mr. 
 Manning took his uncle's old family horse and went 
 through the northern counties of the state, visited 
 every county seat, and made observations and notes 
 of his travels, and in reaching Smithport, in McKean 
 county, he made up his mind that whatever occupa- 
 tion one adopted in that forest-covered country at 
 that time, solid work was before him if he expected 
 to succeed. 
 
 His explorations finally resulted in his locating 
 at a small place known as Canton Corners, in Brad- 
 ford county. There he opened a general exchange 
 store, paying in merchandise for all kinds of farm 
 and forest products. He was very successful, be- 
 came popular, and seems to have been highly es- 
 teemed by everybody, excepting the man who had 
 preceded him in business and made a failure. This 
 man's envy or jealousy, or some other mean ingre- 
 dient in his composition, led him to sue Mr. Man- 
 
£ng^lyff£Mall& S'>nsJ3Bari:laj^StJ/y 
 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 513 
 
 ning, under the pretense that he (Mr. M.) was not 
 selling a certain article of merchandise in exact ac- 
 cordance with the statutes of the state. Mr. Man- 
 ning understood his business, carried on the suit 
 and won — the only lawsuit he had for many years. 
 The writer once heard him remark that it was a 
 good lesson, and doubly.impressed on his mind the 
 importance of never meddling with the law unless 
 he had a clear case. 
 
 Mr. Manning had a partner named John C. Rose, 
 and the firm of Manning and Rose was for six years 
 a synonyme for integrity in dealing, and for sound- 
 ness and success. 
 
 In the autumn of 1836, having disposed of his 
 interests in Canton Corners, Mr. Manning made his 
 d^but in what was then the "Far West." He crossed 
 the Mississippi and visited Saint Louis. He was told 
 by Colonel Benton and Colonel Brant that that was 
 the place for an enterprising young man who desired 
 to expedite the building up of his fortune. But Mr. 
 Manning ran his hands down into his pockets and 
 concluded that they were not deep enough to make 
 a start in so large a city. Accordingly he pushed 
 on, with some associates, reaching Lexington, in the 
 same state, and' surveying the country in that vicini- 
 ty, he made some investments in real estate, but did 
 not fall in love with the system of slavery, and bore 
 northward toward freer lands. 
 
 In December, 1836, he and his associates came 
 to Saint Francisville, on the Des Moines river, Lee 
 county, Iowa, found a shelter in a log cabin, literally 
 filled with sojourning people, with fireplace ample 
 for every reasonable purpose. Some of the denizens 
 were " half-breed " speculators, and, to be fashion- 
 able, Mr. Manning invested lightly in "half-breed 
 claims," the extent being five hundred dollars. That 
 was not the foundation of his great wealth. Near 
 the close of the month just mentioned Mr. Manning 
 and John J. Fairman rode out to Fort Madison, and 
 on tlieir way called on Black Hawk in his " wick-a- 
 up." He treated them well, but seemed quite low- 
 spirited, but not any nTore so, probably, than some 
 other rnonarchs after their glory had departed. 
 
 In January, 1837, Mr. Manning, aided by his un- 
 cle and Mr. Fairman, with John Cams and James 
 Hall, laid out Kedsauqua, being struck by the beau- 
 ty of the location on the Des Moines river. They 
 named the place for the Indian name of the river. 
 In 1838 Mr. Manning attended the first land sale in 
 Iowa, held at Burlington, bought lands to a small 
 extent for himself and for other parties, entering 
 
 thousands of acres. This practice he continued 
 for years, entering lands for actual settlers and giv- 
 ing them liberal time for payment. 
 
 In 1839 Mr. Manning started a store here. A 
 fevv years later began to start others, one at a time, 
 until he had branch stores at Bonaparte, Fairfield, 
 Bloomfield, Eddyville and Chariton, running them 
 all simultaneously.. He took all kinds of farm prod- 
 uce in exchange for his wares, and at an early day 
 ran it on flat-boats down the Des Moines river, and 
 thence via the Mississippi to Saint Louis. He built 
 the first flat-boat that ever passed out of the Des 
 Moines. In 1851 he pulled out the lock gat.es and 
 other obstructions and ran a loaded steamboat char- 
 tered a-t Saint Louis to Des Moines, thus opening 
 this the grandest natural canal of Iowa, and giving 
 the capital of the state direct commercial inter- 
 course by water with Saint Louis. He was commis- 
 sioner of the Des Moines river improvement from 
 1856 to 1859, and caused the settlement of the dif- 
 ficulties with the New York company, thus benefit- 
 ing the state more than one hundred thousand dol- 
 lars. His name is engraven in the history of Iowa 
 as deeply as the bed of her deepest rivers. 
 
 During the civil war, when the five-twenty gov- 
 ernment bonds were put on the market, he was the 
 first man in Iowa to invest, taking ten thousand dol- 
 lars to start with, adding from time to time, until 
 many thousands were invested. He had unbounded 
 confidence in the perpetuity of the government, and 
 was glad of an opportunity in any way to aid in the 
 prosecution of the war. A purer patriot than Mr. 
 Manning does not breathe in Iowa. 
 
 He now owns five stores, has a half interest in. 
 two more in as many different Iowa towns, is sole 
 owner of the Exchange Bank of Keosauqua, and 
 half owner of Manning and Penick's bank at Char- 
 iton, he being president of both, and until recently 
 has operated a pork-packing house at Eddyville. 
 He is the owner of more than ten thousand acres 
 of choice land, one third of it in Van Buren coun- 
 ty, where he lives. He has also one of the finest 
 farms and summer resorts in Connecticut. There 
 is no better financier in Iowa. 
 
 Mr. Manning was a Henry Clay whig and a life- 
 long admirer and personal friend of Horace Gree- 
 ley ; latterly has been a republican with independ- 
 ent tendencies. He has repeatedly been urged to 
 take office, and could have had the nomination for 
 congress a year or two ago, but declined to let his 
 name go before the convention. He seems to be 
 
514 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTlONAttY. 
 
 contented with being the peerless merchant and 
 farmers' friend of the Hawkeye State. Mr. Man- 
 ning is a good talker in public, his speeches always 
 attracting much attention. 
 
 He is a member of no church, leans to Unitarian- 
 ism in his faith and is a liberal contributor to all the 
 denominations in Keosauqua and vicinity. 
 
 'He is a warm friend of education, and his munifi- 
 cence has been felt by many of the literary institu- 
 tions of Iowa. 
 
 He is a strong advocate of temperance, and goes 
 for prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors ex- 
 cept by the general government. 
 
 Mr. Manning has had two wives, the first being 
 Miss Sarah J. Sample, of Lee county, Iowa,- a sister 
 of Hugh W. Sample, of Keokuk ; married in March, 
 1842. She had four children, and died on the ist 
 of June, 1857. She was a woman of many kind 
 
 qualities and an earnest christian. Three of her 
 children survive her. Calvin, the elder son, is mar- 
 ried, and is a promising young attorney ; settled in 
 bttumwa, Iowa. William S. and Anna G. are at 
 home; the son is acquainting himself with all the 
 details of that calling by which his father has ac- 
 cumulated a magnificent fortune. The second wife 
 of Mr. Manning was Miss Nannie B. Bryant, an 
 adopted daughter of the late Hon. Joseph A. Wright, 
 formerly governor of Indiana. By this union they 
 have had six children, and five of them are living: 
 Edward Bates, Albert Wright, Kate Wittlesey, Stan- 
 ley White and Craig Ives. Of Mrs. Manning it can 
 be said that she is a noble and a christian woman. 
 None stand higher among the class of liberal and 
 ever-aiding ones than she. Truly Mr. Manning has 
 been fortunate in having the aid of such a loving 
 and kind wife. 
 
 ADDISON L. HARVEY, 
 
 LOGAN. 
 
 ADDISON L. HARVEY, one of the early re- 
 iX corders and treasurers of Harrison county, 
 and its leading land dealer, is a native of Madison 
 county. New York, and was born in Smithfield, on 
 the 8th of July, 1829. His parents were Nathan 
 and Auril T. (Lyman) Harvey. His paternal grand- 
 father, Spencer Harvey, was a native of Vermont, 
 and removed to Madison county. New York, when 
 it was an almost unbroken wilderness, and there 
 cleared and improved a farm. Addison spent his 
 youth and early manhood in that county ; in his 
 seventeenth year attended Munnville Academy ; sub- 
 sequently clerked five years in a store at Peterboro, 
 and three in a railroad office at Piermont, Rockland 
 county, twenty-five miles from New York city. 
 
 Believing the west to be a promising field for 
 young men, in 1855 Mr. Harvey crossed the Missis- 
 sippi river at Davenport, and came as far as New- 
 ton, Jasper- county, and after prospecting one sea- 
 son, settled in Magnolia, then the seat of justice of 
 Harrison county. After spending one year in the 
 Inercantile trade he was appointed recorder and 
 treasurer of the county, and by election and reelec- 
 tion held the office for five consecutive years, com- 
 mencing in January, 1859, with a salary of four 
 hundred dollars for the combined offices. 
 
 In 1864 Mr. Harvey began operating in the real- 
 
 estate business, and still continues it, though since 
 December, 1875, at Logan, where the county seat 
 lias been since the autumn of that year. He is by 
 far the most extensive land dealer in the county, 
 and as a business man is very successful. He is 
 upright, high minded and fair dealing, and has as 
 many personal friends as any citizen of the county. 
 No man takes more pleasure than he in the pros- 
 perity of the farmers whom he has furnished with 
 homesteads. No man has done so much to fill the 
 county with a good class of agriculturists. 
 
 In September, 1876, he started a bank, associating 
 with him in this .business Mr. James C. Milliman, 
 and they a.re the proprietors of the Harrison County 
 Bank, an institution founded on a solid basis and 
 rapidly rising in popularity. 
 
 During most of the time that the civil war was in 
 progress Mr. Harvey acted' as assistant assessor of 
 internal revenue, his district including, part of the 
 time, Shelby as well as Harrison county. 
 
 He has always affiliated with the republican party, 
 and is a firm adherent, but seems to have no very 
 strong political aspirations. He has been at sundry 
 times and is now chairman of the republican central 
 coinmittee, and is the most influential man in the 
 county. In agricultural and other enterprises he is 
 also a leader. 
 
TUB UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAHT. 
 
 515 
 
 He has been a Freemason since about i860, and 
 is a fifth-degree Odd-Fellow. 
 
 His religious views would be designated liberal. 
 
 His wife, Miss Maggie Miller, of Piermont, New 
 York, married on the 4th of December, i860, has 
 had seven children, all of whom are living except 
 the eldest daughter. 
 
 The parents of Mr. Harvey moved to Iowa the 
 year before he did, and his father died at the son's 
 house, in Magnolia, about ten years ago. His moth- 
 er, now in her seventy-fifth year, is living with her 
 son, and is in fair health. The Lymans are an ex- 
 tensive family in New England, and are gradually 
 spreading over the western states. 
 
 JOHN HERRON, 
 
 LEMARS. 
 
 JOHN HERRON, treasurer of Plymouth county, 
 is a native of Wexford county, Ireland, and was 
 born in 1836, his parents being. Nicholas and El- 
 eanor (Lambert) Herron, industrious members of 
 the farming community. They emigrated to Ameri- 
 ca when the son was about fourteen years old, land- 
 ing at Quebec, and proceeding thence to Madison, 
 Wisconsin, where the subject of this sketch com- 
 menced labor by carrying the " Statesman," a paper 
 published by W. W. Wyman. In that office he spent 
 one year, and partly learned the printer's trade, fin- 
 ishing at Watertown, in the same state, with J. A. 
 Hadley, of the "Chronicle." Returning to Madi- 
 son, he -worked about six years on the ''Argus" and 
 "Democrat," went thence to Mineral Point, founded 
 the " Home Intelligencer," changed its name to the 
 " National Democrat " in 1864, conducted it until the 
 autumn of 1868, when he sold out, and in March, 
 1869, took up a homestead near Lemars, one mile 
 from the depot. 
 
 The next January he moved to Vermilion, Da- 
 kota Territory, and worked in the " Republican " 
 office three months for Charles H. True; spent 
 about the same length of time on the Yankton 
 Press," of which he became part owner, and in 
 
 the same year (1870) he returned to the homestead 
 once more. 
 
 Continuing his farming, he also dealt considerably 
 in real estate from 187 1 to 1874. At the beginning 
 of the latter year he became county treasurer, to 
 which office he had been elected the autumn before. 
 He has been reelected twice, and is now serving his 
 third term. He is a democrat, and lives in a republi- 
 can county, and his strength and popularity are seen 
 in the fact that he has been reelected by an increased 
 majority. In 1877 ^^ received over one thousand 
 votes out of one thousand four hundred cast. His 
 honesty and capability have been thoroughly tested ; 
 he is serving the county with the utmost faithful- 
 ness, and his labors are fully appreciated. 
 
 Mr. Herron was reared in the Catholic church, 
 and firmly adheres to the faith of his parents and 
 ancestors. He has lived a life above reproach. 
 
 He retains the homestead near the city of Le- 
 mars, has other lands in the county, and is in very 
 comfortable circumstances. 
 
 The wife of Mr. Herron was Miss Susan Gehlen, 
 daughter of Peter Gehlen, many years a resident of 
 Jackson county, Iowa, and now a manufacturer in 
 Lemars. 
 
 HENRY W. HART,. M. D. 
 
 COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 HENRY WATTS HART has been a practicing 
 physician for more than thirty years, most of 
 this time in the State of Iowa. He went info the 
 profession from a love of it; has pursued it with 
 great diligence, made constant progress in the heal- 
 ing art, and stands among the foremost men in the 
 medical fraternity in western Iowa. 
 
 He is a native of Chenango county. New York, 
 dating his birth at Sherburne, on the 14th of Octo- 
 ber, 1 818. His grandfather, Thomas Hart, was a 
 Connecticut man, and a revolutionary soldier. His 
 father, Thomas Hart, junior, was a farmer, and in 
 that employment reared his son Henry. 
 
 About 1833 the family moved to Ontario county. 
 
Si6 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 in the western part of the state, and in 1838 to Bel- 
 videre, Illinois, the son being engaged in agricultural 
 pursuits until he became of age. At this period, 
 having received only a common-school education, 
 and quite unsatisfied with his literary attainments, 
 Mr. Hart returned to New York in 1840, and at- 
 tended the Franklin Academy at Prattsburg, Steu- 
 ben county. While pursuing his literary education 
 he commenced reading medicine with Dr. Addison 
 Niles ; attended lectures at Geneva, New York, and 
 graduated in 1846. 
 
 After practicing a year or more in his native state, 
 Dr. Hart moved to Johnston, Rock county, Wiscon- 
 sin, remaining there until 1853, when he removed to 
 West Union, Fayette county, Iowa; there he built 
 up a large practice, and was doing finely when, in 
 1861, civil war burst upon the land. In September 
 of that year he went to the south as surgeon of the 
 9th Iowa Infantry, Hon. William Vandever, colonel ; 
 at the end of about one year was transferred to the 
 38th, and was its surgeon until the regiment was 
 mustered out in the summer of 1865. 
 
 At Vicksburg Dr. Hart had charge of the gen- 
 eral hospital; was overworked, broke down, and had 
 a three months' sickness ; the only period he was off 
 duty during the three years and ten months he was 
 living a camp life. He is a man of very kindly feel- 
 ings, and his heart, as well as his judgment and con- 
 
 science, prompted him to be very attentive to the 
 sick and wounded. 
 
 While Dr. Hart was in the army his family resided 
 in Dubuque, and on his return he remained in that 
 city practicing and prospecting for a short period. 
 
 In 1868 he settled in Council Bluffs, and has 
 gained a high standing in his profession. His long 
 experience in the army gave him superior advan- 
 tages in surgeonry, which he has latterly made a 
 specialty, though his practice is general. His stand- 
 ing in every respect is excellent. He lives to benefit 
 the .well, and never neglects the sick. 
 
 In politics, the doctor was in early life a whig; of 
 late years has been a republican. He quietly casts 
 his vote, and has time to do but little more in that 
 direction. 
 
 He has been a member of the Congregational 
 church since returning from the war; is a trustee 
 of the Council Bluffs Society, and is deeply inter- 
 ested in the progress of the christian religion. 
 
 On the ist of May, 1845, he was joined in wed- 
 lock with Miss Sarah H. Way, of Bath, New York. 
 They have lost one child, and have two sons and 
 one daughter living. Frank H. has a family, and is 
 a banker and real-estate dealer in Beloit, Kansas; 
 Jane Way is the wife of James D. Edmunson, an 
 attorney of Council Bluffs, and Ernest E. is a stu- 
 dent in Yale College. 
 
 JOSEPH BENNETT, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 WHEN Richard Cobden came down the Mis- 
 sissippi, during his visit to America in 1856, 
 he stepped off the steamer while it was discharging 
 and receiving cargo at Muscatine, and walked into 
 the city. Viewing the long lines of business blocks 
 on Second street, Mr. Cobden exclaimed : " Here it 
 is again ! Everywhere I go in the west I find these 
 marvelous cities that have risen as if by enchant- 
 ment in a night." Foremost among those western 
 magi whose potent wands have called these cities 
 into being, as it were out of the ground, like Mac- 
 beth 's witches, stands the man whose name heads 
 this sketch. His character is distinctly traced in 
 his enterprising life, one of the most busy and use- 
 ful in the great valley of the Mississippi. To-day we 
 find him throwing a bridge across a river at his own 
 expense, costing thousands; to-morrow building the 
 
 largest flouring mill in the state; the next day organ- 
 izing a telegraph company and putting up the wires; 
 the next building a plank road to bring some rural 
 district into commercial relations with the city of his 
 adoption, and anon building a steamboat to trans- 
 port the merchandise of his city to the seaboard. 
 In a word, the promoter of all the best interests of 
 his city ; a man with a large heart, an expansive 
 mind, and zealous in all good works, — such is Joseph 
 Bennett. 
 
 He was born at Lunensburgh, Worcester county, 
 Massachusetts, on the sth of December, 1817. His 
 parents were Archelas T. Bennett and Debora nie 
 Wheeler. His father was a respectable shoemaker, 
 and followed the business through life. He was a 
 quiet, honest, conscientious, plodding man; and al- 
 though he was able to make a comfortable living for 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 517 
 
 his family, they were left to their own resources in 
 early life. 
 
 The ancestors of Joseph Bennett emigrated to' 
 this country from England soon after the revolution, 
 and settled in Massachusetts, where a colony of the 
 descendants still reside. 
 
 Our subject attended the common schools of his 
 native, place during eight weeks of each winter till 
 the age of fourteen, after which he worked as a farm 
 hand till the age of twenty-one, when lie removed to 
 Muscatine, Iowa, and -was employed as clerk in the 
 store of Mr. Brownell ; but after three or four months 
 he bought out the interest of his employer, and 
 commenced his career as a merchant. A year later 
 he was joined by his brother, Oliver Bennett ; the 
 business was enlarged, taking in everything in the 
 line of general merchandising. Three years after- 
 ward Mr. Stephen L. Foss was admitted to a partner- 
 ship, Mr. Oliver Bennett retiring. In 1848 the busi- 
 ness again passed under the exclusive control of our 
 subject, and was conducted with great success until 
 i860, when a series of disasters, culminating in finan- 
 cial embarrassments, caused him to retire from com- 
 mercial pursuits and devote his attention entirely to 
 farming, which he has since followed, and at which 
 he has enjoyed more contentment and prosperity 
 than at any other business. 
 
 He was a man of indomitable perseverance and 
 energy. There was no enterprise engaged in for the 
 benefit of Muscatine, or the prosperity of its people, 
 in which he was not prominent, and to his energy 
 and influence are due as much as to any other man 
 the success and enterprise of the city of Muscatine. 
 In 1850 he built the largest flouring mill then in 
 the west, at a cost of thirty thousand dollars. It 
 was capable of grinding five hundred barrels of flour 
 per day. This "magnificent structure was accident- 
 ally burned to the ground, and became a total loss, 
 without insurance, in less than a year after it was 
 built, but in less than ninety days thereafter it was 
 rebuilt and in operation again, and so continued 
 until 1869, when he sold it to Mr. John B. Hale. 
 
 Mi^ Bennett had observed for a number of years 
 that a serious obstacle to the trade of Muscatine 
 was the want of a bridge over. the Cedar river, south- 
 west of the city; accordingly in 185 1 he organized a 
 company for the purpose of spanning the stream by 
 an iron tressel-work viaduct. The organization was 
 known as the Washington and Oskaloosa Road and 
 Bridge Company, of which Mr. Bennett was presi- 
 dent. The contract for the construction of the 
 
 bridge was let to a Mr. Kilburn, of Saint Louis, Mis- 
 souri, who was very highly indorsed by Mr. Filley, 
 of that city, and others, and hence no security was 
 required of him. Stone piers were erected at great 
 cost, and a swing bridge was projected across the 
 stream, but the work seems to have been done in 
 a manner so unsubstantial and so utterly at variance 
 with scientific principles that several members of the 
 company withdrew, while others refused to hazard 
 any more money till the structure was completed. 
 The architect still insisting that the work would 
 prove a success, and Mr. Bennett unwilling to lose so 
 much money without a fair trial, he continued to make 
 advances to the contractor, till the occurrence of a 
 wind storm completely demolished the structure, 
 which became an immediate loss, the debris of which 
 still cumbers the channel of the river. In this enter- 
 prise Mr. Bennett lost over ten thousand dollars. 
 About the same time he was engaged with others 
 in the construction of a plank road from Muscatine 
 to Tipton, a considerable distance of which was 
 graded, but for want of cooperation this enterprise 
 also came to nought, and buried about five thou- 
 sand dollars of Mr. Bennett's money. Simultane- 
 ously with these enterprises he was also engaged, 
 on his individual responsibility, in building a wharf 
 in front of the city, which he brought to a successful 
 issue and retained the franchises of until 1869. He 
 was also largely interested in the first steamboat 
 ever owned in Muscatine, which after running suc- 
 cessfully for several years .was, in 1858, sunk between 
 Saint Louis and Cairo, becoming a total loss and 
 involving Mr. Bennett in heavy liabilities. These 
 are but a few of the enterprises in which our subject 
 was engaged; there was no public improvement, nor 
 any undertaking of importance or hazard, for the 
 benefit of Muscatine with which he was not promi- 
 nently connected. But of all his enterprises during 
 an active and busy life none has afforded him more 
 real satisfaction and happiness than the building, 
 entirely at his own cost, of a mission church and 
 Sunday-school room at south Muscatine. This in- 
 stitution, of which he is still the proprietor, has been 
 in successful operation since 1856, Mr. Bennett hav- 
 ing been in attendance every Sunday since its in- 
 auguration to the present time, except four, when 
 he was on a visit to Massachusetts. It has been the 
 means of leading many souls to Christ, and will bear 
 fruit in eternity. 
 
 He has been all his lifetime a total abstainer, and 
 to his honor and credit be it recorded that during 
 
5i8 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 the early history of Muscatine, when every merchant 
 sold whisky, and it was considered an essential 
 article of commerce, Mr. Bennett refused to have 
 anything to do with the article ; on the contrary, he 
 opposed the traffic in intoxicating drinks in every 
 way in his power; and when a law was passed in 1856 
 restraining and regulating its sale, he was foreriiost 
 in aiding the authorities in the enforcement of it, 
 and in this way became so obnoxious to the foreign 
 element of the city, that his effigy was publicly car- 
 ried through the streets and burned on the wharf 
 amid the jeers and hoots of the rabble. 
 
 He became a member of the Congregational 
 church in 1856, and has since adhered to that faith. 
 
 In politics, he has always been radically republi- 
 can. 
 
 On the 14th of August, 1845, Mr. Bennett was 
 married to Miss Elizabeth Rodgers Schenck, daugh- 
 ter of Colonel Wm. Rodgers Schenck, one of the 
 western poets, and granddaughter of Wm. C. Schenk, 
 
 brother of Hon. Robert C. Schenck, late United 
 States minister to England, and only sister of James 
 F. and R. C. Schenck, of Dayton, Ohio. They had 
 six children born to them, three of whom, William, 
 Oliver and Nelly, died in infancy, and the remain- 
 ing three, Joseph, Phoebe and Charles, still survive. 
 Joseph is engaged in merchandising at Waterloo, 
 Iowa, but the two youngest are still under tlje pa- 
 ternal roof. 
 
 Mrs. Bennett died on the loth of August, 1872, in 
 the 48th year of her age, universally regretted. She 
 had been a follower of Christ since her seventeenth 
 year, and since 185 1 a member of the Congregational 
 Church of Muscatine. She died with a calm and 
 peaceful trust in her Saviour. Her life was pure, 
 lovely, and of good report, and her name is cherished 
 as a precious keepsake by her surviving family and 
 many friends, to whom she had been for many years 
 a beautiful and noble example in all the various re- 
 lations, of life. 
 
 ORLANDO B. AYRES, 
 
 KNOXVILLE. 
 
 ONE of the self-made men and leading .attor- 
 neys at the Marion county bar is Orlando 
 B. Ayres, who never went to school to exceed four 
 months in his life after he was twelve years old, and 
 to-day is one of the best office lawyers in this part 
 of the state. He was born in Wiiloughby, Lake 
 county, Ohio, on the 26th of July, 1836. His fath- 
 er, Buenos Ayres, was from Massachusetts, and his 
 mother, Sarah Osborn, from Connecticut. In his 
 infancy the family moved to Hicksville, Defiance 
 county, in the northwestern part of the state, and 
 when he was fourteen removed to Waupun, Wiscon- 
 sin, spending one year there. In 1851 they removed 
 to Dover, Bureau county, Illinois, and two years la- 
 ter to Cambridge, Henry county, where the subject 
 of this sketch continued to work on a farm until 
 1 86 1, when he commenced reading law at Kewa- 
 nee, with Howe and North. He was admitted to 
 the bar at a term of the supreme court held at Ot- 
 tawa in December, 1863. 
 
 Prior to commencing the study of law Mr. Ayres 
 managed to secure a good practical business educa- 
 tion by private studies, mastering arithmetic, English 
 grammar and other branches. He sometimes went 
 eight or ten miles to borrow a useful book. 
 
 On receiving his certificate permitting him to prac- 
 tice, Mr. Ayres opened an office in Kewanee with 
 Levi North, his preceptor, and at the end of ten 
 months located in Knoxville, where he has been in 
 constant practice, a partner all of the time of ex- 
 Governor Stone. He has sedulously refused to ac- 
 cept any office, except that of notary public or 
 something in a business line ; is very studious, and 
 is a growing man. He is fully up to the average as 
 a jury lawyer, is a perfect master of the details of 
 an office, prepares his cases with tTie utmost care, 
 and is logical, clear and forcible in court work. In 
 industry he is almost a match for Judge Cole, late 
 of the supreme bench. The library of Messrs. 
 Stone and Ayres is large and choice, and the latter, 
 when not in court, is found there, applying himself 
 to severe studies. 
 
 Pecuniarily as well as professionally he is success- 
 ful, and is vice-president of the Marion County Na- 
 tional Bank. He has been from its organization a 
 director of the Knoxville and Des Moines railway, 
 the road now being in the hands of the Chicago, 
 Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company. He is 
 still a director. 
 
 In his youth Mr. Ayres was an abolitionist in 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 519 
 
 political sentiment, and since there was a republican 
 party has voted that ticket. 
 
 In religious sentiment, he is a Universalist. He is 
 a Chapter Mason and a sixth-degree Odd-Fellow. 
 
 The wife of Mr. Ayres was Miss Annie L. Stone, 
 sister of his law partner. They were married on 
 the 13th of July, 1864, and have had seven chil- 
 dren, six of thera yet living. 
 
 ISAAC F. HILDRETH, M.D., 
 
 LEON. 
 
 ISAAC FREESE HILDRETH, son of Simeon 
 and Sarah (Freese) Hildreth, is a native of Ban- 
 gor, Maine, and first saw the light on the 20th of 
 March, 1822. His great-grandfather was from Ire- 
 land, and with two brothers fought for American 
 independence. The Freese family early settled in 
 Maine, but its pedigree we are unable to trace. 
 
 The subject of this notice attended the graded 
 schools of Bangor till fourteen years of age ; moved 
 with his father's family to Granville, Ohio, in 1836; 
 attended for two years the preparatory department 
 of Granville College, now called Dennison Univer- 
 sity; then learned of his father the cooper's trade, 
 at Alexander, near Granville ; worked at it five years; 
 taught a select school at Columbus two terms ; in 
 1843 commenced studying medicine with Dr. J. S. 
 Skinner, of Columbus ; attended lectures at Jefferson 
 Medical College, Philadelphia; graduated in 1846; 
 practiced two years at Shadesville, near Columbus ; 
 the same length of time in Columbus ; five or six 
 years at Mount Liberty, Knox county, and early in 
 the summer of 1856 left Ohio and settled at Lovilia, 
 Monroe county, Iowa. He practiced there seven or 
 eight years; at Bellefontaine, Mahaska county. In 
 
 1868 moved to Leon. Here he was employed in 
 the drug business five years, and since that time has 
 been practicing medicine, speculating in real estate, 
 building, and looking after his property. He erected 
 the Opera House block in 1876, to commemorate the 
 centennial year, and has several fine business houses 
 and other property in the city of Leon. He is pub- 
 lic-spirited, full of energy and enterprise, and is do- 
 ing his full share in beautifying the place, being the 
 most extensive builder, probably, in the city. His 
 works are his monument, and will stand long after 
 he has departed. 
 
 Dr. Hildreth was originally ah old-line whig, and 
 of late years has been a republican. He was a mem- 
 ber of the board of supervisors of Mahaska county, 
 and member and chairman of a similar board in 
 Decatur county one year. 
 
 He belongs to the Decatur County Medical Soci- 
 ety, and is a Royal Arch Mason, and has been high 
 priest of Chapter No. -^t^, Leon. 
 
 On the 26th of June, 1848, Miss Laura Devereaux, 
 of Granville, Ohio, became the wife of Dr. Hildreth, 
 and they have one daughter, Sadie, the wife of John 
 D. Robberts, of Albia, Iowa. 
 
 GEORGE W. ARGO, 
 
 LEMARS. 
 
 THE Argos are of French descent. The pro- 
 genitor of the family in this country, John 
 Argo, came over about the time of the revolution, 
 settled in Virginia, and fought under General La- 
 fayette. The name in the old country was Arago, 
 changed we know not why. Alexander M. Argo, 
 son of John and grandfather of George W., was a 
 soldier in the second war with England. The par- 
 ents of George W.. John and Sarah (McDonald) 
 Argo, moved from Virginia to Pennsylvania about 
 183s, and thence, a little later, to Logan county, 
 S- 
 
 Ohio, where the subject of this notice was born, on 
 the 19th of September, 1843. When he was twelve 
 years old the family moved to Allen county, Indi- 
 ana, near Fort Wayne, settling on a farm. There 
 his mother died in 1861 and his father in 1862, leav- 
 ing the son with three younger sisters to take care 
 of Before the death of his parents George W. had 
 learned the carpenter and millwright's trade, work- 
 ing at it steadily until nineteen, except during the 
 winters, which he spent in a district school: When 
 the civil war broke out he was attending the Fort 
 
520 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 Wayne College, and when the ssth Indiana regi- 
 ment was mustered into the service, he was a pri- 
 vate in company E. After being in the service 
 nearly two years he resigned, having previously been 
 promoted to second lieutenant of the company. 
 
 Soon after leaving the army Mr. Argo commenced 
 reading law at Fort Wayne with Hon. J. L. Worden, 
 now chief justice of Indiana. Having to support 
 himself and three sisters, at the end of two years he 
 had to return to his trade, still giving his leisure 
 time to his law books. 
 
 In March, 1866, Mr. Argo came to Marengo, Iowa 
 county, Iowa, where he was admitted to the bar in 
 February, 1867. Before opening an office he went 
 to Fort Randall, Dakota Territory, and aided in 
 building the new fort, he being foreman of the car- 
 penter's department. He was a member of the leg- 
 islature of that territory in the winter of 1870-71. 
 On the 1 6th of the next November he reached Le- 
 mars, which has since been his home, law being his 
 exclusive business. Probably no attorney in this 
 part of the state ever rose more rapidly. Since he 
 settled in Plymouth county he has had extraordi- 
 nary success, especially as a criminal lawyer. He 
 
 has been retained on every case of the kind tried in 
 the county since locating here, and his success as- 
 tonishes those who have the highest opinion of him. 
 He seems to have the law at his tongue's end, and 
 is a powerful advocate. He is growing in knowl- 
 edge, in popularity and in legal acumen and intel- 
 lectual 'strength. Evidently a brilliant future is to 
 be his. 
 
 Mr. Argo was a democrat before coming to Iowa, 
 and has since acted with the republicans, being 
 classed among the moderates or conservatives; yet 
 at times he is very active, exhibiting great zeal for 
 friends whom he wishes to see elevated to office. 
 He works to win, and rarely fails. 
 
 He is a member of the blue lodge in the order 
 of Free and Accepted Masons. 
 
 Religiously, he is partial to the Presbyterian faith 
 and order of worship, but is a member of no church. 
 At the time of writing he is giving his leisure to ad- 
 vocating the cause of temperance, a fine field in 
 which to show his oratorical powers. , 
 
 On the 25th of December, 1866, Miss Carrie Swe- 
 zey, of Marengo, Iowa, was married to Mr. Argo, and 
 they have two children and have lost two. 
 
 COLONEL BENJAMIN A. BEACH, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 BENJAMIN A. BEACH, ex-colonel of the nth 
 Iowa Volunteer Infantry, was born in Hamilton, 
 Butler county, Ohio, on the 20th of January, 1827, 
 and is the son of John and Rosanna (Wilson) Beach, 
 the former a native of New Jersey and the latter of 
 Pennsylvania. The ancestors on the male side are 
 of German origin, and of the same stock to which 
 the wife of Benjamin Franklin, from whom he is 
 named, belonged ; while on the female side the lin- 
 eage is traced back to the north of Ireland, and 
 thence to Scotland. Our subject was the fourth of 
 a family of six children, two sons and four daughters, 
 and'was made an orphan at the age of five years by 
 the death of his father. His mother was left with- 
 out means, and the children were early thrown upon 
 their own resources. The schooling of Benjamin 
 A. was limited to three months annually in the depth 
 of winter, at the public schools, previous to the age 
 of nine years, at which period he commenced work- 
 ing in Graham's paper mills, near Hamilton, Ohio, 
 at fifty cents per week, where he remained steadily 
 
 for four years. At the age of thirteen years he was 
 apprenticed to a tinsmith in Richmond, Indiana, to 
 learn the trade of his master, at which he continued 
 three years. At the outbreak of the Mexican war 
 he ran away from home and enlisted as a soldier in 
 the ist Ohio Volunteers, Colonel A. M. Mitchell 
 commanding, and remained in the service some six- 
 teen months. The change of diet, and especially 
 the malarious climate of the south, brought on an 
 attack of fever that reduced him almost to a skele- 
 ton, and for weeks his life hung by a thread, but 
 on being removed to a higher latitude he recovered 
 with great rapidity, and became one of the most ro- 
 bust and healthy veterans of the army. He further- 
 more developed a taste and aptitude for soldiering 
 that placed him in the front ranks as an accom- 
 plished soldier. He served through all the marches 
 and campaigns of that struggle, fought at Monterey 
 and in other engagements, and was honorably dis- 
 charged at the close of the war. After laying down 
 his musket he resumed his trade at Hamilton, Ohio, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BTOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 521 
 
 where he worked steadily for over two years, and in 
 1850 moved to Muscatine, Iowa, which has been his 
 home ever since. Here he opened a shop and store, 
 and conducted a profitable trade until the outbreak 
 of the slaveholders' rebellion, when, actuated by pa- 
 triotic motives, he again tendered his services to his 
 country, and on the 17th of April, 1861, he enlisted 
 in company A, ist Iowa Volunteers. But his pre- 
 vious military experience was too important to per- 
 mit of his remaining in the ranks, and on the or- 
 ganization of the company he was elected to the 
 position of first lieutenant. He served in this ca- 
 pacity through the three months' campaign, and par- 
 ticipated in the battle of Wilson's Creek, Missouri, at 
 which the lamented General Lion was killed. On the 
 17th of October, i86r, he reentered the service for 
 three years, as captain of company H, nth Iowa 
 Infantry. He commenced his career in the new 
 organization early in the spring of 1862, on the Ten- 
 nessee river, and participated in the battle of Shiloh, 
 on the 6th of April, where he lost some thirty men of 
 his company. He also took part in the campaign 
 against Corinth, under command of General Halleck. 
 While stationed at Bolivar, Tennessee, in Septem- 
 ber, 1862, he was placed in command of a detach- 
 ment consisting of his own company and a battalion 
 from the 31st Illinois, as a train guard, between 
 Bolivair and Jackson, and while en route for the latter 
 point was attacked and surrounded by a brigade of 
 rebel cavalry under General Jackson, of Tennessee, 
 who destroyed the track, cut off retreat, and de- 
 manded an unconditional surrender; but the gallant 
 captain was not made of surrender stuff. By a bril- 
 liant manoeuvre he fell back a few rods to Madora 
 station, which he barricaded with cotton bales, and 
 defended the depot and stores with great tenacity, 
 keeping his assailants at bay for a period of four 
 hours, when reinforcements from Jackson arrived 
 for his aid. His loss in the encounter was six men, 
 among whom was his orderly sergeant. The rebels 
 were subsequently repulsed with considerable loss. 
 Captain Beach was commended in general orders 
 for his gallantry and soldierly qualities in this en- 
 gagement. Next day he rejoined his regiment at 
 Bolivar, which was then under marching orders for 
 Corinth. His regiment was assigned to the com- 
 mand of General Ord, and on the 30th of Septem- 
 ber participated in the battle of luka, and in the 
 second battle of Corinth on the 3d and 4th of Octo- 
 ber, when the regiment again lost heavily. In No- 
 vember following the regiment returned to Grand 
 
 Junction, Tennessee, and joined the army of General 
 Grant, which was then contemplating a move upon 
 Vicksburgh, by way of the Mississippi Central rail- 
 road, but this line of approach was abandoned in 
 consequence of the cutting off of supplies by the 
 rebel general Van Dorn, at Holly Springs. The 
 army then fell back to Memphis, and approached 
 Vicksburgh by the river. After a siege of over six 
 months this stronghold surrendered to Grant, on the 
 4th of July, 1863. After resting in Vicksburgh till 
 the middle of August, our subject, with his regiment, 
 was transferred to the command of General Stephen- 
 son, and participated in the bootless campaign of 
 western Louisiana, terminating at the Washita river. 
 The country being marshy and swampy, the men 
 suffered greatly from malarial fever, and on return- 
 ing to Vicksburgh nine tenths of the command were 
 on the sick list, there being but two members of 
 Captain Beach's company able to walk from the 
 steamboat to the camp. After recuperating at Vicks- 
 burgh, the regiment veteranized, and our subject 
 was granted a thirty-days leave of absence. He 
 next joined General Sherman at Ackworth, Georgia, 
 and participated in the campaign against Atlanta, 
 and thence in the march to the sea, with all its 
 skirmishes, battles and adventures, till its arrival at 
 Savannah ; thence to Bufort, South Carolina ; thence 
 through the Carolinas to Goldsborough, participating 
 in Sherman's last fight with the rebels at Smith- 
 land; thence to Raleigh, being present at the sur- 
 render of the rebel general Joe Johnson ; thence to 
 Washington, by way of Petersburgh and Richmond, 
 and was present at the grand review in the national 
 capital in May, 1865. We have thus given an out- 
 line of his brilliant military career without interrupt- 
 ing the narrative to note his several promotions, 
 which we will now place on record. 
 
 At the battle of Atlanta, the same engagement in 
 which General McPherson was killed, on the 2 2d 
 of July, 1864, Major Foster, of the irth, was killed, 
 and Captain Beach was elected over all the inter- 
 mediate line officers to fill the vacancy. Before the 
 arrival of his commission as major, the colonelcy 
 of the regiment became vacant by the resignation 
 of Colonel Abercrombie, when he was elected over 
 the intermediate officer to the command of the regi- 
 ment, and retained that position until the arrival of 
 the army in Washington, when he was placed in 
 command of an Iowa brigade consisting of the nth, 
 13th, 15th and i6th regiments, and was offered a 
 brevet to his rank, which, however, he declined, the 
 
522 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 war having been ended, and the compliment being 
 an empty one. During his long, active and brilliant 
 military service he was never a day off duty by sick- 
 ness, never wounded, captured, or absent on leave, 
 save the thirty days referred to above, nor was there 
 ever a charge of any kind preferred against him. 
 He was mustered out of service at Louisville, Ken- 
 tucky, on the 19th of July, 1865, he having made a 
 stainless and eminently honorable record, which will 
 be a legacy of priceless worth to his children. 
 
 After quitting the army he returned to Muscatine, 
 where, in partnership with Wm. T. Butts, he opened 
 a large grocery establishment, which still continues 
 in successful operation. 
 
 He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, being 
 a Knight Templar. 
 
 He has been for many years a consistent mem- 
 ber of the Presbyterian church, and is a generous 
 contributor to all local charitable institutions. 
 
 Politically, he was raised in the democratic faith, 
 in' which he continued till the outbreak of the rebel- 
 lion, since which period he has been among the most 
 radical of republicans. 
 
 He has been twice married : first, on the 29th of 
 November, 1854, to Miss Mary Rebecca, daughter 
 of George D. and Ellen Stevenson, of Muscatine, 
 Iowa. She died on the nth of March, 1857, leaving 
 one child, which followed her to the hither shore 
 soon after; second, on the 31st of January, 1866, 
 to Miss Josephine, daughter of George and Ellen 
 Mason, of Muscatine, Iowa. They have two chil- 
 dren, boys, George and Frederick. 
 
 In a word, Colonel Beach is the type of an honest 
 man, a quiet and orderly citizen, and a loyal patriot. 
 Whether upon the march, in the camp, in the coun- 
 cil, at the post of danger and responsibility, or in the 
 more peaceful walks of life, he has proved himself 
 the typical man of honor and probity. He is a man 
 of great decision of character, strong and enduring 
 convictions of right, and can no more be swerved 
 from established principles than the needle from the 
 pole. He stands ever ready to vindicate the cause 
 of truth, honesty and impartial justice, both by word 
 and deed. No man in the community is more highly 
 esteemed for his quiet and unostentatious manners 
 and solid worth than is Colonel Benjamin Beach. 
 
 HON. DANIEL HUNT, 
 
 A VOCA. 
 
 DANIEL HUNT, representative in the general 
 assembly from Pottawattamie county, is a son 
 of Seth Hunt, a miller and mill-owner, now residing 
 in Monroe county, Iowa, and was born in Glouces- 
 ter, Providence county, Rhode Island, on the 17th 
 of May, 1836. An ancestor, Captain Seth Hunt, a 
 seafaring man, was one of the early settlers in the 
 city of Providence. The maiden name of Daniel's 
 mother, was Hannah C. Tourlellot, a descendant of 
 Gabrial Tourlellot, a French Huguenot who fled to 
 South Carolina at the time of the persecution, and 
 moved thence to Rhode, Island. The great-grand- 
 father of Daniel on his grandmother's side, Daniel 
 Smith, was in the first war with the mother country. 
 His grandfather. Pardon Hunt, was once high sheriff 
 of Providence county. 
 
 The subject of this biography lost his mother when 
 he was only two years old, and went to live with his 
 grandfather just mentioned, an early Rhode Island 
 cotton manufacturer, who carefully reared and edu- 
 cated him. At a suitable age he was placed in the 
 Fruit Hill Classical Institute, in North Providence, 
 
 where he remained until his seventeenth year, when 
 he went into the counting room of an uncle, and 
 spent three years clerking for him and other parties. 
 Subsequently he was interested in the cotton busi- 
 ness in Providence with the late S. Sterry Smith. 
 
 When about twenty years of age Mr. Hunt, hav- 
 ing a strong desire to see 'the great west and other 
 parts of North America, started on a tour of obser- 
 vation and speculation, first visiting the central west- 
 ern states, then proceeding southward to Texas, then 
 to old Mexico, Central America, California, Oregon 
 and the British provinces, mining, trading, etc. 
 
 During this time his father moved to Mills county, 
 in the extreme southwestern part of Iowa, settling 
 there about sixteen years ago, and in the autumn of 
 1866 the son returned from the Pacific slope, and 
 after remaining one winter with his father the whole 
 family removed to Pottawattamie county. They set- 
 tled in the Nishnabotna valley, four miles southwest 
 of where Avoca now stands, building a flouring-mill 
 and engaging in milling and farming. 
 
 About five years ago Mr. Hunt lost his health j 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 523 
 
 sold out his interest in the mill and other property 
 and traveled a year or two until his health was re- 
 stored. On returning he made Avoca his home, and 
 since 1875 has been operating in real estate, farming 
 and stock-raising. He has a thousand acres of land 
 in Pottawattamie county, and is cultivating about 
 one-third of it. 
 
 In the autumn of 1875 Mr. Hunt was elected to 
 the lower house of the general assembly, and served 
 in the session of 1876, being on the committees on 
 asylum for the deaf and dumb, county and township 
 organizations, compensation of public offices, and for 
 the suppression of intemperance. During that ses- 
 sion he was influential in getting a bill for a new 
 county, to be called Grimes, and to be taken from 
 the eastern part of Pottawattamie, but the measure 
 was defeated by a vote of the people. 
 
 Mr. Hunt was reared a whig, and since the disso- 
 lution of that party has acted with the democrats. 
 He usually attends the state conventions of his party, 
 and is one of its leaders in Pottawattamie county. 
 He has a great deal of magnetism, and exerts a strong 
 influence. 
 
 He is a Master Mason. 
 
 The wife of Mr. Hunt was Miss Harriet M. Mor- 
 timore, a native of New Orleans, Louisiana; they 
 were married on the 14th of August, 1861. 
 
 Mr. Hunt is of a nervous temperament, has gray 
 eyes and a dark complexion ; he is five feet eleven 
 and a half inches in height, and weighs one hundred 
 and fifty pounds. He has seen a great deal of the 
 world, and has " roughed it " to some extent on the 
 Pacific coast, yet he has a good polish of manners 
 and excellent social qualities. 
 
 THOMAS J. ANDERSON, 
 
 KNOXVILLE. 
 
 THE subject of this notice is a son of Robert 
 Anderson, a farmer, and Lucinda Larue, and 
 dates his birth in Fulton county, Illinois, on the 4th 
 of March, 1837. The Andersons, his ancestors, 
 are of English descent and an old Virginia family. 
 The Larues were French Huguenots. Robert An- 
 derson was a private soldier a short time in the war 
 of 1812-15. In 1853 he moved with his family to 
 Marion county, Iowa. Here the son worked on a 
 farm one season, but having reached the age of sev- 
 enteen, with- but limited educational advantages, he 
 bought his time of his father, and turned his atten- 
 tion to literary pursuits, spending three or four years 
 alternating between attending a select school at Os- 
 kaloosa, taught by Professor Drake, and in teaching 
 a district school in Marion county. In 1858, Mr. 
 Anderson, then a promising young man, was elected 
 surveyor of Marion county, and having some leisure 
 commenced the reading of law in the autumn of the 
 same year with Hon. J. E. Neal, of Knoxville. He 
 was admitted to the bar in October, i860, and has 
 practiced continuously at the county seat, except 
 when absent in the service of his country. In the 
 autumn of 1862 he went into the army as first lieu- 
 tenant, company A, 40th Iowa Infantry ; was subse- 
 quently promoted to captain, and while holding that 
 position resigned on the 2d of December, 1864, and 
 returned to Knoxville. During the last five or six 
 
 months in the service he acted as judge advocate. 
 For mental recreation, and as a partial episode in 
 his life, before going into the military service, from 
 November, i860, until January, 1862, Mr. Anderson 
 edited a democratic paper at Knoxville, not, how- 
 ever, to the neglect of his legal practice. He is of 
 the firm of Anderson and Gamble, his partner be- 
 ing J. D. Gamble. They have a large and excellent 
 library, and do a great amount of collecting as well 
 as criminal and other law business. Mr. Anderson 
 is a good judge of law, a powerful reasoner, deep 
 and clear in argument, and makes a very forcible 
 plea. He is humorous and spicy withal, even on 
 the driest topic, and succeeds in putting himself on 
 the best of terms with a jury, with whom he has 
 great influence and success. He is regarded as a 
 brilliant lawyer. 
 
 Captain Anderson has always acted with the dem- 
 ocratic party,, for whose father, Thomas Jefferson, 
 he was named. He was a candidate for judge in 
 the sixth judicial district in 1874, and ran more than 
 a thousand votes ahead of his ticket, but the district 
 is strongly republican. He was a delegate to the 
 national democratic convention held at Saint Louis 
 in June, 1876, and is an influential man in his party 
 in this part of Iowa. He is a Blue Lodge Mason. 
 
 On the 26th of February, 1862, Miss Mary A. 
 Rousseau, daughter of Dr. Rousseau, of Hamilton 
 
524 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 Marion county, became his wife, and she has been 
 the mother of five children, all living but one. 
 
 Major Anderson, as everybody in Marion county 
 calls him, has a light complexion and blue eyes ; is 
 solidly built, six feet and two inches in height, and 
 weighs two hundred and fifteen pounds. In appear- 
 
 ance he is health personified. There is no finer 
 physique seen daily on the streets of Knoxville. 
 Socially, he is a rich entertainer, full of anecdote, 
 and the best story teller, probably, at the Marion 
 county bar. He is a foe to dullness, has many 
 friends, and is respected by all who know him. 
 
 SEAMUN R. HEWETT, M.D., 
 
 NORA SPRINGS. 
 
 AMONG the younger class of physicians in the 
 £\. Shellrock valley, no one probably stands high- 
 er in the practice, and particularly in surgery, than 
 Dr. Seamun R. Hewett. For this branch of the heal- 
 ing art he has a decided taste, and to it has devoted 
 a great deal of time and study. His popularity as a 
 surgeon is well established, although he has been in 
 Iowa but a few years. 
 
 Seamun R. Hewett is the son of Samuel and El- 
 mina (Tucker) Hewett, and was born in Wyoming, 
 New York, on the 22d of July, 1839. Both his par- 
 ents are still living. His paternal and maternal great- 
 grandfathers were soldiers in the revolution. Sea- 
 mun farmed until twenty years of age in Wisconsin, 
 whither the family moved when he was seven years 
 old. He attended the Baraboo Institute two or three 
 terms, also reading medicine at that period, part of 
 the time with Drs. B. F. Dodson and Miles Mix, of 
 Berlin, Wisconsin. He attended lectures at Rush 
 Medical College, Chicago, and there graduated in 
 February, 1867. He practiced two or three years 
 in Berlin and Waupun, Wisconsin, and in December, 
 1869, removed to Nora Springs, where he has since 
 
 been in steady practice with growing favor in the 
 community. 
 
 During the rebellion he' spent two years in the 
 Marine Hospital and Infirmary, of Chicago, and his 
 experience there has been of great benefit to him in 
 his profession. 
 
 Dr. Hewett is a scarlet member of the Odd-Fellows 
 fraternity, and a Master Mason ; not, however, pay- 
 ing so much attention to the meetings of either or- 
 der as to conflict with his professional interests. 
 
 In his political views, he is republican ; in his 
 religious, liberal. 
 
 He was married on the 30th of October, 1867, to 
 Miss Alice E. Talcott, of Alto, Fond du Lac county, 
 Wisconsin, and has one child. Mrs. Hewett is a 
 woman of fine attainments and superior talents, and 
 very active in the Methodist Episcopal church. 
 
 Dr. Hewett possesses a good library, which is well- 
 stocked with medical periodicals; devotes some time 
 to the reporting of cases for medical journals, espe- 
 cially pertaining to the department of surgery, and 
 more of his leisure to careful study of medical and 
 surgical science. 
 
 WILLIAM L. HUSTON, M. D., 
 
 MARENGO. 
 
 WILLIAM LANGFORD HUSTON, a native 
 of Carroll county, Ohio, and son of John 
 Huston, farmer, and Elizabeth Langford, was born 
 on the 19th of March, 1830. His maternal grand- 
 father fought in the revolution. William L. comes 
 from an old Pennsylvania family, and his father was 
 among the pioneer land-clearers in Carroll county ; 
 opening the farm in Harrison township, on which 
 the son was born. 
 
 William L. was the youngest child in a family of 
 
 ten children, and had some taste of farm work in 
 early life. He does not, however, seem to have 
 been suited with that kind of labor, and after fifteen 
 or sixteen years of age gave most of his time to 
 literary pursuits. 
 
 At eighteen he entered Hagerstown College, in 
 his native state, and spent three years there, acquir- 
 ing a good English and a fair classical education, 
 but not going through the full college curriculum. 
 
 He read medicine at Garrollton with Dr. John Q. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 525 
 
 Adams ; attended lectures at Jefferson Medical Col- 
 lege, Philadelphia ; practiced three or four years ; 
 attended another course of lectures at the same 
 college, and took his degree in 1856. After practic- 
 ing a short time at the east, Dr. Huston pushed 
 westward across the " Father of Waters,'' and lo- 
 cated near Oxford, Johnson county, Iowa. He prac- 
 ticed there until the war broke out in the southern 
 states; enlisted as a private, under Colonel Hatch, 
 in the 2d Iowa Cavalry ; in a short time was com- 
 missioned assistant surgeon 32d Iowa Infantry, John 
 Scott, colonel, and served in that capacity until the 
 rebellion ended. 
 
 During part of the time that he was in the ser- 
 vice Dr. Huston was on detached duty, being in 
 the hospitals at Memphis, Tennessee ; Columbus, 
 Kentucky, and New Orleans, Lotiisiana. His la- 
 bors at times were very arduous, but he was always 
 at the post of duty. 
 
 On returning to Iowa, after prospecting awhile. 
 
 the doctor located in Marengo, Iowa county, where 
 he has since labored in the constant practice of his 
 profession. Though doing a general business, he 
 makes a specialty of surgery, performing the most 
 difficult operations in that line in his vicinity. His 
 experience in the army was in this respect of great 
 benefit to him. He was surgeon for the Chicago, 
 Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company three or 
 four years, and still does some business for that com- 
 pany. 
 
 Dr. Huston is a strong republican, but rarely has 
 time to do more than cast his vote on election day. 
 
 He is a Royal Arch Mason, but not a regular at- 
 tendant at lodge meetings. 
 
 Religiously, he has a preference for the Presbyte- 
 rian church, which he attends, but is not a commu- 
 nicant. 
 
 Miss Antha Groff, of Marengo, became his wife 
 on the 29th of November, 1866. They have three 
 children, two of whom are still living. 
 
 ALEXANDER BURNS, D.D., 
 
 INDIANOLA. 
 
 ALEXANDER BURNS, for the last nine years 
 /A. at the head of Simpson Centenary College, is a 
 native of Belfast, Ireland, and a son of James and 
 Eliza McAdam Burns. He was born on the 12th 
 of April, 1834. In his thirteenth year the family 
 crossed the ocean, and after remaining three years 
 in Quebec, settled in Toronto, Ontario. The son 
 was educated at Victoria College, Cobourg, in the 
 same province, spending six years there before grad- 
 uating, and, at the time of graduating in 1861, re- 
 ceived the Prince of Wales gold medal. He was 
 tutor in the same institution four years, and taught 
 one year after graduating. 
 
 Dr. Burns was reared in the Presbyterian faith, but 
 joined the Wesleyan Methodists at Toronto when a 
 young man, and in 1862 entered the ministry, preach- 
 ing at Guelph, Ontario. 
 
 At the solicitation of Rev. Dr. Charles Elliott, 
 president of Wesleyan University, Mount Pleasant, 
 Dr. Burns came to Iowa and taught three years in 
 the institution just mentioned, acting also, at the 
 same time, as its vice-president. In 1868 he was 
 elected president of Simpson Centenary College. A 
 year later he was offered the presidency of Wesleyan 
 University, but refused to leave Indianola. His 
 
 coming here marked an epoch in the history of the 
 institution. The year before it had been raised 
 from a seminary to a college, with a full classical 
 course, and, commencing with his second year, has 
 graduated a class annually. The college has had 
 a steady growth, and enrolls each year from two 
 hundred and fifty to three hundred students in its 
 several departments. At the time of writing (Octo- 
 ber, 1877,) nearly two hundred names are on the roll. 
 While Dr. Burns' special chair is that of Mental and 
 Moral Science, he teaches various other branches, 
 having great versatility of attainments as well as tal- 
 ents. Recently his name has been mentioned in con- 
 nection with the presidency of the State University 
 at Iowa City, but it is doubtful if he could be per- 
 suaded to leave Indianola at present. He received 
 the title of doctor of divinity from the Indiana State 
 University in 1869. 
 
 Simpson Centenary College has an endowment of 
 about seventy thousand dollars, and nearly every 
 dollar of it has been raised by the president during 
 his leisure time. He has great physical as well as 
 mental energy, and rarely fails to accomplish what- 
 ever work he undertakes. He is practical and forci- 
 ble as well as scholarly. 
 
526 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 As a scholar, Dr. Burns appears to be at home in 
 every branch, — the higher mathematics, the classics, 
 the physical sciences generally, as well as the particu- 
 lar branches assigned to his chair, and in biblical 
 history it would be difficult to find his peer in the 
 northwest. As a speaker, he has great power ; is 
 logical, clear and animated, usually flinging his whole 
 
 soul into his subject, rising at times into high strains 
 of oratory. Such a man cannot fail to make some 
 indelible footprints on the sands of time. 
 
 In June, 1864, Miss Sarah Andrews, a native of 
 Devonshire, England, became the wife of Dr. Burns, 
 and they have had five children, all living except the 
 first-born. 
 
 REV. JOHN ARMSTRONG, 
 
 FAIRFIELD. 
 
 T OHN ARMSTRONG, president of Parsons Col- 
 J lege, Fairfield, is a native of Oxford, Pennsylva- 
 nia, and was born on the nth of March, 1825, his 
 parents being Andrew and Maria (Thomas) Arm- 
 strong. His branch of the Armstrong family is 
 Scotch-Irish stock ; William Armstrong, its first set- 
 tler in this country, coming from Ireland about 1736 
 and settling in Bucks county, Pennsylvania. The 
 Thomases are of Welsh descent, and also settled in 
 eastern Pennsylvania. 
 
 The grandfather of president Armstrong served a- 
 short time in the first war with England, and his 
 father was in the second, the latter drawing a pen- 
 sion until his death in 1872. The subject of this 
 sketch spent his early youth in his native town, aid- 
 ing his father, who was a farmer. He prepared for 
 college at the New London Academy, Chester coun- 
 ty; taught two years in the southern states; entered 
 the sophomore class of Lafayette College, Pennsyl- 
 vania, in the autumn of 1847 ; at the end of one 
 year went to Washington College, Lexington, Vir- 
 ginia, and was there graduated in 1850. He spent 
 three years at Princeton Theological Seminary ; was 
 ordained to the gospel ministry by the presbytery 
 of New Castle in April, 1853 ; preached one year at 
 Platte City, Missouri ; was pastor of the Presbyte- 
 rian Church at Hazleton, Luzerne county, Pennsyl- 
 vania, ten years, and the same length of time of the 
 Presbyterian Church , in Muscatine, Iowa. These 
 twenty years of pastorate over two churches were 
 marked by the steady and healthful growth of both. 
 
 In Pennsylvania he had a new and, at first, es- 
 pecially hard field of labor (a newly developed coal 
 region), preaching in school-houses, private houses, 
 and even saw-mills. 
 
 Leaving Muscatine for Fairfield, in 1875, marks 
 an epoch in Mr. Armstrong's life. He became an 
 educator in classic halls rather than in the pulpit. 
 
 Parsons College, at the head of which we now find 
 him, owes its origin to the late Lewis B. Parsons, 
 senior, of Buffalo, New York, a man of very benevo- 
 lent impulses, and who died in 1855. From the 
 second and last annual catalogue of the college we 
 learn that he was a merchant, and a man of most 
 marked character. Almost from his boyhood he 
 was a decided Christian, and a great advocate of all 
 educational enterprises. Being deeply impressed 
 with the importance of education under christian 
 influences in this new state, he invested what means 
 he could command in government lands in Iowa; 
 and in his will directed his sons and executors, 
 General Lewis B. Parsons, junior, Charles Parsons 
 and George Parsons, to found a college, to be under 
 the control of the Presbyterians of Iowa, and to 
 endow it with this property. On^the 24th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1875, General L. B. Parsons, junior, and his 
 co-executors, in accordance with the provisions of 
 the will, and acting in cooperation with a committee 
 of the synod of Iowa South, founded the college at 
 Fairfield, and transferred to a board of trustees, 
 whom they selected, the legacy, consisting at that 
 time of four thousand and sixteen dollars in cash 
 and notes, and about thirty-six hundred acres of 
 unimproved land. This constitutes the "Parsons 
 Fund," the income only of which can be used. 
 Twenty-seven thousand dollars have been received 
 from the sale of a portion of these lands, including 
 the four thousand dollars above mentioned, and the 
 value of the remainder is about thirteen thousand 
 dollars. The citizens of Fairfield have also con- 
 tributed about twenty-seven thousand dollars, which 
 have been expended in the purchase of a site and 
 the erection of suitable buildings. By the terms of 
 the college charter the synod of Iowa South has the 
 right to veto the election of any trustee, and also to 
 appoint annually a visiting committee. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 527 
 
 Mr. Armstrong became deeply interested in the 
 founding of this college before its location had been 
 decided upon, and while still a pastor at Muscatine, 
 he having been designated by the Parsons executors 
 six years before as one of the parties to select a site 
 for the institution. Upon his vacating the pulpit in 
 1874, the synod of Iowa South appointed him its 
 agent to attend to the great work of founding the 
 college. 
 
 He had previously traveled over a considerable 
 portion of the state, at his own expense, in order to 
 awaken an interest in this grand enterprise. He 
 now, in company with the sons of Lewis B. Par- 
 sons, gave an entire winter to this work, traveling, at 
 his own expense, in the interest of this institution ; 
 the result being the locating of it as before men- 
 tioned, and the appointment of Mr. Armstrong as 
 financial agent by the board of trustees. 
 
 In the summer of 1875 he was elected to the chair 
 of English literature, history and moral philosophy, 
 the college opening in September of that year. He 
 teaches without compensation, cheerfully giving, in 
 fact, more than his time. He has decorated the 
 grounds with evergreens and flowers ; he has sup- 
 plied the college with excellent physiological charts 
 and geographical maps, costly philosophical appa- 
 ratus, and a fine collection of geological specimens, 
 and has also contributed several hundred volumes 
 for the library. It will readily be seen that it is 
 owing largely to his benevolence and untiring labors 
 that the college owes its existence and prosperity. 
 
 In June, 1877, he was elected president of the 
 
 college, and has settled down to what seems likely 
 to be his life work. He is a man of fine education 
 and large practical ability. His genial manner and 
 pleasant sympathy give him an influence over the 
 students that restrains disorder without the use of 
 force, and his teaching is the fruit of wide reading 
 and accurate research. His special department is 
 mental and moral sciences, but he is also well at 
 home in history, of which eh is an able teacher. 
 
 As a preacher in the college chapel, his discourses 
 evince careful preparation and great earnestness, and 
 always command careful attention. The college is 
 located in a twenty-acre lot, on a rise of ground in 
 the northern part of the city. The college building 
 is a substantial brick structure, well arranged and 
 well equipped for educational purposes. In another 
 brick building are the rooms of the literary socie- 
 ties, the college library, etc. The college has made 
 an excellent beginning, and its friends have no fears 
 of a failure. 
 
 President Armstrong is one of the directors of the 
 Northwestern Theological Seminary of the Presby- 
 terian church in Chicago. 
 
 The wife of president Armstrong is a daughter of 
 Samuel Rowland, late a prominent business man of 
 Rowlandville, Cecil county, Maryland ; they were 
 married on the 1st of May, 1855, and have no chil- 
 dren. Mrs. Armstrong heartily sympathizes with 
 her husband in his great and noble work, and ren- 
 ders him valuable assistance, without which he could 
 not have accomplished all that he has done; she is 
 a true helpmeet. 
 
 JONATHAN T. BUTTOLPH, 
 
 IOWA FALLS. 
 
 JONATHAN TREADWAY BUTTOLPH, for 
 J more than twenty years a resident of Iowa Falls 
 and one of its most successful business men, is a 
 native of the Green Mountain State, and was born 
 in Middlebury on the loth of December, 1826. His 
 parents were Joseph and Harriet Treadway But- 
 tolph, residing on a farm one mile from the village. 
 The Buttolphs early settled in Connecticut, and Eli- 
 sha Buttolph, the grandfather of our subject, was 
 one of the first men to settle in Middlebury. Jona- 
 than Treadway, the maternal grandfather of Jonathan 
 T., was a revolutionary soldier, and his father was in 
 the second war with England. 
 S3 
 
 The subject of this notice was educated in his na- 
 tive town, intended by his parents to be sent through 
 college, but he left in the freshman year. A student's 
 life seems to have been distasteful to him. He had 
 a speculative turn of mind, afterward fully and freely 
 developed, but it ran to live stock and corner lots 
 rather than to philosophy or any other branch of 
 science. 
 
 At eighteen years of age he went to Ticonderoga, 
 New York; was there employed as clerk for two 
 years, then came as far west as Fond du Lac, Wiscon- 
 sin, in 1849, and engaged in speculations; a year or 
 two later returned to Vermont and farmed six or 
 
528 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 seven years in Orwell, and in June, 1857, located at 
 Iowa Falls, one of the best sites for a town in the 
 valley of the Iowa river, and then a village of less 
 than thirty families. Here he began at once to buy 
 and sell land, and to deal in live stock. 
 
 On the ist of October, 1874, the Bank of Iowa 
 Falls was incorporated ; Mr. Buttolph was made its 
 president, and that position he still holds. It is a 
 firm institution, solid as the rocky foundation of the 
 town, and is in high repute in Hardin and Franklin 
 counties. 
 
 Mr. Buttolph has been a lifelong democrat, strongly 
 attached to his party and quite active in county pol- 
 itics, but has no aspirations for office. In this line 
 
 he will work zealously for his friends while he would 
 do nothing for himself. 
 
 He has been a member of the Baptist church for 
 nine or ten years, and is a liberal supporter of relig- 
 ious and benevolent enterprises. 
 
 On the I St of January, 1859, he was married to 
 Miss Maria Woodruff, of Iowa Falls, and they have 
 had three children, all yet living. He is carefully 
 attending to their education. 
 
 Mr. Buttolph is endowed with a large degree of 
 common sense, good judgment, and a liberal share 
 of Yankee shrewdness; and being a prudent and 
 careful manager, success has attended him in every 
 branch of business. 
 
 WILLIAM C. LEWIS, M. D., 
 
 CLERMONT. 
 
 DR. LEWIS was born near the city of Worces- 
 ter, England. His parents dying in his in- 
 fancy, he was reared by his maternal grandfather. 
 He was educated chiefly at the collegiate school 
 of Worcester Cathedral, and commenced studying 
 medicine shortly after leaving that school, but did 
 not complete his studies in that line until after his 
 settlement in this country, in the autumn of. 1843. 
 
 He attended lectures and demonstrations at the 
 medical department of Washington University, Bal- 
 timore, at Castleton, Vermont, and at the medical 
 department of New York University. He received 
 diplomas at both of the last two institutions, at the 
 former in 1845, and at the latter in 1852. The med- 
 ical professors at the New York University at that 
 time were Valentine Mott, John W. Draper, Martyn 
 Paine, G. S. Bedford, Meredith Clymer, Alfred C. 
 Post, William H. Van Buren and William Darling. 
 All of these men were highly distinguished, and their 
 indorsement was so eagerly sought that at that date 
 the classes averaged five hundred. 
 
 Dr. Lewis practiced medicine four or five years in 
 the city of New York, and was one of the founders 
 of that widely known and useful institution, the New 
 York Academy of Medicine. Subsequently he prac- 
 ticed at Key Port, New Jersey, and was a member of 
 the New Jersey Medical Society. Some months pre- 
 vious to and during General McClellan's campaign 
 before Richmond he was surgeon of the ist regiment 
 New York State Militia, known in the service as the 
 82d United States Volunteers, While the army was 
 
 at Harrison's Landing, and just after the battle of 
 Malvern Hill, he left in ill health, and examined re- 
 cruits in the city of New York, by order of the sur- 
 geon-general of the State of New York. 
 
 In the summer of 1856 Dr. Lewis removed to Cler- 
 mont, Iowa, where he has been eminently successful 
 as a practitioner and is quite popular. The North 
 Iowa Medical Society has twice elected him its pres- 
 ident. 
 
 He is a member of the benevolent order of Odd- 
 Fellows, and has attained high rank in that body. 
 
 He was educated not merely under Episcopal in- 
 fluences, but chiefly in an Episcopal institution, and 
 probably few persons are better acquainted with the 
 Prayer Book and Episcopal service. Its liturgy 
 seems to be at his tongue's end, and he says he 
 cannot recall to mind the time when he was not 
 familiar with it. Between three and four years he 
 relinquished the practice of medicine, and during a 
 portion of that time officiated, with general accept- 
 ance, as a minister of the Protestant Episcopal 
 church, to which office he had been ordained by 
 the Right-Rev. B. B. Smith, of Kentucky. To this 
 work he was led by the urgent solicitation of friends 
 of the church and his own strong convictions of 
 duty. However, ill-health coming on, he fell back 
 on his original profession. 
 
 Dr. Lewis has never changed his political creed, 
 and is a democrat. 
 
 In December, 1870, he married Miss Elizabeth 
 Whitely Blackett, daughter of William Blackett, then 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 529 
 
 of New York city, and now of Clermont. She is a 
 highly cultivated woman. 
 
 An eminent physician, who lives in an adjoining 
 county, and who has known Dr. Lewis intimately 
 
 since the latter settled in Iowa, speaks of his skill as 
 follows : " As a physician and surgeon, in my hum- 
 ble opinion, he stands at the head of his profession 
 in northern Iowa." 
 
 TIMOTHY J. COLDWELL, M.D., 
 
 ADEL. 
 
 THE best read physician and surgeon in Dallas 
 county, Iowa, and the most extensive practi- 
 tioner, is Timothy Jourdan Coldwell, a graduate of 
 two medical colleges. He comes from the farming 
 class, his father, William Coldwell, living in Vermil- 
 ion county, Indiana, when the son was born, on the 
 2ist of July, 1836. The Coldwells are an old North 
 Carolina family, extending into Virginia and Ohio, 
 and states farther west. The grandfather of Timothy 
 J. was a prominent Baptist minister ; participated 
 in some of the skirmishes with the Indians in Ohio, 
 and built what is known in history as the Cold- 
 well Block-house, located in Preble county. The 
 maiden name of Timothy J's mother was Mary Jour- 
 dan, who was descended from Kentucky stock. Our 
 biographical subject developed his muscle on an 
 Indiana farm ; finished his literary education at the 
 Newport Seminary, in his native county; came to 
 Dallas county in 1853, and located eight miles from 
 Adel ; aided his father three years in opening a 
 farm ; commenced reading medicine in 1856 with 
 Dr. A. M. Nelson, of Wiscotta, in the same county ; 
 attended lectures in the medical department of the 
 State University at Keokuk, now called the College 
 of Physicians and Surgeons, and graduated in Feb- 
 ruary, t86i. 
 
 Locating at Adel, Dr. Coldwell practiced here 
 steadily until 1864, when he joined the Union army 
 
 as assistant surgeon of the 23d Iowa Infantry, serv- 
 ing in that capacity until the close of the rebellion. 
 
 Returning to Adel in the summer of 1865, after 
 practicing a few months, he spent the following 
 winter at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, 
 and has since reaped the benefit of a thorough re- 
 view of medical and surgical science. He has per- 
 formed the surgery in Dallas county for the last ten 
 or twelve years, and in special cases he visits adjoin- 
 ing counties. He bears a high reputation, and one 
 which is on the increase. 
 
 Dr. Coldwell is a strong, unwavering republican, 
 prepared at any time to give a reason for his polit- 
 ical ethics. He is an Odd-Fellow and a Royal Arch 
 Mason. His religious membership is with the Pres- 
 byterians. 
 
 Dr. Coldwell married Miss MellissaV. Maulsby, of 
 Dallas county, on the 30th of September, i860. They 
 have no children. 
 
 The doctor has one of the finest brick residences 
 in Adel, and is in all respects a marked success. 
 His physique is splendid. He has a fall, ruddy com- 
 plexion ; a sanguine temperament; is five feet eleven 
 and a-half inches tall ; is very compact, and weighs 
 two hundred and seven pounds. His health is per- 
 fect. He obtained his medical education at his own 
 expense, by zealous and untiring efforts, and now 
 stands at the head of his profession. 
 
 HON. REUBEN NOBLE, 
 
 McGregor. 
 
 REUBEN NOBLE, the present judge of the 
 tenth judicial district, was born on the 14th of 
 April, i82i,near Kingston, Mississippi. His father, 
 Henry Noble, was a farmer, and to that honorable 
 employment the son devoted the first eighteen years 
 of his life. At that age he left home, came north- 
 ward to Illinois, and spent about three years at Co- 
 
 lumbus, Adams county, attending school part of the 
 time, and working to supply the means for school- 
 ing the remainder of the time. During this period 
 he paid some attention to law books, and when 
 twenty-one years of age went to Grant county, Wis- 
 consin, continued his legal studies a short time, and 
 was admitted to the bar at Mineral Point in the 
 
530 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 summer of 1842. He practiced in ^:hat county until 
 October, 1843, when he crossed the river to Gar- 
 navillo, Iowa, then the seat of justice of Clayton 
 county. In 1857 he removed to McGregor, in the 
 same county, where, as at Garnavillo, he has had a 
 large practice. 
 
 About thirty years ago he was elected prosecuting 
 attorney of Clayton county, holding the office two 
 years. In 1854, when the whig party first came into 
 power in the state, Mr. Noble was elected a member 
 of the lower house of the general assembly, and was 
 made speaker without any previous legislative ex- 
 perience ; he proved to be a prompt and efficient 
 presiding officer, and, on account of his impartiaUty, 
 gave good satisfaction to all parties. 
 
 In October, 1874, Mr. Noble was chosen judge of 
 the tenth district, and holds that position at this 
 time. He has a good legal mind, well stocked with 
 the best material ; is quick in applying legal prin- 
 ciples to cases which come before him, and equally 
 as quick to discern legal distinctions. As a lawyer, 
 he excels in jury trials, having, probably, no equal 
 in the district. He has strong common sense, strik- 
 ing clearness of comprehension, unqualified integrity 
 and truthfulness, strong sympathies and much nat- 
 
 ural tenderness of heart ; and these qualifications 
 and characteristics combined give him wonderful 
 power with a jury. The qualities which make him 
 prominent as a lawyer make him a favorite as a 
 judge. He is not a hair-splitter, but grasps the 
 turning points of a case with great ease and firm- 
 ness, and his rulings and decisions are marked with 
 fairness and impartiality. 
 
 Judge Noble was a whig, then a republican, and 
 latterly has been a liberal. 
 
 He is a Master Mason, and has been through the 
 ordinary degrees of Odd-Fellowship. 
 
 On the 19th of June, 1844, he took to wife Miss 
 Harriet C. Douglas, of Jersey county, Illinois, a rel- 
 ative of the late Senator Douglas. She has had 
 seven children, and five of them are living. The 
 eldest daughter is the wife of John F. Day, of De- 
 corah. The eldest son is married, and lives on a 
 farm in Chickasaw county. The other children are 
 with their father on a. farm six miles northwest of 
 McGregor. 
 
 Judge Noble is an unostentatious man, making 
 little external show, and a stranger would at first 
 sight underestimate his internal weight. His charac- 
 ter is as solid as gold, and as pure. 
 
 DAVID A. HOFFMAN, M.D., 
 
 OSKALOOSA. 
 
 THE subject of this biography, a native of Jack- 
 son Court House, Ohio, was born on the 28th 
 of September, 1824, the son of Daniel Hoffman and 
 Julia nee James. His father, originally a gunsmith 
 by trade, was a man of frugal, industrious habits, and 
 became a prosperous merchant, farmer and stock- 
 raiser. His paternal grandfather, who was a gun- 
 smith by trade, purchased a farm in Ross county, 
 Ohio, in 1806, he having removed thither from She- 
 nandoah county, Virginia. He was one of three 
 brothers who emigrated from Germany ; the other 
 two settling one in New York and the other in 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 The maternal grandparents of our subject, John 
 James and Mary nie Cook, were farmers, and re- 
 moved from Stonington, Connecticut, to Marietta, 
 Ohio, in the fall of 1787, six months after Putnam, 
 who made the first Ohio settlement. Settling on 
 James Island, he remained there till 1806; at that 
 time he removed to Jackson, then known as "Sciota 
 
 Salt Licks," where he died in 185 1 at the age of 
 eighty-four years. 
 
 After closing his studies in the common school 
 David studied two years in the University of Athens, 
 Ohio, and afterward studied medicine with Dr. W. 
 Black, and later attended two courses of lectures at 
 Cleveland, Ohio, graduating in 1848 with the degree 
 of M.D. Removing at once to Logan, in Hocking 
 county, Ohio, he established himself in his profes- 
 sion with Dr. E. T. Brown. 
 
 In the following fall he was married to Miss Emily 
 Smith, daughter of John A. Smith, a native of Penn- 
 sylvania, and Mary nee Embich, a native of Mary- 
 land. 
 
 Settling in Jackson, his native place. Dr. Hoffman 
 there continued his practice until July, 1855, when 
 he returned to Logan and practiced in connection 
 with Dr. N. Dalton until May, 1861. He next re- 
 moved to Oskaloosa, Iowa, his present home, where 
 he resumed his profession, which has steadily in- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 531 
 
 creased until he has become widely known as a reli- 
 able, successful and skillful practitioner. 
 
 Besides being a diligent student in his profession, 
 Dr. Hoffman has given much time to the study of 
 geology and mineralogy. In January, 1874, he began 
 collecting and now has several thousand specimens, 
 also a numismatic collection of some seven hundred 
 specimens, a fine collection of insects, and a large 
 collection of the different issues of United States 
 currency. His library consists of nearly a thousand 
 volumes, comprising many old and rare books. 
 
 In 1846 he became identified with the Masonic 
 fraternity, and since his residence in Oskaloosa has 
 been one of its most active members. He has been 
 worshipful master, high priest of the chapter, and 
 eminent commander of the first commandery, which 
 he was instrumental in organizing. In political 
 sentiment, he is a republican. 
 
 In 1848 he united with the Methodist Episcopal 
 
 church, and has continued a faithful and zealous 
 member of that body, although holding liberal, hu- 
 manitarian views of religion. 
 
 Dr. Hoffman has four children : Edgar B., born 
 on the 2ist of August, 1849, wlio is now a farmer in 
 Mahaska county, Iowa ; John A., who was born on 
 the 23d of April, 185 1, is an attorney at Oskaloosa, 
 Iowa. He graduated from the Iowa Wesleyan Uni- 
 versity at Mount Pleasant, class of 1872, at which 
 time Effie also graduated from the same institution. 
 She is now living at home, and is a young lady of 
 marked accomplishments. Repley C, born on the 
 1 2th of November, i860, is now (1878) a student in 
 Penn College at Oskaloosa, Iowa. 
 
 Throughout his career Dr. Hoffman has main- 
 tained a high character, and wherever known is 
 honored and respected. He has made his own way 
 in the world, and may justly be classed among Iowa's 
 noble and self-made men. 
 
 HON. E. C. BOSBYSHELL, 
 
 GLENWOOD. 
 
 EC. BOSBYSHELL was born in the city of 
 • Philadelphia, on the 28th of May, 1822. He 
 was the eldest son of William and Martha Bosby- 
 shell, and grandson of Christian Bosbyshell, one of 
 the earliest merchants in Philadelphia in 1780. 
 
 During his childhood his parents moved to Potts- 
 ville, Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, where he re- 
 ceived his early education, and was afterward sent 
 to Litiz, Pennsylvania, where he finished his educa- 
 tion by taking a course in civil engineering. 
 
 After leaving school he came with his father to 
 Saint Louis, Missouri, where he accepted a position 
 as clerk in his father's store; and in 1840, with the 
 assistance of his father, he purchased a farm of two 
 hundred acres near the mouth of the Illinois river. 
 This he proceeded to put under the finest cultiva- 
 tion and built a cabin. « 
 
 He soon felt the need of a helpmeet, and on the 
 28th of May, 1844, he married Clara H. Williams, 
 daughter of Rev. L. S. Williams, of Carlinville, Illi- 
 nois. She had spent the most of her life with her 
 parents in the south, as missionary among the Indi- 
 ans, and was well fitted for the position she was 
 about to fill, since she became acquainted with the 
 hardships and privations of life in her frontier home. 
 Upon his return with his bride to their cabin home 
 
 they found that the waters of the Illinois and Mis- 
 sissippi rivers had held a revel upon their farm, and 
 carried away with them to their watery home the 
 hard labor of four years, leaving their farm barren 
 and uninviting. It was now that Mr. Bosbyshell's 
 determination to overcome difficulties was of use to 
 him. He shouldered his axe, went to the woods,, 
 and while his fair bride spun her rolls, and bright- 
 ened the cabin home in the thousand and one ways 
 which only a woman understands, he cut wood, and 
 after drawing it to town sold it for one dollar per 
 cord. 
 
 .In the spring of 1845 he moved on to a dairy 
 farm in Macoupin county, Illinois, where, by the 
 untiring efforts of himself and wife, he accumulated 
 enough money to move back upon his farm and re- 
 pair the ravages of the inundation. 
 
 About this time Mr. Bosbyshell was elected jus- 
 tice of the peace and appointed postmaster; think- 
 ing that the good people who came after their mail 
 might be induced to buy some dry goods or grocer- 
 ies, Mr. Bosbyshell concluded to begin store-keep- 
 ing. Accordingly the cooking-stove was moved into 
 the parlor, sitting-room, dining-room and family bed- 
 room, and the kitchen was fitted up for a store. Af- 
 ter borrowing two hundred dollars of his hired man 
 
532 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTlONART. 
 
 he went to Saint Louis to lay in his stock. During 
 the same year he was elected associate county judge 
 of Calhoun county, Illinois, which office he held un- 
 til 1856. He then came with his wife and four chil- 
 dren to Glenwood, Iowa, at which time he possessed 
 four thousand dollars in gold, the proceeds from 
 the sale of his property in Illinois. He invested his 
 money in real estate, and being furnished with ten 
 thousand dollars' worth of goods by business houses 
 in Saint Louis he again went into the mercantile 
 business, receiving one half of the profits. 
 
 In 1857 Mr. Bosbyshell was elected county judge 
 of Mills county, which office he held for over two 
 years. 
 
 At the close of the war he was appointed by the 
 state legislature a trustee for the orphan asylums of 
 the state, and built the Orphans' Home located at 
 Glenwood. 
 
 Mr. Bosbyshell became an Odd-Fellow in 1851, 
 and in 1856 joined the Masons. 
 
 In religion, he is a Congregationalist ; joined that 
 church in i860. He is a consistent christian, and 
 has done much to further the work of his Master. 
 
 In politics, he is a democrat ; gave his first vote 
 for James K. Polk, and never " falling from grace." 
 
 In 1872 he was elected vice-president of the Mills 
 County National Bank. In 1876 he was elected 
 mayor of the city of Glenwood, and reelected in 
 
 1877- 
 
 He is five feet and eleven inches in height, and is 
 straight and fine appearing. He is very active, and 
 moves with the sprightliness of many but half his 
 years; is cheerful, kind-hearted, and is a personal 
 friend of all. His education, and the constant com- 
 panionship of an educated and refined wife, have 
 fitted him well for the social position which he sus- 
 tains. His home is a quiet, peaceful nook crown- 
 ing the brow of one of Glenwood's most beautiful 
 mounds, and deserves the name of "home" in the 
 fullest sense of the term. 
 
 CARLTON CORBETT, 
 
 CHEROKEE. 
 
 CARLTON CORBETT, who twenty-two years 
 ago came to Iowa as agent of a Massachusetts 
 emigration society, and who has done much to de- 
 velop the agricultural resources of Cherokee county, 
 was born in Milford, Worcester county, Massachu- 
 setts, on the 1 2 th of August, 183 1, his parents be- 
 ing John and Almira Parkhurst Corbett. He is of 
 remote English descent, the Corbetts coming over 
 and settling in the old Bay State at an early date. 
 His grandfather, John Corbett, fought against the 
 mother country in the contests for independence 
 and was taken prisoner. He also enlisted in the 
 second war, but took part in no action. 
 
 Carlton early learned to farm, and had only ten 
 or twelve weeks' schooling annually after he was old 
 enough to work. 
 
 In February, 1852, he went to California, engaged 
 in mining between three and four years with a fair 
 degree of success, and on his return came to Iowa 
 as agent of the Milford Emigration Society, with 
 Lemuel Parkhurst as an associate in the business. 
 Albert Phipps, G. W. Lebourveau, B. W. Sawtell, 
 James A. Brown, and others, came out from Massa- 
 chusetts at the same time. The company consisted 
 of about fifty members, for whom Mr. Corbett hunt- 
 
 ed up lands, they coming out and preempting them. 
 He and others organized the county of Cherokee, in 
 August-, 1857, locating the seat of justice a mile and 
 a half from the present city of Cherokee. The 
 county seat was moved to the new town when the 
 railroad came through in 1869. 
 
 During the winter of 1862-63, 'he winter follow- 
 ing the Indian massacres which commenced in Min- 
 nesota, Mr. and Mrs. Corbett were among the half 
 dozen white settlers who remained in the county, 
 partially protected by a few soldiers. 
 
 Mr. Corbett lived on a farm which he had early 
 selected, improving it and raising stock, until about 
 1870, when he removed to the town of Cherokee. 
 
 In the spring of 1873 he formed a partnership 
 with F. E. Whitmore, in the real-estate business, as 
 agents for the Railroad Land Company, the firm 
 name being Corbett and Whitmore. Their sales 
 have been very large. In a single year, 1875, they 
 sold eleven thousand six hundred and thirty-six 
 acres, valued at eighty-four thousand dollars. Dur- 
 ing the same time they also sold extensively for 
 other parties. They are energetic and thoroughly re- 
 liable business men, their transactions being marked 
 by promptness and the strictest integrity. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 533 
 
 In i860 Mr. Corbett was elected recorder and 
 treasurer of the county, holding the office six years, 
 and then served two years as treasurer alone. In 
 1870 he was chosen recorder, and held the office 
 one term. He made a faithful and popular county 
 officer. 
 
 In 1859 Mr. Corbett married Miss Rossabella 
 
 Cumings, of Milford, Massachusetts, an acquaint- 
 ance of his childhood. They have three children, 
 one son and two daughters : Elmer A., Idella F. 
 and Mary E., who are being educated in the excel- 
 lent graded school of Cherokee. 
 
 He has always been a republican, but not very 
 active, except in local matters. 
 
 HON. JOSHUA TRACY, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 HON. JOSHUA TRACY was born in Belmont 
 county, Ohio, on the 12th of July, 1825, and 
 is son of Joshua and Sarah Tracy n^e Moore. The 
 former was a native of Maryland, and the latter of 
 Virginia. Their parents were among the early set- 
 tlers of Ohio. His father was a farmer, and he was 
 raised upon a farm, assisting his father until he was 
 nineteen years of age, when he left his home and en- 
 tered college. He was educated at Beverly College, 
 Washington county, Ohio, and at the Institute of 
 Professor Samuel L. Howe, at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. 
 He came to Iowa in the autumn of 1846, and settled 
 in Burlington in 1850, and commenced the study of 
 law with Hon. M. D. Browning, and was admitted 
 to the bar in Burlington in the fall of 1852. He 
 was elected city attorney for Burlington in the spring 
 of 1853, and continued in office until the spring of 
 1855. In the fall of 1854 he was elected to the 
 legislature, and served as member during the ses- 
 sions of 1854-5, and at the called session of 1856. 
 He was elected district attorney of the first judicial 
 district of Iowa in the fall of 1858, and reelected 
 to the same office twice, holding it until the fall of 
 1869, when he was appointed district judge to fill , 
 the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge 
 
 Francis Springer, and was elected to office in 1870 
 for a term of four years, but owing to the meager 
 compensation paid judicial officers by the state, he 
 resigned in the spring of 1874 and entered into the 
 practice of law. Judge Tracy has practiced most 
 successfully his profession, and has been a zealous 
 worker. In manners, he is singularly winning and 
 gracious, and is noted for his hospitable and genial 
 disposition ; and the high position he holds in Des 
 Moines and adjacent counties as a lawyer and citi- 
 zen, has been won entirely by his own industry. 
 
 In politics, he was formerly a democrat until the 
 rebellion, since which time he has acted and voted 
 with the republican party in all political issues. 
 
 He was married in October, 1847, to Mrs. Antoi- 
 nette Kinney nee Stone, daughter of Colonel H. A. 
 and Mrs. Mirand Stone, formerly of Albany, New 
 York, but who immigrated to the west, and were 
 among the early settlers of Iowa. 
 
 Judge Tracy's son, Samuel K., is a partner in his 
 father's law office, and is one of the rising young 
 lawyers of Iowa. 
 
 He was educated at the Burlington University and 
 at the Iowa Law School, and is now serving his sec- 
 ond term of office as city attorney for Burlington. 
 
 EUGENE COWLES, 
 
 CHEROKEE. 
 
 THE first settler, with one exception, on the 
 site of Cherokee city, was Eugene Cowles, who 
 built the second dwelling house there, and who was 
 a pioneer attorney. He is a son of Oliver D. Cowles, 
 merchant, and Euletheria Andrews, both families of 
 English de.scent, and was born in New Haven, Ver- 
 mont, on the loth of March, 1835. His grandfather. 
 
 John Cowles, moved from Massachusetts to Vermont 
 when the latter state was an almost unbroken wilder- 
 ness. Eugene devoted his boyhood and early youth 
 to literary studies, but never entered college, al- 
 though at seventeen years of age he was fitted in 
 all branches, excepting Greek, to. enter the junior 
 class, 
 
534 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTION ART. 
 
 In 1852 he immigrated to Iowa, and settled in 
 Jackson county. From this date Eugene com- 
 menced paddling his own canoe, and has never re- 
 linquished the oars to other hands, not even for an 
 hour. He read law at Bellevue, in the county just 
 mentioned, and was there admitted to the bar in 
 September, 1856. He practiced in Bellevue in com- 
 pany with Judge D. F. Spurr until 1859, at which 
 time he moved to Dubuque, making that city his 
 home until 1869, with the exception of an absence 
 of three years, during which he was looking after 
 the interests of a client. 
 
 In June of the year last mentioned, Mr. Cowles 
 looked over the grounds where the city of Cherokee 
 now stands, the railroad having nearly reached the 
 spot, and made up his mind that here a city must 
 rise, and here he would pitch his tent. He soon 
 had a house ready for his family, opened a law 
 office, and has since been in steady and successful 
 practice, doing a business second to that of no at- 
 torney in Cherokee county. With the exception of 
 some work in the city school board, where he has 
 made himself very useful, he has kept entirely out 
 of office, giving to his profession his closest atten- 
 
 tion, and to legal studies what spare time he could 
 command. Hence he is a well-read lawyer, good to 
 counsel in private, and strong before a jury. -He 
 would not be classed among the most fluent and 
 eloquent of speakers, yet he has great success, being 
 clear, logical and persuasive. He has a large amount 
 of criminal practice, and rarely fails to gain the 
 case. Probably no man in this part of the state has 
 a more remunerative practice. His standing at the 
 bar of the district is excellent. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Cowles is classed among the inde- 
 pendent republicans. He is a Royal Arch Mason, 
 and was master of the Cherokee Lodge three con- 
 secutive years. In religious belief, he is a Unitarian. 
 
 On the 8th of December, 1859, Miss Julia Potter, 
 of Jackson county, Iowa, became the wife of Mr. 
 Cowles, and they have two children, both daughters, 
 Eugenie and Hattie. 
 
 Mr. Cowles reached Iowa at the age of seventeen, 
 with very few dollars in his pocket, and every dollar 
 of his accumulations acquired since crossing the 
 Mississippi has been solely with his own hands ; 
 therefore he is a good representative of self-made, 
 successful men. 
 
 HON. JOSEPH CHAPMAN, 
 
 COLES BURGH. 
 
 JOSEPH CHAPMAN, an early settler in Dela- 
 ware county, and still a resident of Colesburgh, 
 where he originally located, is a member of the gen- 
 eral asseinby, and among the most practical men of 
 that body. He is a man who does more thinking in 
 private than talking in public, and can always be re- 
 lied upon for prompt attendance and solid work in 
 the committee rooms. He is a farmer, as was also 
 his father, William Chapman, and was born in Ot- 
 sego county, New York, on the isth of June, 1821. 
 The maiden name of his mother was Mary Hextell, 
 of whose pedigree nothing is known. The Chap- 
 mans were from England, the father of Joseph com- 
 ing over in the year 1810. Joseph moved with his 
 parents to Fulton county. New York, when about 
 seventeen years of age, and enjoyed only limited 
 opportunities for mental improvement, such as a 
 common school afforded. 
 
 Mr. Chapman left Fulton county for Iowa in the 
 autumn of 1850. He has a farm of one hundred 
 and fifty acres adjoinmg the village of Colesburgh, 
 
 and under excellent itnprovement, and other lands 
 in the adjoining county of Clayton, and some also in 
 Mitchell county. He has always been industrious, 
 prudent and economical, and is among the many ju- 
 dicious and successful farmers whose lands lie along 
 the south side of the Turkey timber, just south of 
 the line of Clayton county. The writer speaks from 
 careful and extensive observation when he states 
 that it is doubtful if there is any better land in the 
 State of Iowa than portions of the township of Col- 
 ony, in which the village of Colesburgh is included. 
 More than one of the agricultural princes of the 
 commonwealth reside in that vicinity. 
 
 Mr. Chapman was justice of the peace for eight- 
 teen consecutive years at Colesburgh ; was a member 
 of the board of supervisors eight or nine years, and 
 has represented his county, constituting the fifty- 
 second district, in the last two sessions of the gen- 
 eral assembly held in 1876 and 1878. In the latter 
 session he was chairman of the committee on com- 
 pensation of public officers and on the committees 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 535 
 
 on county and town organization, private corpora- 
 tions, the penitentiary at Anamosa and tlie hospital 
 for the insane. 
 
 Mr. Chapman was originally a whig, and joined 
 the republican party at its formation ; is quite active 
 and influential in local politics, and often attends the 
 state conventions. He is a Master Mason and an 
 Odd-Fellow, having represented the latter order in 
 the grand lodge four or five times. 
 
 On the 17th o£ February, 1852, Mr. Chapman mar- 
 
 ried Miss Susan E Potts, of Colesburgh, and they 
 have had nine children, all living except two. Ida 
 May is the wife of James Balsinger, of Colesburgh; 
 the others are single. William P., the eldest son, is 
 a hardware merchant in Colesburgh. The youngest 
 of the four sons living, Morris, was a page of the 
 house in the seventeenth general assembly. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Chapman attend the Congregational 
 church, with which tlie latter is connected. They 
 are among the pillars of pure-toned society. 
 
 HON. ROBERT SMYTH, 
 
 MOUNT VERNON. 
 
 AMONG the Covenanters of Scotland who fled 
 t\. to the north of« Ireland at the time of the per- 
 secution, was the Smyth family from which the sub- 
 ject of this sketch descended. He was born in 
 Tyrone county, near Londonderry, Ireland, on the 
 26th of February, 1814, his parents being Jeremiah 
 Smyth, a farmer, and Nancy McElhenny. The 
 family on the mother's side were also Covenanters, 
 and driven out of Scotland Robert was reared 
 on a farm, with ordinary common-school education ; 
 at twenty came to this country, and was employed 
 as a clerk six years in Bedford county, Pennsyl- 
 vania. On the ist of April, 1840, he settled on land 
 in Franklin township, one and a-half miles west of 
 Mount Vernon, Linn county. He bought a claim of 
 a quarter-section, and three years later, after his 
 parents had come to this country, the land was 
 entered and divided, and Robert had one fourth, 
 eighty acres, of it. Here his parents lived until their 
 death, the remains of both lying in the Mount Ver- 
 non cemetery. They were most estimable people. 
 
 Robert Smyth has added to his lands from time to 
 time, and the original farm now embraces two hun- 
 dred and eighty acres, most of it under superb cul- 
 tivation. He has also another farm of a little more 
 than one hundred acres, in Linn county, and other 
 lands in Story, Calhoun and Woodbury counties, all 
 in this state. Though a resident of Linn county 
 since 1840, he has not been on the farm all of that 
 time. From 1852 to 1866 he was a resident most of 
 the time of Marion, the county seat, the greater por- 
 tion of it being in a land, banking and law office. 
 On going into the real-estate and banking business, 
 he commenced reading law with his younger brother, 
 the late Colonel William Smyth, who came to this 
 54 
 
 country in 1838. On the 22d of December, 1870, 
 Senator Harlan, of Iowa, pronounced a brief and 
 well-merited eulogy on Colonel Smyth in the United 
 States senate, and from his remarks on that occasion 
 we make the following extracts : 
 
 His rapid advancement in liis profession, and his early 
 elevation to the highest positions of honor and trust in 
 the various departments enumerated, notwithstanding the 
 severe competition and earnest rivalry which must always 
 be encountered by a young man without wealth or family 
 influence in a new and vigorous community in a frontier 
 state, sufliciently attest his capacity and sterling qualities of 
 head and heart. These qualities did not attract attention 
 so much on account of striking brilliancy as for the har- 
 monious blending of superior mental capacity, moral force, 
 and purity of character, resulting in a high order of prac- 
 tical ability, which crowned his efforts with almost uniform 
 success. His great qualities and marked success seemed to 
 be more the fruits of correct early training, honest industry, 
 severe study, careful reflection, and persistent effort, than 
 of extraordinary native endowment. Hence the contem- 
 plation of his career may be more useful to the youth of 
 the country than that of men of unequal«d genius and na- 
 tive brilliancy. The former are self-made, the latter God- 
 created; the former invite, the latter forbid, imitation. 
 
 He was modest and retiring almost to a fault; he did not 
 think of himself more highly than he ought ; and yet he had 
 that self-respect and confldence in his own capacity which 
 prompted him to undertake to do whatever was necessary 
 to be done without inuch regard for the character of the 
 obstacles in his pathway. But this confidence seemed to be 
 the outgrowth of an abiding faith in the capacity of hu- 
 manity, as a common endowment of the individuals of the 
 race, rather than self esteem. He seemed to expect a large 
 degree of personal success as the legitimate reward of per- 
 sistent and well-directed effort, and the confldence and ap- 
 proval of mankind as the just reward of merit. 
 
 He was not inordinately ambitious, nor yet was he insen- 
 sible to the good opinion of his fellow-men and the public 
 honors which marked his career. It is said that he ex- 
 pressed in his boyhood an earnest desire one day to obtain 
 a seat in congress. He, however, seemed rather to ac- 
 cept than to seek preferment, and more on account of the 
 wider fleld for usefulness which it afforded than on account 
 of a desire for personal distinction. We have no evidence 
 that unchaste desire for preferment among his fellow-men 
 ever illured him from the pathway of virtue, or caused him 
 to swerve a hair-breadth from the line of duty. He reached 
 the goal of his youthful ambition in the meridian of life; 
 
536 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 his neighbors had freshly crowned him with honors more 
 desirable to an American than a royal diadem, when he 
 was cut down in the midst of his years and usefulness. 
 
 I knew him in his boyhood ; I watched his upward career 
 during his manhood, and rejoiced in witnessing his every 
 triumph. He was ray friend and neighbor. It was my 
 privilege to sit by his bedside and converse with him when 
 the icy fingers of death were feeling for his vitals. I knew 
 him to be a faithful friend, a generous neighbor, a confiding 
 husband, a tender parent, an upright citizen, an able ad- 
 vocate, a just judge, a brave soldier, a learned counselor, a 
 wise legislator, and a devoted christian. God has called him 
 to a higher life. While we drop a tear at his grave, may 
 we cherish his memory, imitate his virtues, and be able to 
 meet the great conqueror with the christian fortitude which 
 marked his closing hours when the Supreme Ruler shall 
 call us hence. 
 
 Robert was admitted to the bar about 1854, but 
 did only office business. From 1861 to 1866 he was 
 paymaster in the United States army, with rank of 
 major. Near the close of the civil war, some time 
 in 1864, he was breveted lieutenant-colonel. No 
 paymaster left the army with a cleaner record. He 
 receipted for more than ten million dollars. 
 
 He was a member of the territorial legislature in 
 1843-44, and of the first general assembly of the 
 state in 1846-7. During both of his terms there was 
 an extra session of the legislature which he attended. 
 He has also been a state senator during one term, 
 attending the sessions of 1868 and 1870. In this 
 body he was chairman of the committee on banks, 
 and was on the committee on public offices, acting 
 as chairman of that committee, also, part of the time, 
 the chairman proper being absent. He did a good 
 
 work in both branches of the legislature, his indus- 
 try cropping out there as everywhere else. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Smyth has been a strong repub- 
 lican since the party had an existence. Originally, 
 on becoming naturalized, he was democrat with anti- 
 slavery proclivities, and joined the free-soil party in 
 1848. In 1875 his friends persisted in bringing his 
 name before the republican state convention as a 
 candidate for gubernatorial honors, and he had a 
 strong support in that body, the popular old war 
 governor, Samuel J. Kirkwood, becoming the nom- 
 inee. Mr. Smyth has the ability to fill almost any 
 chair in the gift of the people of Iowa. 
 
 He is z. Presbyterian in religious belief, and an 
 elder in the Mount Vernon Church. The character 
 of no man in the county stands fairer. He was a 
 delegate from the Cedar Rapids presbytery to the 
 last general assembly of the IVesbyterians held in 
 Chicago. He is a wise counselor in an ecclesias- 
 tical as well as a political body. The answer to 
 Sir William Jones's sonnet, " What Constitutes a 
 State.?" would be, "just such men as Robert Smyth." 
 
 On the 2d of July, 1846, Miss Margaret Moffitt, a 
 native of north Ireland, but at that time a resident 
 of Cedar county, Iowa, became his wife, and has 
 been the mother of eight children, four of whom are • 
 now in the other world. One daughter, Anna, is 
 preceptress of a collegiate institute, Napa City, Cali- 
 fornia ; the other three children are at home. 
 
 ALEXANDER CLARK, 
 
 MUSCA TINE. 
 
 ALEXANDER CLARK, Most Worthy Grand 
 . Master of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge 
 of Free and Accepted York Masons (colored) for 
 the State of Missouri and its jurisdiction, popularly 
 known as the "colored orator of the west," was born 
 in Washington county, Pennsylvania, on the 25th of 
 February, 1826, his parents being John Clark and 
 Rebecca ne'e Darnes. His father was born a slave, 
 yet the son of his master, an Irishman, who emanci- 
 pated both him and his mother, who was a mulatto. 
 The mother of Alexander Clark, who still lives, at 
 the age of seventy-one years, is a full-blooded Afri- 
 can, consequently our subject is two-thirds African 
 and one-third Irish. To his relationship to the last 
 named nationality is due in a great measure the gen- 
 ius and brilliancy which so much adorn his charac- 
 
 ter, for it must not be supposed that because the 
 Irish element in his composition is comparatively 
 small that its influence in the formation of his char- 
 acter is not very considerable. Scientific men are 
 familiar with the fact that the potency rather than 
 the quantity of an ingredient in any mixture deter- 
 mines. the general effect; and we have no doubt that 
 to the circumstance alluded to is mainly due the 
 existence of those elements of character which have 
 led to the success to which Mr. Clark has attained. 
 
 On his mother's side he comes from a robust and 
 long-lived stock. His grandfather, George Darnes, 
 died at the age of seventy-three, and his grand- 
 mother, Leticie, lived to the age of one hundred 
 and one, and her sister, Penda, lived to the age of 
 one hundred and four. 
 
«ljJlr_Sujj.<luaTialtt'^ 
 
 ^/^ 
 
 ^^^<^^ ^Z^^^^^ 
 
 -^-^^^^ 
 
 ^2-^ 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 539 
 
 Alexander received but a very limited education 
 in the common schools of his native village, but he 
 was a bright and intelligent lad, and seemed to learn 
 by intuition. He read men rather than books, and 
 was continually absorbing from everything around 
 him. At the age of thirteen he removed to Cincin- 
 nati, Ohio, where he learned the barbering business 
 with his uncle, William Darnes, who also sent him to 
 school for about a year at different periods, where 
 he made considerable proficiency in grammar, arith- 
 metic, geography and natural philosophy. In Octo- 
 ber, 1841, he left Cincinnati and went south on the 
 steamer George Washington as bar-tender. In May, 
 1842, he settled in Muscatine, Iowa, which has since 
 been his home. Here he conducted a barber-shop 
 till 1868, when failing health, resulting from the con- 
 finement incident to the business, compelled him to 
 seek a more active occupation. Having by industry 
 and frugality accumulated some capital, he invested 
 in real estate ; bought some timber land in the neigh- 
 borhood of Muscatine ; obtained contracts for the 
 furnishing of wood to steamboats ; did some specu- 
 lating, which proved successful ; and the result is 
 the accumulation of a competence on which he lives 
 in ease and retirement. 
 
 In 1851 he became a member of the Masonic or- 
 der by joining Prince Hall Lodge, No. i. Saint Louis, 
 Missouri, then operating under a charter from the 
 Grand Lodge (colored) of Ohio, but which is now 
 No. 10, under the Grand Lodge of Missouri (colored) 
 of Free and Accepted Ancient York Masons. In 
 1868 he was arched and knighted and elected dep- 
 uty grand master of the Grand Lodge, H. M'Gee 
 Alexander being grand master. The latter dying 
 on the 20th of April, 1868, our subject became grand 
 master in his stead and fulfilled his unexpired term. 
 The jurisdiction then extended over Missouri, Iowa, 
 Minnesota, Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi. 
 He organized all the subordinate lodges in the last 
 three states, and assisted in organizing their grand 
 lodges. At the next annual meeting of the Grand 
 Lodge of Missouri he was elected grand treasurer 
 and appointed a delegate to the Most Worshipful 
 National Grand Compact of Masons (colored) for 
 the United States held at Wilmington, Delaware, on 
 the 9th of October, 1869. In June, 1869, he was 
 again elected grand master, and held the distin- 
 guished office for three consecutive years. In 1872 
 he was elected grand secretary, and in 1873 was ap- 
 pointed chairman of the committee on foreign cor- 
 respondence. 
 
 In 1874 he was again called to the position of 
 grand master, and annually reelected to the same 
 position since, being at present (1877) incumbent of 
 the office. His jurisdiction now extends over the 
 states of Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and .Colorado, 
 and embraces eighty-seven lodges and twenty-seven 
 hundred members. He is said to be one of the 
 most accomplished ritualists, and among the most 
 able and successful executive officers the order, in 
 any branch of it, has ever had. 
 
 In politics, he is a republican, both from gratitude 
 and principle, and being one of the most original, 
 eloquent and pungent orators of the nation, it will 
 readily be conceded that he exercises a controlling 
 influence upon his colored brethren wherever he is 
 brought into contact with them. 
 
 In 1863 he enlisted in the ist Iowa Colored Vol- 
 unteer Infantry, and received the appointment of 
 sergeant-major, but was refused muster on account 
 of physical disability in left ankle. He afterward, 
 however, became one of the most active agents in 
 the west in gathering recruits for the army and fur- 
 thering the Union cause. In 1869 he was appointed 
 by the colored state convention of Iowa a delegate 
 to the colored national convention which met that 
 year at Washington, and by that organization he was 
 appointed chairman of the committee to bring before 
 the proper committees of the senate and house of 
 representatives the claims of colored soldiers and 
 seamen to an equality with their white copatriots in 
 the matter of bounties and pensions. He was also 
 appointed a member of the committee from the same 
 convention to wait upon President Grant and Vice- 
 President Colfax, to tender to them the congratula- 
 tions of the colored people of the United States 
 upon their election to the highest offices in the gift of 
 the people, and on the first occasion was the mouth- 
 piece of the committee. In 1869 he was a member 
 and vice-president of the Iowa republican state con- 
 vention, and took a prominent part in its delibera- 
 tions. In the following year he was also a delegate 
 to the state convention and a member of the com- 
 mittee on resolutions, and on each occasion addressed 
 the convention with such power, enthusiasm and 
 effect as secured for him the title of " colored orator 
 of the west," and it is generally conceded that in this 
 regard he is second only to the redoubtable Fred 
 Douglass. He has '" stumped " the State of Iowa, as 
 well as most of the southern states, at every election 
 held since the close of the slaveholders' rebellion, 
 and is recognized as one of the most powerful, elo- 
 
54-0 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 quent and sapient orators of the country. In 1872 
 he was appointed by the republican state convention 
 of Iowa a delegate at large to the national repub- 
 lican convention at Philadelphia which nominated 
 Grant and Wilson for President and Vice-President. 
 In 1873 he was appointed by President Grant consul 
 to Aux Cayes, Hayti, but refused the position, owing 
 to the smallness of the salary. 
 
 In January, 1876, he was appointed by a colored 
 convention of Iowa a delegate to the Centennial Ex- 
 position at Philadelphia, for the purpose of prepar- 
 ing statistics and gathering useful information for 
 the colored race. Later in the same year he was 
 appointed an alternate delegate by the Iowa state 
 republican convention to the national convention 
 at Cincinnati, Ohio, which nominated Hayes and 
 Wheeler. 
 
 It will thus be seen that Mr. Clark is a gentleman 
 of national renown, esteemed and respected alike by 
 both white and colored citizens ; and his career, 
 overcoming as he has done the most serious obsta- 
 cles in the way of education as well as caste, and 
 attaining both to wealth and position, cannot fail to 
 be an ennobling example and inspiration to many 
 an ambitious youth of his race struggling to gain 
 a position of honor and independence. Like the 
 great apostles of freedom, Sumner, Goodell, Garrison, 
 Phillips and Fred- Douglass, he has struggled man- 
 fully for the emancipation and elevation of his race. 
 He had an undying faith from the earliest dawn of 
 reason that he would live to see the extirpation of 
 slavery from the United States, if not from the world, 
 and he has not lived and labored in vain. The 
 names of Brown, Lincoln, Lovejoy and Grant are 
 indelibly written upon his heart, and should be cher- 
 ished as talismanic by the African race for all time 
 to come. 
 
 On the 9th of October, 1848, at Iowa City, he 
 married Miss Catherine Griffin, of African and In- 
 dian origin, born in slavery, but manumitted at the 
 age of three years. She is a woman in every way 
 suited to his companionship, and worthy of her hus- 
 band, and is highly esteemed for her christian char- 
 acter by all who know her. She has borne him five 
 children, two boys and three girls, of whom two — 
 John and Ellen — died in infancy; the survivors, 
 Rebecca J., Susan V. and Alexander G., all inherit 
 their father's intellectual endowments, all severally 
 graduates of the high school of Muscatine, and give 
 promise of useful and honorable lives. Alexander is 
 .1 printer on the Muscatine " Journal," and quite 
 
 intelligent ; Rebecca is the wife of G. W. Appleton, 
 of Muscatine; Susan is the wife of Rev. Richard 
 Holley, a minister in the African Methodist Episco- 
 pal church. 
 
 Our subject became a member of the African 
 Methodist Episcopal church in 1850, and continues 
 in fellowship. He is superintendent of the Sabbath 
 school of the church of that denomination in Mus- 
 catine ; is also a steward and one of the trustees of 
 the congregation, to the support of which he is the 
 largest contributor. He is also generous with his 
 means for the support of charities and benevolent 
 institutions of the city of his adoption, and is, in 
 short, one of the best citizens of the place. 
 
 Alexander Clark is a man of unquestioned ability. 
 His Masonic addresses bespeak the soundest judg- 
 ment and the clearest intellect, besides thorough re- 
 search and acquaintance with the most ancient his- 
 tory, rivaling in many regards the orations of the most 
 famous craftsmen of the order, often ranging high in 
 the regions of the poetic and sublime. As a polit- 
 ical orator, he is clear, prompt and strong, and has 
 the rare merit of stopping when he is through ; and 
 while he is uncompromising in his principles, yet he 
 says things so straight, and in a manner so cautious, 
 as to excite no ill will from any one ; he is, in short, 
 a valuable citizen, of whom the State of Iowa feels 
 proud. His leading characteristic is a philosophic 
 turn of mind by which he analyzes everything claim- 
 ing his attention with reference to its usefulness. If 
 a matter will not contribute to his own good or the 
 good of his fellow-men, he will have nothing to do 
 with it. 
 
 As already mentioned, he is a republican from 
 gratitude. He appreciates fully the boon of eman- 
 cipation and enfranchisement, not because it has 
 been of special benefit to him, but because of its 
 numerous blessings to others. Striving, as he has 
 done all his life, against the prejudice of color, he 
 longs to see the time when a man will be esteemed 
 at his true worth without regard to circumstances 
 of race or birth ; hence he was never a sympathizer 
 with the principles of the "know-nothing" party. 
 
 Although he is a Methodist, both in principle and 
 practice, he cultivates a feeling of liberality toward 
 all other creeds. He is at the same time frank and 
 outspoken in his own opinions. In all departments 
 of thought and action he believes that honesty is the 
 best policy ; hence he is never in favor of resorting 
 to any expedient or to doubtful means in order to 
 insure a temporary triumph, or even a permanent 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 541 
 
 success; he will not do evil that good may come; he 
 has more faith in being and doing than in mere be- 
 lief, although he believes the latter to be essential. 
 His friendships are slow in their formation, but when 
 once formed they are enduring ; indeed he has never 
 been known to desert a friend. His feelings of 
 
 sympathy are easily enlisted, though in matters of 
 charity he exercises the same caution that he does 
 in his own business affairs, and is seldom deceived. 
 Many a poor and helpless one, especially of his own 
 race, has reason to thank God from the heart for the 
 existence of such a man as Alexander Clark. 
 
 JAMES S. SMITH, 
 
 IOWA FALLS. 
 
 JAMES S. SMITH, a pioneer in Iowa Falls, is a 
 son of Thomas Smith, a merchant, and Lydia P. 
 Wright, who were both from New Hampshire fami- 
 lies. The great-grandfather of James S. came from 
 Ireland, and his grandfather, Joshua Smith, was an 
 early settler in Holderness, New Hampshire, and 
 died there. The subject of this notice was born in 
 Dorchester, New Hampshire, on the 27 th of May, 
 1831. Two years later the family moved to Holder- 
 ness, where James S. was reared, receiving an aca- 
 demic education at New Hampton, Belknap county, 
 attending this institution five or six terms. 
 
 In 1850 he removed to Wentworth, New Hamp- 
 shire ; engaged in clerking there four years, then 
 bought out the proprietor, merchandising for himself 
 a year or more, and in October, 1855, settled in the 
 then prospective village of Iowa Falls. He was the 
 first merchant in the place, hauling his first load of 
 goods by team from Dubuque, a distance of nearly 
 one hundred and fifty miles. He continued in the 
 mercantile trade for fifteen years, and in 1870 changed 
 
 to the grain and live-stock business, which he still 
 continues, having on the whole fair success as a traf- 
 ficker. He has always been a straightforward, square 
 dealer, early securing and steadily retaining the con- 
 fidence of his patrons. He has seen Iowa Falls 
 slowly expand from a four-corners in embryo to a 
 place of twelve or fourteen hundred inhabitants, and 
 has never shown any backwardness in trying to en- 
 courage its growth and contribute to its prosperity. 
 He has served as town trustee and mayor, and is 
 now in the school board. As an official, he is prompt, 
 perfectly reliable and very efficient. 
 
 He has always affiliated with the democracy, but 
 has not been among the most active partisans. He 
 was postmaster during part of Buchanan's adminis- 
 tration. He is a member and clerk of the Baptist 
 church, and is living a consistent christian. 
 
 On the i6th of October, 1858, he was joined in 
 wedlock with Miss Rhoda A. Whipple, of Wentworth, 
 a very prominent family in New Hampshire. She 
 has had five children, four of them yet living. 
 
 HARTLEY BRACEWELL, 
 
 CORTDON. 
 
 ONE of the early settlers and best business men 
 of Wayne county, Iowa, is Hartley Bracewell, 
 banker, of Corydon. He made the first entry of land 
 in Warren township, in the southwestern part of the 
 county, eleven miles from the county seat, when there 
 was not a house between his lands and Corydon. 
 There were then but few voters in the county, and 
 he has lived to watch its settlement and growth for 
 twenty-four years, he himself having been one of 
 the leaders in improving the county. 
 
 Mr. Bracewell is a native of Yorkshire, England; 
 was a son of John and Mary Starkie Bracewell, and 
 
 dates his birth on the 3d of March, 1822. The 
 Bracewells were originally from Scotland ; moved to 
 West Riding, Yorkshire, two or three centuries ago, 
 and became a numerous family, the town of Brace- 
 well being named for them. 
 
 The youth of Hartley was spent on his father's 
 farm. His opportunities for study were limited, yet 
 he succeeded in obtaining a fair business educa- 
 tion by attending a night school; and on coming to 
 this country in 1849 he taught a district school six 
 months in Green county, Illinois. He then worked 
 on a farm one season in the same county, and thus 
 
542 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIO.GRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 procured the funds for purchasing forty acres of 
 land, to which he added a little later forty acres 
 more; farmed in Illinois four years, and in June, 
 1854, came to Wayne county, entering lands and 
 locating as before indicated. The land office was 
 then at Chariton, Lucas county, and when he asked 
 the proper officer to open his map of Wayne coun- 
 ty, Warren township showed a clean white page, not 
 an entry having been made. Mr. Bracewell, who had 
 previously entered eighty acres of woodland in Jef- 
 ferson township, now entered one hundred and sixty 
 acres of prairie, improved it, and remained on it till 
 1869, when he moved into Corydon. Here he was 
 a merchant for four years, a miller three, and for the 
 last two has been cashier of the Wayne County Bank, 
 in which he is a stockholder. He owns other prop- 
 perty in Corydon, and three well improved farms in 
 the county ; has been an eminently successful busi- 
 ness man, and has a splendid reputation. 
 
 Mr. Bracewell was elected to the general assem- 
 bly in 1859, and reelected in 1861, ser^^ing in the 
 regular sessions of i860 and 1862, and the extra 
 sessions of 1861 and 1862. He held various town- 
 ship offices before becoming a member of the legis- 
 lature, and has also been president of the school 
 board of Corydon, being an active and very useful 
 citizen. He has been a life-long democrat. 
 
 A member of the Methodist Episcopal church 
 since early manhood, and a local preacher more 
 than thirty years, his life has always been above 
 reproach. He is kind-hearted and obliging, and a 
 good friend to the suffering and needy. 
 
 In July, 1844, Miss Margaret Broughton, of York- 
 shire, England, became the wife of Mr. Bracewell ; 
 they have one son, Broughton Bracewell, a farmer 
 in Wayne county. Mrs. Bracewell has been a true 
 helpmeet of her husband, and is a worthy christian 
 mother 
 
 HON. GEORGE A. MORSE, 
 
 CORNING. 
 
 PERHAPS there is no name of more antiquity 
 in its origin, as relating to the Saxon race set- 
 tled in America, than that of Morse. The original 
 stock from which the subject of this sketch is de- 
 scended was named Samuel Morse, who emigrated 
 to America in 1635. He settled at Dedham, in the 
 colony of Massachusetts, and died at Medfield, in 
 the same colony, in 1654. 
 
 The Morses are now scattered all over the United 
 States, though a very large proportion of the direct 
 issue of the original Puritanic stock still reside in 
 New England, and most of them in Massachusetts. 
 The various families of Morse have ever been pro- 
 verbial for their probity, being, as is demonstrated 
 in the genealogical 5ook published in Boston in 
 1850, ever found to-be "worthy citizens and honest 
 men " in their worldly transactions. Many of them 
 possessed sterling mental qualifications. 
 
 Many of the Morses have been great inventors 
 and discoverers. From an electric telegraph to a 
 printing press, they have left their impress upon the 
 advancement of science, literature and art in the 
 United States, during the past century, to a greater 
 extent than has any other family on the continent. 
 
 The father of the subject of this biography was 
 named Alpheus, and was born in Weston, Massa- 
 
 chusetts, on the 23d of March, 1803. Alpheus mar- 
 ried Miss Caroline Bunce, by whom he has had ten 
 children, seven boys and three girls; four of the 
 boys and one girl are now living. 
 
 Alpheus Morse has ever been foremost in the ad- 
 vancement of every worthy enterprise, and to a 
 well-stored mind may be added unfailing health, 
 which has enabled him to be an ever active man 
 among men. 
 
 He has served two terms in the legislature of 
 Massachusetts ; elected there by large majorities, at 
 a time when actual merit and acquirements were 
 essential to an election. 
 
 He has ever been a devoted christian, and for 
 over thirty years was senior deacon in St. Mary's 
 Episcopal Church at Newton, Lower Falls. So per- 
 fect has been his health that in all these years he 
 never missed a service in his church. 
 
 Alpheus and his wife came west in 1866, residing 
 two years in Chicago, and then removed to Geneva, 
 Kane county, Illinois, where they now reside. 
 
 George A. Morse was born at Weston, Massachu- 
 setts, on the 4th of October, 1827. He attended 
 school at Weston in the winter months until he was 
 seventeen years old, working upon his father's farm 
 during the summer months. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL D/CT/ONART. 
 
 543 
 
 Not liking this employment, his father secured 
 him a position in the employ of Grafton and Co., 
 Washington street, Boston, where he remained for 
 six years ; at the expiration of which time he mar- 
 ried Miss Caroline Merrill, of South Hampton, New 
 Hampshire, and immediately came to Galesburg, 
 Illinois. 
 
 In a short time after reaching Galesburg he ob- 
 tained employment with a Mr. Charles McClellan, 
 of Peoria, with whom, however, he remained but six 
 months. Returning to Galesburg, he worked at in-- 
 creased pay for one Silas Willard, who kept a gen- 
 eral country store. Here he remained one year, 
 and returned to Peoria and reengaged with Mr. 
 McClelland, with whom he remained one year, at 
 which time he was induced to accept a proposition 
 from Mr. Willard, at Galesburg, to go to Wethers- 
 field, Illinois, to superintend the building of a store 
 or warehouse at that place, becoming a partner with 
 Willard. 
 
 The Central Military Track railroad was project- 
 ed about this time, of which Mr. Willard and Dr. 
 Bunce were directors. The road' was to run through 
 to Wethersfield, and hence the construction of this 
 building. There was no habitation in this place 
 (the lumber had to be drawn at least thirty miles 
 over the wild prairie to build the house with); how- 
 ever, our young scion of a Puritan race worked vig- 
 orously, and March, 1853, found him ready to stock 
 the same with a general stock of merchandise. In 
 the subsequent year the railway had reached the 
 place which was then called Kewanee, now of five 
 thousand inhabitants. 
 
 This business was continued profitably for four 
 years, when Mr. Willard died at Galesburg and the 
 whole affair was sold out ; Mr. Morse remaining at 
 Kewanee and engaging in grain and banking busi- 
 ness till the fall of 1864, when he closed out his 
 business matters and moved with his family to Chi- 
 cago. 
 
 The cause of education has ever been an incen- 
 tive to unusual exertions on the part of both Mr. 
 and Mrs. Morse. Possessed of good education 
 themselves (particularly the lady, who had been a 
 teacher in the grammar school of Boston), they were 
 ever actively employed in the furtherance of every 
 scheme for the development of popular education. 
 During their stay at Kewanee both had given ear- 
 nest attention to the cause of education, and to the 
 formation of Sabbath schools and the institution of 
 public worship. 
 
 On leaving Kewanee for Chicago the Henry coun- 
 ty "Dial" thus speaks of Mr. Morse: 
 
 Mr. George A. Morse and family leave to-day for Chicago 
 to take up their permanent residence in that city. In the 
 departure of Mr. Morse the town loses one of its most 
 worth}', liberal and public-spirited citizens — a true christian 
 gentleman in all the relations of life. Though still a young 
 man, he is one of the oldest pioneers of our town, having 
 built the first store and the first dwelling in it that were 
 erected after it was laid out. He has been identified with 
 its business and improvements ever since, and has extended 
 to all moral and social enterprises, in' which the public were 
 interested, an open and liberal hand. 'We trust he will real- 
 ize his best anticipations in removing to the great city. 
 
 Arrived in Chicago, Mr. Morse made a copartner- 
 ship with his brother Albert, under the firm name of 
 A. Morse and Co. 
 
 Here he remained for five years, and then retired 
 from the firm and began a prospecting tour through- 
 out Iowa and Nebraska, looking for the best point 
 to settle for the establishment of a store for the buy- 
 ing and selling of all kinds of grain and flaxseed, and 
 for the sale of agricultural implements. The result 
 of all this prospecting determined him to settle in 
 Corning, Adams county, Iowa. The before-men- 
 tioned Military Track road became incorporated in- 
 to the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy road when it 
 reached Burlington. The Burlington and Missouri 
 River railway had commenced building a road from 
 Burlington to the Missouri river. Construction trains 
 alone were run over the road from Afton to Corning 
 and westward at this time, so Mr. Morse came to 
 Corning upon a tie train, and soon commenced build- 
 ing a warehouse and residence. Corning at this time 
 contained less than one hundred inhabitants. When 
 this warehouse and dwelling were but partly built 
 Mr. Morse returned to Chicago for his family, this 
 time there being a caboose attached to the freight 
 train from Burlington to Corning. This was Mrs. 
 Morse's second experience in the frontier life of west- 
 ern civilization. This was in 1869. Mr. Morse's idea 
 in settling here was that there were but very few in- 
 habitants, and he deemed it advisable to " pitch his 
 tent " in a country with a future to it, there to live 
 and share its growing prosperity. The natural pre- 
 sentment and surroundings of Corning were all that 
 could be desired. His ability to judge of its future 
 was learned in his pioneer life in Illinois. By the 
 strictest attention to business, rigid economy, and 
 the self-sacrificing exertions of his wife, our young 
 merchant laid the foundation of his future lucrative 
 business. As there were no schools in Corning to 
 which Mrs. Morse could send her children, she de- 
 termined to open a school in a part of her husband's 
 
544 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 wareroom. This school the lady conducted for a 
 year, at which time a grammar school had been in- 
 stituted, the result of Mr. Morse's persistent efforts 
 in this direction. Here Mrs. Morse was induced to 
 teach, and at the same time raise the grade of the 
 school, having done which the lady retired at the 
 end of six months, and opened a private school at 
 her own house, with fifty scholars, which she con- 
 ducted successfully, teaching the higher branches for 
 two years. 
 
 In a few years'the yield of wheat and other grains 
 began to be bountiful. By the strictest adherence 
 to fair dealing' with the farmers, Mr. Morse has built 
 up for himself a large business. In 1876 the coun- 
 ties of Montgomery and Adams conjointly sent one 
 representative to the general assembly of the state. 
 The choice of nominee for this campaign belonged 
 to Adams county, and, unknown to him, his farmer 
 friends had determined to place their interests in his 
 hands, and therefore nominated and elected him to 
 the sixteenth general assembly of Iowa. During this 
 session the state was redistricted, and Adams and 
 Montgomery counties were each to send a delegate 
 to the general assembly. In 1868 Mr. Morse was 
 again nominated for delegate, this time receiving 
 forty-three out of fifty-three votes on the first ballot, 
 and was elected in' October, 1877, by two hundred 
 
 and twenty votes, a very large majority. Mr. Morse 
 is one of the most trustworthy of representatives. 
 His large business concerns bring him continuously 
 in contact with agricultural interests, whose wants he 
 fully understands, and is very active in furthering 
 their interests by wise and wholesome legislation. 
 
 But every sunshine has its shadow. The hand of 
 death has dealt heavily with this family. They have 
 lost two sons and one daughter by scarlet fever, and 
 one boy, fourteen, who, having first passed a very 
 successful examination for admission into the high 
 school of Chicago, was drowned while bathing in 
 Lake Michigan near Douglass Grove. They have 
 now two sons and two daughters living. 
 
 Mr. Morse has now a very large business built up 
 upon the sure foundation of fair dealing with all 
 men. He is essentially the arbiter of his own good 
 fortunes, and worthily bears an irreproachable char- 
 acter, not only among his fellow-townsmen, who now 
 number nearly two thousand, but throughout Adams 
 and adjoining counties. 
 
 He was educated and brought up an Episcopalian. 
 
 He was originally a whig in politics, and deposited 
 his maiden vote for General Taylor. Subsequently 
 he adopted the republican creed and voted for J. C. 
 Fremont, and has ever since been a strict adherent 
 to the fortunes of the republican party. 
 
 REV. CHARLES E. BROWN, 
 
 LIME SPRINGS. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch, now representing 
 Howard county in the general assembly, was 
 born in Augusta, Oneida county. New York, on the 
 23d of February, 1813. He was the son of a Baptist 
 minister. Rev. Philip P. Brown, who was a pioneer 
 in central New York, and who died in September, 
 1876, at the age of eighty-six years. The maiden 
 name of Charles's mother was Betsy Dickey, a de- 
 scendant of the Dickeys who with other Scotch- 
 Irish emigrants settled in Londonderry, in southern 
 New Hampshire, more than two hundred years ago. 
 Philip P. Brown moved to Smithfield, Madison 
 county, in 1814, and there the subject of this brief 
 sketch lived on a farm until eighteen or nineteen 
 years of age. Subsequently he took a scientific 
 course in Madison University ; graduated from the 
 theological department of that institution in 1838; 
 preached four years at Norway and Warren, Herki- 
 
 mer county, and in May, 1842, crossed the Missis- 
 sippi river, and since that date, with the exception 
 of a few years, has made Iowa his home. He organ- 
 ized a church near Maquoketa, Jackson county ; 
 soon after became pastor of the Baptist churches at 
 Davenport and Rock Island, with his residence at 
 the former place ; a little later was pastor at Le Claire, 
 Scott county, and Maquoketa; in 1857 removed to 
 Vernon Springs, and Howard county has been his 
 home most of the time since that date, he holding 
 a pastorate until 1876. He removed from Vernon 
 Springs.to Lime Springs in 1870. He was the first 
 superintendent of schools in Howard county, and 
 was on the county board of supervisors one terra. 
 
 Early in 1865 Mr. Brown became chaplain of the 
 3d regiment United States Heavy Artillery, Colonel 
 Kappner, commander, stationed at Memphis, Ten- 
 nessee, serving one year. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 545 
 
 He was elected to the general assembly in Octo- 
 ber, 1877, and at the session convening the next 
 January was placed on the committees on railroads, 
 suppression of intemperance, institution for the edu- 
 cation of the blind, soldiers' orphans' home, state 
 university, and hospital for the insane. 
 
 Representative Brown was in early life a strong 
 anti-slavery man, voting for John P. Hale for presi- 
 dent in 1852, and has been a steady and firm ad- 
 herent to the republican party since its origin. He 
 cherishes his political and religious sentiments with 
 equal sincerity, and is guided by a clarified judgment 
 and a clear conscience in all the duties of life. No 
 truer man lives in Howard county. 
 
 The wife of representative Brown was Miss Fran- 
 ces Lyon, of Little. Falls, New York; married on the 
 26th of September, 1838. They have had five chil- 
 dren, and lost two of them ; Benjamin P., their eld- 
 
 est son, was drowned in boyhood in the Maquoketa 
 river, near the city of Maquoketa ; George L. was 
 killed at the age of eighteen, while coupling cars, at 
 Saint Paul Junction, Minnesota ; Charles P. is United 
 States revenue agent at Ottumwa, Iowa; James D. 
 is railroad-station agent at Lime Springs ; and Willie 
 C. is train dispatcher for the Chicago, Burlington and 
 Quincy Railroad Company, with location at Burling- 
 ton, Iowa. All three are young men of much prom- 
 ise. Mrs. Brown is a true christian mother, and is 
 well rewarded for the pains she has taken in aiding 
 to rear the family of sons. 
 
 Mr. Brown has been a successful preacher and 
 pastor. While at Davenport and other places nu- 
 merous accessions were made to the churches which 
 he served, and the work which he has done during 
 the last twenty years in Howard county will be a 
 lasting memorial of his solid worth. 
 
 HON. JACOB S. RICHMAN, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 JACOB SCOTT RICHMAN, attorney and ex- 
 J district judge, was born at Somerset, Perry 
 county, Ohio, on the nth of March, 1820, and is 
 the third son of Evert Richman and Mary ne'e Scott. 
 
 His father was regularly educated for the Methodist 
 ministry, and was for a number of years a clergy- 
 man of that church ; but the necessities of an in- 
 creasing family, as well as the desire for a fixed 
 local home, led him to seek other pursuits, and he 
 accordingly commenced the study of law. Mean- 
 time he was for several years clerk of the house 
 of representatives, and afterward associate judge of 
 the court of common pleas of Perry county, Ohio, 
 though he was never admitted to the bar. He was 
 a man of studious habits and high intellectual en- 
 dowments ; took much interest in current social 
 and political questions, and not unfrequently gave 
 his views to the public through the press. 
 
 He was a distinguished Freemason of the order 
 of Knights Templar; had many warm friends, and 
 was highly esteemed by those who knew him best. 
 He died at Somerset, Ohio, in the thirty-seventh 
 year of his age, and was buried by his brethren of 
 the Masonic fraternity, who erected a fine monu- 
 ment to his memory. 
 
 The mother of our subject was of Scotch lineage, 
 a woman of much force of character, prudent, faith- 
 55 
 
 ful and religious in the best sense of the term ; al- 
 beit, she eloped with her husband and married con- 
 trary to the wishes of her parents. She managed, 
 without much means, to bring up a family of six 
 sons and one daughter (an eighth child, son, died in 
 infancy), preparing them, by her counsel and guid- 
 ance, for useful and honorable stations in life. Her 
 influence upon all her children was controlling ; 
 with them she was peerless. She died in 1873, in 
 the seventy-seventh year of her age. 
 
 The Richman family is of Holland origin, the 
 name being originally Rychnan, and is so spelled 
 still by one branch. The great-grandfather of our 
 subject came from his native country and settled 
 in New York city about the middle- of the eigh- 
 teenth century. His son, John Ryckman, the grand- 
 father of our subject, was born at Hackensack, New 
 Jersey, on the nth of March, 1767; learned the 
 business of cabinet making, and settled in New 
 York city, where he acquired means to build one 
 or two houses in Duane street; he afterward moved 
 to Paterson, New Jersey, where he owned some 
 property, and embarked in the tannery business. 
 He subsequently removed to Ohio, then a wilder- 
 ness, where he lived to a good old age, and died 
 near Zanesville on the 17th of January, 1842. 
 
 J. Scott Richman received a common-school edu- 
 
546 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 cation in the county schools of Bucks county, Penn- 
 sylvania, to which place his mother removed after 
 the death of his father. He worked on a farm till 
 the age of fifteen, and afterward for three years was 
 clerk in a country store. 
 
 At the age of eighteen he came west, and for a 
 short period he halted at Knoxville, Knox county, 
 Illinois, where he commenced his legal studies, bor- 
 rowing books from Mr. C. K. Harvey, then practic- 
 ing law in that city. Removed to Muscatine, Iowa, 
 in 1839, where his elder brother, John W. Richman, 
 resided and kept a wholesale grocery house, and in 
 the same year was admitted to the bar; after which 
 he opened an office in Rochester, Cedar county, 
 Iowa, but followed the county seat to Tipton, and 
 in the autumn of 1840 removed to Muscatine, where 
 he formed a copartnership with Hon. S. C. Hast- 
 ings, who was afterward a member of congress from 
 Iowa for the practice of law, which continued with 
 marked success until the appointment of Mr. Hast- 
 ings to the supreme bench of Iowa in 1847. After 
 this he practiced alone in Muscatine and adjoining 
 counties until 1855, when he formed a copartner- 
 ship with his brother, D. C. Richman (elsewhere 
 sketched in this volume), his former pupil, under 
 the style of Richman and Brother, which continued 
 until 1863, when our subject was appointed judge 
 of the seventh judicial district of Iowa. This posi- 
 tion he retained until May, 1872, when he retired 
 from the bench in order to form a partnership in the 
 law practice with E. E. Cook, Esq., of Davenport; 
 the firm is still in successful operation. 
 
 In politics, the judge was raised an old-line whig, 
 from which he naturally drifted into the republican 
 party. He has never been much of a politician in 
 the accepted sense of that term, but he manifests 
 great interest in the current questions of the day, 
 and generally takes one side or the other very de- 
 cidedly, which he maintains as decidedly. He held 
 the position of chief clerk of the house of repre- 
 sentatives of Iowa during one session. 
 
 He was also a member of the convention which 
 framed the first constitution of the State of Iowa in 
 1846. Hewas likewise- a member of the house of 
 representatives of the state at a special session held 
 in 1856, and has held some smaller offices, besides 
 being judge of the seventh judicial district of Iowa 
 for about nine years. He is not a member of any 
 religious denomination. 
 
 He was married on the i6th of November, 1842, 
 to Miss Calista A. Hannaman, daughter of R. L. 
 
 Hannaman, Esq., of Knoxville, Illinois, with whom 
 he has lived very happily. Although many years an 
 invalid, his wife is one of the most amiable of her 
 sex, and for pure goodness of heart, thoughtful and 
 unselfish care of others, has but few equals. They 
 have two sons grown up, Evert F. and Clayton S. ; 
 the former has adopted the profession of his father, 
 and the other is an officer in the United States navy, 
 both possessed of fine talents, high literary attain- 
 ments, and destined to honor and usefulness. 
 
 Judge Richman is of rather a metaphysical turn 
 of mind, of quick perceptions, strong analytical 
 powers and remarkable penetration ; has not been 
 very fond of study, bift has read considerable, and 
 has a most tenacious memory. While on the bench 
 he has often got at the solution of a knotty point 
 with rare intuition, and made clear what seemed 
 doubtful and uncertain to the counsel by a brief re- 
 mark. He gave very general satisfaction as a judge, 
 and discharged his duties with great ability. He is 
 a man of remarkable firmness and decision, exer- 
 cising perfect control over his passions, and yet with- 
 al is quick and sensitive. As an advocate, he can 
 state a point clearly in fewer words than the gener- 
 ality of attorneys. At times he has been known to 
 be caustic and bitter toward opposing counsel and 
 their clients ; he usually makes' a strong argument, 
 and is quick to perceive, utilize or turn to advan- 
 tage unexpected developments in the trial of a case. 
 His chief force as a writer and speaker is clearness 
 and condensation. He can hardly be called an ora- 
 tor, yet he is forcible and peculiarly interesting ; 
 rarely indulges in quotation, but when he does so it 
 will be found to be very apposite. He has a high 
 ideal standard, and the fear of falling short of it has 
 doubtless prevented the more frequent use of his 
 pen in the literary department. 
 
 In 1854 he delivered a lecture in Muscatine, en- 
 titled " Utilitarianism," which exhibited careful 
 thought and deep research. It was highly appreci- 
 ated, and by general request was printed in pam- 
 phlet form for circulation. He is a profound thinker, 
 and can speak with great vigor when forced to the 
 platform, but ordinarily he is a man of few words. 
 He makes strong friends, but has very few intimate 
 ones of choice, but these he will defend, when as- 
 sailed, to the last extremity. He is of a remarkably 
 peaceful disposition, but when driven to the wall 
 his assailant had better " look a leedle out," as the 
 Dutchman said, for some one is likely to get hurt. 
 
 He delights in all sorts of public entertainments 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 547 
 
 and gatherings, from the most grave and profound 
 literary lecture to the most fantastic negro-minstrel 
 performance ; this is so well understood in the com- 
 munity that he is always expected at public enter- 
 tainments. 
 
 He was one of the early settlers of Muscatine, 
 and has been intimately identified with its history 
 and interests up to the time of his removal to Daven- 
 port, and has taken an active part in all its public 
 enterprises. Although naturally inclined to be in- 
 
 dolent, yet he has accomplished a vast amount of 
 work-; when once aroused and interested, he goes 
 onward with great celerity, and produces desired 
 results in a brief space of time. 
 
 He has had large experience in his profession ; 
 very few important cases have been tried in eastern 
 Iowa, where he has been accustomed to practice, 
 with which he has not been connected, and the 
 present firm of Cook and Richman have an exten- 
 sive and lucrative practice in all the courts. 
 
 HON. LLOYD SELBY, 
 
 COR r DON. 
 
 ONE of the most successful business men and 
 prominent citizens of Wayne county, Iowa, is 
 Lloyd Selby, a merchant in Corydon since 1856. 
 He was born in Licking county, Ohio, on the 26th of 
 November, 1833, and comes from an old Maryland 
 family. His father, John Selby, a mechanic in his 
 younger years, is living with his son in Corydon, and 
 is now in his eightieth year. The mother of Lloyd 
 was Clarinda Herrick, whose father died in Janes- 
 ville, Wisconsin, a few years ago, aged ninety-three 
 years. 
 
 Lloyd had a very ordinary common-school educa- 
 tion. At fourteen he was employed in a store at 
 Johnstown, and he has made the commercial busi- 
 ness his life-work. When of age he left Licking 
 county, came to Corydon, Iowa, and has here been 
 in trade twenty-two years. He has carried on farm- 
 ing and stock-raising by proxy while merchandising, 
 and is no doubt the best business man in this vicin- 
 ity. He has three well improved farms in Wayne 
 county, others in the states of Missouri and Kansas, 
 
 and is a heavy stockholder in the Wayne County 
 Bank, located at Corydon, which is the county seat. 
 He has been its president since its organization in 
 1875. He has one of the best homesteads in the 
 county, one-fourth of a mile east of the city limits, 
 and is a hospitable, christian gentleman. 
 
 Mr. Selby was elected state senator in 1873, to 
 fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon. 
 M. Read, and served in the fifteenth general assem- 
 bly, doing good work on four or five committees. 
 He has been quite active at times in the Corydon 
 school board, and has held other local offices, being 
 a practical, energetic and serviceable citizen, ready 
 for any work that will advance the interests of the 
 town or county. 
 
 He is a Royal Arch Mason ; a member of the 
 Methodist Episcopal church, and a man of pure and 
 noble qualities of character. 
 
 In January, 1862, he was joined in wedlock with 
 Mrs. M. L. Miller, daughter of James May, of Penn- 
 sylvania, and they have two children. 
 
 HON. THOMAS MITCHELL, 
 
 MITCHELL VILLB. 
 
 SOMETHING more than a year before the terri- 
 tory now embraced within the county of Polk 
 was, according to the treaty stipulations made by the 
 United States government with the Sacs and Foxes, 
 opened for settlement, the subject of this sketch, 
 who is now one of the oldest and most highly re- 
 spected citizens of that county, located twelve miles 
 east of Fort Des Moines, entered a claim and built 
 
 a comfortable log cabin, which was used as a hotel 
 for a number of years. He was at that time in the 
 prime of youthful manhood, having been born on 
 the 3d of March, 1816, among the granite hills of 
 Claremont, Sullivan county. New Hampshire, where 
 his early life was spent acquiring those sterling traits 
 of character for which the sturdy sons of New Eng- 
 land have so long been noted. 
 
548 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 His father, William Mitchell, was born near Bos- 
 ton, Massachusetts, and moved to Claremont when 
 about twenty-three years of age. He was of Scotch- 
 Irish descent, as was also his mother, whose maiden 
 name was Dolly Blake, who was a native of Hamp- 
 ton, New Hampshire. When young Thomas was 
 about sixteen years of age his father died, leaving a 
 large family with little means of support. He soon 
 obtained work on a neighboring farm, where he con- 
 tinued to labor for about seven years, completing his 
 limited education by attending district schools in the 
 neighborhood. 
 
 He started west in November, 1839, and spent the 
 first winter in St. Charles county, Missouri, and in 
 the following March removed to Fairfield, Jefferson 
 county, Iowa, where he continued to reside about four 
 years. In April, 1842, he was elected one of the 
 commissioners of Jefferson county, and served for 
 two years, when he again removed and located at 
 the crossing of Camp Creek, then Indian county, 
 where he has since continuously resided. In 1846 
 he helped to organize Polk county, and was in the 
 fall of that year elected its first sheriff. Two years 
 later he ran for representative, the district contain- 
 ing thirteen counties, but was defeated by Manly 
 Giffbrd, of Jasper county. He was, however, in 1857 
 elected to represent Polk and Jasper counties in the 
 
 first legislature which met at Des Moines, and took 
 his seat in that body in January, 1858. 
 
 In 1859 he was elected one of the supervisors of 
 Polk county, which office he held by reelection for a 
 period of six years. 
 
 In the fall of 1873 he was nominated and elected 
 to a seat in the upper house of the Iowa general 
 assembly, of which body he has since been an active 
 and influential member. 
 
 He was first married on the 14th of August, 1841, 
 to Almira, daughter of Benjamin Swift, a farmer, then 
 of Thetford, Vermont, by whom he had five chil- 
 dren, as follows : Oran F., lieutenant of company I, 
 8th Iowa Cavalry, who died at Waverly, Tennessee, 
 on the 8th of March, 1864, aged twenty-two years; 
 Mary Ann, the wife of M. R. Hoxie, who has three 
 children, Thomas Mitchell, Carrie and Elsie ; Charles 
 Melvill, aged twenty-six, a farmer of Polk county, 
 Iowa, who is married to Lizzie Delong, and has one 
 son, named William Delong ; and the youngest, Wal- 
 ter A., eighteen years of age, who is attending school 
 at the seminary of Mitchellville. Mrs. Mitchell died 
 on the 1 6th of June, i860, aged about forty years. 
 
 Mr. Mitchell was married on the 17th of June, 
 187 1, to Anna C. Mattern, by whom he has two chil- 
 dren, Harry Herbert and Maud, aged respectively 
 six and two years. 
 
 ALLEN BROOMHALL, LL. B., 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 ALLEN BROOMHALL, attorney and counselor 
 xV at law, and president of the board of directors 
 of the public schools of Muscatine, was born in Bel- 
 mont county, Ohio, on the 26th of May, 1834, his par- 
 ents being James Broomhall and Rebecca nh Bond, 
 who were members of the Society of Friends (Hicks- 
 ite). The Broomhall family is of English origin, the 
 founders of it in America having settled in Chester 
 county, Pennsylvania, soon after the first landing of 
 William Penn, where a large colony of the descend- 
 ants are still to be found. 
 
 The father of our subject moved to Ohio with his 
 parents in the year 1808, where he subsequently mar- 
 ried Rebecca Bond, who was also descended from 
 the Penn Colony stock. He died in 1837, leaving 
 four orphan children, three of whom were older than 
 our subject. 
 
 An heirloom, very highly prized, which has de- 
 
 scended from father to son for the last two hundred 
 years, being now in the possession of our subject, is 
 a huge tome of " William Penn's Sermons," bearing 
 date as far back as 1650. 
 
 Allen Broomhall received the rudiments of his 
 education in the log school-houses of his native 
 place, and subsequently took a course in the clas- 
 sical institute at Barnesville, Belmont county, Ohio. 
 He removed to Iowa in 1856, and settled in West 
 Liberty, Muscatine county, where he purchased and 
 improved several farms, and made some profitable 
 investments in real estate. In 1857 he removed to 
 Atalissa. in the same county, where he started a 
 lumber yard, and conducted several other enter- 
 prises. He also commenced the study of law under 
 the direction of Hon. J. Carskadden, of Muscatine, 
 which he pursued with pertinacity during his leisure 
 hours. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 549 
 
 In 1859 he became agent of the Rock Island and 
 Pacific Railroad Company at Atalissa, a position 
 which he retained some five years, discharging the 
 duties mainly by deputy, however. 
 
 In 186 1 he was admitted to the bar in Muscatine, 
 but did not enter fully upon the practice of his pro- 
 fession until 1866. Meantime he spent a year at 
 the Cincinnati Law School, from which he gradu- 
 ated in the spring of the last named year with the 
 honorable degree of LL.B. 
 
 He had previously formed a partnership with the 
 Hon. D. C. Cloud for the practice of law, which 
 continued successfully for nine years. 
 
 In 187s he formed a law partnership with the 
 Hon. J. Scott«Richman, the latter to reside in Dav- 
 enport, which continued in force until February, 
 1877, since which period he has been without a 
 partner. 
 
 Mr. Broomhall has always been an earnest advo- 
 cate of popular education ; of new and better school- 
 houses; higher standards of scholarship; increase of 
 teachers' salaries, with improved tuition and a more 
 constant and earnest appreciation of the work of 
 the schools. He had for several years agitated the 
 erection of a new high-school building for Musca- 
 tine, and upon this issue, in 1873, he was elected 
 president of the Muscatine board of education, a 
 position which he has since retained. In 1874, the 
 law being meantime varied, he was elected a mem- 
 ber of the board of education for three years, and 
 by that body was annually elected president of the 
 organization during that term. In 1877 he was 
 again elected a director for a period of three years, 
 and at the first meeting of the new board was again 
 elected to the presidency, and is perhaps among the 
 best and most popular school officers of the state. 
 To his efforts and influence are largely due the erec- 
 tion of the splendid institution above alluded to. 
 
 He also advocated and finally carried, in 1873, 
 the measure providing for the appointment of a 
 special committee to examine applicants for situa- 
 tions in the public schools, which has resulted in 
 giving a superior class of teachers, and benefiting 
 in a great measure the public-school service. 
 
 The city of Muscatine regards the president of its 
 school board as occupying, the most honorable and 
 important office in its gift; and it is because Mr. 
 Broomhall has so honored and exalted the office 
 that it now gratefully reflects so much of its lustre 
 upon him. 
 
 Mr. Broomhall is a member of the Masonic order; 
 
 was worthy master of a blue lodge for five years, 
 and is a member of the Royal Arch Chapter. He 
 is also a member of the Ancient Order of United 
 Workmen, and was the first presiding officer of Mus- 
 catine Lodge, No. 99, of this order. 
 
 Our subject was raised in the communion of the 
 Society of Friends of the Hicksite branch, in which 
 he had a birthright; but in the year 1865 his re- 
 ligious views underwent a change which led him to 
 unite with the Congregational church, of which he 
 has since been a consistent member and office- 
 holder. 
 
 Educated in the school of Elias Hicks, his po- 
 litical views were naturally molded on the "aboli- 
 tion '' plan. He was taught to regard slavery as the 
 crowning sin of this nation, and accordingly his 
 first Presidential vote was cast for John C. Fremont 
 in 1856; since then he has acted with the republi- 
 can party. He has never sought office, however, 
 preferring the quiet, unostentatious pursuit of his 
 profession, and the social enjoyments of family and 
 friends. 
 
 On the 2ist of June, 18,157, he married Miss Har- 
 riet Fowler, of Barnesville, Ohio, a most excellent 
 christian lady; she died on the 17th of September, 
 1876, leaving a family of three interesting daugh- 
 ters; Ella, Elizabeth and Mary Rebecca. The eld- 
 est is a graduate of the Muscatine High School, and 
 is now making preparation for the completion of 
 her education in the Iowa State University, and is 
 a young lady of large promise. The second is a 
 member of the high school, and the youngest is fol- 
 lowing after as rapidly as possible. 
 
 Mr. Broomhall is a gentleman of very fine appear- 
 ance, nearly six feet high, and weighing one hun- 
 dred and seventy pounds ; erect figure, fair com- 
 plexion, dark hair and eyes, regular features, easy 
 manners and pleasing address; quick in his sympa- 
 thies, kind and unselfish ; a total abstainer from all 
 ardent beverages and tobacco. 
 
 It is often said of him that he is too honest to be 
 a lawyer; too truthful to serve the client who seeks 
 to win his case by deceit or trickery. 
 
 As a practitioner, he enjoys in the fullest measure 
 the confidence and esteem of the courts, the bar 
 and the people. It is, however, by his office of 
 president of the school board that he is best known 
 to the public. Though, as the attorney of several 
 of the largest business interests of the city, and with 
 an extensive outside clientage, he is compelled to 
 economize his time to meet his professional and 
 
550 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 public engagements. He is not fond of the excite- 
 ment and wrangle of the forum, and prefers to be 
 recognized rather as a chamber counselor. His 
 theory is that the only reasonable parties to be ad- 
 dressed are the- parties in the case, who can sooner 
 be made to agree by the fair speech of one lawyer 
 in his law office, than by twelve jurymen, contend- 
 ing counsel, and any number of district or supreme 
 judges. 
 
 Following his own pleasant line of practice in his 
 
 chosen profession, and blessed with the contentment 
 resulting from a pleasant home and cultured chil- 
 dren, he has beautifully demonstrated, in the years 
 he has unselfishly given to the pubhc service with- 
 out fee or hope of reward, that the true citizen 
 never surrenders to the charms of his fireside or the 
 calls of his profession the allegiance he owes to 
 mankind. 
 
 He is a director and secretary of the Hershey 
 Lumber Manufacturing Company of Muscatine. 
 
 COLONEL WILLIAM PATTERSON, 
 
 KEOKUK. 
 
 WILLIAM PATTERSON, ex-mayor of Keo- 
 kuk, Iowa, was born in Wythe county, Vir- 
 ginia, on the 9th of March, 1802, and is the son of 
 Joseph and Jane Patterson nee Walker, of Scotch- 
 Irish descent. When he was five years of age his 
 father moved to Kentucky, settling in Adair county, 
 where he had the advantage of a common-school 
 education, attending school in the winter and assist- 
 ing on the farm in the summer. He had a taste for 
 farming, and intended to make it the occupation of 
 his life. He left Kentucky in 1829 and settled in 
 Marion county, Missouri ; remained three years and 
 moved thence to Sangamon county, near Springfield, 
 Illinois. Here he remained till 1837, when he set- 
 tled on a farm at West Point, Lee county, Iowa, 
 then a portion of Wisconsin Territory. Here he 
 lived till 1846, and becoming tired of farming, came 
 to Keokuk and opened a store in connection with 
 furnishing boats with produce and meat. Keokuk 
 at that time was a small village of one hundred and 
 fifty to two hundred inhabitants, built upon the edge 
 of the river, and the hill upon which the city now 
 stands was covered with woods. In connection with 
 his mercantile pursuits he commenced the business 
 of pork-packing as an experiment, till 1848, when 
 he sold his interest in merchandise and engaged 
 exclusively in pork-packing, and now packs on an 
 average twenty thousand hogs per annum. Few 
 business men in Keokuk have been more successful 
 than Colonel Patterson, and his success is a good 
 illustration of what may be achieved by persever- 
 ing steadily in one branch of business. He has fol- 
 lowed pork-packing exclusively for over thirty years, 
 and the result of this steady perseverance and good 
 management is seen in the large and lucrative busi- 
 
 ness which he has built up, which not only affords 
 him a handsome income but adds an important in- 
 terest to the trade of Keokuk. 
 
 Colonel Patterson has from the early settlement 
 taken a prominent part in public affairs. He was 
 elected a member of the first legislature of the 
 Territory of Iowa in 1838, and while in that body 
 was influential in settling the disturbance about the 
 boundary line between this portion of Iowa and 
 Missouri. He was commissioned colonel of militia 
 by Governor Lucas, of Iowa, and during the border 
 troubles received the following order : 
 
 [General Order No, i.] 
 
 Headquarters, Burlington, I. T. 
 December 7, 1839. 
 
 Colonel William Patterson: 
 
 Sir, — In pursuance of an order from the commander-in- 
 chief under date of the 6th instant, and in compliance with 
 the requisition from the deputy marshal of same date, you 
 are hereby directed to furnish from your regiment one com- 
 pany of mounted men, armed and equipped for active ser- 
 vice, directing the officer to have his command properly 
 furnished with the necessary implements and munitions of 
 war, and that he report to me at Farmington, Van Buren 
 county, with the least possible delay. 
 
 I. B. Browne, 
 Maj.-Gen. Commanding ist Div. Iowa Militia. 
 
 The company was ordered forward, but by efforts 
 of Colonel Patterson and some of his colleagues in 
 the legislature, prevented the effusion of blood ; the 
 militia were disbanded, and soon after congress es- 
 tablished the boundary line according to the claim 
 of Iowa. ■ He was several times elected to the leg- 
 islature, both to the upper and lower house, and 
 served in all during nine sessions, regular and spe- 
 cial. He was a member of the Constitutional con- 
 vention which convened in Iowa City in 1857. He 
 has been elected three times mayor of Keokuk, and 
 was postmaster of Keokuk seven years. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 551 
 
 Colonel Patterson was for a long time president of 
 the Des Moines Improvement Company. He was 
 one of the principal movers and most liberal donors 
 to the erection of Westminster Church, of Keokuk, 
 which is one of the most beautiful church edifices 
 in the state. 
 
 He has been a leading member of the Presbyte- 
 
 rian faith for forty years, and was the first elder of 
 the Old School Presbyterian church elected in Iowa 
 in 1837. 
 
 His life has been one of ceaseless activity and in- 
 dustry, and is remarkable for energy and courage. 
 Socially, he is pleasant and affable, and no one has 
 more friends in the community. 
 
 ANDERSON J. SMITH, M.D., 
 
 DE SOTO. 
 
 ANDERSON JEFFERSON SMITH, for whose 
 r\. especial benefit congress passed a bill in 1876, 
 is a native of Indiana, and was born in Harrison 
 county on the 12th of October, 1832. His parents 
 were John S. Smith, stonemason and house-builder, 
 and Hannah Ford. His paternal grandfather, John 
 Smith, was in both wars with England, and was killed 
 in the battle of New Orleans on the 8th of January, 
 1815. His maternal great-grandfather, Benjamin 
 Ford, was in the first war mentioned, and his ma- 
 ternal grandfather, John D. Ford, was killed in the 
 second, at Black Rock, now in the city of Buffalo, 
 New York. 
 
 Anderson J. received a common-school educa- 
 tion, and learned the house-builder's trade ; worked 
 at it in 'Harrison county until 1850, when he re- 
 moved to Clark county, Illinois, entered land and 
 worked it three seasons, devoting half of this time 
 to the study of medicine. 
 
 In 1853 he removed to Clinton, DeWitt county, in 
 the same state; completed his medical studies, and 
 in 1855 commenced practice at Petersburg, Menard 
 county. The following year he settled at Spring- 
 field, the capital of the state, practicing there until 
 after the civil war had commenced. 
 
 In August, 1862, Dr. Smith raised a company for 
 the 130th Illinois Infantry Volunteers; was elected 
 captain of company A, but declined the position and 
 went in as second sergeant of that company. For 
 a short time, while at Camp Butler, near Springfield, 
 he had entire medical charge of the regiment. He 
 served in the field as a soldier until the 8th of April, 
 1864, when he was taken prisoner at the battle of 
 Sabine Cross Roads, Louisiana. He was taken to 
 Camp Ford, near Tyler, Smith county, Texas, and 
 held a prisoner fourteen months. Four weeks after 
 being taken Governor Yates promoted him to first 
 lieutenant for especial service in the battle just men- 
 
 tioned, in which he exhibited great coolness, self- 
 possession and bravery, but the commission did not 
 reach him for more than a year afterward. During 
 the time he was a prisoner he built a rude hospital, 
 and managed it in the interest of the sick prisoners, 
 the confederates furnishing neither shelter nor sur- 
 geon, nothing but a little medicine. He was released 
 on the 17th of May, 1865, by the breaking up of the 
 war, and mustered out just one month later. When 
 the rebel guards left he had two hundred and eighty- 
 six sick soldiers on his hands, and brought them all 
 through to our lines except one man, William Mar- 
 tin, who was left at Shreveport, Louisiana. 
 
 The knowledge of Dr. Smith's hospital services 
 whil-e a prisoner coming before congress, the milita- 
 ry committee of the lower house made the following 
 report : 
 
 Tlte Cominitiee on Military Affairs., to vjhom tvas referred the 
 bill (H. R. S97) for the relief of Anderson J. Smithy re- 
 j>ort the same hack imth a recommendation thai the same do 
 j>ass, and also report the following statement of facts: 
 It appears from the testimony that Andei-son J. Smith, 
 then a sergeant in company A, 77th Illinois Volunteers, 
 was captured, in the line of his duty, on the 8th daj of 
 April, 1864, and detained as a prisoner of war at Camp 
 Ford, in Texas, until the 17th day of May, 1865. That dur- 
 ing this time he rendered valuable service as a physician 
 and surgeon to the United States prisoners at that place. 
 He was commissioned by Governor Yates, of Illinois, first 
 lieutenant of company A, of the 130th Illinois Volunteers, 
 on the 22d day of July, 1864, with rank from the 6th day of 
 May, 1864, but owing to the fact that he was detained as 
 prisoner never received his commission. That he has been 
 honorably discharged from service. As he was unable to 
 perform the duties of first lieutenant, by reason of confine- 
 ment as prisoner, and did voluntarily and ably perform the 
 duties of assistant surgeon, the committee consider that he 
 is entitled to pay as such, and report accordingly. 
 
 Subsequently the following act was passed by the 
 forty-fourth congress, July, 1876 : 
 
 AN ACT FOR THE RELIEF OF ANDERSON J. SMITH. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
 the United States of America in Congress assembled. That 
 the paymaster-general of the army be, and he is hereby. 
 
552 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 directed to pay to Anderson J.. Smith, late of company A, 
 130th regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, the pay and 
 allowances of an assistant surgeon in the army from the 
 sixth of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, to the date 
 of his muster-out of service on the seventeenth day of 
 June, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, deducting virhatever 
 pay he received for said term as sergeant; and that such 
 payment shall be made out of any money appropriated for 
 the pay of the army. Milton Sayler, 
 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives pro tempore. 
 T. W. Ferry, 
 President of the Senate pro tempore. 
 
 After the prisoners of the 130th and other regi- 
 ments yitxt. released, and while on their way from New 
 Orleans to Saint Louis on the steamer Magenta, on 
 the 7th of June, 1865, twenty-one commissioned offi- 
 cers, from four or five different states, signed a paper in 
 which they speak of Dr. Smith's services as a soldier, 
 physician and surgeon in the strongest terms of com- 
 
 mendation. He received the act of congress, one 
 thousand one hundred and sixty-six dollars and 
 ninety-eight cents. 
 
 At the close of the war Dr. Smith settled in Dal- 
 las county, Iowa, reaching here on the 9th of No- 
 vember, 1865, and he has since that date been, in 
 practice, having an extensive ride. Since 1869 his 
 home has been in De Soto, a pleasant little village 
 on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad. 
 The doctor is a well-informed man, and. a valuable 
 citizen. 
 
 On the 25 th of December, 1855, he was united in 
 marriage with Miss Caroline Brown, of Sweet Water, 
 Menard county, Illinois, and they have two. sons and 
 one daughter: Charles H., James William and Mary 
 A. Smith. 
 
 CHARLES H. SPENCER, 
 
 GRINNELL. 
 
 AMONG the enterprising men who have built up 
 l\. Grinnell from the nucleus of a village to a 
 city of three thousand inhabitants is Charles H. 
 Spencer, who settled here when the place contained 
 less than twenty-five families, and who has been 
 thoroughly identified with all its interests. He is a 
 native of Saybrook, Connecticut, is a son of Sylves- 
 ter Spencer, for many years a notary public and 
 bank clerk, and was born on the 6th of June, 1824. 
 The maiden name of his mother was Elizabeth 
 Clarke, whose father, Ezra Clarke, was a soldier in 
 the revolution, aiding the colonies to gain their free- 
 dom from the British yoke. The Spencers were from 
 England, three brothers coming over about two cen- 
 turies ago, one of them settling in New York, and the 
 other two in Connecticut. From one of the latter 
 brothers sprang the branch to which Charles Henry 
 belongs. 
 
 At the age of twelve years he went to New York 
 city, and served as a runner boy in a bank for three 
 years ; then went to Great Bend, Jefferson county, 
 in the northern part of the state, and clerked in a 
 store; a few years later became proprietor of the 
 store ; remained in that place about twelve years, in 
 mercantile trade, and in the winter of 1856 settled 
 in Grinnell, where for twenty-one years he has been 
 one of the leading business men. 
 
 After merchandising here alone for three years 
 Mr. Spencer went into the drug business, in partner- 
 
 ship with Dr. Thomas C. Holyoke, whose life is re- 
 corded in other pages of this work, and continued 
 that business connection until the demise of the 
 doctor in 1876. They instituted at an early day a 
 small exchange office, which grew into the First Na- 
 tional Bank of Grinnell, organized by Mr. Spencer 
 and others in 1865, and going into operation in 
 March, 1866. He became its cashier, and has held 
 the office ever since, making it not only a very firm 
 but very popular institution. In earnestness and 
 expedition in business Mr. Spencer is unexcelled in 
 Grinnell, and the confidence of the people in his 
 honesty is unlimited. 
 
 Mr. Spencer has been a member of the Congrega- 
 tional church since i860, and has at different times 
 held the offices of trustee and treasurer of the so- 
 ciety. 
 
 He has also been treasurer.of Iowa College, which 
 is located at Grinnell. He has probably had more 
 money pass through his hands than any other man 
 in Grinnell, and not a dollar of it has failed to be 
 accounted for. A truer or more trustworthy man 
 it would be difficult to find anywhere. 
 
 Politically, Mr. Spencer is a republican, with whig 
 antecedents, but as much as possible he has shunned 
 office, though he is now one of the county super- 
 visors. 
 
 On the 6th of February, 1850, Mr. Spencer chose 
 for his life companion Miss Mary A. Haworth, of 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 553 
 
 Evans Mills, Jefferson county, New York, and they 
 had four children, three of them yet living, two sons 
 and one daughter. Henry C. and Louis E. are 
 graduates of the Agricultural College at Ames, and 
 Mary is a student in Iowa College. Henry C. is 
 assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Grin- 
 nell, and Louis E. is in the law school at Des Moines, 
 all children of good promise. 
 
 Mr. Spencer is generous-hearted, very liberal, and 
 a true neighbor, never forgetting the injunction of 
 the Savior to remember the poor. His charities 
 are distributed in the most quiet and private man- 
 ner. He is also a warm friend of the young, often 
 giving them, in an unobtrusive and most kindly man- 
 ner, words of advice which are " like apples of gold 
 in pictures of silver." 
 
 CAPTAIN ORLO H. LYON, 
 
 ROCKFORD. 
 
 ORLO HENRY LYON, banker and postmaster 
 at Rockford, Floyd county, is descended from 
 an old English family which early settled in Connec- 
 ticut, and is a relative of General Lyon, who perished 
 in the battle of Wilson Creek, Missouri, in the sum- 
 mer of 1861. The parents of Orlo were Asa Lyon, 
 a farmer, and Sabra Ann ne'e Skinner, and were liv- 
 ing in Woodstock, Windham county, Connecticut, at 
 the time of his birth, on the 20th of January, 1835. 
 The son farmed until fourteen years old ; was edu- 
 cated at the academies at South Woodstock, Con- 
 necticut, and Dudley, Massachusetts ; taught school 
 one winter when sixteen; at seventeen entered a 
 store at Thompson, and clerked there and at Wood- 
 stock three or four years ; in February, 1856, came 
 to Cedar Falls, Iowa, and resumed the same busi- 
 ness ; remained there about a year and a half, and 
 in August, 1857, settled in Rockford. In company 
 with J. S. Child he built a store, making the mortar 
 with his own hands and acting as hod-carrier ; and 
 the firm of Child and Lyon, dealers in general mer- 
 chandise, continued about a dozen years. Mr. Child 
 was elected county treasurer, and for two years Mr. 
 Lyon was alone in trade. Mr. Child's term of office 
 having expired, the old firm continued about two 
 years more. 
 
 During -the second and third winters that Mr. 
 Lyon was at Rockford, business being somewhat 
 dull, after the crash of 1857, he taught school: one 
 season at Rock Falls, the other at Rockford. 
 
 During the last eight years he has been postmas- 
 ter. He was one of the editors and proprietors of 
 the "Reveille " between two and three years, and its 
 sole proprietor one year, selling out in July, 1877. 
 On the ist of August of the same year he went in- 
 to the banking business in company with Ralph C. 
 Mathews, a son of the late R. N. Mathews, of the 
 56 
 
 old firm of Mathews and Son. For the last ten or 
 twelve years he has also been an extensive farmer, 
 and has three hundred acres under cultivation, op- 
 erating in this branch mainly through renters. 
 
 In the month of August, 1861, he enlisted as a pri- 
 vate in the 3d Iowa Battery, which at first was con- 
 nected with the 9th Infantry, but subsequently was 
 by itself He was in a large number of battles, had 
 his horse wounded two or three times, served four 
 years and two or three months, and never was scar- 
 red, and was promoted eight times, coming out as 
 captain. The adjutant-general's report of the State 
 of Iowa, made during the rebellion, speaks of Cap- 
 tain Lyon's bravery and efficient operations during 
 more than one engagement with the enemy. In the 
 battle at Helena, Arkansas, on the 3d of July, 1863, 
 the 3d Iowa Battery took quite a conspicuous part. 
 Lieutenant Lyon during the entire engagement "en- 
 couraging his men to deeds of valor by his exam- 
 ple." He had his horse wounded twice severely, 
 though not fatally. The report of M. C. Wright, 
 first lieutenant commanding 3d Iowa Battery, states 
 that Lieutenant Lyon, during the charge on battery 
 C, " changed the position of his six-pound gun to 
 command the ravine running westward from the 
 Catholic Church, and by his fire contributed very 
 materially in repulsing the enemy.'' The Shellrock 
 valley furnished many brave soldiers during the civil 
 war, none, probably, braver than Captain Lyon. 
 
 He is active in times of peace as a christian sol- 
 dier; has been a member of the Congregational 
 church for twenty years, and has superintended the 
 Sunday-school for a long time. He is a man of 
 pure and generous impulses; has always been phil- 
 anthropic and humane in his feelings, and a thor- 
 ough hater of oppression. 
 
 He has never voted any but the republican ticket, 
 
554 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 In October, 1877, he was elected representative for 
 the sixty-ninth assembly district, having a majority 
 of more that nine hundred votes. 
 
 His wife was Belle A. Bradford, of Milwaukee, 
 Wisconsin, and they have six children. Their union 
 dates from the 23d of April, 1867. 
 
 In railroad, educational and other public enter- 
 prises Captain Lyon has always been prompt to act 
 and efficient in his work. In stature, he is below the 
 average height, being only five feet and six inches 
 tall. His weight is one hundred and forty pounds. 
 His social qualities are excellent. 
 
 RUFUS H. WYMAN, M. D., 
 
 KEOKUK. 
 
 RUFUS H. WYMAN, M.D., was born in Oswego 
 county, New York, on the 24th of March, 1817; 
 obtained his early education at Middlebury, Vermont, 
 and studied medicine with the celebrated Dr. Pyth- 
 ian, of Johnstown, and graduated with high honors 
 at the Medical University of Pennsylvania at Phila- 
 delphia in 1843, and engaged in practice at Stoyes- 
 town, Pennsylvania, remaining three years. In 1846 
 he removed to Bonaparte, Van Buren county, Iowa, 
 and in 1847, in conjunction with the late eminent 
 surgeon. Dr. John F. Sanford, administered chloro- 
 form the first time it was ever used in the west in a 
 capital operation. In 1853 he removed to Keokuk 
 and became the partner of Dr. Sanford, and, except 
 for a short time he was absent in the army as a sur- 
 geon, has resided there ever since, being engaged 
 with marked success in a very extensive first-class 
 lucrative practice. 
 
 In 1861 he was commissioned surgeon of the 21st 
 regiment Missouri Volunteer Infantry, commanded 
 by that gallant soldier Colonel David Moore, who 
 lost a leg at the battle of Shiloh, Tennessee. On 
 the 6th of April, 1862, his regiment was the first en- 
 gaged on the morning of the battle, and surgeon Wy- 
 man had the honor of performing the first capital 
 surgical operation that day in amputating the leg. of 
 the colonel of his own regiment on a steamer at 
 Pittsburgh Landing. The steamers at that place 
 were soon crowded with wounded officers and men 
 
 brought in from the field of battle, and as no proper 
 preparation had been made for their reception, all 
 was bustle and confusion. Being the ranking surgeon, 
 Dr. Wyman organized and directed everything, and 
 with almost superhuman energy and activity soon 
 brought order out of chaos, and had all the wounded 
 properly and carefully attended to. 
 
 He amputated the arm of Colonel M. M. Bane, of 
 the 50th Illinois Infantry ; and in all major opera- 
 tions he took personal charge, directing all the less 
 experienced surgeons under his command in minor 
 cases. Though physically a powerful man, his pro- 
 fessional duties, compassing weeks of fatigue and 
 exposure in the care of the sick and wounded in a 
 malarious atmosphere, were too much for human 
 endurance, and he was stricken with typhoid pneu- 
 monia. In consequence of his protracted illness he 
 was reduced almost to a skeleton and totally unfitted 
 for duty in the field, and compelled to reluctantly 
 resign in June, 1862. 
 
 He was married to Miss Susan Moore, at Somer- 
 set, Pennsylvania, in June, 1865, by whom he has 
 one son and three daughters now living. 
 
 Dr. Wyman is a gentleman of fine personal ap- 
 pearance, tall and well formed, and straight as an 
 arrow ; has a winning address and fascinating man- 
 ner ; genial, open-hearted and generous, he has in 
 the course of his extensive practice always given 
 his professional services gratuitously to the poor. 
 
 JOHN S. CHILD, 
 
 ROCKFORD. 
 
 THE subject of this brief sketch is of New Eng- 
 land pedigree and birth, being born in Wood- 
 stock, Connecticut, on the 30th of September, 1833. 
 His parents, John Child, a successful farmer, and 
 
 Alice Walker, are excellent examples of the higher 
 type of Puritan character, honest, industrious, frugal, 
 rearing their children in the strictest principles of 
 integrity, and giving them to understand that idle- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 555 
 
 ness is no part of their inheritance. Both parents 
 are still living, the father aged eighty-eight, and the 
 mother eighty-one. John Child has always been 
 noted for his christian integrity, and for doing well 
 whatever he undertakes to do. His wife has always 
 been a great reader, is thoroughly posted on all cur- 
 rent events, and on matters relating to the general 
 government; is quite ready and expert in argument, 
 and behaves that it is woman's duty equally with her 
 right to inform herself in all the practical knowl- 
 edge attainable by a careful husbanding of spare 
 time. She is a devoted christian, and has laid up 
 a rich store of treasure for the future. The writer 
 once heard her son remark that he felt indebted to 
 his parents for whatever success he has had in life. 
 
 John Spencer Child was educated in the select 
 school and academy of his native town ; subse- 
 quently taught for a season or two, and in March, 
 1857, immigrated to Iowa. He settled in Rockford, 
 engaged in mercantile business with a brother-in- 
 law, O. H. Lyon, now a banker in Rockford. The 
 firm of Child and Lyon, general dealers, continued 
 for twelve or fourteen years, and few houses in the 
 Shellrock valley were better known, and none^ had 
 a better name. They knew only one way of doing 
 business, that of dealing fairly and honestly with all 
 customers. 
 
 Mr. Child is still in trade, having for the last five 
 
 years operated alone. His eldest son, Harris M., a 
 very competent young man, only eighteen years old, 
 is managing the entire business, purchasing as well 
 as selling goods. Mr. Child has had marked success 
 in business, and not enjoying very good health, trav- 
 els more or less, and lives partially at his ease. 
 
 Mr. Child was treasurer of Floyd county for two 
 years, commencing on the ist of January, 1870, and 
 during that time was also interested in trade. He 
 left' the treasurer's office with a clean balance-sheet. 
 
 In politics, he is a republican ; in religion, he is a 
 Congregationalist, and is benevolent, active in tem- 
 perance, and in all other enterprises for the good of 
 the people. 
 
 On the 30th of March, 1858, he was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Lydia F. Lyon, of Woodstock, Con- 
 necticut, and they have five children. The eldest' 
 son is in the store, and the eldest daughter, Alice S., 
 is being educated in Massachusetts ; the other three, 
 Mary Lyon, Anna Gertrude and Leonard Walker, are 
 young and still at home. 
 
 Rockford, like scores of other towns in Iowa, was 
 particularly fortunate in the character of its early 
 settlers, most of whom were not only public-spirited 
 and enterprising, but were men of noble principles, 
 whose impress is still seen and felt in the village. 
 Mr. Child is prominent among the Rockford men of 
 this class whose names appear in this book. 
 
 MAJOR CHARLES H. TOLL, 
 
 CLINTON. 
 
 CHARLES H. TOLL, son of Charles H. and 
 Sally Toll, was born on the 18th of April, 
 1817, in the town of Van Buren, Onondaga coun- 
 ty, New York. His father, a descendant of the old 
 Mohawk Germans of that state, was one of the most 
 thorough and energetic business men of that section. 
 He was in his time largely engaged in various enter- 
 prises, both of a public and private nature, besides 
 filling and faithfully discharging the responsible du- 
 ties of several public positions in the community in 
 which he resided. He was highly esteemed for his 
 business talent and integrity of character, and like- 
 wise for his public spirit and sterling worth. His 
 mother, a native of Franklin county, Connecticut, 
 was a most estimable lady, and a near relative of 
 Chancellor Walworth, of New York. Her tender 
 regard for her son, and her loving devotion to his 
 
 welfare, has left upon his mind throughout life an 
 indelible and lasting impression. 
 
 He was principally educated at the public schools 
 of his neighborhood, but subsequently, during one 
 year, pursued a more thorough course of study in 
 an institution under the supervision of Dr. Andrew 
 Yates. At the age of eighteen he left home and 
 soon after engaged himself as a clerk in a grocery 
 store in the city of Syracuse, New York. After a 
 brief term he retired from the above position, and 
 obtained a more desirable one in another establish- 
 ment in the same vicinity and continued with it one 
 year. Having obtained in this time some knowl- 
 edge of business as well as practical experience in 
 trade, in 1837 he entered into a business arrange- 
 ment with another party, and established himself in 
 the parental neighborhood in a mercantile capacity. 
 
556 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 After continuing in this business some three years 
 the partnership was mutually dissolved, he having 
 embarked in another enterprise in a neighboring lo- 
 cality. His business career during the following 
 eight years, although exhibiting great business tal- 
 ent and ability, as well as financial skill and compre- 
 hension, was characterized by various adverse expe- 
 riences, arising invariably from injudicious man- 
 agement of his associates in trade. In 1849 a gen- 
 tleman with whom he was intimately and largely 
 associated in business was killed on the cars. This 
 unfortunate circumstance involved him in much 
 financial difficulty, and pressed heavily on his busi- 
 ness operations during many subsequent years. At 
 the same time, other business disasters following in 
 rapid' succession, he decided to close up as satisfac- 
 torily as possible his tangled business complications 
 and seek a new field of enterprise in the w;est. He 
 arrived in Chicago in 1853, and after having spent a 
 few months as bookkeeper in a well-known firm in 
 that city, he decided to locate at Lyons, Iowa, where 
 he took up his residence in 1854, having previously 
 made a small investment in that vicinity. Soon 
 after his arrival he was employed by eastern capi- 
 talists to assist in superintending the building of a 
 railroad from the Mississippi river to Council Bluffs, 
 on the Missouri. In 1855 he was elected mayor of 
 the city of Lyons, and was forced from his position 
 to take an active interest in the various public en- 
 terprises in successful operation as well as those in 
 contemplation. The contending interests of the 
 two principal localities, Lyons and Clinton, neces- 
 sarily drew him before the public, and involved him, 
 during the local controversy regarding the railway 
 bridge, in a strife foreign both to his nature and in- 
 terests. 
 
 He resigned his office as mayor of Lyons and lo- 
 cated in Clinton, where his business required his 
 presence. At this time Clinton was not in exist- 
 ence. To a business man the locality, as a future 
 business point, possessed many advantages over Ly- 
 ons, but it must have required strong faith in one's 
 own discernment and judgment to induce a man to 
 invest his interests in so uninviting a locality. Dur- 
 ing his connection with the railroad company he was 
 elected assistant treasurer of the Iowa Land Com- 
 pany, and was appointed also superintendent of the 
 ferry boat owned by this company. In 1859 he was 
 elected sheriff of Clinton county, and served two 
 years. 
 
 In 1862 he was appointed United States commis- 
 
 sary for a division of the Union army, and immedi- 
 ately reported for duty at Cincinnati. In that ca- 
 pacity he served until the close of the war in i866. 
 
 His military career has been equally varied and 
 honorable. As a commissary he enjo)'S the reputa- 
 tion of being one of the most efficient of the entire 
 Union army. During his term of service he was 
 assigned to duty in various departments as commis- 
 sary, and in every position he increased the effi- 
 ciency of the department in which he was called to 
 serve. His remarkable ability as commissary was 
 duly appreciated and handsomely acknowledged by 
 his commanding officer. His military experience is 
 full of startling interests and adventure ; his duties 
 were extremely trying and very arduous, and his re- 
 sponsibilities great. After the surrender of Lee the 
 force was gradually reduced, and he was finally re- 
 lieved in January, 1866, when he returned home. 
 
 His life has been eventful, and marked by several 
 peculiar incidents, revealing in their detail the in- 
 herent traits of character and disposition that have 
 led him on in business and crowned all his under- 
 takings with success ; but the studied brevity of this 
 sketch will not allow of their introduction. 
 
 Although an active business man. Major Toll has 
 filled several civil positions of trust and responsibil- 
 ity. In 1845 and 1846 he was supervisor of the 
 town of Lysander, Onondaga county. New York ; 
 in 1854 a member of the legislature; in 1859 elect- 
 ed sheriff, and in 1862 appointed war commissary 
 in the Union army. He has been justice and super- 
 visor of Clinton during the past five years. 
 
 In 1846 he joined the Odd-Fellows, and continued 
 with that fraternity till he came west in 1856, and 
 has recently renewed his fellowship. 
 
 He is a highly intelligent and respected member 
 of the Baptist church, and contributes liberally to 
 its support, having joined the denomination in 1839. 
 
 He married, in 1840, Eliza H., daughter of Rich- 
 ard Lusk, of Lysander, New York. 
 
 In politics, he is a republican, a decided and in- 
 dependent thinker. 
 
 At the close of the war in 1866, he built in Clin- 
 ton, Iowa, one of the most elegant and superb busi- 
 ness blocks in that vicinity, at a cost of over fifty 
 thousand dollars. His public spirit, and his desire 
 to improve and extend the town, induced him to 
 make what subsequently proved to be unprofitable 
 investments in buildings and other enterprises both 
 public and private. He suffered severe losses by 
 fire at this period, and likewise by misplaced con- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 557 
 
 fidence in irresponsible and injudicious parties. In 
 1874 certain defalcations having been detected in 
 the postoffice department at Clinton, he being one 
 of the bondsmen, was appointed cashier for the time 
 being, and in 1875 was himself made postmaster in 
 place of the defaulter. 
 
 All his various and widely extended transactions 
 have been throughout characterized by fair and open 
 dealing, and an honest endeavor to do as he would 
 be done by ; and they furnish ample proof of his 
 comprehensive intellect and thorough business ca- 
 pacity. His reputation for financial ability and in- 
 
 tegrity of character have never yet been questioned. 
 Major Toll, like' his ancestors, is a man of strong 
 and vigorous constitution, of a solid, compact or- 
 ganization, and a clear and active intellect. He is 
 a man well qualified for business and social inter- 
 course ; prompt, courteous and frank in his manners, 
 and from his natural quickness of perception and 
 his constant habit of mingling with men he has a 
 clear and accurate knowledge of human nature. In 
 the army he achieved an honorable record, and just- 
 ly occupies a high position in the community where 
 he resides. 
 
 CHARLES H. W. STARKER, 
 
 BURLINGTON. 
 
 CHARLES HENRY WILLIAM STARKER, 
 capitalist and president of the Iowa State 
 Savings Bank, was born in Stuttgard, Kingdom of 
 Wurtemberg, Germany, on the nth of March, 1826. 
 His parents were Fleinrich and Catharina Starker. 
 His father was a dealer in furniture, as his father 
 had been before him. He was educated by an un- 
 cle in Stuttgard and attended the Beale School, and 
 afterward the Polytechnical School. In youth, his 
 time was devoted to labor, either over his books by 
 hard study, or employed in the little duties of house- 
 hold labor. He left school at seventeen, and was 
 engaged by the Bavarian government for four years 
 as superintendent of the work of erecting bridges, 
 locks, etc., upon the canal. Thus at an early age 
 was he employed by his government in positions of 
 responsibility and trust. When twenty-one he at- 
 tended his military duties, but freed himself from 
 the conscription. In April, 1847, he went to Upper 
 Italy (Lombardy), and was engaged in the marble 
 quarries there, where he remained until February, 
 1848, when the revolution broke out and most all 
 the enterprises of the German government ceased ; 
 and as there appeared no chance for its renewal, he 
 concluded to emigrate to the United States, and em- 
 barked from Havre on the 22d of October, 1848, and 
 after a voyage of forty-two days arrived in America. 
 Having no relatives or friends in this country, he 
 went to Buffalo, where he formed an engagement in 
 a leather store, at a salary of eight dollars a month. 
 The house he engaged with having opened a branch 
 store in Chicago, and he being desirous of going far- 
 ther west, he obtained a situation there, and by mak- 
 
 ing himself useful he received a much better salary. 
 In the spring of 1850 he left the store and engaged 
 in the office of Mr. T. Ivnudson, an architect, and 
 assisted him in the erection of the Sweden Church 
 and the construction of a new arched roof for the 
 Episcopal Church. In July, 1850, he made an en- 
 gagement with Hon. James \V. Grimes, of Burling- 
 ton, Iowa, to erect a residence for him, which, with 
 other buildings, kept him employed nearly a year. 
 Finding his regular profession unprofitable, in Octo- 
 ber, 1851,116 went into the mercantile business. He 
 had but small means, the result of his earnings, but 
 by the assistance of some relatives he commenced 
 the retail grocery business with a capital of four 
 thousand dollars. He engaged exclusively in whole- 
 sale trade in 1865, under the firm name of Charles 
 Starker and Co. Commenced business about 1852, 
 his sales being about seven thousand dollars the 
 first year, and the last year they were eight hundred 
 thousand dollars, the result of his good management 
 and business enterprise. He attributes much of his 
 success to steadiness, politeness and honesty, which 
 gained for him a reputation. He retired from busi- 
 ness in 1875, and enjoys, as the result of his labors, 
 a comfortable competence. 
 
 He was alderman for four years, and was chair- 
 .man of wharf, finance and several other committees 
 during that service. He is president of the German- 
 American School, erected in 1866; also president of 
 the Burlington Loan and Building Association since 
 r868, to this date; director of the First National 
 Bank since 1862 ; trustee of the Aspen Grove Cem- 
 etery for some time and is now president of the in- 
 
558 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY'. 
 
 corporation, and for the past two years has been 
 president of the Iowa State Savings Bank. He is a 
 stockholder in nearly every road coming into the 
 city, and is prominent in all enterprises for the de- 
 velopment of the city and county. 
 
 He joined the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows 
 in 1 85 1, and is still a member of that order. 
 
 He is republican in his principles, and an earnest 
 worker for republican interests. 
 
 He was brought up in the Lutheran church, but 
 since his seventeenth year has not been an attend- 
 ant. He is liberal in his views, and hopes to die in 
 peace, returning his remains to the great nature that 
 gave them. 
 
 He has made three trips to Europe, and traveled 
 
 upon the continent, and through his influence more 
 than three hundred families have emigrated to Bur- 
 lington and its vicinity, increasing its population 
 about fifteen hundred. He is deservedly popular 
 among the German population, and is much es- 
 teemed by his fellow-citizens. 
 
 He was married, on the 9th of October, 1852, to 
 Miss Maria Runge, of Burlington, a former resident 
 of- Missouri. Her ancestors were descendants of 
 General DeBachella. 
 
 Mr. Starker is a well-built man, of fine appearance 
 and handsome features, whom fifty years of age sits 
 very light upon. He is social and entertaining, and 
 possesses in a high degree the confidence of all who 
 know him. 
 
 HENRY C. LAUB, 
 
 DENISON. 
 
 ONE of the first settlers in Crawford county, 
 Iowa, and one of its most enterprising and suc- 
 cessful citizens, is Henry C. Laub, twenty- five years, 
 a resident of this state. He is a native of Pennsyl- 
 vania, and was born at Little York, on the 18th of 
 April, 1824, his parents being William and Catherine 
 (Snyder) Laub, both of German extraction. His 
 father was a sergeant-major in the war of 181 2, and 
 an uncle was a midshipman with Commodore Perry, 
 and was killed in battle on Lake Erie. William 
 Laub moved to Gettysburgh, Pennsylvania, before 
 Henry C. was a year old ; the son, after remaining 
 twelve years in town, and spending four years on 
 a farm in the vicinity, attending a school during 
 about six weeks each winter, at sixteen went to 
 Frederick county, Maryland, learned the shoemak- 
 er's trade, and worked at it in all five or six years. 
 During this period he attended school two or three 
 terms in the preparatory department of Pennsylva- 
 nia College, Gettysburgh ; subsequently taught for 
 three or four years, and in 1852 came as far west as 
 Muscatine, Iowa. There he spent two years, teach- 
 ing the first year and serving as city and township 
 clerk the second. 
 
 In the summer of 1854 we find Mr. Laub at Cedar 
 Rapids keeping a small store for a short time, but 
 long enough to haye the ague fastened on the whole 
 family, then pushing westward into the adjoining 
 county of Benton, where he farmed one season; and 
 on the i8th of December, 1855, he unpacked at 
 
 Mason's Grove, Crawford county, seven miles from 
 the spot where Denison now stands. In unpacking 
 his trunks, Mr. Laub found the little stock of goods 
 which he had on hand when the ague closed him 
 out at Cedar Rapids ; and while he was opening 
 a farm at Mason's Grove, there being no store of 
 any kind within seventy miles of him, he found no 
 trouble in disposing of his little stock. While there 
 he lived in a plank house twelve by thirteen feet, 
 built with his own hands, six persons in the family, 
 and it was then the best house in Crawford county. 
 In the autumn of 1856 Mr. Laub moved to the site 
 of Denison, built a store fourteen by eighteen feet, 
 and has since that time been in the mercantile trade 
 here. At an early day he was elected county super- 
 intendent of schools, and held that position for ten 
 consecutive years. During this period he taught for 
 two winters. He has since served on the county 
 board of supervisors at sundry times, commencing 
 with the first year of such board, and has also held 
 different offices in the city of Denison*. Since locat- 
 ing here, in addition to merchandising, Mr. Laub 
 has dealt considerably in lands and live stock, man- 
 aging a farm also from the start. He now has sev- 
 eral farms, cultivating them mainly by renters. 
 
 On the I St of August, 1877, he sold out the main 
 part of his mercantile business, and is giving most of 
 his time to settling his affairs. 
 
 During the early part of the rebellion, Mr. Laub, 
 by appointment, recruited for the regular army ; and 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 559 
 
 when the Indian outbreak occurred in 1862, he vol- 
 unteered to serve on the northwestern frontier, and 
 became first lieutenant, company D, Colonel Sawyer's 
 regiment, serving eight or ten months. During this 
 time he furnished a substitute for himself in the 
 army at the south. 
 
 Mr. Laub is a Master Mason, and has taken the 
 degree of Rebecca in Odd-Fellowship. 
 
 In politics, he was a whig until 1854, and has since 
 acted with the republicans, being an unwavering 
 party man. 
 
 He found his wife, who was Miss Lydia Baer, in 
 Frederick county, Maryland, their union taking place 
 in P'ebruary, 1847. They have had eight children, 
 all yet living. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Laub are members of the Meth- 
 odist church, and he is steward and trustee of the 
 same. He is a man of solid christian character, lib- 
 eral toward literary as well as religious enterprises. 
 
 He gave one thousand dollars toward endowing a 
 chair in Simpson Centenary College at Indianola, 
 Iowa. 
 
 Mr. Laub has lived to see Denison spread itself 
 over the hill on which it is located until it numbers 
 fifteen hundred inhabitants, with its dozen large 
 stores, besides smaller ones, some of them in elegant 
 brick blocks ; its two banks, its great union school 
 houses, and its six churches. Few men have done 
 more to make Denison what it is than Mr. Laub. 
 
 The true nobility of his nature was seen in early 
 life, before he crossed the Mississippi river to find a 
 home on the Iowa prairies. He was the eldest child 
 in a family of eight children, and assisted his wid- 
 owed mother, left wholly to her own exertions to 
 support them, not only in rearing the younger ones, 
 but in securing a good education for them. He laid 
 a broad foundation of moral principle in early life, 
 and has reared a noble superstructure thereon. 
 
 DANIEL T. NEWCOMB, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 DANIEL TOBIAS NEWCOMB, son of Daniel 
 and Elizabeth ne'e Wallace Newcomb, was 
 born in Pittstown, Rensselaer county. New York, on 
 the 25 th of July, 1794. 
 
 His grandfather, Zacheus Newcomb, was the fifth 
 in descent from the original Captain Andrew New- 
 comb, a native of the West of England, who was 
 among the earliest settlers of New England, being 
 of Puritan stock, and the founder of the family in 
 America. The first mention which we find of him 
 is dated in the year 1663, in Boston, Massachusetts, 
 at which place he died in 1701. 
 
 His descendants in America are quite numerous, 
 and are represented in most of the states of the 
 Union, embracing some of the foremost names in 
 various learned professions, as well as law-givers, 
 scientists, scholars, merchants, agriculturists and 
 mariners ; it has also furnished a large number of 
 deacons as well as clergymen to the church. 
 
 The Newcombs were largely represented in the 
 revolutionary war, in the war of 1812, and in the 
 Florida, Black Hawk and Mexican wars, and also 
 in the late war of the rebellion ; to the latter strug- 
 gle we have ascertained that it sent no less than two 
 hundred and twenty-five members to fight for the 
 Union. 
 
 The youth and early manhood of the subject of 
 this sketch were spent upon his father's farm in his 
 favorite pursuit, agriculture. In the war of 1812 he 
 served under General Eddy during the invasion of 
 Plattsburgh, September, 1814. In r822, at the age 
 of twenty-eight, he located in Essex county. New 
 York, with a view of cultivating a large tract of 
 land which he owned there, situated in what is now 
 the town. of Newcomb, so named after him, incor- 
 porated in 1828, and of which he was the first su- 
 pervisor. 
 
 On the 13th of July, 1825, he was married to Miss 
 Patience Viele, eldest daughter of Abraham L. and 
 Hannah (Douglass) Viele, of Pittstown, where she 
 was born on the sth of February, 1804, and sister to 
 Hon. Philip Viele, elsewhere sketched in this vol- 
 ume. 
 
 Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Newcomb 
 removed to Essex county, then a wild region of the 
 Adirondacks, where they resided some four or five 
 years, when they returned to Pittstown. Mr. New- 
 comb's ambition was to become an extensive agricul- 
 turist, and he therefore decided to explore the great 
 west. Leaving his home in January, 1837, he trav- 
 eled alone on horseback, with the snow in many 
 places two feet deep, through western New York, 
 
56o 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 upper Canada, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, cross- 
 ing the Mississippi river into Iowa (then Wisconsin 
 Territory), and deciding to settle on the west side of 
 the " Father of Waters." In September of the same 
 year Mr. and Mrs. Newcomb removed to their west- 
 ern home, accompanied by Mrs. Newcomb's parents 
 and other members of the family. They located in 
 a beautiful part of the country on the Mississippi 
 river, about fifteen miles below Rock Island, and 
 took possession of a log cabin. At that time there 
 were but two counties in Iowa (being then about 
 twenty-five miles wide) — Dubuque and Des Moines. 
 Here they resided several years, enduring all the la- 
 bor, fatigue and privations incident to frontier life in 
 the west. Here Mr. Newcomb found ample scope 
 for the gratification of his ambition, and became the 
 owner of large tracts of land in Iowa. He operated 
 one farm in Iowa containing a field of twelve hundred 
 acres, all inclosed by a substantial fence, and which 
 in one year produced the enormous yield of thirty 
 thousand bushels of grain. He was one of the first 
 Iowa farmers who used agricultural machinery in 
 the state. The profits and proceeds of his estate, 
 under his judicious management and untiring indus- 
 try, in due time accumulated a large fortune. 
 
 At an early day, seeing that the present site of 
 the city of Davenport was surpassingly beautiful, 
 even in a state of nature, he decided to make it his 
 future home ; accordingly in 1842 he removed to 
 that locality, and in after years erected a splendid 
 residence on spacious grounds, now well known as 
 the Newcomb mansion. In this lovely home, which 
 commands a charming view of the Mississippi river 
 and Rock Island, he spent the remainder of his days, 
 dispensing the same generous hospitality that he had 
 done in his log cabin in the country. He died of 
 apoplexy, on the 2 2d of December, 1870, leaving no 
 issue, beloved and respected by all who knew him. 
 
 Mr. Newcomb was a man of little or no personal 
 pretensions, unusually retiring, remarkable for sound 
 judgment and close observation, upright, unques- 
 tionable and correct in all his dealings, and so gen- 
 erous to the needy and kind to the poor that he was 
 often called "the poor man's friend." The golden 
 rule, " Do unto others as you would have others do 
 unto you," was the law of his life, and no man could 
 with truth charge him with injustice or oppression in 
 any business transactions, and all trusts committed 
 to him were scrupulously performed. The sternness 
 of his character was fully equaled by his goodness, 
 temperance and integrity. 
 
 Though a member of no church, his sympathies 
 were with the Old School Presbyterians, and he en- 
 tertained a profound respect for religion, which was 
 manifested by an habitual attendance at the house of 
 worship. He lived and died in the assurance of a 
 blessed immortality, often saying his hope of heaven 
 was unclouded, and that death to him had no ter- 
 rors, and the silent grave no gloom. No words more 
 fully represented his feelings than the sublime oracle 
 of Job, so familiar to christian ears, " I know that 
 my Redeemer liveth." He repeated this sentence 
 as his own experience a short time before he died. 
 His character may be thus briefly summed up : to a 
 sound judgment and uprightness of heart and life 
 he united great energy and untiring industry in all 
 business affairs. 
 
 His remains rest in the family grounds in Oak 
 Dale cemetery, Davenport. 
 
 Mrs. Newcomb, who survives her husband, is truly 
 a remarkable woman, of more than ordinary intelli- 
 gence. Possessed of a firm and earnest christian 
 character and a high order of executive ability, she 
 exercises a deservedly great influence in the com- 
 munity where she dwells. She enters heartily into 
 all philanthropic enterprises, and is liberal in the use 
 of her large fortune. During the late war she was 
 active in the care of our wounded soldiers, and dur- 
 ing the entire period of the war she was the very 
 efficient president of the Soldiers' Aid Society of 
 Davenport, and also one of the incorporators of the 
 Soldiers' Orphans' Home, located in that city. She is 
 an earnest and consistent worker in the Presbyterian 
 church, and aids largely in maintaining its interests. 
 
 She some time since erected the " Newcomb Me- 
 morial Chapel " at Davenport, in memory of her late 
 husband, and quite recently, with a wise liberality, 
 donated to the Davenport Academy of National 
 Science a lot, whereon a fine building is now being 
 constructed. The impetus thus given to this worthy 
 enterprise has placed the institution in advance of 
 all similar ones in the west. This good, deed was 
 soon followed by a like donation to the Literary 
 Association in the neighboring city of Moline by a 
 lady, and still another to the Library Association of 
 Davenport. 
 
 Mrs. Newcomb's father was born at " The Val- 
 ley," now Valley Falls, in the town of Pittstown, ' 
 Rensselaer county. New York, on the 8th of Octo- 
 ber, 1772, and died at his residence in Muscatine 
 county, Iowa, on the 17th of May, 1840. His father, 
 Lodewecus Viele, settled " The Valley " more than 
 
THB UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTWNART. 
 
 561 
 
 one hundred years ago. Her mother, Hannah, only 
 daughter of Major Samuel Douglass, was born in 
 the town of Pittstown, New York, on the 21st of Oc- 
 tober, 1781, and died at her son-in-law's. Dr. G. W. 
 
 Fitch, in the city of Muscatine, Iowa, on the i6th 
 of March, 1846, and is buried with her husband in 
 Oak Dale cemetery, Davenport, in the same lot with 
 their son-in-law, Daniel Tobias Newcomb. 
 
 C. C. McINTIRE, 
 
 OSCEOLA. 
 
 THE subject of this biography was born on the 
 26th of September, 1846, at Rising Sun, Indi- 
 ana. His father, the Rev. Daniel Mclntire, was a 
 Methodist Episcopal clergyman. In the formula of 
 this church the clergyman is allowed to hold the 
 pastorate of one church only two years. This cus- 
 tom was observed by his father until he was located 
 at New Albany, where he remained for six consec- 
 utive years. His father was a man of sterling in- 
 tegrity and of great usefulness in the church. 
 
 C. C. Mclntire went to school until he was thir- 
 teen, after which he was employed in a dry-goods 
 store for two years. Evincing a predilection for 
 books rather thatf commercial pursuits, his parents 
 sent him to Asbury University at Greencastle, In- 
 diana, where he remained for four years and grad- 
 uated in 1868. 
 
 After graduating he returned to Rising Sun and 
 taught school for several months, at the same time 
 reading law in the office of Judge Downey. From 
 this office he went to Washington, Indiana, and read 
 law in the office of Judge Pierce until the following 
 fall, after which he practiced law in the same place 
 for several months ; he then went to Sullivan, In- 
 diana, and practiced there until the summer of 187 1. 
 Recognizing his superior talent, his townspeople 
 nominated him as the republican candidate for dis- 
 trict attorney for the eighteenth judicial district, but 
 he, however, failed of an election. 
 
 In 187 1 he came to Osceola and commenced the 
 practice of law under the firm name of Ayres and 
 
 Mclntire, and in July, 1875, on mutual separation, 
 he succeeded Mr. Ayres. When this firm com- 
 menced business they were without a client, and 
 almost without a dollar, but in the four years they 
 were together a prosperous business had been estab- 
 lished, which has now reached to large proportions 
 in the hands of Mr. Mclntire, who has oftentimes 
 more than he can possibly attend to, though, unlike 
 metropolitan lawyers, he knows no specific hours 
 for labor, but may be found at midnight in his office 
 plodding away through the intricacies of some com- 
 plex case. The erudition of his well stored mind, 
 and his manly, straightforward manner of dealing 
 with all his clients, have endeared him very much 
 to the people of Clark county. A brilliant future 
 is before him if he does not overwork himself So 
 persistently has he confined himself to sedentary 
 labor that he now at thirty-one has the manner and 
 style of a man nearer fifty than forty. 
 
 Mr. Mclntire married in May, 1875, Miss Hattie 
 Chickering, of Chariton, Iowa, by whom he has one 
 child, a daughter. 
 
 His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Clark, 
 of Baltimore, Maryland, Both his parents are now 
 residing at Lynn, his father being still in the active 
 ministry. 
 
 He is in politics a republican, and in religious 
 sentiments a confirmed Methodist. 
 
 He is an Odd-Fellow in fraternity, but by no 
 means so in his manners, which are of the most 
 transparent and genial character. 
 
 HAMLIN B. WILLIAMS, 
 
 GLENWOOD. 
 
 HAMLIN B. WILLIAMS, one of the leading 
 lawyers of Mills county, was born on the 
 13th of September, 1840, at Hamilton county, Indi- 
 ana. His father was the Rev. Sanford S. Williams, 
 57 
 
 who at an early age was taken from Kentucky to 
 Indiana, where he remained the greater part of his 
 life, and died when Hamlin was but eight months 
 of age. His mother still survives. 
 
562 
 
 THB VNITBD STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DlCTlOkAk'^. 
 
 Hamlin received all the elements of a first-class 
 English education, and in 1856 entered the Law- 
 rence University at Appleton, Wisconsin, from which 
 he graduated in 1862, and commenced the study of 
 law in the office of Hon. T. R. Hudd; but in the 
 breast of this quiet student of Blackstone burned the 
 fires of patriotism. His country was in the throes 
 of a gigantic civil war ; the State of Wisconsin was 
 calling for volunteers, and young Williams gallantly 
 responded, and on the 15th of August, 1862, he en- 
 listed in company D, 21st Wisconsin Infantry, and 
 went almost immediately into active service. At 
 the battle of Chaplin Hill, Perryville, Kentucky, on 
 the 8t\i of October following, he was badly wounded 
 in the chest, and was honorably discharged from 
 the service on the 12th of December. 
 
 After sufficiently recovering to permit application 
 to his books, he recommenced the study of the law, 
 and in 1863 was elected justice of the peace. He 
 removed in 1865 to Ripon, Wisconsin, where he en- 
 gaged in mercantile pursuits till 1866 ; but the law 
 had far more attraction for him than merchandise. 
 He was admitted to the bar and again elected jus- 
 tice of the peace, which position he held till April, 
 1869, when he removed to Glenwood and continued 
 the practice of law. He has five times been elected 
 city attorney of Glenwood. 
 
 He became an Odd-Fellow and a Mason in 1863, 
 in both of which organizations he is still an active 
 member. 
 
 He was brought up a strict Methodist, and his re- 
 ligious tendencies take that direction, though not a 
 member of any church organization. 
 
 On the 13th of July, 1864, he married Miss Kate 
 M. Peabody, of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and his 
 marriage has been blessed with three boys and two 
 girls, though he has been called upon to mourn the 
 loss of one boy and one girl. 
 
 Mr. Williams is essentially the arbiter of his own 
 good fortune. At the age of thirty-seven he finds 
 himself on the high road to the very head of his 
 profession. His office enjoys a very large business, 
 and he is almost constantly before the courts of his 
 state and county. He has a fine presence, and is a 
 keen observer of human nature. He is very earnest 
 in all he undertakes, and husbands his resources of 
 mind by strict temperance, both in eating and drink- 
 ing. He is in the full vigor of healthy manhood, 
 and seemingly has many years of usefulness before 
 him. In politics, he is a pronounced republican. 
 
 We pen this sketch of Hamlin B. Williams with 
 more than ordinary interest. Left fatherless when 
 quite an infant, a fond mother's ever constant care 
 brought him to active boyhood, and then gave him 
 a good education. He has rewarded this paternal 
 solicitude by vigorous and decisive action. The 
 result of his hard study and persistent efforts is 
 shown forth in the achievements he has gained, and 
 may well inspire the youth of Iowa to renewed ex- 
 ertions in emulating his bright example. 
 
 HON. HORACE S. WINSLOW, 
 
 NEWTON. 
 
 HORACE SPENCER WINSLOW, judge of 
 the sixth judicial district, and for years a 
 leading attorney of Jasper county, is a native of 
 Rutland county, Vermont, dating his birth at Pitts- 
 ford, on the i8th of July, 1837. His father was El- 
 hanan Spencer Winslow, a descendant of the Massa- 
 chusetts Winslows, the original stock coming over 
 in the Mayflower. The mother of Horace S. was 
 a Kingsley. The Winslows, for several generations 
 back from Elhanan, were farmers, but he was anx- 
 ious that his children should receive as good an 
 educatioii as he could give them, and this is proba- 
 bly the reason why the attention of Horace was 
 turned to professional life. He was educated in 
 the common schools and seminaries of Vermont, 
 
 mainly at Brandon, and at the State and National 
 Law School at Poughkeepsie, New York, and the 
 Ohio State and Union- Law School at Poland, Ma- 
 honing county. At this last institution he graduated 
 on the ist of July, 1856. 
 
 Immediately after being admitted to practice, Mr. 
 Winslow opened an office in Newton, Jasper county, 
 Iowa, and gradually built up a good practice. He 
 is a very hard worker, and is always up to time, driv- 
 ing his business rather than letting his business drive 
 him. He has indomitable energy, and perceptive 
 faculties of striking keenness. Perhaps no man at 
 the Iowa bar obtains a clear insight into a case 
 quicker than Mr. Winslow. 
 
 In 1862 he was elected by the republican party 
 
)'& 
 
 \ 
 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 565 
 
 attorney of the sixth judicial district, composed of 
 the counties of Jasper, Poweshiek, Marion, Mahaska, 
 Keokuk, Washington and Jefferson, and served in 
 that capacity for four years. In 1868 he was elected 
 by the same party circuit judge of the second cir- 
 cuit, sixth district, for four years, but resigned at the 
 end of one year, and resumed practice. In 1874 he 
 was elected judge of the sixth judicial district, and 
 his term of office will not expire until the 31st of 
 December, 1878. 
 
 Judge Winslow carries to the bench the same ex- 
 cellent traits of mind and character seen at the bar. 
 He is perfectly clear in stating a case, impartial in 
 judgment, courteous and candid to both litigants 
 and jury, and leaves the impression on the minds of 
 all parties that he is not only master of the situation 
 but a perfectly upright judge, and an honor to the 
 Iowa bench. 
 
 Judge Winslow is a firm adherent to the republi- 
 can party; at one time was a member of the state 
 central committee, and in 1872 was a delegate to 
 the national convention which renominated Presi- 
 dent Grant. He has held several minor positions, 
 political and civil, and has always been very faithful 
 and efficient in the discharge of his duties. 
 
 He has been a Freemason since 1858, and has re- 
 cently held the position of grand high priest of the 
 Grand Chapter of the state. In his religious views he 
 is rather liberal, regarding the golden rule, untram- 
 meled by sectarianism, as good enough to follow. 
 
 The wife of Judge Winslow was Miss Sarah E. 
 Dunklee, of Pittsford, Vermont, daughter of Silo 
 Dunklee, Esq. ; married on the 7th of November, 
 1858. They have two children, Kate E., born on 
 the 14th of March, i860, and Jessie L., born on the 
 2ist of March, 1862. 
 
 SAMUEL B. ZEIGLER, 
 
 WEST UNION. 
 
 THERE is true beauty in the career of a self- 
 reliant soul bent on success in a laudable direc- 
 tion. The courageous steps of such a man embody 
 a lesson worth treasuring in print. Such a pro- 
 pelling power animated and guided the subject of 
 this sketch through all his earlier years, and still 
 abides with him. 
 
 Samuel B. Zeigler, early left an orphan, and purely 
 self-taught, is a native of the Keystone State, and 
 was born in Centre county, on the 6th of December, 
 183,1. His father, Isaac Zeigler, was a country par- 
 son of very limited means. His mother, Chestina 
 Zeigler n^e Remp, died when the son was nine years 
 old, when he was flung almost entirely on his own 
 resources. His inheritance consisted of an active 
 mind in a sound body, and a resolute heart. He 
 never went to school for a day after he was twelve 
 years of age, and very little after he was nine. He 
 loved books, however, and at a very early age began 
 to pick up knowledge during the leisure which he 
 could command, often gleaning in the primary fields 
 when lads of his years should be in bed. By great 
 diligence and the strictest economy of time, entirely 
 unaided, he fitted himself for a teacher. Beginning 
 that vocation at sixteen, he taught summer and win- 
 ter for four or five years, and read law the last two 
 years by means of borrowed books. 
 
 Mr. Zeigler, who was a reader of the newspapers, 
 about this time had his attention called to the open- 
 ing fields for enterprise beyond the " Father of 
 Waters," and at the age of twenty-three started for 
 Iowa. At Warren, Illinois, he reached the end of 
 the rail, and the bottom of his pocket. But he 
 pushed on afoot to the Mississippi river opposite Du- 
 buque, arriving there with one forlorn cent on his 
 person. But although his exchequer was exhausted, 
 his mental resources were not. Examining the thin 
 contents of his wallet, his eye alighted on a razor 
 which he traded off, squared his last account with 
 the State of Illinois; reached Dubuque with a shil- 
 ling in his pocket ; went to a German hotel and 
 explained in the Teutonic tongue his situation ; was 
 cheerfully accommodated for the night, and the next 
 day walked to Delaware county. There he taught 
 one or two seasons, reading law meanwhile ; remit- 
 ted his indebtedness to the Teutonic innkeeper, and 
 pushed on to West Union, reaching the Mecca of 
 his hopes in the spring of 1856. 
 
 As soon as the first court met in the district, he 
 was examined before Judge Murdock, admitted to 
 the bar, and soon formed a partnership with Milo 
 McGlathery, afterward judge of the tenth judicial 
 district. Two years later the firm was dissolved, 
 and Mr. Zeigler continued to practice ^lone, adding 
 
566 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 at the start real estate to the law business. He 
 practiced steadily until 1866, when he started the 
 West Union Bank, the first institution of the kind in 
 the county. With the exception of one year, he 
 continued at banking until the 2d of August, 1872, 
 when the bank was merged in the Fayette County 
 National Bank. Mr. Zeigler still has an interest in 
 such institutions, being president of the Fayette 
 County Savings Bank, and vice-president of the 
 national bank just mentioned. Latterly he has had 
 a collecting agency and land brokerage office, and is 
 the most extensive operator in this line in the 
 county. He owns and manages six fine farms, and 
 has aided a great many people to secure farms for 
 themselves. In all his land operations he has never 
 wronged a man ; is a fair, straightforward dealer, 
 very lenient to the embarrassed, and kind to the 
 poor. In branching out he has invested in the 
 Mahaska County Coal Company, and is, in fact, its 
 heaviest stockholder, and one of its directors. 
 
 The one cent which Mr. Zeigler possessed when 
 he first cast his eye across the Mississippi into Iowa, 
 "the beautiful land," has multiplied until it has run 
 far up into the millions. 
 
 Mr. Zeigler is a Mason and an Odd-Fellow, and 
 in the former order is a member of Siloam Com- 
 mandery No. 3, of Dubuque. 
 
 He is a firm republican, and has helped others into 
 offices which he would not take himself. He has 
 been mayor of West Union four years in succession, 
 and was usually chosen without opposition. 
 
 On the 28th of December, 1859, he married Miss 
 Laura Adams, of Northfield, Vermont, a lady of fine 
 mental and musical accomplishments. 
 
 No citizen of West Union has done more for the 
 place than Mr. Zeigler. For several years he was 
 the sole school director, and at all times has been a 
 hearty cooperator in all efforts to elevate the grade 
 of public instruction. He has educated a younger 
 brother at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadel- 
 phia, and is supporting at the Iowa State University 
 another brother, whom he purposes to send to Cam- 
 bridge, Massachusetts, and thence to Heidelberg, 
 Germany. Such acts require no comment. 
 
 Mr. Zeigler was a leader in bringing the railroad 
 to West Union four years ago, and has probably 
 paid more money for such enterprises than any other 
 man in the county. 
 
 He is below the average height, compactly built — 
 put together for work — and it would be difficult 
 to find a match for him in dispatching business. A 
 man of wonderful activity when at work, as soon as 
 it is over he is chatty and cheerful ; at all times, off 
 clerical duties, he is a radiant light in a social circle. 
 
 REV. JAMES KNOX, 
 
 CEDAR RAPIDS. 
 
 JAMES KNOX was born on the 5th of June, 1807, 
 at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Joseph Knox, his 
 father, was engaged in a large mercantile business 
 in Carlisle. His mother's name was Hannah Doug- 
 las. Her father, John Douglas, was a wholesale 
 merchant in Dublin, Ireland, and came to America 
 in 1796, with two daughters, Hannah and Isabella. 
 His mother died when James was three years old ; 
 she was an admirable woman, for many years superin- 
 tendent of the Sunday school and forward in church 
 work. His aunt remained unmarried, and died at 
 Buchanan, Michigan, at the age of ninety. 
 
 James Knox graduated at Dickinson College, Car- 
 lisle, in 1824, at the age of seventeen. In the same 
 year (May 8, 1824,) he united with the Presbyte- 
 rian church — Rev. George Duffield, pastor, — under 
 whose fostering care he prepared for the ministry. 
 He spent one year in Princeton Seminary, 1827-28, 
 
 but completed his studies at the Theological Semi- 
 nary of Virginia, in the year 1828-29; he was li- 
 censed to preach by the Presbytery of Carlisle. He 
 was ordained to the work of the gospel ministry, 
 and installed pastor of the Presbyterian Church of 
 New Castle, Delaware, on the 21st of November, 
 1832. In 1834 he resigned his charge. In 1833 
 or 1834 he went to Washington to aid a friend in 
 the services of a protracted meeting; he was then 
 the pastor of the Presbyterian Church of New Cas- 
 tle, Delaware, and was in the strength of his youth ; 
 very gentle in his manner, and devoted and gracious 
 in his spirits. During the next year Mr. Knox was 
 attacked with fever, which brought his life into great 
 peril. His system received a severe shock, and it 
 seemed for a long time that he would not be able 
 to resume his labors in the pulpit. He was obliged 
 to resign his charge and suspend all labor, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 567 
 
 From 1836 to April i, 1839, he supplied the Sec- 
 ond Congregational Church of Norwalk, Connecti- 
 cut, after which he preached for some time at Bethel, 
 Connecticut, in the old town of Danbury. He united, 
 about 1843, with the Presbytery of Brooklyn, and 
 shortly afterward was dismissed to the Presbytery of 
 the District of Columbia, and became pastor of the 
 Second Presbyterian Church of Washington city. 
 He labored in that church in the midst of many 
 discouragements. He was faithful, kind and perse- 
 vering, making many friends, and highly esteemed 
 by his ministerial brethren and the people. 
 
 A wider and more promising field now opened 
 before him in the city of New York. He was called 
 to the pastoral of the Tenth Presbyterian Church in 
 New York city, and was installed pastor on the i8th 
 of January, 1846. His ministry was blessed, but 
 the prospects of the field were greatly changed by 
 the organization of other churches. He resigned 
 in 1852. 
 
 For some years he was in feeble health and re- 
 mained with his sister, Rev. Mrs. W. Fuller, at Stur- 
 gis, Michigan. He engaged in teaching, and soon 
 found one faithful assistant, who remained with him 
 for the rest of his life. 
 
 He was married at Coldwater, Michigan, on the 
 25th of January, i860, to Miss A. F. Whitford, whom 
 the providence of God still preserves. 
 
 He was dismissed, on the 4th of April, 1859, from 
 the Third Presbytery of New York to the Presby- 
 tery of Coldwater, Michigan. He had regained his 
 health, and his preaching was attended with such 
 marked results that he could not doubt the call of 
 God to the work of the christian ministry. He 
 preached his first sermon, after his recovery, at 
 Lima, Indiana, from the text : " My spirit shall not 
 always strive with man." He made such a profound 
 impression that those who heard him will never for- 
 get it. 
 
 He preached as a regular supply at Constantine, 
 Michigan, for six months, and then accepted a call 
 from the Presbyterian Church at Hillsdale, Michi- 
 gan. He was installed on the i8th of April, i860. 
 The sermon was preached by Rev. George Duffield, 
 D.D., of Detroit, from 2 Tim. i, 7-n. 
 
 In the winter of i860 Mr. Knox had a severe 
 hemorrhage of the lungs ; his life was in great peril. 
 His church was strongly attached to him, and gave 
 him a leave of absence for several months, but he 
 did not recover sufficiently to resume his labors. 
 He resigned his charge, and during the summer of 
 
 1 86 1 visited the island of Mackinaw. Its favoring 
 breezes gave him new life. He felt encouraged to 
 commence preaching, and did so as chaplain- to a 
 company of soldiers stationed at Mackinaw. De- 
 siring a milder climate for the winter, he came to 
 Clinton, Iowa, in December, 1862. In May, 1864, 
 he received an invitation from the First Presbyterian 
 Church of Cedar Rapids. 
 
 We admire his courage in coming to a church so 
 disorganized and weakened. Mr. Knox had not 
 been here two years when the people felt that they 
 must build a new church. In 1866 they commenced 
 to raise funds for that purpose ; the next year, in 
 1867, the work was commenced, and completed at a 
 cost of thirty-two thousand dollars, and was dedi- 
 cated the last Sunday in February, 1869. Mr. Knox 
 remained pastor of this church to the day of his 
 death, on the loth of October, 1875. Thus passed 
 away a brother and father beloved both for what he 
 was himself and for his works' sake. " Blessed are 
 the dead." 
 
 Of the deceased as a husband and father we dare 
 not speak (these ties are too sacred for public rec- 
 ords), but in all the other relations of life which he 
 sustained, it is our privilege to testify that he illus- 
 trated those virtues which should adorn the profes- 
 sion of christian faith and the office of ambassador 
 for Christ. As a citizen and neighbor, he manifested 
 a lively interest in the w'elfare of the state and com- 
 munity in which he resided. All form of sin, social 
 and public, found in him a fearless and uncompro- 
 mising opponent. The cause of christian educa- 
 tion was near his heart. 
 
 From the earliest days of the Coe Collegiate Insti- 
 tute Mr. Knox was greatly interested in and worked 
 faithfully for its establishment upon a solid basis, 
 and especially with the view of preparing young 
 men for the ministry of the gospel of Christ, and 
 providing for the young, generally, an education of 
 high moral and religious tone. His social qualities 
 were prominent ; his genial nature and ardent affec- 
 tions were a free passport to the homes of all who 
 knew him, and made him a favorite among his min- 
 isterial brethren. 
 
 As a pastor, he was faithful, discreet and wise. 
 His people confided in him, and committed their 
 troubles to him. In the courts of the church he 
 was a worker, not so much by any brilliant talent, 
 but chiefly by the confidence reposed in him by his 
 brethren. When he was absent, his copresbytery 
 entered on important measures with more hesitation, 
 
568 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 In the pulpit he was always instructive and edifying. 
 His theology was distinctively Pauline, Augustinian, 
 Calvinistic or orthodox, as we may please to term it, 
 in the Presbyterian sense. But it is as a christian, 
 a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal 
 Savior, that we chiefly cherish his memory. His 
 life, his humble walk, his exemplary deportment, 
 and his fervid and faithful advocacy of Christ as an 
 all-sufficient and only Savior, abundantly attest his 
 piety. 
 
 Nor is this all. Some time previous to his death 
 
 he communicated to one, possibly more, of his breth- 
 ren in Christ, his experience and his ground of hope. 
 He was evidently reviewing the whole question of 
 his personal relation to the Savior. He confessed 
 most unequivocally to his own unworthiness, but as 
 distinctively professed his hope of heaven as resting 
 on God's sovereign mercy and grace ; the son aton- 
 ing for his sins, and the spirit working in him the 
 needed meetness. His example is before us, let 
 us follow it. Mr. Knox left a wife and one child, a 
 daughter. 
 
 L. S. GROVES, M.D., 
 
 AFTON. 
 
 DR. L. S. GROVES, the leading surgeon and 
 physician in Union county, was born in Perry 
 county, Ohio, on the 20th of February, 1834. His 
 father's name was Frederick Groves; his mother's 
 maiden name was Harriett Selby. His grandfather 
 immigrated from Virginia, and was one of the pioneers 
 of Perry county, bringing with him his son Frederick, 
 -then fifteen years of age. This lad, the subsequent 
 father of Dr. Groves, was a farmer, and young L. S. 
 Groves worked upon his father's farm in the sum- 
 mer and attended a district school about two miles 
 distant in the winter, walking the distance in all sorts 
 of weather, intent on the acquisition of knowledge. 
 This he continued to do till he was fourteen years of 
 age, he then went to learn the carpenter's trade of his 
 elder brother in a neighboring village. Here he 
 attended a graded school during most of the winter 
 months, dividing his time between books and the 
 jack-plane. At the last of his four years with his 
 brother he taught school; subsequently he attended 
 the University of Ohio at Athens. He taught school 
 or worked at his trade in the out-of-session months 
 to obtain money for his tuition and board for the 
 two first years. The last two years were passed 
 almost exclusively at the University, he assuming 
 the duties of janitor and otherwise assisting the 
 faculty in lieu of tuition and board. Although he 
 had secured position in the senior department of 
 the graduating clasSj he was denied a passage at its 
 examination on account of failing health ; he there- 
 fore left the University for recreation; but his finan- 
 cial necessities soon compelled him to seek employ- 
 ment, and he commenced teaching a select school 
 at Deavertown, Ohio. At the same time he com- 
 
 menced reading medicine in the office of Dr. Ken- 
 nedy at that place for one year, and completed his 
 office studies under Dr. W. H. Holden, at Millers- 
 town, Ohio. Subsequently he attended a course of 
 lectures at the Starring Medical College at Columbus, 
 Ohio; this was in the winter of 1856-7. He finally 
 graduated at the Medical College of Ohio, Cincin- 
 nati, in March, 1858. He then located at Duncan's 
 Falls, Ohio, and commenced the practice of his pro- 
 fession. 
 
 During his first course of lectures the doctor had 
 married Miss Mary E. Cherry, of Deavertown. He 
 continued in the practice of medicine at Duncan's 
 Falls until the spring of 1862, when he removed to 
 Afton, continuing his practice until 1864, when he 
 was commissioned by Governor Stone a surgeon in 
 the army, where he served until the close of the war. 
 On his return to Aftoii he united the drug business 
 with his practice, and still continues both branches 
 of business. His store is the most complete estab- 
 lishment of the kind in the city. 
 
 The doctor's practice of medicine is large and 
 lucrative; he has won an enviable reputation both 
 as a physician and surgeon. 
 
 Dr. Groves by no means has a winsome manner 
 about him on first acquaintance, though upon further 
 probing of the man one, readily discovers a genial 
 gentleman, as full of modesty as he is full of worth ; 
 a man with a well-stored mind, one who loves his 
 profession, and at the same time loves literature for 
 the sake of literature. 
 
 He has not mixed much in the affairs of life out- 
 side his profession, though he has always manifested 
 great interest in the cause of public education ; hag 
 
tttk tJNiTED StATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY: 
 
 ,569 
 
 been long an active member of the board of edu- 
 cation, and is now its president. Afton can boast 
 of as good a high school as exists in the State of 
 Iowa. 
 
 Dr. Groves has had born to him three sons and 
 four daughters. His eldest daughter is a teacher 
 in the select school of Afton. 
 
 He is an inactive Mason, though he has gone 
 through the blue lodge. He has been a member 
 of the Methodist church since he was seventeen 
 years of age. He is a very intelligent and very pro- 
 nounced democrat in politics. 
 
 Dr. Groves is preeminently a domestic man; he 
 is never more at heart's ease than when surrounded 
 by his family. His residence is a model establish- 
 
 ment, externally and internally. Beautifully situated 
 on the outskirts of Afton, and yet within easy walk- 
 ing distance from his store, it is surrounded with 
 beautiful grounds, while within are evidences of 
 that culture and refinement which ever mark the 
 gentleman and the gentlewoman. A fine library of 
 first-class literature, interspersed with art treasures 
 of various kinds, are among the many attractions of 
 his home. Here, when not professionally engaged, 
 this arbiter of his own good fortune can take solid 
 comfort, and in the company of the wife of his early 
 love, surrounded by a large and devoted family, 
 take that degree of enjoyment known only to those 
 who have earned the ease and luxury with which 
 they are surrounded. 
 
 COLONEL LEANDER CLARK, 
 
 TOLEDO. 
 
 THE subject of this brief biography is a native 
 of Huron county, Ohio, and was born in the 
 town of Wake man on the 17th of July, 1823, his 
 parents being Harmon M. Clark, a physician, and 
 Laura Downs, both of Connecticut. Dr. Clark 
 owned a farm while practicing medicine, and here 
 his family were reared, Leander being the second 
 son in a family of three boys and one girl. He 
 worked on the farm and attended school until about 
 twenty, finishing his education in the preparatory 
 department of Oberlin College. He remained with 
 his father until twenty-three years of age, went to 
 Port Washington, Wisconsin, in 1846; spent nearly 
 three years there in surveying, and in a drug store 
 owned by his elder brother, Dr. P. H. Clark; in 
 1849 crossed the plains in the great waves of Saxon 
 gold seekers; returned in 1852 with between three 
 and four thousand dollars; traveled and prospected 
 sixteen or eighteen months, and in the spring of 
 1854 came to Iowa and took up land, and built a 
 saw-mill in the township of Geneseo, Tama county, 
 four miles from the village of Traer. 
 
 In 1857 Mr. Clark was elected county judge, and 
 moved to Toledo, the county seat. After holding 
 the office by reelection nearly four years, he resigned 
 and returned to his farm. In '1861 was elected to 
 the lower house of the general assembly; served in 
 the regular session in the early part of 1862 ; enlisted 
 in the following August in the 24th Iowa Infantry; 
 rendezvoused at Muscatine as captain, company E, 
 
 and while the regiment was there he attended the 
 extra session of the legislature, heartily supporting 
 every war measure of that body. In October the 
 regiment went into the field, and Captain Clark ac- 
 companied it for nearly three years, and was in all 
 its engagements but one or two. In September, 
 
 1864, he was promoted to major, and in January, 
 
 1865, to lieutenant-colonel. At the battle of Cham- 
 pion Hill, Mississippi, May 16, 1863, he received a 
 Small ball in his face, and still carries it there. He 
 was mustered out with the regiment in August, 1865. 
 Persons who served under him in the gallant 24th 
 give the colonel credit for being a brave officer, 
 never absent from duty, and never quailing in the 
 thickest of the fight. 
 
 Returning to Tama county in the autumn of 1865, 
 he was again elected to the lower house of the gen- 
 eral assembly, serving one term. He was chairman 
 of the committee on claims, and did important work 
 on other committees. 
 
 For the last ten years Colonel Clark has been in 
 the land and banking business. He is president of 
 the Toledo Savings Bank, an institution organized 
 under the state laws, and very popular; it has about 
 fifty stockholders. 
 
 He has one of the finest residences in Toledo, 
 centrally located in an acre-and-a-quarter lot, which 
 has an abundance of shade and fruit trees, and 
 arboral adornments. Aside from his interest in the 
 bank and other property in town, he owns large 
 
570 
 
 TtiE UNlTkD STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICtlONART. 
 
 tracts of land in Tama, Franklin and Buena Vista 
 counties. He has been quite successful in his land 
 and other operations. 
 
 In politics, Colonel Clark was originally a whig, 
 and has been a republican since the formation of 
 that party. He is a Freemason, being a member of 
 the blue lodge. 
 
 In religious sentiment he inclines toward the Con- 
 gregationalists. He is generous hearted, kind to the 
 poor, obliging to all classes, cordial and gentlemanly, 
 and a liberal entertainer. 
 
 His wife was Miss Maria A. Barker, of Toledo, 
 their union dating February 14, 1867. 
 
 Colonel Clark is above the average height, being 
 five feet and eleven inches tall, and weighing one 
 hundred and eighty pounds. He has seen his share 
 of frontier life, " roughed it " in Wisconsin and Iowa 
 at an early day, "roughed it " over the bison's home 
 and in California, " roughed it " nearly three years' 
 service in the "tented field," yet has always taken 
 good care of himself, and is one of the best pre- 
 served men in Tama county. 
 
 WEST B. BONNIFIELD, 
 
 OTTUMWA. 
 
 WEST BENSON BONNIFIELD, the leading 
 banker of Otturawa, was born in Randolph 
 county, Virginia, on the 23d of February, 1827. His 
 great-great-grandfather, Luke Bonnifield, was a na- 
 tive of England, and on his arrival in this country 
 settled where the city of Washington, District of Co- 
 lumbia, now stands. There the family continued to 
 reside until the grandfather of our subject, Samuel 
 Bonnifield, removed to Hampshire county, Virginia, 
 where Rhodham Bonnifield, the father of our sub- 
 ject, was born in 1789, and who, on reaching matu- 
 rity, removed to Randolph county, where, in 1811, 
 he married Nancy Minier, a lady of German descent. 
 Out of a family of thirteen children born to theni, 
 seven are at this writing (1878) still living. In 1836 
 the family removed to the tract of land then known 
 as the " Black-Hawk Purchase," and settled in that 
 portion now known as Jefferson county, Iowa. Here 
 they struggled with the many adversities which en- 
 compassed all early settlers until 1840, when both 
 parents died, leaving their large family dependent 
 entirely upon their own exertions for support. The 
 educational facilities in this new and sparsely settled 
 country were extremely limited; and after a few 
 years on the home farm, with winters spent in at- 
 tending school at the " log school-house of the per- 
 iod," our subject decided that something must be 
 done to obtain more extended opportunities for the 
 improvement of his mind, and accordingly hired out 
 for a few months, and invested his scanty earnings 
 in tuition in what was then known as the Mount 
 Pleasant Collegiate Institute. Here he remained 
 until his money was exhausted, when he obtained a 
 situation, and for a time taught school near Bur- 
 
 lington. With the money thus earned he started 
 with his brothers, Allen M. and M. S., in 1849, for 
 the Alleghany College, at Meadville, Pennsylvania. 
 There being no railroads, the brothers traveled on 
 foot nearly all the way from Burlington to- Chicago. 
 He spent about two years in this college, when, his 
 means becoming again exhausted, he went to Ken- 
 tucky, and for eighteen months taught school. His 
 health becoming impaired through close application 
 to study, he was obliged to forego, for a time at least, 
 the great aim and ambition of his life, the attainment 
 of a good education, and went to California, where 
 for six years he was engaged in mining and stock 
 raising, in which pursuits he met with moderately 
 good success. In i860 Mr. Bonnifield returned to 
 Ottum'wa, Iowa, on a visit to some friends, and finally 
 concluded to locate and commence business there. 
 After conducting a private banking house for a few 
 years, he, on the passage of the national banking act 
 in 1863, organized and became the president of the 
 First National Bank of Ottumwa, which position he 
 still holds. This institution was one of the first 
 organized, and is considered one of the safest, most 
 prosperous and well conducted banks of the west. 
 Mr. Bonnifield has been largely interested in the 
 coal business ; was president of the Iowa Central 
 Coal Company ; also treasurer of the Saint Louis 
 and Cedar Rapids Railroad Company from its or- 
 ganization in ] 865 to its completion and transfer to 
 the Saint Louis and Northern in 187 1, and is now 
 (1878) president of the Ottumwa Water Power Com- 
 pany, which has a capital of one hundred thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 Though brought up in the democratic faith, Mr. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 571 
 
 Bonnifield was an ardent supporter of the war, and 
 has since voted with the republican party ; never, 
 however, taking an active part in politics. 
 
 He was married on the 28th of October, 1862, to 
 
 Miss Alcinda Inskeep, of Hillsborough, Ohio, a lady 
 of fine collegiate education, rare literary taste, and 
 a devoted christian mother. They have three chil- 
 dren, Mary Thrall, Lizzie Brooks, and Willie Benson. 
 
 HON. SAMUEL H. KINNE, 
 
 LANSING. 
 
 SAMUEL HORACE KINNE, state senator from 
 Allamakee county, is of remote Scotch descent, 
 and comes from a very early Rhode Island family. 
 His father, Jonathan Kinne, now in his seventy-ninth 
 year, lives on the same farm in the town of Butter- 
 nuts, Otsego county, New York, where his father 
 was born. The great grandfather of Samuel H. was 
 an officer in the revolutionary army. Our subject 
 was born in Butternuts on the i8th of February, 1832. 
 The maiden name of his mother was Lydia Haynes, 
 whose grandfather was a Hessian, who deserted from 
 the British army and came to the new world. 
 
 Senator Kinne received an academic education 
 at Gilbertsville, in his native county, studying the 
 classics as well as the higher English branches, and 
 reading law with Hon. H. Sturges, since a judge, 
 thus fitting himself for his future career in profes- 
 sional life. He was admitted to the bar at Morris- 
 ville, Madison county, in May, 1856; remained in 
 the office of Judge Sturges one year; but wishing to 
 win fame and fortune for himself, he left his native 
 home, and on the 7th of May, 1857, settled at his 
 present home in the northeastern part of the State 
 of Iowa. He added real estate to his legal practice, 
 and soon became known, financially and profession- 
 ally, as a successful and reliable business man. He 
 excels in commercial law, and his collecting and 
 real estate are both very remunerative branches of 
 his business. 
 
 Senator Kinne was elected mayor of Lansing in 
 1869, and held that office three years consecutively. 
 In 187 1 he was elected to the state senate, was re- 
 elected four years later, and is now (1878) attending 
 the second session of his second term in the general 
 assembly. Though a democrat, in a strongly repub- 
 lican legislature, he has usually been placed on im- 
 portant committees, such as railroads, constitutional 
 amendments, etc. At the opening of the seventeenth 
 assembly, now in session, a new committee on court 
 fees and jury expenses was created, and Senator 
 Kinne was placed on that, and also on six other 
 committees, always performing his duties in an able 
 and conscientious manner. 
 
 His affiliations have always been with the demo- 
 cratic party. During the progress of the rebellion 
 he was active in recruiting men, and was known as 
 a "war democrat." He was a delegate to the na- 
 tional democratic convention which met in Balti- 
 more in 1872 and nominated Horace Greeley for 
 President. He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic 
 order, and has been master of the local lodge for 
 several years, still holding that position. 
 
 In religious sentiment, he leans to the Episco- 
 palians, with whom the family worship. 
 
 His wife was Miss Mary J., daughter of Hon. Enos 
 T. Halbert, of Gilbertsville, New York; married on 
 the 26th of October, 1857. They have three chil- 
 dren, and have lost one child. 
 
 HON. JAMES RICE, 
 
 OSCEOLA. 
 
 THE father of Judge Rice was a Pennsylvanian 
 by birth, and came to Shelby county, Ken- 
 tucky, in the year 1800, and Judge Rice was born 
 in that place on the 29th of October, 1820. His 
 mother's maiden name was Mary Cooper, a native 
 of Kentucky. His father married at Shelby about 
 58 
 
 the year 1805. He was a carpenter and joiner by 
 profession, but he inherited a fine farm by his mar- 
 riage, which he settled upon and cultivated, and at 
 the same time prosecuted his mechanical business. 
 These people had born to them seven children, — 
 four boys and three girls, — Judge Rice being the 
 
57^ 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 youngest of these children. His father died at 
 Shelby in 1822, and his mother in Indiana in 1875, 
 at the advanced age of eighty-seven. Judge Rice 
 commenced going to school when but five years of 
 age, and at six could read very well. He continued 
 to attend school until he was eleven years of age, 
 at which time the family removed to Montgomery 
 county, Indiana. Here the judge went to a district 
 school occasionally, in the winter months, working 
 meanwhile upon the farm until 1843, when he re- 
 tired from agricultural pursuits to a high school in 
 that county, and subsequently attended scnool and 
 taught for four years. His health failing him he 
 returned to the farm, where he remained for eight 
 years, during which time he read law, and was made 
 justice of the peace, which office he held for five 
 years. He possessed himself of a law library, and 
 continued his study of law. At the end of eight 
 years he entered the senior law department of As- 
 bury University, Indiana, from which he graduated 
 in the winter of 1856. He married, in 1846, Miss 
 Mary G. Hufstedler, of Indiana. 
 
 Upon his graduation he came with his family to 
 Osceola, and commenced the practice of law. He 
 was appointed, by the board of supervisors, county 
 judge, in January, 1861, which office he continued 
 
 to hold for nine years, continuing^his practice in 
 other courts of the state during his official term. 
 
 In 187 1 he was elected to the fourteenth general 
 assembly of the state legislature. This was an un- 
 usually long term, — lasting in all one hundred and 
 forty days, — with an intermediate adjournment. 
 Judge Rice acted upon the judiciary committee 
 which produced the " Code of Iowa." At the general 
 election of 1874 he was elected to fill a vacancy in 
 the state senate. He is still in the practice of law. 
 
 He has had born to him eight children, seven 
 boys (two of whom are dead) and one girl. 
 
 Judge Rice has ever been a strong Presbyterian 
 churchman, and has been an elder in the church for 
 twenty years. He has taken great interest in educa- 
 tional matters, and in the Sabbath school. He is a 
 staid and dignified person, large in stature, though 
 never possessed of very sound health. He is uni- 
 versally respected by all who know him, and is re- 
 garded as a sound lawyer and an able jurist. 
 
 He was originally a whig in politics, voting for 
 Henry Clay, General Taylor, General Scott and 
 General Fremont. He joined the republican party 
 upon its formation, voting the two terms for Mr. 
 Lincoln, for General Grant the first terra, and for 
 Peter Cooper in 1876. 
 
 FRANCIS A. KILBURN, 
 
 MONTEZUMA. 
 
 FRANCIS ASBURY KILBURN, one of the 
 oldest and most successful merchants in Powe- 
 shiek county, dates his birth in the town of Gilsum, 
 Cheshire county, New Hampshire, the 21st of Feb- 
 ruary, 1820. His father, Iddo Kilburn, was a farmer, 
 and reared his two sons in the strictest habits of 
 industry and good morals. The Kilburns were origi- 
 nally from England, and settled in Connecticut. The 
 grandfather of Francis A. settled on and cleared the 
 farm on which the subject of this notice was born. 
 Iddo Kilburn was in the war of 1812-15; his wife 
 was Abigail Samson, of whose ancestry but little is 
 known. 
 
 Francis A. was educated in the district and high 
 school, and at nineteen moved to Hartford, Vermont; 
 taught school six winters in that state, farming the 
 rest of the season; and in October, 185 1, settled in 
 Montezuma, where he has since been a steady resi- 
 dent. During the first few weeks before commencing 
 
 business for himself he husked corn at seventy-five 
 cents a day and boarded himself. Shortly afterward 
 he commenced mercantile business on a very small 
 scale. Going to Keokuk, a distance of one hundred 
 and twenty-five miles, with a two-horse team, he pur- 
 chased about one hundred and fifty dollars' worth 
 of goods, mainly groceries, one small trunk contain- 
 ing all of the dry goods, of which calicoes were the 
 principal article. He sold part of the goods on the 
 wagon, and his wife sold the balance in a small 
 room of their private house, while he went for an 
 additional assortment. They soon moved into a 
 large room in the old court-house, which, by the aid 
 of curtains, was divided into store, dining room, 
 kitchen and dormitory. Mr. Kilburn soon hired a 
 one-story building on the north side of the public 
 square, which was used for both store and dwelling- 
 house, each apartment being about thirteen feet by 
 twenty-five feet. Subsequently he built on the south 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 573 
 
 side, where he is now found, he owning that whole 
 side of the square. The store which he occupies is 
 twenty-two feet by eighty-three feet, with warehouses 
 and store-rooms not far off. Excepting a few weeks, 
 he has dealt in general merchandise during twenty- 
 six years. From carrying one hundred and fifty 
 dollars' worth of stock at the start, he gradually 
 extended his business until he carries thirty-five 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 While engaged in trade, Mr. Kilburn also deals 
 more or less in real estate ; has owned five farms at 
 one time, and now has two. One of these he im- 
 proves himself, the other one he rents. He deals 
 also in live stock, handling from fifty thousand to 
 seventy thousand dollars' worth per annum. 
 
 Mr. Kilburn married his first wife. Miss Sarah 
 Chandler, in Hartland, Vermont; they were united 
 in June, 1841, Mrs. Kilburn dying in February, 1870, 
 leaving three daughters, all now married. Mary H. 
 is the wife of William A. Moody, of Knoxville, Iowa; 
 Abigail S. is the wife of Dr. J. C. Tribbet, of Monte- 
 
 zuma, and Sarah is the wife of Judge Blanchard, of 
 Oskaloosa. Mr. Kilburn's present wife was Mrs. 
 Mary F. Ferry, of Newton, Iowa, married in Febru- 
 ary, 187 1 ; she has one child. 
 
 Mr. Kilburn has been a member of the Methodist 
 Episcopal church since fourteen years of age, and 
 bears not only an unsullied but truly enviable repu- 
 tation for probity and purity of character. He has 
 been an office holder in the church most of the 
 time since residing in Iowa. Political offices he has 
 always shunned; he votes the republican ticket. 
 
 Mr. Kilburn, who early became inured to hard 
 work, seems to love it still. He has great energy of 
 body and mind, and, coupled with industry, it has 
 led him on to success. He has kept steadily at his 
 business, has attended to its minutest details, has let 
 no threads run loose and nothing needlessly run to 
 waste ; and hence, while possessed of a good share 
 of christian benevolence, and showing commend- 
 able liberality and kindness to the poor, he has ac- 
 quired a comfortable independence. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM M. STONE, 
 
 KNOXVILLE. 
 
 WILLIAM MILO STONE, governor of Iowa 
 for four years, is a native of Jefferson county. 
 New York, and was born on the 14th of October, 
 1827. His father, Truman Stone, a farmer in early 
 life, is yet living, his home being in Knoxville. The 
 Stones were from England, and settled in New Eng- 
 land. The mother of William M. was Lovina North, 
 and his great-grandfather on both sides of the family 
 was in the seven years' struggle for independence. 
 His grandfather, Aaron Stone, was in the second war 
 with England. 
 
 Truman Stone moved to Lewis county. New York, 
 when the son was a year old, and six years later to 
 Coshocton county, Ohio. The subject of this brief 
 memoir never attended a school of any kind more 
 than twelve months; in boyhood he was a team- 
 driver two seasons on the Ohio canal. At seventeen 
 he was apprenticed to the chair-maker's trade, and 
 followed that business until twenty-three years of 
 age, reading law meantime during his spare hours, 
 wherever he happened to be. He commenced at 
 Coshocton, with James Mathews, who afterward be- 
 came his father-in-law; continued his readings with 
 General Lucius V. Pierce, of Akron, and finished with 
 
 Ezra B. Taylor, of Ravenna. He was admitted to 
 the bar in August, 1851, by Peter Hitchcock and 
 Rufus P. Ranney, supreme judges holding a term of 
 court at Ravenna. 
 
 After practicing three years at Coshocton with his 
 old preceptor, James Mathews, he in November, 
 1854, settled in Knoxville, where he is practicing in 
 the firm of Stone and Ayres, the leading law firm in 
 the place. 
 
 The year after locating here Mr. Stone purchased 
 the Knoxville "Journal," and was one of the prime 
 movers in forming the republican party in Iowa, be- 
 ing the first editor to suggest a state convention, 
 which met on the 2 2d of February, 1856, and com- 
 pleted the organization. In the autumn of the same 
 year he was a Presidential elector on the republican 
 ticket. 
 
 In April, 1857, Mr. Stone was chosen judge of 
 the eleventh judicial district, consisting of Madison, 
 Dallas, Warren, Polk, Jasper, Marion, Mahaska and 
 Poweshiek counties ; was elected judge of the sixth 
 district when the new constitution went into opera- 
 tion in 1858, and was serving on the bench when the 
 American flag was stricken down at Fort Sumter. At 
 
574 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 that time, April, 1861, he was holding court in Fair- 
 field, Jefferson county, and when the news came of 
 the insult to the old flag he immediately adjourned 
 court and prepar-ed for what he believed to be more 
 important duties — duties to his country. In May, 
 1861, he enlisted as a private; was made captain of 
 company B, 3d Iowa Infantry, and was subsequently 
 promoted to major. With that regiment he was at 
 the battles of Blue Mills, Missouri, in September, 
 1861, where he was wounded. At Shiloh he com- 
 manded the regiment, and was taken prisoner. By 
 order of Jefferson Davis he was patrolled for the space 
 of forty days, with directions to repair to Washing- 
 ton, and if possible secure an agreement for a cartel 
 for a general exchange of prisoners, and to return as 
 a prisoner if he did not succeed. Failing to secure 
 his end within the period specified, he returned to 
 Richmond and had his patrol extended fifteen days ; 
 repairing again to Washington, he effected his pur- 
 pose, and was exchanged. In August, 1862, he was 
 appointed by Governor Kirkwood colonel of the 22d 
 Iowa Infantry, and participated in the battles of 
 Port Gibson, where he commanded a brigade, Cham- 
 pion Hills, Black River, and in the charge on Vicks- 
 burg on the 22d of May, 1863, when he was again 
 wounded, receiving a gunshot in his left forearm. 
 He and his whole regiment showed great bravery 
 on that occasion, but the gallant boys were fearfully 
 cut up, having one hundred and five men killed or 
 wounded in less than five minutes. 
 
 Colonel Stone commanded a brigade until the last 
 of August, when, being ordered to the Gulf depart- 
 ment, he resigned. He had become very popular 
 " with the people of Iowa, and they were determined 
 to make him governor. He was nominated in a 
 republican convention held at Des Moines in June, 
 1863 ; elected by a large majority, and two years 
 later was reelected. He made a very energetic and 
 efficient executive. 
 
 He was brevetted brigadier-general in 1864, after 
 having been elected governor. 
 
 Governor Stone is now a member of the general 
 assembly, having been elected in October, 1877. 
 
 He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic order. 
 
 In May, 1857, he married Miss Caroline Mathews, 
 a native of Ohio, then residing at Knoxville. They 
 have one child, William A., a student of Iowa College 
 at Grinnell. Mrs. Stone is a member of the Presby- 
 terian church, where the family attend worship. 
 
 The history of Governor Stone shows that under 
 a republican form of government there is no royal 
 road to eminence. Beginning life as a farmer's chore 
 boy and a mule-driver on a tow-path, working his 
 way up through a cabinet-shop to the bar, he had 
 not been in Iowa thirty months before he was on the 
 bench. While on the bench he doffed the ermine 
 for the musket, and then the sword, and in thirty 
 months more was governor-elect of Iowa. It is 
 enough to add that he has deserved all the honors 
 bestowed upon him. 
 
 BENJAMIN F. SHAW, 
 
 AN AM OS A. 
 
 BENJAMIN FIELD SHAW is a son of Rufus 
 Shaw, an architect and builder, and Amy Med- 
 bury, and was born in Utica, New York, on the 12 th 
 of February, 1830. His branch of the Shaw family 
 early settled in New England. Rufus Shaw moved 
 with his family to New Berlin, Chenango county, 
 when Benjamin was two years old, and the son lived 
 with his grandparents several years, he losing his 
 mother when he was nine years old. His education 
 was limited to the common schools, though he ac- 
 quired no inconsiderable amount of knowledge out- 
 side the recitation room, and has always been in- 
 clined to study. 
 
 At seventeen years of age he went to Canada, 
 learning the blacksmith and joiner's trade, returning 
 
 to the United States at the end of four years, and 
 soon afterward starting wagon-shops at Stillwell Prai- 
 rie and Kingsbury, Indiana, and continuing the bus- 
 iness three years. During this period he acquired a 
 knowledge of the daguerrean business, and afterward 
 traveled awhile in Illinois and Wisconsin, also teach- 
 ing music, vocal and band, continuing it at intervals 
 for seventeen years. After traveling five years as an 
 artist and musician, he engaged in buying lumber and 
 shipping it down the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers. 
 In 1858 Mr. Shaw came to Jones county, Iowa, 
 and in October of the next year settled at Anamosa, 
 which has since been his residence. He was county 
 superintendent of schools in 1859 and i860 ; became 
 proprietor of the Fisher House in October, 1859, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 575 
 
 and remained in it between two and three years. 
 About this period, having part ownership in a quarry 
 of superior stone near the city of Anamosa, and 
 thinking it would be a feasible point at which to lo- 
 cate a penitentiary, he with others began to agitate 
 the question of the location of such an institution at 
 this place. He began to build side-tracks from the 
 Dubuque Southwestern railroad ; put up a perpetual 
 limekiln, and commenced developing the quarry. 
 The result of this movement on his part and a few 
 other men was the penitentiary at Anamosa, opened 
 about four years ago. 
 
 In 1874 Mr. Shaw was appointed one of the three 
 fish commissioners of the state, an office created at 
 the session of the general assembly held in January- 
 March of that year, and he still holds that office, he 
 being the sole commissioner since 1876. It was a 
 fortunate appointment, for no other man in the State 
 of Iowa has taken so much interest in fish culture 
 or done so much to interest the people in the sub- 
 ject. He may be called an enthusiast in the science, 
 he having made it his careful study for years. 
 
 Mr. Shaw inherited in a large degree the mechan- 
 ical talent of his father, and has recently invented a 
 fishway that is of a superior quality. Michigan, 
 which has probably paid more attention to fish cul- 
 ture than any other state in the west, has recently, 
 after examining a dozen inventions of the kind, 
 adopted his, and is introducing it into her streams. 
 
 Commissioner Shaw was a very useful man in Jones 
 county before his services were required by the state 
 in the direction here indicated. He was a member 
 of the school board of the city of Anamosa, and its 
 president four or five years, and has held other offices 
 in the municipality. 
 
 He is master-workman of the Anamosa Lodge of 
 United Workmen. 
 
 Mr. Shaw has uniformly affiliated with the demo- 
 cratic party, but of late years has given but little 
 attention to politics. 
 
 His wife was Miss Olive Burlingame, of Chenango 
 county, New York; married on the 21st of May, 
 185 1. They have had four children, three of them 
 yet living. 
 
 HON. ROBERT G. REINIGER, 
 
 CHARLES CITT. 
 
 ROBERT GEORGE REINIGER, the present 
 judge of the twelfth circuit, is a son of Gus- 
 tavus Reiniger, a farmer, still living in Seneca coun- 
 ty, Ohio, where Robert was born, on the 12th of 
 April, 1835. His mother was Rosa Durr, and both 
 parents were from Germany. Robert prepared for 
 college at Tiffin, near his home; entered Heidelberg 
 College, in that city, in 1853; pursued miscellaneous 
 studies for three years, reading law at the same time, 
 and was admitted to the bar at that place in Septem- 
 ber, 1856. 
 
 His elder brother, Gustavus G., had been settled 
 in Charles City, Iowa, more than a year, and hither 
 Robert bent his steps, reaching the city, then but 
 a small village, on the 3d of March, 1857. The 
 brothers formed a partnership in the law and real- 
 estate business ; started out well, preserved a high 
 character for promptness, integrity and ability, and 
 built up an excellent reputation in a few years. On 
 the ist of August, 1858, I. W. Card joined them, 
 and the firm of Reiniger, Card and Reiniger con- 
 tinued until the ist of January, 1861. 
 
 In May, 1861, Mr. Reiniger enlisted in the state 
 
 service in one of the first companies formed in this 
 part of the Cedar valley; but the regiment it was 
 designed for was full, and not till the July following 
 did he get into the United States service, going out 
 as first lieutenant of company B, 7 th Iowa Infantry. 
 He was promoted to captain in the spring of 1863, 
 soon after the battle of Shiloh, and served until 
 October, 1864. 
 
 Returning to Charles City, he resumed his pro- 
 fessional labors, continuing with his brother until 
 1865, when Gustavus G. Reiniger removed to Union, 
 Missouri, and Robert practiced alone. 
 
 On the 10th of October, 1870, he was commis- 
 sioned by the governor, circuit judge to fill a vacan- 
 cy caused by the resignation of Judge Ruddick, who 
 was appointed district judge. At the succeeding 
 general election, in October, 187 1, Judge Reiniger 
 was elected by the people to fill the rest of the un- 
 expired term, and was reelected in 1872 and 1876, 
 still holding that office. 
 
 As a jurist, he is cautious, conscientious and can- 
 did ; has his prejudices, like other men, but lays 
 them aside on the bench, and is impartial in his de- 
 
576 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 cisions. His honesty, we believe, was never ques- 
 tioned. 
 
 A legal association was formed in the twelfth judi- 
 cial district in 187 1, and he was made its president; 
 he is likewise president of the Charles City Chess 
 Society. 
 
 In 1876 Judge Reiniger purchased the interest of 
 Judge Fairfield in a private bank, and, in company 
 with W. D. Balch and others, under the firm name 
 of Reiniger and Balch, is doing a good business. 
 He is a stockholder and director of the Charles 
 City Water Power Company, and has considerable 
 town property, having never dealt in any other ; and 
 in every branch of business he is a success. He 
 has one of the finest brick houses and most elegant 
 home in the corporation. 
 
 He has always acted with the republican party ; 
 is a Royal Arch Mason ; attends the Congregational 
 church, and has a pure life record. 
 
 His wife was Mary E., daughter of Dr. William 
 M. Palmer, of Charles City. They were married on 
 the i8th of November, 1867, and have no children. 
 
 Gustavus G. Reiniger, of whom we have spoken, 
 and who was a resident of Charles City from 1855 
 to 1865, was a brilliant lawyer for years at the head 
 of the Floyd county bar. He read law at Tiffin, 
 Ohio, and was one of the first attorneys to settle in 
 Charles City. Legally and intellectually, as well as 
 morally, his shoulders were broad and high, and it 
 was to the deep regret of many friends that he left 
 Iowa. . 
 
 He died in Union, Missouri, on the sth of Octo- 
 ber, 1869, leaving a widow and five children. The 
 writer of this sketch became acquainted with him 
 and his brother Robert as early as 1859, and haz- 
 ards nothing in saying that as long as he lived in 
 Iowa, Gustavus G. Reiniger honored the legal pro- 
 fession. 
 
 JOEL W. SMITH, M.D., 
 
 CHARLES CITT. 
 
 ONE of the oldest practicing physicians in Floyd 
 county, Iowa, and a man of excellent reputa- 
 tion, is Joel W. Smith, a native of New York, and 
 son of Silas and Lydia (Gillett) Smith. He was 
 born in the town of Franklin, Delaware county, on 
 the 23d July, 1824. His paternal ancestors were 
 from England, and among the early settlers in New 
 England. The Gilletts, it is believed, were origi- 
 nally from Wales. Joel was educated at the Del- 
 aware Literary Institute in Franklin, at that time 
 one of the best institutions of the kind in the State of 
 New York, noted for the excellent' scholarship of the 
 young men there fitted for college. At twenty-two 
 he began studying medicine under the auspices of 
 ex-Governor Peters, of Hebron, Connecticut, and 
 finished with Dr. William Detmold, of New York 
 city, teaching part of the time to defray expenses. 
 He attended lectures at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 
 and in the medical department of Yale College, 
 graduating from the latter institution in January, 
 1850. The year before and after graduating he took 
 special courses of study in New York city. 
 
 Thus thoroughly prepared to operate in the heal- 
 ing art, Dr. Smith settled at Croton, in his native 
 county, remaining there between six and seven years, 
 and in March, 1857, settled in Charles City. Here 
 
 for twenty years he has steadily adhered to his pro- 
 fession, and has built up a wide practice. No phy- 
 sician in Floyd county is better known, and none, 
 probably, is so highly esteemed for his skill and 
 personal character. In surgery he has no superior 
 in this part of the state, and some of his cases show 
 special skill. 
 
 In 1862 Dr. Smith was offered a position as sur- 
 geon in one of the Iowa regiments, but could not 
 accept it. In June, 1864, during the severe fighting 
 in Virginia, he volunteered to join General Grant's 
 army as a volunteer surgeon, and reached New York 
 city early in July, where he learned that his services 
 were not then needed. 
 
 He has been United States examining surgeon for 
 many years, during and since the war. 
 
 Dr. Smith was postmaster from 1861 to 1869, but 
 .he did not relinquish his medical practice, clerks 
 attending to much of his official business. He was 
 president of the school board for several years, and 
 is very active in educational matters, and in what- 
 ever pertains to the literary, moral, social, material 
 and sanitary interests of the community. 
 
 He is a member of the district and state medical 
 societies, and of the American Medical Association, 
 and read a paper before the latter body at its ses- 
 
TtiE ONITBD StATBS BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 S11 
 
 sion of 1877. He is a reading, thinking, progressive 
 man, and contributes to several of the medical peri- 
 odicals. He was also a member of the International 
 Medical Congress at Philadelphia in 1876. 
 
 In religious belief he is liberal, but wholly un- 
 sectarian in his views. He is not a member of any 
 secret societies, owing more to want of time than 
 from any prejudice upon the subject. 
 
 On the 4th of April, 1850, Dr. Smith was joined 
 in wedlock with Miss Susan M. Wheat, only daughter 
 of the late William Wheat, Esq., and Alta Wolcott 
 
 Wheat, both of New England. They have had six 
 children, all but one of them still living. Irving W., 
 the eldest son, was educated at the Iowa State Agri- 
 cultural College, and the Jefferson Medical College, 
 Philadelphia; is married, is in practice with his 
 father, and is a young man of much promise. In 
 July, 1877, he received an appointment as physi- 
 cian at the Kiowa Indian agency. Ida E., the only 
 daughter, is the wife of L. W. Noyes; of Batavia, 
 Illinois. Three boys, all under fifteen, are being 
 educated at home. 
 
 LIEUTENANT JOHN CHANEY, 
 
 OSCEOLA. 
 
 JOHN CHANEY was born in Monroe county, 
 Indiana, on the 4th of July, 1832. His father, 
 Francis Chaney, was a native of Randolph county, 
 North Carolina, and was born in March, 1796. He 
 was taken from North Carolina to Tennessee when 
 he was twelve years of age. He became a practical 
 mechanic and farmer. His mother's maiden name 
 was Rachel Elban. Mr. Francis Chaney married 
 this lady at Harrisoti county, Indiana, in 1831. 
 
 John Chaney went to school at intervals until he 
 was thirteen years of age, when he learned his 
 father's trade of blacksmithing, which he worked at 
 until he was twenty-one. He then went to college 
 at Mount Pleasant until he was twenty-four. Upon 
 leaving this college he commenced the study of law 
 in the office of Colonel Dungan, at Chariton, Lucas 
 county, Iowa, and also taught school. He continued 
 to read law and teach school for several years, and 
 on the 19th of July, 1862, he entered the Union 
 army, and was mustered in as second lieutenant of 
 company K of the 34th Iowa regiment, and was 
 subsequently advanced to the first lieutenancy, in 
 which position he remained during the entire war. 
 Lieutenant Chaney is one of the very rare examples 
 of hair-breadth escapes from the imminent deadly 
 peril of the battle-field. He was almost continu- 
 ously in action, marched over fifteen thousand miles, 
 was never injured in the least by the enemy, and 
 was always physically able to report for duty. 
 
 We propose to narrate the leading events which 
 occurred in Lieutenant Chaney's regimental action 
 in connection with the war of the rebellion, and with- 
 out any expressed desire that we do so on the part 
 of the gallant lieutenant. His regiment was connect- 
 
 ed with the thirteenth army corps. The 34th Iowa 
 served with General Sherman on his first attack on 
 Vicksburgh. Thence they went to Arkansas river, 
 where they captured about five thousand prisoners. 
 The regiment was then detailed, in company with 
 four companies of Illinois soldiers, to escort these 
 prisoners to Camp Douglas, Chicago. The regi- 
 ment then recruited at St. Louis; they were there 
 from the 14th of February until the 13th of April, 
 when they were ordered to report at Iron Knob, 
 Missouri, to repel an attack of General Marma- 
 duke's rebel forces ; there they remained till the 6th 
 of June, when they were ordered to join the siege 
 against Vicksburgh, under General Grant. On the 
 surrender of Vicksburgh the thirteenth army corps 
 was ordered to New Orleans to join the nineteenth 
 corps, commanded by General Banks. A detach- 
 ment of this corps, including the 34th Iowa, was 
 then ordered to proceed to Morganza, on the Mis- 
 sissippi river. They subsequently returned to New 
 Orleans, and on the 25th day of November the 
 whole corps embarked for Brazos, Santiago. This 
 fleet consisted of twenty vessels, which was overtaken 
 by a terrible storm the first night out, which sepa- 
 rated it. The thirteenth corps were, however, among 
 the first that landed on the island. The corps here 
 marched up the Rio Grande river to Brownsville, 
 opposite to Matamoras, where they remained for 
 three days. At this time a division of this corps, 
 including the 34th Iowa, was ordered to reconnoitre 
 the coast. The division was landed on the west end 
 of St. Joseph's Island, where they remained about a 
 week, and then marched up the coast to Cedar Pass, 
 where they had a skirmish, and crossed the pass on 
 
578 
 
 THE UNtTkD STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 to Mattagorda Island ; marched up that island to Fort 
 Esperanza, where a desperate action was fought, and 
 the fort captured, on the 22d of December, 1863. 
 Here they remained and fortified the post, and con- 
 structed five forts across- the island. The division 
 was then ordered to reinforce General Banks at 
 Alexandria, Louisiana, on the Red river. Here they 
 took part in several sharp engagements. It became 
 necessary to dam the river at this point, which was 
 done under the direction of General Baily. They 
 then embarked on boats, and proceeded to Mor- 
 ganza, from whence they embarked for Baton Rouge. 
 From here they went to New Orleans, and again 
 embarked on gulf steamers on Lake Pontchartrain, 
 and landed on Dauphin's Island on the 3d of August, 
 1864; captured Fort Gaines, and then crossed the 
 pass in vessels to Fort Morgan, and captured that 
 place. Here they remained until the latter part of 
 August, and then embarked on their vessels and re- 
 turned to Morganza, on the Mississippi river, and 
 encamped there for two months, during' which time 
 they had several engagements on the Atchafalaya 
 river, at which place they were ordered to reembark 
 and proceed to the mouth of the White river, in 
 Arkansas, where they remained in camp for several 
 weeks, at which time the regiment was consolidated 
 into a battalion. Here they embarked again, and 
 returned to Morganza, and while there they were 
 consolidated with the 38th Iowa regiment. In Feb- 
 ruary, 1865, they embarked for Pensacola, Florida, 
 where they remained until the loth of March. Here 
 the corps were united with six thousand colored 
 troops, and placed under command of General Steel, 
 and marched to Pollard, in Alabama, at the junction 
 of the Mobile, Montgomery and Pensacola railroads. 
 They captured this post and then marched on Fort 
 Blakeley, which they invested and laid siege, charged 
 the works, and captured them about the 13th of 
 
 April, 1865. Here they remained for several days, 
 and then embarked for Montgomery, Alabama. When 
 they reached Selma, Alabama, they met a dispatch 
 boat from the rebel general Johnson, with dispatches 
 advising the rebel general Taylor, then in command 
 on the Tombigbee river, about forty miles from 
 Selma, to surrender. They remained at Selma, and 
 about nine o'clock that night they received a dis- 
 patch from General Taylor that he would surrender. 
 Here they remained for about two weeks, and were 
 then ordered to return to Mobile, from which place 
 they were ordered to Texas, landing at Galveston in 
 July, 1865. Here the 34th Iowa was ordered to 
 Houston, Texas, where they remained until the ist 
 of September, when they were mustered out of the 
 service, being ordered to Davenport, Iowa, where 
 they received their pay and final discharge. Not 
 more than three hundred and forty of the original 
 34th regiment were then alive. 
 
 Almost as soon as he returned home. Lieutenant 
 Chaney commenced the study of law, and was ad- 
 mitted to the bar in the spring of 1867, and came to 
 Osceola, where he opened an office on the 20th of 
 June, 1867. Lieutenant Chaney has had a very fair 
 success in business,, and is a very popular man in 
 and out of court. Despite the' privations, exposures 
 and sufferings of his long and arduous campaign. 
 Lieutenant Chaney is now in the meridian of his 
 life, full of health and exuberant spirits. 
 
 He was married on the 21st of July, 1861, to Miss 
 S. C. Fuel, of Lucas county, Iowa; their family con- 
 sists of three children, one girl and two boys, the 
 youngest boy being dead. 
 
 He is a rabid repubhcan in politics, and in re- 
 ligious convictions a spiritualist. He is a Master 
 Mason, also a member of the encampment and sub- 
 ordinate lodges of Odd-Fellows, of which he is a 
 past grand. 
 
 WILLIAM CORNS, M. D., 
 
 TAMA CITY. 
 
 ONE of the best-read physicians and most skill- 
 ful practitioners in Tama county, Iowa, is Will- 
 iam Corns, of Tama City, who has been a resident of 
 Iowa since he was two years old. He is a native of 
 Ohio, and was born in Muskingum county on the 
 17th of October, 1835. His father, William Corns, 
 was a millwright in his younger years, and later in 
 
 life a farmer, and his grandfather was a revolution- 
 ary soldier. The Cornses are of German pedigree, 
 and settled in Pennsylvania. The mother of Will- 
 iam was Phebe Adaline Bagley, whose ancestors 
 were early New England settlers. William Corns, 
 senior, moved with his family to Princeton, Bureau 
 county, Illinois, in 1836, and the next year crossed 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 579 
 
 the Mississippi river, and settled in Muscatine coun- 
 ty, where West Liberty now stands. When he lo- 
 cated in what was then a part of Wisconsin Terri- 
 tory his worldly effects consisted of a yoke of oxen, 
 an excellent four-wheel wagon, a little bedding and 
 furniture, and wife and two small children. Though 
 but two and a-half years old, the subject of this 
 sketch recollects crossing the great river at Daven- 
 port, and also the rkames of the oxen. When a little 
 older he hoed corn for an uncle on ground which 
 now constitutes the principal streets of West Liberty. 
 He lived in that vicinity, tilling land and attending 
 school until March, 1861, finishing his literary ed- 
 ucation at the West Liberty High School, which he 
 attended one term. At the date just mentioned he 
 commenced reading medicine with Dr. Peter A. Car- 
 penter, of West Liberty, who, a few months later, went 
 into the army as surgeon of the sth Iowa Infantry, 
 and who died of consumption at Fort Collins, Col- 
 orado, some time after the close of the war. Mr. 
 Corns finished his medical studies with Dr. Albert 
 Ady, of West Liberty ; attended two courses of lec- 
 tures at Keokuk; Iowa, in the winter of 1862-63, ^-nd 
 
 in the following spring graduating in June, 1863. In 
 the following August he was appointed contract sur- 
 geon, and served in that capacity in the general hos- 
 pital at Keokuk until the ist of April, 1865. He was 
 in active practice during all that time, having new 
 cases constantly, and an excellent opportunity for im- 
 provement, particularly in surgery. The discipline 
 he then and there received has served an excellent 
 purpose in his practice since that date. It gave 
 him skill in his profession, and laid the foundation 
 of his present extensive practice and popularity. He 
 loves surgery, studies science con amore, and is a 
 progressive man. He is a member of the Iowa 
 State Medical Society, and was its vice-president 
 two of three years ago. His standing among the 
 medical brethren of the state is excellent. 
 
 Dr. Corns located in Tama City in the spring of 
 1865, and since that date has had a growing prac- 
 tice. He is examining surgeon for pensions. In 
 politics, he is republican, but keeps out of office. 
 
 On the nth of October, 1864, he married Miss 
 Isabel Hemperly, of Muscatine county, and has six 
 children. 
 
 ARCHIBALD S. MAXWELL, M. D., 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 PROMINENT among the physicians of Iowa is 
 enrolled the name which heads this sketch. 
 He was born on the 22d of June, 1818, near New 
 Philadelphia, Ohio. His father, John Maxwell, was 
 of Scotch descent, of liberal education, but a native 
 of York county, Pennsylvania, and was born in 1766. 
 His mother's maiden name was Ruth Cypherd, who 
 was of Holland descent, being a near relative of 
 the proprietor of the noted publishing house of 
 William Cypherd, Amsterdam, Holland. She was 
 born in Adams county, Pennsylvania, in 1774, and 
 married in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1792. The 
 novelty of pioneer life led them to leave a most 
 comfortable home in the east to immigrate to Ohio, 
 soon after that state was admitted to the Union. 
 There Mr. Maxwell spent most of his large means 
 in opening farms, erecting mills, etc., which resulted 
 more in the accommodation of poor emigrants than 
 the enrichment of his estate. He died in New 
 Philadelphia, Ohio, in May, 1822. His wife died in 
 October, 1839. The family consisted of ten sons 
 and four daughters. Three sons died in infancy; 
 59 
 
 the rest lived to rear families and hold honored po- 
 sitions in society ; five are still living. 
 
 The doctor's early life was that of a farm boy un- 
 til his sixteenth year; meanwhile receiving a com- 
 mon-school education. Although a natural mechan- 
 ic, he at an early age developed a taste for literary 
 labor, and resolved to make it his profession ; to this 
 end he eagerly read all biography and history within 
 his reach. To procure means to complete his edu- 
 cation and to somewhat satisfy his longing for read- 
 ing matter, he, in October, 1834, procured a situa- 
 tion in a printing office in his county town, where 
 he rapidly learned the art and posted himself in the 
 current events of the day; applying every odd mo- 
 ment in the study of the rudiments of an academic 
 course, aided a medical gentleman of fine attain- 
 ments, who edited the paper on which he labored. 
 
 In October, 1836, he went with his employer, to 
 complete his apprenticeship, to Findlay, then a small 
 village in the wilds of Ohio, and started the " Find- 
 lay Courier," a democratic paper 
 
 In 1837, being a master workman, he was em- 
 
58o 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 ployed as foreman of the " Whig " office for one 
 year; there he enjoyed the society of a cultivated 
 gentleman and lady (Mr. and Mrs. Marion), who 
 gave him great assistance in the study of Latin, 
 Greek and French during his hours of recreation. 
 
 In the spring of 1839 he removed to Mansfield, 
 Ohio, and commenced to publish the "Shield and 
 Banner," a democratic journal, in company with 
 Colonel John Meredith. For two years he labored 
 successfully, at the same time continuing his studies, 
 receiving help from several noted ministers and law- 
 yers by books, suggestions and recitations. He also 
 commenced the study of law, aided by Hon. Jacob 
 Brinkerhoof (now one of the most prominent judges 
 in that state) and Esq. Gates, now of Iowa. In the 
 meantime he took an active part in the Presidential 
 campaign of 1840, as well on the stump with Samuel 
 J. Kirkwood (then studying law at Mansfield, but 
 now United States senator from Iowa,) as through 
 the columns of his popular paper. At the close of 
 his engagements with Colonel Meredith he refused 
 numerous favorable offers to continue his connec- 
 tion with the press, and devoted his time to obtain- 
 ing an education. 
 
 He had made all arrangements to enter the Ohio 
 University at Athens, but owing to the convenience 
 of the Ashland Academy to Mansfield and the un- 
 settled state of his business, he chose the latter and 
 commenced in earnest, under such noble instructors 
 as Drs. Fulton and Andrews (since Colonel An- 
 drews of the 4th Infantry and president of Kenyon 
 College). In eighteen months he completed his 
 academic course, taking the honors of the institu- 
 tion. 
 
 Continuing his law studies, he was seized by a se- 
 vere attack of Laryngitis, which destroyed his voice, 
 and resulted in his having to leave his collegiate 
 course and abandon his favorite profession, the law. 
 With deep regrets, almost with remorse, and with 
 many misgivings, he commenced the study of medi- 
 cine in 1842 at Berlin, Ohio, with John M. Cook, 
 M.D., an eminent and successful practitioner, late 
 of York, Pennsylvania. He entered earnestly into 
 his studies, which soon took quite a practical form; 
 for, from necessity, he had to be doctor as well as 
 student; this interrupted his studies, but gave a 
 training of value. He graduated at Cleveland, Ohio, 
 in the medical department of the Hudson College, 
 in 1847, with a prominent standing in a class of sev- 
 enty-six. 
 
 Returning to Berlin, he entered into partnership 
 
 with his former preceptor, which continued to 1850, 
 when he took in his youngest brother. 
 
 In r852, his health failing him, he with his family 
 traveled through the western and southwestern states, 
 performing many of the finer operations of surgery. 
 His health being partially restored, he commenced 
 practice, in connection with the management of a 
 stock farm. 
 
 He sold his interests in Ohio and located in Dav- 
 enport, Iowa, on the 3d of April, 1855. He spent 
 most of his time and means in improvements in the 
 city and country until arrested by the crash of 1857, 
 in which he suffered severely financially. He again 
 devoted himself to the practice of his profession, 
 and although it took the greater part of his consid- 
 erable real estate to meet his obligations, every cent 
 was paid, and by energy, frugality and industry he 
 reinstated himself in comfortable circumstances. 
 
 At the first call for men to go to Mexico he vol- 
 unteered and -raised nearly a company, but received 
 the unwelcome word that the regiments were full, 
 and on account of poor health he had to refuse a 
 commission as assistant surgeon in the loth regi- 
 ment. United States army. 
 
 During the war of the rebellion he was sent by 
 Governor Kirkwood to give medical and surgical 
 relief to our soldiers in the field. This was imme- 
 diately after the fall of Fort Donelson, and under 
 orders of the chief medical director he aided the sol- 
 diers in the field, hospital transports and general hos- 
 pitals as assistant surgeon. United States army. He 
 was at Shiloh, Corinth, Jackson and other battles ; 
 at the battle of luka he was surgeon inspector gen- 
 eral on Grant's staff, and had charge of the wounded 
 and sick being sent north. He was placed in charge 
 of hospitals Nos. 6 and 8 at Keokuk, during which 
 time he filled the chair of physiology and pathology 
 in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk. 
 
 In June, 1863, he was appointed sanitary inspect- 
 or of hospitals in the eastern division of the army, 
 and declined to accept an appointment from the 
 governor as state sanitary agent or surgeon at large 
 to operate in the field. He visited the principal 
 hospitals in the south and west, rendering aid and 
 relief, particularly at the siege of Vicksburgh and 
 Fort Hudson, and extending to New Orleans and 
 the gulf 
 
 In January, 1864, he returned to Iowa and made 
 his final report of operations to the governor and 
 legislature, receiving their hearty approval. Resign- 
 ing his position, he returned home and resumed the 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 581 
 
 practice of his profession, receiving a cordial and 
 liberal support which has continued to this day. 
 
 In 1852 he received the nomination for state sen- 
 ator, but declined, as it required too much sacrifice 
 of business and principle to accept. In 1843 he was 
 nominated for congress on the democratic ticket in 
 the district composed of Tuscarawas, Holmes, Co- 
 shocton and Knox counties, in Ohio, in which a 
 nomination was equivalent to an election ; but as he 
 was expected to support the introduction of slavery 
 into the territories of Kansas and Nebraska he de- 
 clined the honor. 
 
 In company with Mrs. Anna Witteimer he made, 
 while in Jackson, Tennessee, in 1862, a plan of the 
 Soldiers' Orphans' Home as a state institution, while 
 she suggested the idea of a private one instituted 
 and supported by her own liberality and patriotism. 
 The doctor is surgeon for the Soldiers' Orphans' 
 Home in Davenport ; also consulting surgeon and 
 director of the Mercy Hospital in Same city. 
 
 He is a member of the Masonic order, having 
 joined in Mansfield, Ohio, in 1842, and is a life 
 member of the Young Men's Christian Association. 
 
 He was raised in the democratic school of politics, 
 but left that party in public convention in 1861, as 
 he could not stay with a party that would not fight 
 for the preservation of their country. 
 
 In religion, he is a Protestant, and a member of 
 the Methodist Episcopal church since 1836. 
 
 He was married on the i6th of February, 1847, to 
 Miss Charlotte S. Hough, a lady of culture, and 
 daughter of William Hough, Esq., a merchant in 
 York, Pennsylvania, who died when she was but 
 four years old, leaving lier to the guardianship of 
 her uncle, CoJonel John Hough, a noted merchant 
 and manufacturer at York, Pennsylvania. Five sons 
 and four daughters are the fruits of their union. 
 
 Dr. Maxwell possesses a fine commanding pres- 
 ence; is six feet one and a half inches in height and 
 rather spare; has a large head, with high, broad fore- 
 head ; a Grecian face and nose, with blue eyes, mild 
 and intelligent in their expression, and hair and 
 beard a light auburn. 
 
 In every position which in his eventful life he has 
 filled. Dr. Maxwell has been successful in the high- 
 est degree, and has left an untarnished and unspot- 
 ted reputation. As a business man, he has been 
 upright, reliable and honorable ; as a physician, at- 
 tentive and obliging, ranking among the leaders in 
 his profession in the state. In all places and under 
 all circumstances he is loyal to Truth, Honor and 
 Right. Few mren have more devoted friends, or 
 merit more the confidence and esteem of their fel- 
 low-citizens. 
 
 LORENZO H. SALES, M.D., 
 
 LEON. 
 
 LORENZO HARRISON SALES, a resident of 
 J Iowa since it became a state, is a descend- 
 ant of a Mohawk Dutch family, and was born in 
 Ontario county. New York, on the 28th of March, 
 1819. His parents were Hiram Sales, surveyor and 
 farmer, and Nancy Ann Thorington, his mother be- 
 mg a native of Rutland, Vermont. His maternal 
 great-grandfather was a Phillips, whose ancestry is 
 traced back directly to the Mayflower. He was in 
 the revolutionary army ; was taken prisoner, brought 
 as far west as Detroit, Michigan, by the Indians, 
 and kept there several years. At length he made 
 his escape, and after much hardship reached Ver- 
 mont. 
 
 When Lorenzo was three years old the family re- 
 moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Young as the boy was, 
 he still recollects the trip down the Alleghany and 
 Ohio rivers on a raft. The scenes on the way were 
 
 a wonderful novelty to his young eyes, and time 
 fails to obliterate them. After spending one year 
 in Cincinnati his father removed to Troy, Miami 
 county, where he died in 1823, leaving his widow 
 with seven children. There Lorenzo received a 
 common-school education in a log school-house. 
 
 In 1834 the family removed to Defiance, where 
 Lorenzo prepared himself for the medical profes- 
 sion, and where he practiced until 1846; removing 
 to Iowa City, Iowa, a few months before it doffed 
 its territorial robes. After practicing in Iowa City 
 a little less than two years he removed to Wash- 
 ington county, continuing his profession in Wash- 
 ington and Richmond villages until 1856, when he 
 removed his family to Leon, Decatur county. While 
 at Richmond he received from President Pierce the 
 appointment of receiver of the United States land 
 office, at Chariton, Lucas county, and was in that 
 
582 
 
 THE VISITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 position three years, when the office was moved to 
 Des Moines. 
 
 Since residing in Leon Dr. Sales has been in a 
 variety of occupations, — ^practicing medicine a lit- 
 tle ; keeping a hotel at sundry times, in all about 
 twelve years; selling drugs; editing a newspaper; 
 dealing in real estate, and acting as county officer, 
 being judge of Decatur county two years. The 
 judge is well known all over the county. 
 
 In 1862 he went into the 17th Iowa Infantry as 
 lieutenant, company A, and acting adjutant; served 
 
 six months and was discharged on account of dis- 
 ability. 
 
 In his political principles, the judge has been a 
 life-long democrat. 
 
 In August, 1845, he was joined in wedlock with 
 Miss Mary Ann Wartenbe, of Defiance, Ohio, and 
 they have three children. Nancy Ann, the eldest 
 child, is the wife of Lyman W. Forgrave, contract- 
 or and builder, of Leon ; Lewis Cass is a printer in 
 Leon, and Frank Knox is a brick mason and resides 
 in Crete, Nebraska. Both sons are unmarried. 
 
 HON. DAVID C. CLOUD, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 HON. DAVID COMER CLOUD, attorney and 
 counselor-at-law, one of the oldest and most 
 distinguished practitioners at the bar of Iowa, and 
 an author of considerable repute, was born in Cham- 
 paign, Ohio, on the 22d of January, i8i7,and is the 
 son of Robert Cloud and Anna nee Comer. The 
 Cloud family is of French origin, the great-grand- 
 father of our subject being of that'nationality. In 
 middle life he removed to England, where he died ; 
 his son Robert Cloud, the grandfather of our subject, 
 emigrated to America not very long after the revolu- 
 tion, and settled in Maryland, where he became a 
 Methodist minister ; from that state he removed to 
 Kentucky, and in company with Rev. Enoch Matt- 
 son h^ crossed the Ohio river into what was then 
 known as the Northwestern Territory, where he la- 
 bored for several years, and then returned to Ken- 
 tucky, where he died. He and Mr. Mattson were 
 the first Methodist preachers that ever visited and 
 preached the gospel north of the Ohio river. His 
 father in early life removed from Kentucky to Ohio 
 and settled in Champaign county, where for twenty 
 years he operated a small farm ; he then removed 
 to Franklin county, where he remained four years, 
 and subsequently took up his abode in Columbus, 
 where he died. The mother of our subject was of 
 German origin. Her father was a cattle dealer in 
 Ohio, and was accustomed to drive his herds over 
 the mountains to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His 
 last trip was rhade in 1822, when he is known to 
 have sold a large drove of beef cattle in Philadel- 
 phia, received payment for them, and started on his 
 homeward journey. He never returned to Ohio, 
 and is supposed to have been murdered and robbed. 
 
 An uncle of our subject, his father's eldest brother. 
 Rev. Caleb W. Cloud, was also a noted Methodist 
 preacher in Kentucky. He was a prominent Mason, 
 and during the anti-Masonic crusade on the part 
 of the Methodist and other churches which grew 
 out of the murder of Morgan, who had revealed 
 the secrets of the order, he withdrew from the con- 
 nection, and built a conventicle, which he called 
 "Saint John's Chapel," in Lexington, Kentucky, in 
 which he preached during the remainder of his life. 
 At his death the congregation reunited with the old 
 church. 
 
 D. C. Cloud is the fourth child of a family of four- 
 teen children, three of whom died in infancy; the 
 eldest, Mrs. Rachel O'Hara, died in 1876, and ten 
 are still living, the youngest being forty years of age. 
 D. C. was raised on his father's farm, and had only the 
 privilege of the common education of a log school- 
 house during a brief period of the winter months, 
 up till the age of twelve; the only schooling which 
 he received subsequent to that age was six weeks 
 at an academy, where he intended to pursue a two- 
 years' course, but his father meeting with a reverse 
 in business, the long cherished scheme of the boy 
 had to be abandoned. 
 
 At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to learn 
 the book-binder's trade, but after a six months' trial 
 he gave up this experiment, and was next appren- 
 ticed to the carpenter's trade, to which he served 
 the regular time, and it is said was one of the finest 
 mechanics at that time in the west. Shortly after 
 completing his apprenticeship, at the age of twenty- 
 two years, in" the year 1839, he removed to Musca- 
 tine county, Iowa, where he has since resided. He 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 583 
 
 at once procured employment as a journeyman, and 
 worked steadily at his trade for several years, em- 
 ploying his spare time in reading such books as 
 fell into his hands. These were of what may be 
 termed a " solid " nature, arid evidently were instru- 
 mental in preparing his mind for the cultivation 
 which it afterward received. After he had been two 
 years in Muscatine, he conceived the idea of enter- 
 ing upon a course of study preparatory to the legal 
 profession, and accordingly all his energies were 
 directed to that result. He procured the necessary 
 books by working for their hire, which he read after 
 the close of his day's work. He pursued his studies 
 in this way for five years, when after a strict exam- 
 ination he was admitted to the bar in the year 1845, 
 and at once discontinued his trade, and engaged in 
 the active practice of his profession. He has since 
 been an arduous and incessant student,' not only 
 of the law, but of all subjects and matters pertain- 
 ing to politics, government and social economics, so 
 that he is now one of the best informed men of his 
 day, one of the most efficient criminal lawyers at 
 the western bar, and an author of national renown. 
 During the year 1851-2 he held the position of pros- 
 ecuting attorney for the county of Muscatine, and 
 was afterward elected the first attorney-general of 
 the State of Iowa, on the democratic ticket ; he held 
 this office for four years. After this he was elected 
 to the state legislature, in which he served during 
 the winter of 1856-7, being chairman of the com- 
 mittees of ways and means, and of railroads. Since 
 then he has devoted himself exclusively to his pro- 
 fession, and to the pursuit of literature. His fame 
 as a jurist became widely extended, and his practice 
 as a lawyer increased accordingly. He is now re- 
 garded as one of the best, if not the best, criminal 
 lawyer in the west. He is also recognized as the Nes- 
 tor of the bar of lown, having been practicing longer 
 than any attorney now in the state. He is the au- 
 thor of the law on the Iowa statute books which 
 makes railroad corporations liable for all deaths 
 caused or damage done by them in the prosecution 
 of their business, and he has during his career as 
 a lawyer tried over two hundred cases against rail- 
 roads and recovered more damages from railroad 
 corporations than perhaps any other lawyer in the 
 northwest, if not in the nation. In short, if Mr. 
 Cloud can be said to have any specialty in the prac- 
 tice it is in the prosecution of suits against railroads. 
 In politics, he was raised in the Jefferson school, 
 and continued a democrat till after the formation 
 
 of the republican party, with which he united, being 
 opposed to the spread of slavery and the Nebraska 
 policy of the democratic party. He was a member 
 of the convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln 
 for the Presidency, and during the war with slavery 
 was a staunch supporter of the government, and so 
 continued until 1872, when, with many other good 
 men of the party, he joined the reform movement, 
 and was a member of the convention which nom- 
 inated Horace Greeley for the Presidency. Since 
 the dissolution of the liberal republican party, as 
 it was called, he has acted with the democratic 
 party, and was nominated as one of the Tilden 
 (Presidential) electors in 1876. In a more compre- 
 hensive sense, however, he belongs to that class or 
 party that always want reform, being an anti-monop- 
 olist and an anti-protectionist, and favoring free 
 trade and hard money. 
 
 During the progress of the late war he wrote a 
 book entitled "The War Powers of the President," 
 taking the strongest ground in favor of the adminis- 
 tration, and the measures adopted for the suppres- 
 sion of the rebellion. The volume, which was ex- 
 tensively circulated, demonstrated deep research and 
 a very high order of talents on the part of the au- 
 thor, and received universal approbation in the 
 northern states. In 1874 he published his great 
 work entitled '.' Monopolies and the People," which 
 had a circulation of over ten thousand copies. It 
 received the very highest commendation of the press 
 of the principal cities of the country, the New York 
 " Tribune " devoting two columns of its space to a 
 review and commendation of the work. 
 
 Mr. Cloud was in early life a member of the Meth- 
 odist church, but is not now in comnriunion with any 
 denomination; he is, .however, an unswerving be- 
 liever in the bible, and in the doctrines of the chris- 
 tian religion, and gives generously to religious and 
 benevolent objects. 
 
 In the year 1839 he was married to Miss Annetta 
 Dibble, of Columbus, Ohio, who died in 1846, leav- 
 ing two infant children, whose death occurred soon 
 after hers; and in 1848 he was married to Mrs. Mi- 
 randa H. Morrow, widow of the late Dr. James G. 
 Morrow, of Muscatine, and daughter of Wm. R. Olds, 
 Esq., of Bennington, Vermont, by whom he has two 
 children, a son and a daughter. The son, George 
 W., is preparing for the profession of his father. The 
 daughter, Annie, is still unmarried. 
 
 The remarkable career of Mr. Cloud from the car- 
 penter's bench to the position of one of the first 
 
584 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 lawyers and publicists of the state, and his no less 
 brilliant advancement to the leadership of his party 
 in the chairmanship of the two most important com- 
 mittees of the house of representatives, were neither 
 the accident of fortune nor the reward of political 
 intrigue, but of a genius and character essentially 
 independent and progressive. 
 
 In his second candidacy for the attorney-general- 
 ship he challenged the fealty of his party by declar- 
 ing himself an anti-Nebraska democrat, and at the 
 expiration of his term asserted his political inde- 
 pendence by accepting a nomination from the anti- 
 slavery citizens of his county for the legislature. 
 Earnest and active in his loyalty during the rebel- 
 lion and a member of the republican party from its 
 organization till 1872, he was, on being convinced 
 of the necessity of the departure, the first in his 
 state to lead in the liberal movement of that year. 
 The call for the first liberal republican state con- 
 vention held in Iowa proceeded from his pen, and 
 was one of the most pungent arraignments of the 
 dominant party, as well as the ablest political paper 
 drawn out by the movement of that year. The in- 
 dependence and vigor which have characterized Mr. 
 Cloud's political life found an equally able and spir- 
 ited expression in his celebrated work above alluded 
 to, " Monopolies and the People," in which he has 
 exhaustively reviewed the whole subject of Ameri- 
 can monopolies, from an extortionate tariff, the gold 
 operations of Wall street, and the greed of railroads, 
 down to the lowest species of barnacle on Ameri- 
 can industry to be found in the abuses of the patent 
 office. This volume, replete with statistical infor- 
 mation and curious items of history, which are wo- 
 
 ven with a lawyer's tact into the argument of the 
 work, prepared in the spare hours of a large and 
 exacting law practice, affords an important clue to 
 the secret of the life-work and success of Mr. Cloud. 
 He has never been idle, but, like Horace Greeley, 
 he has waited more than twenty years for the time 
 when he could go " a fishing," but has not yet found 
 it. And still we should fall far short of the full 
 measure of Mr. Cloud's character were we to ignore 
 the passionate energy which he throws into every 
 aim and purpose of his will. He knows no such 
 words as discouragement or failure. He fights his 
 battles through to a successful issue. His most sig- 
 nal triumphs as a counselor and advocate have been 
 won on fields where the varying chances of the day 
 were with his opponent. Though now over sixty 
 years of age, he still finds his greatest pleasure in 
 the hotly contested arena of his profession, and he 
 is never happier than on the eve of a controversy 
 which is to put his mettle to the severest test. 
 
 As a citizen and friend, he is eminently social in 
 his disposition, and dispenses a generous hospitality 
 at his beautiful home overlooking Muscatine and 
 the Mississippi river ; and he will discuss with his 
 friends or visitors any subject from belles-lettres to 
 the Turco-Russian war, or President Hayes' new 
 departure. But a glance through his private library 
 betrays his favorite fireside studies, in the well 
 thumbed volumes of the Holy Bible, Shakespeare, 
 Milton and Scott. These have been his class books 
 all his life, and perhaps he owes as much to his con- 
 stant draught upbn these inexhaustible fountains of 
 wisdom and beauty as to his mental gifts, natural in- 
 dustry, or discipline derived from his profession. 
 
 GEORGE B. CHRISTY, M. D., 
 
 DUNLAP. 
 
 GEORGE BROWER CHRISTY, a noted array 
 surgeon in the late rebellion, is a native of 
 Prince Edward county, Canada, and was born on 
 the 30th of January, 1830, his parents being Henry 
 and Maria Brower Christy. They belonged to the 
 agricultural class. The Christys were from Dutch- 
 ess county. New York. 
 
 George B. lived in Canada until twenty-five years 
 of age, farming and merchandising in youth, with 
 ordinary common-school privileges. When arrived 
 at his majority he read medicine with Dr. Peter H. 
 
 Clark, in Victoria county, having previously studied 
 medicine to a considerable extent in private. He 
 attended lectures first in the medical department 
 of Yale College, New Haven, Connecticut, then at 
 Cleveland, Ohio, where he graduated in February, 
 1859, and practiced at Franklin Grove, Lee county, 
 Illinois, until the civil war commenced. 
 
 In August, i86i. Dr. Christy went into the army 
 as first assistant surgeon of the 32d Illinois Infantry, 
 Colonel J. Logan, commander; and on the i6th of 
 March, 1863, he was promoted to surgeon of the 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 585 
 
 9th Illinois Cavalry. While with the 32d Infantry 
 he was on General Grant's staff, at Fort Donelson ; 
 immediately after that battle he was appointed post 
 surgeon at Fort Henry; was at the battle of Shiloh, 
 the siege of Corinth, the battle of Hatchie, and was 
 post surgeon when General Sherman's array was en- 
 camped at La Grange. While with the 9th Cavalry 
 Dr. Christy was for some time surgeon-in-chief of 
 cavalry, with headquarters at Memphis, Tennessee. 
 He joined General Thomas just before the battle 
 of Nashville ; acted as medical director of Wilson's 
 cavalry in the winter of 1864-5, 3-"<i ^^^ mustered 
 out at Selma, Alabama, in November, 1865. On dif- 
 ferent occasions he was staff surgeon for Generals 
 Hatch, Grierson and Coon ; and in a letter which 
 we have before us the last named officer speaks of 
 the doctor's faithfulness and efficiency in very strong 
 
 terms. Colonel Albert G. Brackett, of the United 
 States army, in a letter which we have seen, speaks 
 in a similar tone of commendation of surgeon Christy 
 for his skill and his care of the sick. 
 
 At the close of the war he practiced four years 
 in Chicago, and after traveling a year or two at the 
 south, for his health, he settled in Dunlap, Harrison 
 county, Iowa, where he has been practicing for the 
 last six or seven years with excellent success. His 
 reputation is very high, particularly in surgery, in 
 which he has had much experience. 
 
 In politics, Dr. Christy was originally a Douglass 
 democrat, and still, it is understood, votes with the 
 democracy. He is a Royal Arch Mason. 
 
 In January, 1853, he was united with Miss Diana 
 Bowerman, of Prince Edwards county, Canada, and 
 they have five children. 
 
 HENRY TEMPLE, 
 
 ATLANTIC. 
 
 ONE of the settlers in Iowa in its infancy as a 
 state, and a man of much prominence in Cass 
 county, is Henry Temple, who has held a variety of 
 offices, and was faithful in the discharge of his du- 
 ties in all of them. He is a native of Franklin 
 county, Massachusetts; was the son of Benjamin 
 and Rebena Christie Temple, and was born in the 
 town of Heath, near the Vermont line, on the 20th 
 of August, 1816. His grandsires on both sides of 
 the family came over in General Burgoyne's array ; 
 were taken prisoners and never returned to England. 
 Both died in Heath. Benjamin Temple was in the 
 second war with Great Britain, and was stationed at 
 Boston harbor. 
 
 Henry, thrown on his own resources, went to Hat- 
 field, Hampshire county, when twelve years old, and 
 engaged in farming until nineteen, when in 1835, 
 with five dollars in his pocket, he reached Marietta, 
 Ohio, and attended the academic department of the 
 college there most of the time for four years, teach- 
 ing two winters in the interim and doing some farm 
 labor, thus, furnishing himself with the means for 
 schooling. 
 
 In the spring of 1840 Mr. Temple immigrated to 
 southern Iowa, settling at first at Fairfield, Jefferson 
 county, where he read law with Judge Cyrus Olney, 
 and was admitted to the bar in 1842. The follow- 
 ing year he removed to Mahaska county, and after 
 
 working on a farm one season opened a law office 
 in Oskaloosa, the county seat, and was in practice 
 there until the autumn of 1858, when he removed 
 to Lewis, at that tirae the seat of justice of Cass coun- 
 ty. There he remained until 1869, when he settled 
 in Atlantic, the present county seat, still continuing 
 his practice and standing well, especially as a court 
 lawyer, and very high as a citizen. 
 
 While in Mahaska county Mr. Temple was treas- 
 urer during one term, and justice of the peace ten or 
 eleven years. At Lewis he was postmaster for four 
 years, also, while living there, county judge one term ; 
 deputy provost-marshal for Cass and Adair counties 
 during the civil war, and county recorder from 1864 
 to 1870. A truer man has never held an official 
 position in the county. He has always had the un- 
 limited confidence of the people. 
 
 Judge Temple was a whig until the party disband- 
 ed. He aided in state convention to form the re- 
 publican party, to which he firmly adheres. He has 
 been one of its leaders in Cass county for years, and 
 still occasionally takes the stump. 
 
 Judge Temple has been a member of the Congre- 
 gational church for thirty-five years, and lives con- 
 sistently with his christian profession. 
 
 He is a blue lodge member of the Masonic frater- 
 nity. 
 
 On the i8th of January, 1846, he was joined in 
 
586 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 the bonds of matrimony with Miss Anne E. Wright, 
 of Oskaloosa, and they have had ten children, nine 
 yet living. Mary R. is the wife of Romie Lawrence, 
 of Atlantic, and Jennie is the wife of William Calvey, 
 of Exira, Audubon county. The other children are 
 unmarried. 
 
 Judge Temple has seen Cass county grow up from 
 one thousand eight hundred inhabitants to twelve 
 thousand or fourteen thousand, and is one of the 
 public-spirited men who have aided in making it 
 what it is, one of the leading counties in agricultural 
 wealth and enterprise in this part of the state. 
 
 HON. JOHN Q. TUFTS, 
 
 WILTON. 
 
 JOHN QUINCY TUFTS, farmer and ex-mem- 
 J ber of congress, was born at Aurora, Indiana, 
 on the 1 2th of July, 1840, and is the son of Servitus 
 Tufts and Emily ne'e Dudley. His father was born 
 at Wilton, Maine; came to Ohio in 1830, and was 
 for a number of years a professor in the high school 
 at Aurora, Indiana ; and during the administration 
 of President Fillmore held a lucrative clerkship in 
 the postofifice department. 
 
 He subsequently removed to Muscatine county, 
 Iowa, where he entered largely into business and 
 became wealthy. During these years he had in- 
 dorsed largely for his friends, and when the crash 
 of 1857 came it required almost his entire fortune to 
 pay these debts, and he died at Wilton, Iowa, com- 
 paratively poor, in 1862. 
 
 He had been a member of the Methodist Epis- 
 copal church and a radical temperance advocate 
 all his lifetime. He was, moreover, held in high es- 
 teem by all who knew him. 
 
 The mother of our subject was a daughter of 
 Moses Dudley, Esq., formerly, of Wilton, Maine, a 
 most excellent woman, intellectual and highly edu- 
 cated. She was a devout member of the Methodist 
 church, and died in the faith at Wilton, Iowa, in the 
 year 1863. They had a family of four children, 
 three sons and one daughter, the latter died in in- 
 fancy. The sons lived to maturity, but one of them, 
 John M., died in 1855, while a student at Cornell 
 College, Mount Vernon, Iowa, leaving our subject 
 and his brother, Benjamin Franklin, sole survivors. 
 The latter is now chief clerk in the postal service 
 between Davenport and Chicago. 
 
 The great-great-grandfather of our subject, Will- 
 iam Tufts, emigrated from the north of Ireland early 
 in the eighteenth century and settled near Boston, 
 Massachusetts, where a large colony of his descend- 
 ants still reside. The Tufts College at Medford, in 
 that state, was founded and endowed to the amount 
 
 of over a million dollars by members of the lineage, 
 and is a monument to their wisdom and public spirit. 
 
 Dr. Cotton Tufts, a descendant of the original 
 William Tufts, graduated at Harvard College, was a 
 man of great learning and influence; practiced his 
 profession for many years at Weymouth. He was 
 state counselor and a senator for many years ; was a 
 member of the convention for ratifying the federal 
 constitution, and was one of the founders of the 
 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of 
 the Massachusetts Medical Society, of which he was 
 president for ten years. 
 
 He married a daughter of Colonel John Qiiincy, 
 who was a near relative of John Quincy Adams ; 
 hence the baptismal name of our subject. 
 
 The grandfather of our subject, Hon. John Tufts, 
 was for many years a member of the' upper branch 
 of the Massachusetts legislature. He afterward re- 
 moved to Wilton, Maine, and later in life emigrated 
 to Indiana, where he died. 
 
 John Quincy Tufts was raised at Muscatine, Iowa, 
 and in early life imbibed a taste for agricultural pur- 
 suits. After passing through the curriculum of the 
 common schools of the city he spent two years at 
 Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa, which institu- 
 tion he left in 1858. 
 
 He immediately commenced to improve the farm 
 on which he now lives, in Cedar county, Iowa, three 
 miles northeast of Wilton. In 1872 he built a beau- 
 tiful villa, one of the most ornate and commodious 
 residences in the state. 
 
 He has always been a man of high moral char- 
 acter, and an earnest advocate of the temperance 
 cause. From the outset he took a leading position 
 in his community, and has rarely been without some 
 local office of trust and responsibility, his educa- 
 tion and natural gifts seeming to fit him especially 
 for the position of a leader. 
 
 In 1869 he was elected to the lower branch of the 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 587 
 
 thirteenth general assembly of Iowa, and served as 
 chairman of the committee on suppression of intem- 
 perance. 
 
 In 1871 he was reelected and was made chairman 
 of the committee on claims against the state, and in- 
 stituted a system by which all claims having been 
 once passed on by the legislature are placed on rec- 
 ord, indexed, and the result indicated for future ref- 
 erence. This has been the means of saving time of 
 the legislature and money to the state. 
 
 In 1873 he was a member of the extra session 
 which made and passed what is known as the " New 
 Code" of statutes of the state. In 1873 he was 
 again elected and served as chairman of the com- 
 mittee on railroads, then the most important com- 
 mittee in the body, and is one of the authors of the 
 present railroad law of the state regulating freight 
 and passenger tariffs. He was among the most in- 
 telligent and useful members of the house, and left 
 behind a record of integrity and wisdom. 
 
 In 1874 he was nominated by the republicans of 
 the second congressional district of Iowa, and elect- 
 ed to the forty-fourth congress. During the canvass 
 he was challenged by his democratic opponent, Hon. 
 J. L. Sheehan, a leading lawyer of the state, to a 
 joint discussion, which Mr. Tufts promptly accepted, 
 and met his competitor at all the towns and cities 
 in the district, and though the district had polled a 
 democratic majority the previous year, running con- 
 siderably ahead of his ticket. 
 
 In congress he had but little opportunity to dis- 
 tinguish himself He was a member of the commit- 
 tee on Indian affairs, and also a meinber of the spe- 
 cial committee to inquire into the management of 
 Indian affairs. 
 
 Although he has had much experience in public 
 
 life, yet he is somewhat diffident as a public speaker, 
 and consequently is not obtrusive in public assem- 
 blies, but when occasion requires can express his 
 thoughts freely and even eloquently. He has. strong 
 convictions of duty, and the courage to stand by 
 them in the face of opposition. He is a firm tem- 
 perance man in principle as well as practice, and 
 favors prohibition in preference to license. 
 
 Mr. Tufts is a member of the Masonic order. In 
 religious sentiment, he adheres to Protestantism. 
 
 On the loth of October, 1861, he married Miss 
 Susan Shaw Cooke, daughter of Henry Cooke, Esq., 
 of Williamsburg, Iowa, formerly of Mainville, Ohio. 
 Mrs. Tufts was educated at Leigh University, is an 
 amiable and accomplished lady, and was in early life 
 a teacher; she is a fine conversationalist, and is well 
 versed in the literature of the day. They have had 
 nine children: Annie Dudly, Emily, Edward Ben- 
 jamin, John Quincy, Eva, William Allison, Maud, 
 Martha, and George Washington. The last named, 
 who was twin to Martha, died at the age of nine 
 months, August, T877. 
 
 Mr. Tufts is somewhat above middle size, of full 
 form and fine personal appearance; his complexion 
 being florid, and his hair and beard of a sandy hue. 
 He has a large head and high forehead, indicating a 
 strong intellect ; he possesses, in fact, a well-balanced 
 mind. He is a great reader, and owns one of the 
 best libraries of the state. 
 
 As a friend, he is true and steadfast, but it re- 
 quires a strong effort to forget an injury; generous 
 and tender-hearted to the poor, and held in the 
 highest esteem by all who know him. 
 
 As a husband and father, he is devoted to his 
 family, holding it as his first duty to minister to their 
 comfort and happiness. 
 
 THOMAS J. DOUGLASS, M. D., 
 
 OTTUMWA. 
 
 AMONG the physicians of longest practice and 
 L. best standing in Ottumwa is Thomas Jefferson 
 Douglass, who seems to eschew every other branch 
 of science and to make medicine his life study as well 
 as life pursuit. By attending entirely and closely to 
 his profession he has built up an extensive business, 
 and by his skill has secured the confidence of the 
 community. He is a native of Pennsylvania, and 
 was born in Mercer county on the 3d of July, 1829. 
 60 
 
 His parents were Archibald A. and Maria Parks 
 Douglass. His paternal ancestors were from Scot- 
 land, and were early settlers in Pennsylvania and 
 Virginia, his great-gr^dfather being an officer in 
 the American revolution. The Parks family were 
 among the pioneers in Pennsylvania. 
 
 The subject of this sketch spent his minority in 
 his native state, devoting it mainly to literary pur- 
 suits, finishing his education at the Mercer Academy. 
 
S8« 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DtCTlONART. 
 
 He read medicine with Dr. Rodrigue, of Hollidays- 
 burg, attended lectures at the University of Penn- 
 sylvania, Philadelphia, and the medical department 
 of the Western Reserve College, Cleveland, Ohio ; 
 graduating from the former institution in 1853, and 
 from the latter in 1854. 
 
 After practicing one year at Hollidaysburg he left 
 his native state and located permanently in Ottumwa. 
 He is a first-class surgeon as well as physician, and 
 his rides not unfrequently extend beyond Wapello 
 county. Wherever he is best known his services are 
 best appreciated. 
 
 The doctor is a member of the Wapello County 
 Medical Society, of the Des Moines Valley Medical 
 Association, and of the State Medical Society, and 
 has been president of the first two organizations. 
 
 Politically, the doctor has been a life-long demo- 
 crat, but has never sought ofi&ce. To achieve suc- 
 
 cess in any one of the learned professions, he evi- 
 dently believes that one's whole time must be given 
 to it. He owes his high standing in the profession to 
 his careful and undivided attention to it. 
 
 Dr. Douglkss has a second wife. His first was 
 Miss Caroline Whaley, of Marshall, Clark county, 
 Illinois; married on the 22d of October, 1857. She 
 died on the 27th of June, 1859, leaving an infant 
 child, who followed her the same year. His present 
 wife was Miss Lizzie J. Wheeler, of Fairfield, Iowa; 
 married on the ist of January, 1862. She has had 
 four children, only two of whom are living. Stella 
 C. is fifteen and Edna D. is ten years of age. 
 
 Dr. Douglass has a partner in the profession, A. 
 0. Williams, M.D., a graduate of the literary and 
 medical departments of the State University of Iowa; 
 a young man of fine culture, excellent moral charac- 
 ter and much promise. 
 
 HON. MATT. PARROTT, 
 
 WATERLOO. ■ 
 
 MATT. PARROTT, as everybody in Iowa calls 
 him, the newly elected state binder, is a na- 
 tive of Schoharie, Schoharie county, New York, and 
 was born on the nth of May, 1837. He is a son of 
 William and Maria (Beck) Parrott, who were natives 
 of England ; came to this country in 1833, locating in 
 Albany, New York, where they remained two years, 
 and then settled in Schoharie. William Parrott was 
 a baker by trade, with quite as many children as he 
 could supply with bread, there being ten in all, our. 
 subject standing third from the head. All these 
 children the father gave a fair education, all the for- 
 tune he had to bestow. 
 
 Matt, attended a district school until ten years of 
 age, then the Schoharie Academy about three years, 
 paying his way by building fires and sweeping the 
 school-rooms for his tuition, thus acquiring a fair 
 English education. He had no especial relish for 
 hard study, and exhibited no signs of superior genius 
 by keeping uniformly at the head of his classes. 
 The writer once heard him declare that he was a 
 dull scholar at that early age. 
 
 At thirteen, in the autumn of 1850, Matt, entered 
 the office of the Schoharie "Patriot," then published 
 by Peter Mix, and received his first lessons in the art 
 of printing. He liked the business from the start, 
 because there were always plenty of newspapers to 
 
 read in the office, while there had been a dearth at 
 home, his father receiving only a county paper, a 
 church monthly and an anti-slavery monthly. In the 
 ''Patriot" office Matt, was compositor, job printer, 
 pressman, mailing clerk, and almost everything else. 
 
 In 1854 he left this office, a full-blown journeyman 
 printer, and took his first " tramp." Obtaining a situ- 
 ation in the job department of the Troy, New York, 
 " Traveler," he remained a few months ; returned to 
 his native town and worked in the "Republican" 
 office until early in 1855 ; went to Utica, and obtained 
 a situation on the " Morning Herald ";^in July, 1856, 
 started for the- west; spent a few weeks on the Chi- 
 cago "Democrat," published by John Wentworth ; 
 went to Davenport, Iowa, in August, and worked in 
 the "Evening News" office until about the ist of 
 February, 1857, when he connected himself with the 
 office of Luse, Lane and Co., who were then printing 
 the debates on the new constitution. 
 
 The following summer Mr. Parrott visited several 
 new Iowa counties, hoping to find an opening for a 
 newspaper in some destitute yet ambitious town, but 
 failing to find such a place he found a situation on 
 the Burlington "Hawkeye." In December of the 
 same year he went to Anamosa, Jones county, and 
 entered into partnership with C. L. D. Crockwell in 
 the publication of the " Eureka," a paper then in its 
 
^^ /ttA..^^^ 
 
 UnfiiifSSffani SuTLrBSoKlnyStUT 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 591 
 
 first year. A year or two later Edmund Booth bought 
 the interest of Mr. Crockwell in the paper, and Mr. 
 Parrott continued one of the publishers until Decem- 
 ber, 1862, when, having received flattering promises 
 from citizens of Morris, Grundy county, Illinois, he 
 sold out and started the Morris "Advocate " early 
 in 1863. The help promised never came, and after 
 a few months' hard struggle, occasioned by the lack 
 of sufficient working capital, the paper "breathed 
 its last," and the unfortunate publisher returned to 
 Iowa a poorer and perhaps a wiser man. He learned 
 that promises are not the most reliable assets on 
 which to found business. 
 
 In the autumn of 1863 we find Mr. Parrott once 
 more in the office of Luse, Lane and Co. (this time 
 in the position of foreman), then the largest job- 
 printing and publishing house in the state. He re- 
 mained in that situation until 1869, perfecting him- 
 self in book-work, and giving unqualified satisfaction. 
 
 In February of the year just nientioned, in com- 
 pany with J. J. Smart, he purchased the office of the 
 " Iowa State Reporter " at Waterloo, Black Hawk 
 county, a paper originated as a democratic organ, 
 and which had died of the political measles at the 
 end of about eight months. Two months later the 
 " Reporter " was revived as a republican paper ; a 
 bindery was added in June, and the business of man- 
 ufacturing blank books for counties actively com- 
 menced. The prospects were good at the start ; bus- 
 iness has grown rapidly, and hardly a county in the 
 northern half of the state but has books with the 
 imprint of this house on them. Their work is hon- 
 estly, substantially done, and gives the best satisfac- 
 tion. The "Reporter," too, has thrived. It has 
 increased in size and beauty as well as circulation, 
 and is a credit to the newspaper press of Iowa, which 
 is noted for its many first-class journals. 
 
 In 1872 James L. Girton became a member of the 
 firm, and the name was changed to Smart, Parrott 
 and Co. In January, 1876, Mr. Smart retired, and 
 J. P. Sherman took an interest, and the firm name 
 was changed to Parrott, Girton and Sherman. The 
 Reporter " has a spacious and inviting home of its 
 own, forty by eighty feet, built by Smart and Parrott. 
 It has all the necessary facilities for business, — steam, 
 gas, power-presses, — its outfit being perfect. No 
 office in the interior of the state is better equipped. 
 
 Mr. Parrott has been in the council of Waterloo 
 two or three years ; was president of the school board 
 of East Waterloo independent district in 1873 and 
 1874, and is now mayor of Waterloo, being elected 
 
 in March, 1877, and reelected on the 4th of March, 
 1878, after a unanimous nomination and an almost 
 unanimous vote, receiving all but seventeen in a 
 poll of eight hundred and eleven. These positions 
 all came to him unsought, and were accepted only 
 after repeated solicitations from his neighbors and 
 townsmen. 
 
 In January, 1878, Mr. Parrott was a candidate for 
 state binder before the general assembly, and after a 
 lively canvass, with two competitors in the field, he 
 was nominated on the first ballot. His ofificial term 
 will not commence until the istof May, 1879. After 
 it was known that he was to be a candidate for this 
 office before the seventeenth general assembly the 
 Iowa press gave him a very strong indorsement, 
 nearly every leading paper on the republican side 
 speaking in the highest terms of his peculiar fitness 
 for the office. From a score of notices of this char- 
 acter which might be given we select the following 
 from the " State Register," Des Moines : 
 
 Mr. Parrott has every qualification of fitness and every 
 merit to entitle him to such a position. First, and most im- 
 portant, he is himself skilled practically in binding, is now 
 proprietor of one of the largest binderies in the state, and 
 understands the whole business from beginning to end. To 
 this, in a business sense, he adds superior executive ability 
 and a high sense of honor and pride which would lead him 
 to perform all his duties in the best possible manner. There 
 could be no man found better qualified in all respects for 
 the state bindership. As to his standing and merits as a 
 republican, he is equally strong. The " Reporter " as a 
 paper well represents both his business ability, his mechan- 
 ical skill and his working republicanism. It is a paper cred- 
 itable to the journalism of a state which is proud, and has 
 reason to be proud, of its newspapers. In his own profession 
 Mr. Parrott is very popular, both on account of his genial 
 and sterling qualities as a man and his merits as a journalist. 
 
 The Waterloo " Courier," published at the home 
 
 of Mr. Parrott, thus spoke of him as a man about 
 
 the same time : 
 
 Mr. Parrott is a gentleman in every sense of the word, 
 one against whose integrity not a word can be whispered. 
 He has been one of the partners in the publication of the 
 " Iowa State Reporter " ever since it was started as a repub- 
 lican paper, and among the first steps taken by the firm 
 which resurrected the " Reporter," and parent firm of the 
 present flourishing house of Parrott, Girton and Sherman, 
 was the establishment of a bookbindery. This branch of 
 the business, from occupying narrow quarters in Union 
 block, has grown with the steady increase of the "Re- 
 porter." Long connection with this'establishment has given 
 Mr. Parrott thorough knowledge of the business, and every 
 one who knows him will unite with us in saying that the 
 interests of the office of state binder would be greatly sub- 
 served by being intrusted to his hands. Mr. Parrott has 
 been connected with the printing business for twenty-six 
 years, and during a large portion of this time has been iden- 
 tified with the republican press of Iowa. He has always 
 been a stalwart champion of true republican doctrine, and 
 has never wavered in his support of the right as it appeared 
 to him. We have known this gentleman for a score of 
 years past, and can say that we have always found him a 
 man worthy of the highest trusts. 
 
592 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 The writer of this sketch has known Mr. Parrott 
 for nearly twenty years, and can indorse all that is 
 here said of him. 
 
 In local enterprises Mr. Parrott has promptly lent 
 the aid of his hand and pen, and is in all respects an 
 enterprising citizen. Should his business take him 
 to Des Moines, even temporarily, he will be missed 
 in Waterloo. 
 
 Mr. Parrott has been a member of the Masonic 
 fraternity since i860, and has held various official 
 positions. He was a charter member and the first 
 junior warden of Victory Lodge, No. 296, of Water- 
 loo ; was afterward senior warden, then treasurer, 
 and is at the time of writing filling the master's 
 chair; is also a member of the chapter, command- 
 ery and consistory, and has been prelate of Ascalon 
 Commandery, of Waterloo, since its organization. 
 
 He is a member of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 
 Waterloo, and a man whose christian integrity is 
 
 above suspicion. He is a firm believer in practical 
 Christianity and charity, and always ready to relieve 
 the necessities of the destitute or to extend a help- 
 ing hand to those who need such encouragement. 
 
 Politically, he was a whig, like his father, in youth, 
 and shouted for Scott and Graham in 1852. Since 
 old enough to vote he has affiliated steadily with the 
 republicans ; but while a party man, he is not one of 
 those who believe a party is of more importance than 
 right and honesty. 
 
 On the 25th of October, 1859, he was married at 
 Davenport to Miss Frank M. Field, youngest daugh- 
 ter of Isaac N. Field, and they have three boys. 
 
 Mr. Parrott has gray eyes, a florid complexion, an 
 unwrinkled face, a young look, a pleasant disposition, 
 and the cordiality of a sincere, honest and warm 
 heart. He is five feet and eight inches tall, weighs 
 one hundred and ninety pounds, and has very sym- 
 metrical proportions. 
 
 LEWIS CARMICHAEL, 
 
 TAMA CITT. 
 
 ONE of the most enterprising canal and railroad 
 contractors in the northwest is Lewis Car- 
 michael, son of Zophar Carmichael, a farmer, and 
 Sarah Eldred, residents of Orange county, New 
 York, where Lewis was born on the 7th of May, 
 1825. His paternal great-grandfather was from 
 Scotland; the Eldreds were from England, and set- 
 tled in Orange county about the time of the rev- 
 olution. In that seven years' war Lewis' paternal 
 grandfather carried a knapsack and musket. 
 
 At fifteen years of age, after receiving a knowl- 
 edge of farm work and the meagre rudiments of an 
 education, Lewis commenced railroading, beginning 
 at the lower round of the ladder, as "jigger." In a 
 short time he became foreman, and a little later gen- 
 eral superintendent of construction, operating some- 
 times on canals and oftener on railroads. During 
 the last thirty years he has taken and filled contracts 
 , on railroads in New York, Indiana, Illinois, Ken- 
 tucky, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Colorado and 
 Utah. He never took a contract without finishing 
 it, and never agreed to finish a job in a designated 
 period without doing it. Few men have done as 
 much heavy work as Mr. Carmichael. He has con- 
 structed half a dozen tunnels in almost as many 
 states. New York, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa. 
 
 The first tunnel ever built in Illinois he put up at 
 La Salle in 1853. His last work of railroading was 
 on the Union Pacific road and the Chicago and 
 Northwestern in Wisconsin. He had several con- 
 tracts between Omaha and Promontory, no contract- 
 or on that great line exhibiting more energy and 
 business dispatch. During part of these years that 
 he was railroading he lived in Davenport and Mus- 
 catine, Iowa. For the last eighteen years he has re- 
 sided in Tama county, and since 1867 in Tama City. 
 He is one of the most public-spirited citizens of this 
 young city. 
 
 The Bank of Tama was organized and opened in 
 1870, and Mr. Carmichael is its president. 
 
 He has been engaged in real estate for several 
 years, having lands in New York, Iowa and Nebras- 
 ka. In Tama county alone he has fifteen hundred 
 acres of improved lands, all worked by renters ex- 
 cept the home farm, of which he has taken the su- 
 pervision during the last three years. Prior to this 
 period contracting was his main business, and by it 
 he had made most of his money. He began a poor 
 boy with no capital but a good constitution, a plucky 
 heart and two industrious hands, and his life has 
 been one of liberal undertakings and liberal success. 
 He seems to know "no such word as fail." 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 593 
 
 Mr. Carmichael was originally a whig, and of late 
 years has been a republican, always too busy with 
 his own matters to assume the duties of a political 
 office. 
 
 He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic brother- 
 hood. 
 
 On the 29th of October, 1847, he was joined in 
 wedlock with Miss Mary E. Bunce, a native of Hart- 
 ford, Connecticut, but residing at the time of her 
 marriage in Sullivan county. New York. She died 
 four years ago. She was a member of the Baptist 
 
 church, heartily cooperating with her husband in 
 all efforts to advance the kingdom of Christ. She 
 had nine children, and one of them preceded her to 
 the spirit land. Of those living, Mary E. is the wife 
 of George E. Maxwell, cashier of the Bank of Ta- 
 ma, Tama City ; Henry F. has a wife and also lives 
 in Tama City. The others are single. 
 
 Mr. Carmichael has a stately mansion standing in 
 a six-acre lot, overlooking the whole city, a residence 
 which the proudest prince of the old world need 
 not be ashamed to occupy. 
 
 PETER N. WOODS, M.D., 
 
 FAIRFIELD. 
 
 PETER NESBIT WOODS, a practicing physi- 
 cian for nearly a quarter of a century, and one 
 of the leading citizens of any profession in Jeffer- 
 son county, Iowa, is a native of Ohio, a son of James 
 and Hester A. Woods, and was born in Greenville, 
 Stark county, on the 8th of September, 1829. His 
 paternal great-grandfather came from Germany to 
 this country, with his friends, when quite young, and 
 settled near Harrisburgh, Pennsylvania. His father 
 was a native of Virginia, was left an orphan at an 
 early age, and lived with his maternal grandfather 
 until he was apprenticed to a gunship near Harper's 
 Ferry, Virginia. In later life he was a farmer in 
 Stark and Richland counties, Ohio. 
 
 Peter Nesbit was the fifth child in a family of 
 eight children. He lived at home during his youth, 
 in Richland county after eight years of age, aiding 
 his father in cultivating land, and securing such edu- 
 cation as a common school afforded. When he was 
 eighteen years of age he entered Vermilion Insti- 
 tute, at Hayesville, Ashland county, Ohio, where he 
 remained two years, teaching during that time. In 
 1850 he entered the Ohio Wesleyan University at 
 Delaware, where he pursued special studies for one 
 year, teaching a school in the summer and vocal 
 music in the winter ; then became a medical student 
 in the office of Dr. O. J. Rotsel, of Rome, Richland 
 county ; read for three years, and took two courses 
 of lectures in Cincinnati, receiving his diploma on 
 the loth of June, 1854. 
 
 After spending one year in company with his old 
 preceptor at Rome, Dr. Woods found himself alone, 
 Dr. Rotsel retiring from the practice. In May, 1856, 
 Dr. Woods crossed the Mississippi, and made a 
 
 permanent settlement in Fairfield, where for twenty 
 years he has been a leading physician. 
 
 On the breaking out of the civil war, in 1861, he 
 was appointed medical examiner for Jefferson coun- 
 ty, under direction of the war department. 'In Sep- 
 tember of the next year, while six hundred thousand 
 troops were being raised, he was commissioned as 
 surgeon of the 23d Iowa Infantry, but to accommo- 
 date a friend of the colonel of that regiment, took 
 the same position in the 39tli. He was with the 
 latter regiment in the battles at Jackson and Parker's 
 Cross Roads in 1862, wintering at Corinth, Missis- 
 sippi; was in the series of battles near Tuscumbia, 
 Bear Creek and Town Creek in the spring of 1863 ; 
 was made surgeon-in-chief of his division the winter 
 following, under General Sweeny, with headquarters 
 at Pulaski ; and subsequently was in the whole se- 
 ries of engagements before reaching Atlanta. At 
 this time Dr. Woods was detailed to. see that the 
 wounded of the fourth division, fifteenth army corps, 
 were properly dressed before being sent back to the 
 division hospital, he spending his nights in dressing 
 the wounded. In July, 1864, he was made surgeon 
 of the division hospital at Rome, Georgia, and had 
 the care of the wounded after the battle of Altoona. 
 Dr. Woods continued in that position on General 
 Sherman's march to the sea ; at Savannah was put 
 in charge of a branch of the general hospital, and 
 on being relieved was ordered to Blair's Landing, 
 at Buford, South Carolina, and made surgeon-in- 
 chief of General Sherman's provisional division, in 
 which capacity he served until the disbanding of 
 the division at Raleigh, North Carolina. In June, 
 1865, the regiment was mustered out, and Dr. Woods 
 
594 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAUr. 
 
 returned to Iowa, having been in the service nearly 
 three years. 
 
 It is doubtful if any Iowa surgeon in the civil war 
 was more faithful in discharging his duties in their 
 fullest sense. He was untiring in his devotion to 
 the sick and wounded. 
 
 Since the close of the rebellion Dr. Woods, has 
 been very assiduous in his duties as a citizen, as 
 well as a physician, taking great interest in the pros- 
 perity of his adopted home. He is proprietor of the 
 Fairfield woolen mills, and is doing all he can to 
 encourage manufactures and whatever is for the 
 benefit of the state. He was chairman of the build- 
 ing committee of the school board when the elegant 
 and stately Union school-house was erected. His 
 professional duties are very arduous, yet he finds 
 some time, as it is seen, to devote to local interests. 
 
 Dr. Woods is a third-degree Mason ; a past-grand 
 in Odd-Fellowship ; a republican since the demise of 
 the whig party, and a member of the Methodist 
 Episcopal church. 
 
 On the 14th of September, 1855, Miss Mary L. 
 Wolph, a native of Richland county, Ohio, became 
 the wife of Dr. Woods, and they have two children, 
 both boys. Both parents have been very active in 
 religious and benevolent enterprises. 
 
 Dr. Woods is a hard student, and not only keeps 
 up with the progress of medical science, but also de- 
 votes considerable attention to the collateral sciences, 
 chemistry, electricity, etc. He i*. a progressive man. 
 
 His residence, located in the center of the city, 
 is one of the finest in the place. Its tasteful sur- 
 roundings are an indication of culture and refine- 
 ment within. 
 
 A. W. COFFMAN and S. C. HARLOW, 
 
 AVOCA. 
 
 THE best representatives of the mercantile inter- 
 ests of Avoca, Pottawattamie county, Iowa, are 
 Messrs. Coffman and Harlow, proprietors of the new 
 Opera-house block, completed in the autumn of 1877, 
 at an expense of twelve or fourteen thousand dollars. 
 The store which they occupy in the block is forty 
 by eighty feet, fourteen feet in the clear, and filled 
 with the finest stock of groceries and provisions in 
 the place. 
 
 Archibald W. Coffman, the senior member of the 
 firm, is a native of Jackson county, Ohio ; is the son 
 of John Coffman, a farmer, and Priscilla Myrick, 
 and was born, on the i8th of February, 1832. His 
 father enlisted for the Mexican war in 1846, but the 
 company was not called into the service. When 
 Archibald was four years old the family moved to 
 Lake county, Indiana, and ten years later returned 
 to Ohio, settling in McArthurstown, then in Athens, 
 now in Vinton county. 
 
 When nearly of age Archibald came into north- 
 western Indiana, and spent a dozen years or more 
 in the lumber district of La Porte and the adjoin- 
 ing counties, part of the time as a chopper, and part 
 of the time as a contractor. 
 
 In the early part of the summer of 1870 Mr. Coff- 
 man crossed the Mississippi, reaching Avoca on the 
 i8th of June, and in August, 187 1, engaged in the 
 mercantile trade, his business being attended with 
 
 marked success.. He has been of the firm of Coff- 
 man and Harlow from the start. 
 
 Mr. Coffman has a pleasant home in the city of 
 Avoca, some lands of his own exclusively in the 
 southern part of the state, and four hundred acres 
 in company with Mr. Harlow. By economy, pru- 
 dence, and careful management, in the few years 
 which Mr. Coffman has been in Iowa, he has put 
 himself on a solid financial basis, and with his part- 
 ner has a standing second to none in the town. 
 
 He is a republican in politics, a strong and active 
 partisan, but carefully avoids office, being contented 
 to be known as a successful business man. 
 
 He is an Odd-Fellow ; has passed all the chairs in 
 the subordinate lodge, and is a member of the en- 
 campment. 
 
 On the nth of July, 1853, he was joined in Wed- 
 lock with Miss Clarretta A. Wilkinson, of Middle- 
 bury, La Grange county, Indiana, and they have one 
 child, Alice M., aged twenty-two years. 
 
 Silas Chandler Harlow, the junior member of this 
 firm, is the son of Chandler and Mary Banks Har- 
 low, of Piscataquis county, Maine, and was born in 
 the 'town of Parkman, on the 30th of May, 1848. 
 Both families were early settlers in New England, 
 and his maternal great-grandfather was a soldier in 
 the struggle for freedom from the mother country. 
 Silas lost his mother when he was three. years old; 
 
THU UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 595 
 
 at sixteen he left Parkman, with only the education 
 common to farmers' boys ; worked one year in the 
 lumbering district of Pennsylvania, finely develop- 
 ing his muscular powers; returned to his native 
 state, and in the autumn of 1867 pushed westward 
 into the Territory of Wyoming. There he worked as 
 a teamster, and found no trouble in securing honest 
 use for his toil-hardened hands. He was careful to 
 husband his. earnings, and at the end of three years 
 turned his steps eastward, halting at Avoca, in west- 
 ern Iowa, here making his home, and here achieving 
 success. 
 
 After being in trade by himself for a year or more, 
 on the 6th of August, 1871, he became a partner of 
 Mr. Coffman, and they have since been together. 
 In public spirit, enterprise, business tact, and all the 
 
 elements which constitute the first-class merchant, 
 they are well mated. 
 
 Mr. Harlow has been a Freemason since a little 
 prior to the date of his settlement in Iowa, going, 
 however, no higher, as yet, than the blue lodge. 
 
 He uniformly votes the republican ticket. 
 
 His religious sentiments accord with those of the 
 Baptists, though he belongs to no church. He is a 
 young man of excellent standing in society. 
 
 Mr. Harlow has a light complexion and dark 
 hazel eyes; is five feet and nine and a-half inches 
 tall, having a solid build and a robust appearance. 
 He weighs one hundred and eighty-five pounds. 
 
 His business education, picked up at intervals of 
 leisure, is excellent, and, like his partner, he is very 
 active and efficient. 
 
 HON. HENRY C. TRAVERSE, 
 
 BLOOMFIEI.D. 
 
 HENRY CLAY TRAVERSE, son of Charles 
 and Sarah Forrest Traverse, members of the 
 agricultural class, was born in White county, Indi- 
 ana, on the 29th of August, 1839. His paternal an- 
 cestors were Virginians, though both of his parents 
 were natives of Kentucky. His maternal grand- 
 father aided in gaining the nation's independence. 
 
 When Henry C. was eight years old his father 
 died, and his mother, with four children, moved to 
 Monroe county, Iowa, and a year later settled in 
 Davis county, where she is still living. 
 
 The subject of this sketch had a rough time in 
 boyhood, beyig obliged to " paddle his own canoe " 
 at an age when the hands are tender. He worked 
 at farming for some time, and at length found his 
 way into a printing office in Bloomfield, and here, 
 and in Illinois and Missouri, worked his way up 
 from boy-of-all-work, classically called the "printer's 
 devil," to a first-class journeyman, and also dipping 
 at times into journalism. To the mental drill of 
 the district school and the printing office he added 
 some hard study in private, having from early youth 
 a strong relish for books. To this early love of 
 study it is understood he attributes what degree of 
 success he has had in life. He taught school at dif- 
 ferent times, in all five or six terms. 
 
 In i860 he commenced reading law with Hon. 
 George W. McCrary, of Keokuk, now secretary of 
 war ; was admitted to the bar at Bloomfield in Sep- 
 
 tember, 1862, and before commencing to practice 
 entered the service in company F, 30th Iowa In- 
 fantry, acting as orderly sergeant for three years. 
 He was offered the position of lieutenant of the 
 company at one time during the progress of the war, 
 but for reasons best known to himself refused to be 
 promoted. He was with the 30th through all its 
 campaigns and battles, accompanying General Sher- 
 man as far toward the sea as Ringgold, Georgia, 
 where he was disabled and followed the regiment no 
 farther. 
 
 Since returning from the south Mr. Traverse has 
 been in the practice of law, and has built up a 
 thrifty business. He is of the firm of Traverse and 
 Eichelberger, who have been attorneys for two local 
 banks, and whose collecting business is extensive 
 and growing. They are prompt and reliable, have 
 the fullest confidence of the community, are among 
 the younger class of attorneys in Davis county, and 
 stand well. 
 
 Mr. Traverse excels as an office lawyer. He is 
 a close student. 
 
 He was a member of the lower house of the gen- 
 eral assembly in 1866, and of the senate in the ses- 
 sions of 1868 and 1870, and in the upper house was 
 on the committees on the judiciary and federal rela- 
 tions, and chairman of one or two committees of 
 minor importance. 
 
 In 1877 he was the republican nominee for mem- 
 
596 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 ber of the assembly in the seventh district, and was 
 defeated by the combined opposition of democrats 
 and greenbackers. Mr. Traverse ran a long way 
 ahead of the gubernatorial candidate of his party. 
 His connection hasr always been with the republi- 
 cans. He makes an effective political canvass. 
 
 His rehgious connection is with the Universalist 
 church. He is a third-degree member of the Odd- 
 Fellows order. 
 
 On the 1 2th of April, 1868, he was united in 
 matrimony with Miss Ellen Presson, of Bloomfield, 
 and they have two children. 
 
 MAJOR JOHN W. CARR, 
 
 MONTEZUMA. 
 
 JOHN WESLEY CARR, one of the many patriot- 
 ic young rnen who early responded to the Presi- 
 dent's call for volunteers in 1861, from Poweshiek 
 county, is a son of William Carr, an Illinois farmer, 
 and Catherine Moore, and was born near Mount 
 Pulaski, Logan county, on the 26th of April, 1839. 
 The Carrs were among the early settlers in Virginia, 
 and moved into Ohio when it was a very new state. 
 William Carr was a soldier in the war of 181 2. Both 
 parents of John W. died when he was quite young, 
 and from eight to seventeen years of age he lived 
 on a farm with his paternal grandmother, who re- 
 moved to Iowa in 1846. 
 
 After working one season for himself he attended 
 school at Iowa College, Grinnell, two years, teach- 
 ing during the winters until the rebellion. 
 
 In August, 1861, he went into the service from 
 Montezuma as second lieutenant in company F, loth 
 Iowa Infantry ; resigned the next February on ac- 
 count of ill health; in September, 1862, again en- 
 listed, this time as captain in company C, 28th Iowa; 
 was wounded at the battle of Winchester, Virginia, 
 on the 19th of September, 1864; soon afterward 
 had command of the regiment for two months, and 
 remained in the service until mustered out, in Au- 
 gust, 1865. Before leaving he was breveted major 
 
 for meritorious services. He made a splendid rec- 
 ord while in the army, and has since done nothing 
 to soil it. 
 
 On returning to Iowa Major Carr engaged in the 
 mercantile business at Montezuma, and followed it 
 until March, 1870; was elected clerk of the district 
 and circuit courts the following autumn, and by re- 
 peated elections served six years, ending on the 31st 
 of December, 1876 ; he made a popular officer, doing 
 his work with the utmost accuracy and promptness. 
 
 During the time that he was in the clerk's office 
 he studied law; was admitted to the bar in February, 
 1877, and has recently added the abstract and real- 
 estate business to that of law, he being in partner- 
 ship with W. H. Redman, an enterprising and pros- 
 perous firm. 
 
 Major Carr is a staunch republican, and a Royal 
 Arch Mason. 
 
 His wife was Miss Lottie Frick, of Montezuma, 
 chosen on the loth of January, 1866. They have 
 two children. 
 
 Major Carr has light blue eyes and a fair com- 
 plexion, is five feet and eleven inches tall, stands 
 perfectly, and weighs one hundred and forty pounds. 
 He has the bearing of a dignified, open-hearted, 
 strictly honest man, whom it would be safe to trust. 
 
 NORMAN R. CORNELL, M. D., 
 
 KNOXVILLE. 
 
 THE oldest practicing physician in Knoxville, 
 Marion county, is Norman Riley Cornell, who 
 settled in Iowa in May, 1850, when the state was 
 only four years old. He is a native of Steuben 
 county, New York, and was born on the nth of 
 September, 1824. His parents were Amos Cornell, 
 a farmer, and Destimony Chamberlain. The Cor- 
 
 nells were from England, and early settlers in Mas- 
 sachusetts. Amos Cornell was a soldier in the sec- 
 ond war with the mother country. When Norman 
 was eight years old the family moved to Livingston 
 county. New York, settling near Mount Morris, the 
 son aiding his father and attending the winter term 
 of the district school. At nineteen he went to Ken- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARl'. 
 
 597 
 
 tucky and attended the Lexington Academy ; read 
 medicine at Hartford, Kentucky, with Dr. Samuel 
 0. Peyton, afterward member of congress; prac- 
 ticed two years ; graduated from the Geneva (New 
 York) Medical College in 1848; was one year at 
 Cromwell, Ohio county, Kentucky, and then settled 
 in Knoxville, where he has been in practice with the 
 exception of a period of eight or nine years when 
 out of health, and while in the army. 
 
 In 1863 Dr. Cornell went into the service as as- 
 sistant surgeon of the 23d Iowa, and in January, 
 ■ 1864, was appointed by Governor Stone surgeon of 
 the 40th Infantry, serving until the regiment was 
 mustered out in August, 1865. During most of the 
 time the last year he was brigade surgeon. His 
 services in the army were eminently satisfactory. 
 
 Since the war Dr. Cornell has attended very close- 
 ly to his profession, his experience in the army in- 
 creasing his reputation, particularly as a surgeon. 
 He makes a specialty of the eye and ear, yet does a 
 general practice, with a standing second to none in 
 the county. 
 
 Dr. Cornell has always acted with the democratic 
 party, but refuses to be a candidate for any political 
 office. He has a fine library, literary as well as med- 
 ical, and is much more interested in medical science 
 than in political preferment. He is a Master Mason. 
 He attends the Christian church. 
 
 The wife of Dr. Cornell was Miss Mary Fletcher 
 Timmonds, of Hartford, Kentucky. They were mar- 
 ried in October, 1847, and have had eight children, 
 of whom seven are living. Two of the sons have 
 chosen their father's profession. The eldest, Corwin 
 W. Cornell, a graduate of Rush Medical College, Chi- 
 cago, is in partnership with his father and rapidly 
 rising in the profession. Park L. is a graduate of 
 Louisville Medical College, and is settled in Pleas- 
 antville, Marion county, twelve miles from Knox- 
 ville. Dr. Cornell and his son Corwin are surgeons 
 for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railway 
 Company. 
 
 The subject of this sketch is a member of the 
 County and State Medical Societies, and has a high- 
 ly creditable standing in both organizations. 
 
 CHARLES L. CHAMBERS, M. D., 
 
 TIPTON. 
 
 ONE of the oldest practicing physicians in Ce- 
 dar county, Iowa, is Charles Lewis Chambers, 
 son of Mustoe Chambers, a physician and surgeon, 
 and Mary Ann Lewis. He was born in Rocking- 
 ham county, Virginia, on the i8th of May, 1818. 
 His father was an adjutant in the war of 1812-15. 
 The Chamberses and Lewises were originally from 
 the north of Ireland. Four brothers of the Lewis 
 family came over and settled in Virginia, and all be- 
 came distinguished men. Andrew Lewis was with 
 General Braddock at the time of his defeat ; was 
 himself afterward a general, and defeated the cele- 
 brated Indian, Cornstalk, in 1774, and later in life 
 held the same office under General Washington. 
 Thomas Lewis was a member of the houses of 
 burgesses in Virginia. William Lewis was in the 
 French and Indian wars, and a colonel in the revo- 
 lutionary army. Charles Lewis was a colonel, also, 
 and was killed in the battle of Point Pleasant, on 
 the loth of October, 1774. 
 
 When Charles L. was twelve years old his father 
 moved to Dayton, Ohio, and subsequently to Xenia. 
 With the exception of a short time in a drug store 
 61 
 
 at Dayton, the son spent most of his youth in pro- 
 curing a' literary education. He read medicine with 
 his father at Xenia; attended-lectures at Louisville, 
 Kentucky ; practiced a short time in the Scioto val- 
 ley; came to Muscatine county, Iowa, in 1847, and 
 was in practice there until the spring of 1850, when 
 he removed to Tipton. Two years later he attended 
 a course of lectures at Starling Medical College, 
 Columbus, Ohio, and took his degree of M.D. 
 
 The year after the civil war burst upon the na- 
 tion — August, 1862, — Dr. Chambers went into the 
 service as surgeon of the 35th Iowa Infantry, and 
 in September, 1863, was obliged to resign on ac- 
 count of ill-health. As soon as he had sufficiently 
 recovered he resumed practice in Tipton, and has a 
 very extensive ride. His practice is general, and 
 extends into adjoining counties. The doctor's char- 
 acter as a man is as elevated as it is in a professional 
 sense. 
 
 He is a member of the Presbyterian church, an 
 elder of the same, and a gentleman of fine feelings, 
 as well as pure principles and excellent habits. 
 
 To the bedside of the sick he carries a sympa- 
 
598 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 thizing heart, together with words often fitly chosen, 
 which " are like apples of gold in pictures of silver." 
 Dr. Chambers is a republican in politics. In ear- 
 lier life he was a whig. He has never sought oflfice. 
 In all the walks and relations of life he is modest 
 and unassuming. 
 
 On the nth of November, 1847, Miss Ann Hud- 
 son, of Muscatine, was married to Dr. Chambers, 
 and the fruit of this union has been eisght children, 
 only five of them now living. The eldest daughter, 
 Elizabeth B., is the wife of A. M. Kirk, druggist, of 
 Tipton. 
 
 ADGATE W. COLLINS, 
 
 KNOXVILLE. 
 
 ADGATE WARD COLLINS, one of the earliest 
 iJL merchants in Knoxville, and one of its best 
 business men, was born in Richland county, Ohio, 
 and is the son of Isaac and Elizabeth Adgate Col- 
 lins, plain farming people. His paternal grandfather 
 was a lieutenant in the northern army in the revo- 
 lutionary war. Young Collins lived on a farm two 
 miles north of Belleville, in his native county, until 
 nineteen, spending more time in tilling land than in 
 cultivating his mind, his opportunities for education 
 being very limited. About 1841 he went to Mus- 
 kingum county, worked four years at the manufac- 
 turing of stoneware; went thence to Newcastle, 
 Coshocton county, and sold dry goods until 1852, 
 when he removed to Knoxville, which has since been 
 his home, and where, for twenty-five years, he has 
 been among the leading business men. He con- 
 tinued in the dry-goods business until two "or three 
 years ago, dealing also, at times, to some extent, in 
 land, and achieving success as a general dealer, 
 whether in merchandise or real estate. 
 
 When the Knoxville National Bank was organized 
 in 1871 he was chosen vice-president, and, two or 
 three years later, president. The latter position he 
 
 now holds. He is a practical, efficient business man, 
 with high notions of honor and integrity. 
 
 He was a whig in early life, and is now a republi- 
 can, but is not an office seeker. He served some 
 years on the local school board, was its president at 
 one time, and that is about the only office of the 
 kind he would ever accept. He is deeply interested 
 in educational matters and the general interests of 
 the community. 
 
 In religious sentiment, he is a Methodist, and is a 
 man of irreproachable character. 
 
 He was first married in June, 1845, to Miss Susan 
 M. Olive, of Muskingum county, Ohio; she left five 
 children. Charles L. Collins, her eldest son, has a 
 family, and is a lawyer in Bay City, Michigan ; Mina 
 E. is the wife of John Reed, of Knoxville; Emma J. 
 is the wife of Dr. W. K. Sloan, of Eddyville, Iowa; 
 David O. is reading law with Stone and Ayres, in 
 Knoxville, and Susan M. is with her brother in Bay 
 City. The last two are single. Mr. Collins' second 
 wife was Miss Sarah J. Lewis, of Jefferson, Ohio. 
 About seven years ago she became insane, and is 
 now in the asylum at Mount Pleasant. She has had 
 four children, of whom three are living. 
 
 AARON D. WETHERELL, M. D., 
 
 KNOXVILLE. 
 
 AARON DELANO WETHERELL, one of the 
 . oldest and best medical practitioners in Marion 
 county, Iowa, is a native of Burlington, Vermont, a 
 son of Seth D. and Anne Northway Wetherell, and 
 first saw the light of this world on the 21st of July, 
 1818. His progenitor on his father's side was from 
 England, on his mother's side from Scotland.. Both 
 great-grandfathers were participants in the war for 
 independence, the Wetherell being a captain of ran- 
 
 gers. His maternal grandfather was a lieutenant 
 in the war of 1812-15. In 1833 Seth D. Wetherell 
 removed with his family to Licking county, Ohio, 
 settling on a farm near Granville. Up to this date 
 Aaron D. had only common-school instruction. He 
 now spent a few terms in the preparatory depart- 
 nient of Granville College, now called Dennison 
 University, aiding his father more or less each year 
 in tilling land. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAIiY. 
 
 599 
 
 In 1840 he commenced reading medicine with 
 Dr. W. W. Bancroft, of Granville; attended lectures 
 at the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati ; graduated 
 in 1844, and after practicing nearly thirteen years in 
 Licking county, in October, 1856, settled in Knox- 
 ville, where he continues to practice with marked 
 success. Though doing a general business, he has 
 made an especial study of surgery, and has a wide 
 range of practice in this branch. He not unfre- 
 quently goes into adjoining counties on professional 
 business, and enjoys an excellent reputation where- 
 ever he is known. 
 
 During the early part of the civil war Dr. Wfther- 
 ell acted as examining surgeon at Knoxville. He 
 was offered the position of surgeon of one of the 
 Iowa regiments, and but for disability at the time 
 would have gone into the service. 
 
 The doctor was originally a whig, of late years 
 has been a republican, but has shunned political 
 preferment. 
 
 He is a Sir Knight among the Freemasons, and 
 has been grand scribe of the Grand Chapter. 
 
 Dr. Wetherell has a second wife : his first was 
 Miss Harriet Avery, of Granville, Ohio, chosen in 
 October, 1843; she had five children, and died on 
 the 31st of December, i860; one of her children 
 preceded her to the world of spirits, and another, 
 the eldest child, Marian, the wife of J. N. Davis, of 
 Knoxville, died in 1876 ; of the three living children, 
 Maria is the wife of Thomas Cathcart, of Knoxville, 
 and Lizzie and Frank are single. His second wife 
 was Miss Mary Walters, of Knoxville ; married No- 
 vember, 1861. 
 
 Dr. Wetherell is quite fleshy ; is six feet and one 
 inch tall, and weighs two hundred and fifty pounds. 
 Like many other men bordering on the Falstaif 
 build, he has a jovial turn of mind, is quick at rep- 
 artee, and does not believe in the suppression of 
 humor, even at the sick-bed, when it will act as a 
 cathartic. 
 
 HON. MORRIS J. WILLIAMS, 
 
 OTTUMWA. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch was born in Brook- 
 ville, Franklin county, Indiana, on the 14th of 
 November, 1825. His father, John P. Williams, was 
 a large farmer, and his mother's maiden name was 
 Nancy Morris, a sister of the late Judge William R. 
 Morris, of Cincinnati, Ohio, who for many years was 
 one of the few leading lawyers of that city. 
 
 From early youth to manhood Morris J. Williams 
 toiled faithfully upon his father's farm, attending in 
 the winter season the excellent public schools of 
 Brookville, wher.e he completed his education. 
 
 He read law in the office of Judge George Hol- 
 land, a prominent lawyer of Franklin county ; was 
 admitted to the bar at Brookville, and removed from 
 thence to Greensburg, Indiana, where he first com- 
 menced the practice of his profession in 1851. 
 
 In 1852 he was elected on the whig ticket prose- 
 cuting attorney of Rush and Decatur counties, win- 
 ning in the discharge of the duties of this office well 
 deserved fame as a lawyer for so young an attorney. 
 While at Greensburg, Indiana, he was for some years 
 a partner of the Hon. John S. Scoby, a lawyer of 
 much eminence in that state. 
 
 In November, 1854, he removed to Ottumwa, 
 Iowa, where he now resides. In Ottumwa he soon 
 
 entered into copartnership with A. H. Hamilton, 
 Esq., a young lawyer who had preceded him to the 
 place some two months, and this copartnership con- 
 tinued most successfully and amicably save an in- 
 terruption during the year 1858, up to the time Mr. 
 Hamilton entered the army, in 1862, when the judge 
 succeeded to the large practice the firm had ac- 
 quired. 
 
 In 1870 Mr. Williams was elected upon the re- 
 publican ticket judge of the second judicial district, 
 comprising seven counties, and this office he filled 
 for four years with marked ability, and upon retiring 
 from the bench he again resumed the practice of the 
 law in which he is still engaged. 
 
 Judge Williams is eminently a self-made man. 
 His early life developed and matured upon the farm 
 a sound, strong physique, habits of industry, self- 
 reliance, and above all a knowledge gained by ex- 
 perience of how the battle of life is only success- 
 fully fought. He commenced his professional career 
 almost wholly dependent upon his own exertions, 
 and so building from the foundation upward, built 
 well. The practice of the law in Wapello county 
 twenty odd years ago, afforded only a scanty re- 
 muneration at best; and though the judge early 
 
6oo 
 
 7'HB UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 took high rank in his new home in Iowa, his in- 
 come for many years did very little more than pro- 
 vide for himself and his increasing family. 
 
 From i860 his business became handsomely re- 
 munerative, especially during the rebellion, and in a 
 few years he acquired a good foundation for that 
 fine competence which has placed him well up 
 among the wealthy men of the county. He has for 
 many years stood well abreast with the best lawyers 
 of southern Iowa, and has ever been recognized as 
 a gentleman of the highest integrity. 
 
 He was married on the 29th of May, 1851, to a 
 most estimable lady. Miss Mary E. Stoops, of Brook- 
 ville, Indiana. She died in the fall of 1877. This 
 union was a most happy one, and a large and inter- 
 esting family of children are growing up to promis- 
 ing manhood and womanhood. 
 
 His -early farm life begot in him a love for agri- 
 cultural pursuits which still clings to him, and hence 
 he now owns, cultivates and resides upon a splendid 
 farm of some three hundred acres about one mile 
 from Ottumwa. 
 
 THOMAS B. KNAPP, 
 
 IOWA FALLS. 
 
 PROBABLY the first man who ever saw the site 
 of Iowa Falls, and now resides here, is Thomas 
 Bracy Knapp, who located in the valley of the Iowa 
 river five miles southeast of this city in 18.154. That 
 was the year before Iowa Falls was laid out, and 
 when there was nothing here except the grist-mill 
 and saw-mill of B. I. Talbot and Captain Samuel 
 White. Thomas B. Knapp is a son of Thomas Bracy 
 Knapp, senior, and Mercy Seger, and was born in 
 Danbury, Connecticut, on the 9th of July, 1822. The 
 Knapps were originally from England, and settled 
 in Connecticut at an early day. The grandfather of 
 our subject, Bracy Knapp, was a paymaster in the 
 revolutionary army, and lost his house when Dan- 
 bury was burned by the British. His maternal grand- 
 father was also in the revolutionary strife. The Se- 
 gers were of Welsh extraction. When our subject 
 was twelve or thirteen years old the family moved 
 to Sheldon, Wyoming county, New York, and three 
 years later to Clarksfield, Huron county, Ohio, young 
 Thomas spending most of his time at this period 
 at the Norwalk Institute in the same county. 
 
 In 1840 he went to Alabama; clerked in a store 
 a few years at Montgomery, and in 1846 was elected 
 lieutenant of a company which offered its services 
 for the Mexican war, but was not called out. He 
 went into business for himself about that time, and 
 followed it until the fever for gold began to rage all 
 over the country, and early in 1849 went to Califor- 
 nia. There he mined and traded between three 
 and four years, arriving in New York city on his 
 return in December, 1853. Proceeding to Alabama, 
 he spent the winter there, and in April, 1854, came 
 to Hardin county, Iowa, purchasing a farm which 
 
 lay on both sides of the Iowa river. That season, 
 in his peregrinations up and down the valley, he 
 looked over the grounds where Iowa Falls now 
 stands, and was smitten with the beauty of the site, 
 the two millers already mentioned being the only 
 parties located there. 
 
 Mr. Knapp continued to improve his lands, visit- 
 ing Iowa Falls now and then, until after the civil 
 war had commenced. In 1862 he was elected sutler 
 of the 32d Iowa Infantry, and served in that capacity 
 between two and three years, resigning in the winter 
 of 1864. 
 
 On returning from the south Mr. Knapp sold- his 
 farm and settled in Iowa Falls. He was in general 
 merchandise until 1870, when he closed this branch 
 of trade awhile, settled up his business, and in 1873 
 opened a hardware store, of which he is still the 
 proprietor. He is among the substantial class of 
 merchants in Iowa Falls. 
 
 Mr. Knapp was a member of th.e lower house of 
 the general assembly in 1866 and 1868, taking an 
 active part in both sessions. During one of them 
 he was chairman of the committee on public build- 
 ings ; during the other, of the committee on public 
 lands ; and he served also on the committees on rail- 
 roads, and on two or three others. He did much 
 more work than talking in that body, and proved 
 himself a considerate and judicious legislator. In 
 1868 he was one of the committee appointed to visit 
 the Soldiers' Orphans' Home at Cedar Falls. 
 
 Mr. Knapp has been in the local council or on the 
 school board nearly all the time for the last ten 
 years, and labors assiduously for the general inter- 
 ests of the place. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 60 1 
 
 He aided in organizing the republican party in 
 Hardin county ; was a delegate to the first repub- 
 lican state convention, and still acts as one of the 
 local leaders of the party. He glories in its history, 
 and looks for its continued usefulness to the country. 
 
 He joined the church in youth, and has an abid- 
 ing faith in the power and importance of the chris- 
 tian religion. His original connection was with the 
 Baptist church in Selden, New York, and he is the 
 treasurer of the church of the same name where he 
 resides. In integrity he is "true as steel." 
 
 His wife was Mrs. Louisa L. Hoover, of Mount 
 
 Vernon, Iowa, a graduate of Cornell College located 
 at that place. They were united in marriage on the 
 9th of November, 1864, and have one child, Henry 
 Hamlin, a student in the graded school. The maid- 
 en name of Mrs. Knapp was Lamb, born in Wayne 
 county, Indiana, in 1839. She married Henry H. 
 Hoover in 1856, moved to Mount Vernon, Iowa ; 
 became a widow at nineteen, and afterward went 
 through college, graduating in 1864. She taught 
 school before leaving Indiana, and afterward in Iowa 
 and Missouri, and is a woman of fine literary taste, 
 much mental culture and large christian zeal. 
 
 WILLIAM H. STEWART, 
 
 MUSCA TINE. 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY STEWART, retired mer- 
 chant, was born at Cairo, Green county, New 
 York, on the 12th of March, 1813, and is the son of 
 James H. Stewart and Betsy nh Osborne. His father 
 was of Scotch-Irish descent; in his younger days a 
 school teacher, but in later life a farmer on a small 
 scale. He was a man of more than ordinary intelli- 
 gence, of sterling moral principles, and deep religious 
 convictions, and a member of the Methodist church. 
 He died in Meigs county, Ohio, in the year 1865, 
 in the ninety-third year of his age. The- mother of 
 our subject was of English origin, a woman of very 
 considerable intellectual endowments, active and 
 energetic, of robust constitution. She devoted all 
 her life and powers to the education and training of 
 her children. She still lives in Ohio, being now 
 (1877) in the ninety-fourth year of her age. James 
 H. Stewart had a family of seven children, of whom 
 our subject was the fifth, and three of whom are 
 still living. 
 
 William Henry was raised upon his father's small 
 farm in the Catskill mountains, which barely yielded 
 a subsistence to the family, and as soon as able to 
 drive an ox team or ride a horse he was hired out, 
 during the summer seasons, to the neighboring farm- 
 ers, and for several seasons after the age of ten years 
 his compensation was at the rate of six and a quar- 
 ter cents per day, and he esteemed himself quite a 
 man whren his wages were increased to twelve and 
 a half cents per day. During the winter months 
 he attended the district school, and became a good 
 penman and a fair mathematician, and in later years 
 increased his stock of knowledge by reading and 
 
 observation, until he is now regarded as one of the 
 best informed men of the day. 
 
 At the age of thirteen years he was apprenticed 
 to a man named John Sayle, to learn the bricklay- 
 ing and plastering trade, but after a year's tuition 
 his master failed in business and young Stewart 
 abandoned the brick and mortar craft, and in the year 
 following he was indentured to learn the boot and 
 shoe trade, which proved to be more congenial to 
 his tastes, as well as more profitable. After master- 
 ing the trade he emigrated to Ohio, where for several 
 years he worked as a journeyman, and, in 1836, 
 opened a store in Marietta, Ohio, and commenced 
 business on his own account, which he conducted 
 with reasonable success at that point until 1854, 
 when he removed to Muscatine, Iowa, which has 
 since been his home. Here he continued the shoe 
 trade with very considerable success until January, 
 1875, when having accumulated a competence he 
 retired from business. 
 
 Though always. an industrious and diligent busi- 
 ness man, yet he found time to keep himself informed 
 on the current political issues of the day, in which 
 he took a deep interest, believing it to be his boun- 
 den duty, no less than his privilege, to employ what- 
 ever influence he might be possessed of for what he 
 considered the benefit of his country and the best 
 interests of his fellow-citizens. He was always an 
 opponent of slavery, and was accordingly a whig in 
 politics until the formation of the republican party, 
 with which he has since been identified. He has 
 never, however, sought any office, though for several 
 years he served in the city council of Marietta, 
 
602 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Ohio, and after his removal to Muscatine was elected 
 to the board of supervisors of the county, on which 
 he served with distinction for a period of eight years 
 ending in 1872, being chairman of the board during 
 the last three years. He was one of the original 
 organizers of the Merchants' Exchange National 
 Bank of Muscatine, and has been a member of its 
 board of directors since its inception in 1865. He 
 is a prominent member of the Independent Order of 
 Odd-Fellows, having filled all the chairs and posi- 
 tions in the society. 
 
 He was raised in the principles of the Methodist 
 church, was always in theory a Methodist, and has 
 been for many years in communion with that church, 
 to the institutions of which he is a liberal contributor. 
 
 On the isth of November, 1838, he married Miss 
 Cynthia Morton, at Marietta, Ohio. She is of Scotch 
 descent, and endowed with the high moral and in- 
 dustrial principles of the race from which she sprang. 
 They have had six children, five sons and one 
 daughter, all living, married, and comfortably set- 
 tled in life : William M., Sylvester N., Marcus, Theo- 
 dore S., Edward C, and Rita. William M. is the 
 purchasing agent of the Saint Paul and Milwaukee 
 Railroad Company; Sylvester N. is a resident of the 
 city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he is en- 
 gaged in the patenting and sale of mechanical inven- 
 tions of his own devising, he having a remarkable 
 
 talent in that direction; Marcus is engaged in the 
 shoe trade at Tipton, Iowa; Theodore succeeds his 
 father in business in Muscatine ; Edward is in the 
 same trade at Creston, Iowa, and Rita is the wife of 
 Mr. E. H. Betts, one of the proprietors of the Musca- 
 tine "Daily Tribune." 
 
 The career of William H. Stewart has been both 
 honorable and successful, and he has always enjoyed 
 the confidence and respect of the community in 
 which he has resided. Since his removal to Musca- 
 tine he has taken a deep interest in everything per- 
 taining to the growth and prosperity of his adopted 
 city, and his services as a member of the board of 
 supervisors of the county have been of great and' 
 permanent value to his constituents. His social 
 qualities are well developed; he enjoys the society 
 of friends and neighbors, and loves to dispense that 
 hospitality for which the race from which he springs 
 are so noted. He is modest and unassuming in his 
 habits, manners and bearing, kind and liberal to the 
 poor and needy, an upright citizen, a straightforward 
 business man, a christian gentleman, who would do 
 honor to any community in which his lot might be 
 cast. He is now prominently named by his friends, 
 and they are numerous, for the position of repre- 
 sentative of Muscatine county in the next general 
 assembly, a position for which his experience and 
 talents eminently fit him. 
 
 ZELOTES T. FISHER, 
 
 RED OAK. 
 
 ZELOTES T. FISHER was born on the 13th of 
 December, 1819, in Franklin county, Ohio. 
 His father was Josiah Fisher, a Carmelite preacher 
 of repute. His mother was a woman of most ster- 
 ling qualities of mind, and a devoted christian. Jo- 
 siah Fisher and his wife had born unto them six sons 
 and four daughters, four sons and two daughters 
 having died. These people emigrated to the State 
 of Iowa in 1856, converting a large tract of wild land 
 into farms. Seven years after settling in Iowa his 
 mother died, and two years later his father passed 
 away. 
 
 From the age of twelve Zelotes was at work up- 
 on his father's farm, attending during the winter 
 months an inferior school held in a log hut. At the 
 age of sixteen he learned the cooper's trade, in 
 which he became very proficient. 
 
 On the 4th of July, 1837, while engaged in cele- 
 brating the great day, he lost his right arm in the 
 accidental discharge of an old-fashioned cast-iron 
 gun. At the time of this misfortune he had never 
 been able to more than read printed matter indif- 
 ferently, but he continued to acquire knowledge by 
 virtue of the severest personal application. He 
 learned to write and to readily read manuscript, and 
 subsequently had the benefit of one year's tuition at 
 the high school at Worthington, Ohio, boarding at 
 home and walking five miles a day, from home to 
 the school. 
 
 At the close of this year of schooling his father 
 moved to Delaware county, Ohio. Here Zelotes 
 commenced the study of medicine under his uncle, 
 William Fisher, continuing for a year and a half, dur- 
 ing which time he had been upon the jury on sev- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 603 
 
 eral occasions. Life in a court-room had for him 
 special attraction, and he determined to abandon 
 Esculapiiis for Blackstone, and forthwith made an 
 arrangement to read law in the office of the Hon. 
 Thomas W. Powell, at the town of Delaware. He 
 continued reading law and teaching school mean- 
 while, as a means of self-subsistence. In Septem- 
 ber, 1842, he was admitted. to the bar at Mount 
 Vernon, Ohio. 
 
 In January, 1843, with but six dollars in cash as 
 his financial assets, he opened a law office' in Lon- 
 don, Madison county, Ohio. It was his good for- 
 tune to find at this time and place a warm friend 
 in the person of W. H. Squires, at whose hotel he 
 boarded, subject to his convenience as to pay. Here 
 our young lawyer applied himself to vigorous study. 
 In the course of a year and a half he was elected 
 prosecuting attorney of Madison county, which po- 
 sition he held for four successive terms. During 
 the holding of this office he had frequently to com- 
 bat defense set up by such brilliant lights of the 
 bar as Noah H. Swain, now justice of the supreme 
 court of the United States ; Sampson Masom, James 
 Bates, W. Denison, subsequently the great war gov- 
 ernor of Ohio, and others of equal note. After 
 serving in this office for seven years he accepted a 
 nomination for the assembly, resigning his attorney- 
 ship. He was elected to sit in the first session of 
 the Ohio legislature after the adoption of the new 
 constitution in 185 1, taking rank as the first parlia- 
 mentarian in the house, often occupying the speaker's 
 chair pro tempore. He remained in the house for 
 two terms. During this stay of twelve years at 
 London he had acquired two farms and a town resi- 
 dence. 
 
 In September, 1844, Mr. Fisher had married Je- 
 mimah Jones, of Madison county, Ohio, daughter of 
 R. B. Jones. Her mother's maiden name was Eliza 
 McCormick; both these parents are still living. In 
 1855 Mr. Fisher converted his farms and residence 
 into cash, determining to go farther west. With his 
 wife and three children he came to Oskaloosa, Ma- 
 haska county, Iowa, having purchased in that and 
 other counties nineteen hundred acres of wild land, 
 his intention then being to practice law for a few 
 years and subsequently to establish a large stock 
 farm. With this in view, Mr. Fisher imported the 
 first shorthorn cattle ever brought to Mahaska coun- 
 ty. Here he commenced a very profitable practice 
 of law. His sons were coming to manhood; but 
 evincing an utter indisposition for agriculture, he 
 
 was forced to abandon his farming proclivities. He 
 however had his wild land converted into three large 
 farms, which he sold. 
 
 In 1858 he was elected vice-president of the State 
 Board of Agriculture, and in the succeeding year 
 was made president. 
 
 On the 5th day of January, 1865, a meeting was 
 held in a country school-house, upon the prairie in 
 Mahaska county, for the purpose of organizing a 
 company for the construction of the Central Rail- 
 road of Iowa. Mr. Fisher prepared the articles of 
 incorporation, which were adopted then and there, 
 Mr. Fisher being elected one of the directors, and 
 subsequently elected by the board as its secretary. 
 The enterprise was conducted with great vigor, and 
 the road, about one hundred and thirty miles in 
 length, was completed in four or five years, and is 
 now a very important link in the railway system of 
 the state. 
 
 Desirous of placing his two sons in business, he 
 began to look about the state for a proper location, 
 and determined upon Red Oak as a suitable place, 
 to which point he removed in 187 1. Here he im- 
 mediately commenced the practice of law. 
 
 In May, 1872, he purchased a half interest in the 
 Red Oak " Express," and became its editor, running 
 the paper through the Grant campaign. In 1872 he 
 was elected mayor of Red Oak, declining a renomi- 
 nation at the close of his first term. He is now in 
 full practice of his profession, though he is a part- 
 ner with his son, Z. T. Fisher, junior, in one of the 
 largest hardware establishments in the State of Iowa. 
 
 We have here but briefly sketched the career of 
 this eminently self-made man. His parents were 
 burthened with a large family, and bad but slender 
 means, and Zelotes had to fight his way along the 
 rugged paths of boyhood as best he could. At the 
 age of eighteen years he had the misfortune to lose 
 his right arm, thus disqualifying him for any agri- 
 cultural pursuit, which no doubt was the natural bent 
 of his mind. Under the most discouraging circum- 
 stances we find him trying to learn. His indomitable 
 will, ever encouraged by the kindly words and coun- 
 sel of his devoted mother, nerves him on to renewed 
 exertions. He abandons physic for law, in the prac- 
 tice of which he has had an enviable professional 
 and financial success, and now in his fifty-eighth 
 year he is in splendid condition, both physically and 
 mentally. 
 
 Mr. Fisher claims that his great success in life has 
 come from two causes : first, he had one of the very 
 
6o4 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 best of mothers, who inspired him to early exertion, 
 and secondly, he has one of the very best of wives 
 ever vouchsafed to man, who in his maturer years 
 has ever been his counsel and advice, and to whose 
 clear judgment he owes much of the good fortune 
 that has followed his life. His family at present 
 
 consists of his wife, five sons and three daughters, 
 one daughter having died. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Fisher is a very active republican, 
 frequently appearing before his fellow-citizens in this 
 and adjoining counties. He is a powerful and ready 
 speaker. 
 
 REUPKE, SCHMIDT and SCHWARTING, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 A MONG the many manufacturing interests of the 
 1\. northwest, none deserve more favorable men- 
 tion than the firm of Reupke, Schmidt and Schwart- 
 ing, cracker and biscuit manufacturers, Davenport, 
 Iowa. The firm, although still in its infancy, has 
 gained for itself an enviable reputation throughout 
 the country, and established a trade wherever they 
 are known. They are comparatively young men, but 
 they are ambitious and enterprising, and are doing 
 a large and very lucrative business, which is steadily 
 growing every year. They established their busi- 
 ness on the ist of July, 1874, with a capital of six- 
 teen thousand dollars, their building for manufac- 
 turing purposes being about one-half its present 
 size, and employed a force of from ten to fifteen 
 hands, and manufacturing about sixteen thousand 
 barrels of crackers per annum. From the time they 
 started their success was guaranteed, and they very 
 soon had to enlarge their factory and put in new 
 machinery to keep up with their orders. They now 
 occupy a fine two-story brick forty-two by one hun- 
 dred and fifty feet on its original situation, corner of 
 Fourth and Iowa streets, and employ from eighteen 
 to twenty hands constantly, requiring a capital of 
 thirty thousand dollars, with a produce of thirty-five 
 thousand barrels of crackers per annum, their sales 
 amounting to from ninety to one hundred thousand 
 
 dollars. Their success may be attributed to their 
 energy,^ perseverance and business ability, as well as 
 the superior quality of the goods made by them. 
 
 Charles H. Reupke, the senior of the firm, was born 
 in Europe. However, he came to this country while 
 quite young, and engaged in the grocery business 
 for a number of years successfully. He is a self- 
 made man in every particular and owes his success 
 to his own unaided ability and energy, and has par- 
 ticular qualifications as a manager. 
 
 Hugo Schmidt was born in Prussia, and came to 
 this country when fifteen years old. He has filled 
 many positions of honor and trust; has acted as sur- 
 veyor, draftsman, bookkeeper, and, for fourteen years 
 prior to going into this business, as a banker. He 
 has the charge of the financiering and money matters 
 of the firm, to which he is eminently qualified. 
 
 Bernard Schwarting runs the Walcott Flouring 
 Mills, and supplies the factory with twenty to thirty 
 barrels of flour per day. He is interested also in the 
 grocery business, and not active in the bakery. 
 
 Altogether the firm is a good one. They are keen, 
 active business men, and are building up an im- 
 mense trade, which their good management and close 
 attention will constantly improve. They ship all 
 over the west, and their goods are growing into de- 
 mand and popularity. 
 
 R. WALLACE DUNCAN, 
 
 ALBIA. 
 
 R WALLACE DUNCAN, the member of the 
 . general assembly from the eighth district, is 
 a native of Trumbull county, Ohio, and dates his 
 birth on the 13th of January, 1836. His father, 
 Thomas Duncan, a descendant of an old Scotch 
 family, is a farmer, still living in Trumbull county. 
 
 Ohio. His mother was Susan Leach, descended 
 from New, Jersey stock. The grandfather of Wal- 
 lace, John Duncan, was a soldier in the second war 
 with England. 
 
 The subject of this notice early imbibed a strong 
 love for books, and became a great reader. Most 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 605 
 
 of his youth was spent in intellectual pursuits, and 
 he received his academic education at Warren and 
 Lordstown, in his native state. He went as far as 
 the middle of the junior year in the classical course 
 of the college at Mount Union, teaching meanwhile 
 more or less, then left and taught steadily for ten 
 years, principally select schools and academi-es, at 
 Austintown, Oldtown, Mineral Ridge, and at one or 
 two other places in Ohio. He taught the English 
 branches and classics, and as far .as we can ascertain 
 was an expert in English grammar ahd mathematics. 
 
 In 1867 Mr. Duncan ceased to teach; immigrated 
 to Iowa, and has since been in the hardware and 
 grain business with an elder brother, John R. Dun- 
 can, constituting a house of high standing in Mon- 
 roe county, and quite successful in its business op- 
 erations. Wallace pays no attention to the hardware 
 store, his specialty being the grain department. He 
 also deals largely in agricultural implements, wagons 
 and machines. 
 
 Mr. Duncan has always been a democrat, but not 
 a bitter partisan. In 1877 his party nominated him 
 a candidate for the lower house of the general as- 
 
 sembly, and 'though living in a strong republican 
 district, he received a majority of more than three 
 hundred votes. 
 
 Mr. Duncan has a wife and three children, his 
 marriage occurring on the nth of October, i860. 
 His wife was Miss Laura E. Jones, of Trumbull 
 county, Ohio. She is a member of the Christian 
 church, where the whole family worship. Though 
 not a member, her husband is a regular attendant at 
 the house of God, and a firm believer in the funda- 
 mental doctrines of Christianity. 
 
 The taste for reading which Mr. Duncan culti- 
 vated with great assiduity in youth has never aban- 
 doned him. He continues to gratify it with una- 
 bated ardor, and to no meagre or mean extent. 
 The writer heard him remark not long ago that, 
 however pressing his business, he read his three 
 hours a day, even though he could not commence 
 till ten o'clock at night. His reading is not all news- 
 papers, but mainly solid works. He has a love for 
 the newer branches of science, and for literature of 
 the standard class, the gratification of which must to 
 some extent daily expand and enrich his mind. 
 
 HON. GEORGE W. McCRARY, 
 
 KEOKUK. 
 
 GEORGE W. McCRARY, secretary of war 
 (1878), was born near Evansville, Indiana, on 
 the 29th of August, 1835, his parents being James 
 and Matilda McCrary nee Forrest. His father was 
 one of the pioneers who settled in what is now Van 
 Buren county, Iowa, in 1836, when it was a part of 
 the Territory of Wisconsin. In 1838 Iowa became 
 an independent territory, and in 1846 a state of the 
 Union. Hence it will be seen that Mr. McCrary 
 has grown up and developed with a large region of 
 country having a common interest, and producing 
 four or five fine states. 
 
 He is of Scotch-Irish descent ; his ancestors 
 emigrated from Scotland in the early part of the 
 eighteenth century, and settled in the neighborhood 
 of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, from whence his great- 
 grandfather, James McCrary, moved to North Car- 
 olina prior to the war of the revolution, and settled 
 in what was then Rowan, but now Iredell, county ; 
 there his grandfather, John McCrary, W&s born and 
 reared ; and his father, James McCrary, was also 
 born and lived there until he was about nineteen 
 62 
 
 years of age, when the family removed to Tennessee, 
 about the year 1812; lived there about ten years, 
 and then removed to Indiana, and from thence, in 
 1835 (the year of his birth), to McDonough county, 
 Illinois, where the family resided about a year, and 
 then moved across the Mississippi river to where 
 he was raised. George W. attended the common 
 schools of the district where the family settled, and 
 also an academy, receiving quite a thorough Eng- 
 lish education, and enjo)'ing some, though not great, 
 advantages in the acquisition of knowledge in the 
 higher branches of learning. His early experiences 
 were such as are common to a pioneer's son, namely, 
 plenty of manual labor, which was always cheerfully 
 and dutifully performed, and the usual vicissitudes 
 of frontier life. As a result, however, a fine physical 
 development was secured, and, what is of equal 
 importance, he acquired habits of industry and 
 strict sobriety. His tastes were always toward the 
 intellectual, and consequently toward the improve- 
 ment, of his mind. 
 
 He had early determined to make the practice of 
 
6o6 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 law his occupation, and his first step after leaving 
 school was to enter the law office of Miller and 
 Rankin, of Keokuk. The first-named, Hon. Samuel 
 F. Miller, is now one of the associate justices of the 
 supreme court of the United States. Applying him- 
 self studiously, he was admitted to the bar in 1856, 
 the year of casting his first vote, and determined 
 to settle permanently in Keokuk, in which city he 
 continued to reside, and has ever since regarded it 
 as his home. 
 
 In 1857, when only about twenty-two years of 
 age, he was elected to the house of representatives 
 of Iowa, by the combined vote of several of the 
 southeastern counties, as *a " float," and served two 
 years. He was the youngest member of that body. 
 In 1 86 1 he was elected to the state senate from the 
 county of Lee, which had hitherto been overwhelm- 
 ingly democratic. In this position he served four 
 years, and became conspicuous for his personal 
 ability and wide-spread influence. Then came a 
 period of laborious and eminently successful efforts 
 in the line of his profession. In 1868, at the early 
 age of thirty-three years, he was elected a member 
 of the national house of representatives, and took 
 his seat in the forty-first congress as one of the 
 youngest of the members of that body. He was 
 reelected to the forty-second, the forty-third and 
 the forty-fourth congresses, and always with the most 
 flattering majorities. This brought his range of 
 public service up to the 4th of March, 1877, when, 
 on the organization of President Hayes' cabinet, 
 Mr. McCrary was offered and accepted the honor- 
 able position of secretary of war, and, it may be 
 added, no one of the selections made by the chief 
 magistrate has met with more universal approval. 
 
 Upon entering congress McCrary took position 
 very quickly. He was assigned immediately to the 
 committees on naval affairs, revision of the laws, 
 and elections ; as a member of the latter, he dis- 
 tinguished himself most signally. The considera- 
 tion and decision of election contests gave play to 
 his extensive legal knowledge, and his strong love 
 of justice and fair play enabled liim to rise above 
 party prejudice and decide such cases upon their 
 merits only. He at once took rank as one of the 
 best lawyers in the body, and as an authority upon 
 election la-vr. In the forty-second congress speaker 
 Blaine, in accordance with the general desire of his 
 fellow-members, appointed Mr. McCrary chairman 
 of the committee on elections ; in this position his 
 services were highly honorable and successful. With 
 
 his own party in a majority of more than two-thirds 
 in the house, he induced that body for the first time 
 in its history to vote upon election cases without 
 regard to party lines; and a majority of the cases 
 considered and reported by him were decided in 
 favor of his political opponents. His reports were 
 all adopted, and most of them without a division. 
 When the forty-third congress assembled, and the 
 questions relating to transportation, and the import- 
 ant matters connected with the subject of inter-state 
 commerce, were absorbing public interest and atten- 
 tion, Mr. McCrary was made chairman of the com- 
 mittee on railways and canals, to which all these 
 subjects were referred. He took hold instantly, and 
 labored with his usual thoroughness and vigor; he 
 prepared a report on the constitutional power of 
 congress to regulate railroad commerce among the 
 states, which was and still is regarded as exhaustive, 
 comprehensive and conclusive ; he reported a bill 
 on the subject, and advocated it before the house 
 with remarkable power. After one of the most 
 memorable debates on record it passed that body, 
 but was not reached for consideration in the senate. 
 
 In the forty-fourth congress Mr. McCrary was se- 
 lected by speaker Kerr (the democrats now being 
 in the majority) as a member of the committee on 
 the judiciary, where he served with his usual in- 
 dustry, ability and success. He was the author 
 of a bill to reorganize the judiciary of the United 
 States, which he advocated on the floor as well as 
 in committee, and which passed the house by a large 
 majority. After the presidential election of 1876, 
 when it was seen that the country was about evenly 
 divided in opinion as to the result of the contest, 
 and that the two branches of congress were sure to 
 differ, not only as to that result, but also as to the 
 proper authority to decide it, George W. McCrary 
 was the first to step forward with a proposition for 
 the adoption of a lawful and peaceful solution of the 
 difficulty. He proposed the joint committee, and 
 was himself a leading member of it, taking an active 
 part in the preparation of the electoral bill, and in 
 its advocacy in the house. He believes, and most 
 people will agree with him, that under all the cir- 
 cumstances this was a wise measure of statesman- 
 ship, which has given the country peace instead of 
 turmoil, excitement, and perhaps civil war. 
 
 Secretary McCrary was raised in the Christian 
 denominatit)n, a largely influential body of religious 
 people in the west, and has been a Unitarian for 
 twenty years past. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 607 
 
 In politics, he has always been a republican, and 
 cast his first vote for General John C. Fremont in 
 1856. 
 
 He was married to Miss Helen A. Gelatt, a resi- 
 dent of Van Buren county, Iowa, on the nth of 
 March, 1857. Mrs. McCrary is of a sterling type 
 of American womanhood, intelligent, practical and 
 energetic ; is possessed of the finest religious, moral 
 and domestic instincts, and capable of adorning any 
 position into which she may be carried by the con- 
 stantly advancing fortunes of her partner in life. 
 Their union has been blessed with five children, the 
 eldest and youngest being sons. Of the daughters, 
 two ere long will approach the period of entering 
 into society. The boys and girls alike are being 
 educated in consonance with the views of their 
 parents, solely and with reference to their usefulness 
 as men and women. 
 
 The secretary is somewhat less than six feet in 
 height, is finely proportioned, rather muscular, and 
 weighs about two hundred and ten pounds. He has 
 a slight, scholarly stoop, arising no doubt from his 
 studious habits. His expression of countenance is 
 
 frank and benevolent. Great equanimity of mind, 
 and a disposition to weigh matters carefully and 
 justly, are prominent traits of his character ; but 
 back of these lies an immense fund of energy for the 
 prosecution of any cause his judgment commends. 
 In speech, he is remarkably easy, fluent and instruct- 
 ive, especially during his social hours. Before the 
 public, he is strong, logical and impressive, using, 
 in his most carefully prepared addresses, sturdy 
 Saxon language, and his voice on such occasions is 
 full, clear and ringing. True in his friendships, kind 
 to the poor and rich alike, with naught of venom 
 ever coming from hi^ tongue, he is a general favorite 
 with all who know him. 
 
 Mr. McCrary is one of the growing men of the 
 republic, and, if life be spared, will continue to be 
 heard from. In every station he has always come 
 fully up to the expectation of his friends. It is 
 seldom, even in this country, or indeed in any other, 
 that at the age of forty-two years any person has 
 had so large an experience, and, under its influence, 
 expanded so well. His example is truly an excellent 
 one for the ambitious youth of our land to imitate. 
 
 JOHN VAN NESSE EVANS, 
 
 LOGAN. 
 
 ONE of the youngest attorneys whose names ap- 
 pear in this volume is John Van Nesse Evans, 
 who has been only seven years at the bar, and is 
 already at the head of the profession in Harrison 
 county. He is a native of the Empire State, and 
 was born in the town of Shelby, Genesee county, 
 on the 8th of January, 1847. His paternal great- 
 grandfather was in the battle of Bennington, Ver- 
 mont, on the i6th of September, 1777. He came 
 from Wales, and settled in Otsego county, New 
 York, where Barnabas Evans, the father of John 
 Van Nesse, was born. His wife was Julia Ann 
 Brown, a native of Pownel, Bennington county, Ver- 
 mont. 
 
 The -subject of this sketch spent his youth in Ak- 
 ron, Erie county, six miles from his birthplace, at- 
 tending a district school in the winters and farming 
 the rest of the time. In October, 1863, the family 
 moved to De Witt, Clinton county, Iowa, reaching 
 there on the 30th of the month. After farming 
 there two seasons, the son entered Lenox Collegiate 
 Institute, Hopkinton, Delaware county, Iowa, spend- 
 
 ing most of the years of 1865 and 1866 there, and 
 nearly all of the next two years at Monmouth Col- 
 lege, Knox county, Illinois, pursuing the scientific 
 course, yet giving some attention to German and 
 the classics, but not graduating. During this period 
 and afterward he taught school to defray expenses, 
 six or seven terms in all. Whatever education he 
 has, literary or legal, he obtained by his own re- 
 sources. 
 
 Mr. Evans read law with George B. Young, of De 
 Witt, and was admitted to the bar at Clinton, on the 
 7th of December, 1870. His mother had died at 
 De Witt two years before ; his father followed her 
 in 1872, and after practicing a year or more at De 
 Witt, in the autumn of 187 1 he removed to western 
 Iowa, settling at Magnolia, then the shiretown of 
 Harrison county. In the autumn of 1875 he moved, 
 with the county records, to his present home, where 
 he is building up practice of the best quality and of 
 liberal extent. For the last two years he has been 
 county attorney. Young as he is, his position is at 
 the head of the Harrison county bar. 
 
6o8 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 Mr. Evans is a member of the chapter in Odd- 
 Fellowship, and is a blue-lodge Mason. 
 
 His religious connection is with the Methodists ; 
 his political, with the republicans. 
 
 His wife, who was Miss Clara M. King, is a daugh- 
 ter of Stephen King, late judge of Harrison county, 
 and residing near Logan. They were married on 
 the i6th of June, 1875, and have one child. 
 
 While reading law as well as while pursuing his 
 literary studies, Mr. Evans taught school, and be- 
 fore he was admitted to practice had learned the 
 full value of time and money. That was one of his 
 most important lessons, and he has not forgotten it. 
 Every spare moment is now devoted to study, mainly 
 in the line of his profession; hence his rapid progress 
 and his high standing at so early an age. 
 
 JOHN A. NASH, D. D., 
 
 DES MOINES. 
 
 JOHN ANSON NASH, president of the Univer- 
 J sity of Des Moines, and an educator of much 
 experience and eminence, is a native of Chenango 
 county, New York, and was born in the town of 
 Sherburne, on the nth of July, 1816. His parents 
 were John and Elizabeth Peck Nash, his mother 
 being a sister of Rev. John Peck, long an agent of 
 the American Baptist Home Mission Society. An 
 uncle, Moses Nash, was in the war of 1812-15. 
 
 The subject of this sketch lost his father before 
 the son was five years old, and was reared on a farm 
 by an aunt in Otsego county. At the age of twenty 
 he entered the preparatory department of Madison 
 University; graduated from the university in 1842, 
 and from the theological seminary at the same place 
 in 1844. His first pastorate was at Watertown, New 
 York, where he spent six years, leaving there in July, 
 1850. On the 3d of the next January he reached 
 Des Moines, which has since been his home. He 
 immediately gathered the few Baptists together, or- 
 ganized a church, and was its pastor between seven- 
 teen and eighteen years, teaching also the larger 
 part of this period. About 1853 he started a select 
 school, which soon grew into what was long known 
 as Forest Home Seminary, the only classical school 
 during its existence. 
 
 Des Moines being centrally located in the state, 
 and some inducements being held out to the Bap- 
 tists, it was resolved to establish an institution here 
 of the highest order, and the University of Des 
 Moines is the result of that movement, organized in 
 April, 1865. Dr. Nash became its financial agent, 
 and labored in that capacity, with some interrup- 
 tions, for four years, until his health broke down. 
 This was not, however, until some time after the 
 brick building on the hill in Des Moines had been 
 
 completed, and the institution was in operation 
 there. During the period that he was regaining his 
 health Dr. Nash was superintendent of schools for 
 Polk county, his tei;m expiring on the ist of Janu- 
 ary, 1874. Prior to this date, in the autumn of 1872, 
 he became acting president of the university, and 
 was at its head three years, when Hon. Frederick 
 Mott became president. After holding that posi- 
 tion a little more than a year. President Mott re- 
 signed, and Dr. Nash was again placed in the presi- 
 dential chair (May, 1877), where we still find him, 
 laboring with the utmost assiduity to build up the 
 university. From the time it was opened in April, 
 1866, its corps of teachers has been gradually in- 
 creased and its curriculum enlarged until it em- 
 braces a full college course. It is open to both 
 males and females, and graduated its first class in 
 1875. Each year shows a steady increase of stu- 
 dents, and being located at the capital, it can hardly 
 fail of becoming in time one of the great centers of 
 educational influence in Iowa. It has an endow- 
 ment of something like thirty thousand dollars, 
 which, no doubt, will be doubled or quadrupled in 
 a very few years. 
 
 Dr. Nash was, we believe, originally an anti-sla- 
 very whig, and has voted with the republican party 
 since it was formed. 
 
 He has had two wives : the first was Miss Jennie 
 C. Calhoun, of Pittsford, Monroe county, New York; 
 married in July, 1846. She died childless on the 
 3d of February, 1851. His present wife was Miss 
 Mary E. Hepburn, a native of New York, residing 
 at the time of her marriage (March 15, 1853,) at 
 Augusta, Lee county, Iowa. She is the mother of 
 four children, all living. John Alasco, the only son, 
 was educated at the university and the law school 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 609 
 
 of Des Moines, and is an attorney in this city; 
 Jennie C. is in the senior year of the same college ; 
 Netta in the junior year, and Hattie, aged eleven, 
 is in the public schools. 
 
 Since Dr. Nash located in Des Moines, at the 
 opening of 1851, he has accomplished a great relig- 
 ious as well as educational work, organizing two 
 Baptist churches, one on each side of the river, in 
 Des Moines, and being largely instrumental in the 
 formation of nearly thirty others in central Iowa. 
 
 Every good cause receives his hearty and powerful 
 support. Many years ago he canvassed the central 
 part of the state for a prohibitory liquor law, and 
 has been one of the champions of temperance for 
 forty years. A young commonwealth just shaping 
 its laws, or an older one desirous of keeping good 
 laws on its statute books, cannot have too many 
 citizens of the character of John Anson Nash. The 
 degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by the 
 University of Chicago in 1877. 
 
 CAPTAIN ROBERT T. COVERDALE, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 ROBERT TODD COVERDALE, a lineal de- 
 scendant of the celebrated Miles Coverdale, 
 the translator of the Bible, was born at Cottenham, 
 Yorkshire, England, in February, 1822, his parents 
 being John Coverdale and Mary Ann n^e Todd. 
 His father was born in Yorkshire in 1798, and is 
 at this writing (1877) in his eightieth year, resid- 
 ing in Muscatine with his son, having emigrated to 
 America some four years since. His parents, whose 
 parents owned and resided at Southard Hall, near 
 Cottingham castle, Yorkshire, was a member of a 
 family of three children, two of whom are still liv- 
 ing, namely, Elizabeth, wife of Edward Thompson, 
 of Montreal, Canada, and John Todd, now a resi- 
 dent of Sheffield, England. Mrs. Coverdale died in 
 1837, when our subject was but fifteen years of age, 
 leaving a family of three children, of whom he was 
 the eldest. Her father was a large land owner, but 
 dying very suddenly intestate, his estate became 
 involved in litigation and was ultimately placed in ' 
 charge of the court of chancery, where it is likely 
 to remain indefinitely, unless a second Dickens with 
 a second " Bleak House " should appear to disturb 
 its slumbers and urge it on to a final decision. 
 
 Our subject received but a limited education. 
 His mother being an invalid during the last four 
 years of her life, and he being the eldest child, 
 much of the care of the younger children as well 
 as of the mother devolved upon him, and in this 
 way four of the best school years of his life were 
 employed. He has not infrequently been heard to 
 speak with much feeling of the trials and troubles 
 incident to his boyhood years, and the obstacles 
 with which he had to contend in his endeavor to 
 obtain the little book knowledge which he was able 
 
 to acquire ; and yet, on looking back over his whole 
 life, the recollection of those four years devoted to 
 the care of his dear mother affords him more genu- 
 ine satisfaction than any other period of his life. 
 In youth, he was grave, steady and earnest, gov- 
 erned by strong moral principles and an unswerv- 
 ing desire to do his whole duty in that state of life 
 to which it should please God to call him, and in- 
 deed such has been his character through life, a 
 str6ng, earnest desire to know and to do his whole 
 duty to God and man. ' 
 
 At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed for 
 seven years to learn the trade of a machinist or en- 
 gine builder, his wages varying gradually from two 
 shillings and sixpence per week for the first year to 
 nine shillings per week for the seventh year of his 
 apprenticeship. After serving out the stipulated 
 period of tutelage he was taken into the employment 
 of the firm, where he remained eight years, the last 
 five of which he served as foreman of the depart- 
 ment of the establishment in which he was engageil. 
 In 1 85 1 he resolved to emigrate to America, being 
 moved to this step mainly by the hope of larger 
 wages and the prospect of bettering his condition, 
 and in that year he embarked for the new world, 
 carrying with him from his late employers the very 
 highest testimonials as to qualifications and charac- 
 ter for sobriety, honesty and industry. He halted at 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, where his reception was far from 
 encouraging, and his faith and stability were put to 
 the severest test. For months he was unable to pro- 
 cure any employment, though he sought it diligently 
 and sometimes even with tears; at last, utterly worn 
 out with discouragement, he determined to return 
 to his native land by working his passage home, his 
 
6io 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 money being well-nigh exhausted ; but on the day- 
 preceding that on which he had settled to com- 
 mence the homeward journey he resolved to make 
 one more effort among the shops of the Queen City, 
 and in the afternoon was offered a situation at seven 
 dollars per week at the machine shops of Hollibard 
 and Co., the manager telling him he might go to 
 work at any time he liked. He stood not a moment 
 upon the " order of his going," but lay aside his coat 
 and " took hold " on the instant, and since then he 
 has never been without employment. 
 
 After working at the Hollibard establishment for 
 several weeks, he accepted a position at the Foster 
 Printing Press Works at nine dollars per week ; and 
 while in this establishment his employer discovered, 
 through drawings in his possession, that he was famil- 
 iar with the art of constructing gas works, to which 
 he had given some attention in England, and pro- 
 posed to him to undertake the building of a gas ap- 
 paratus with which to illuminate the workshops of 
 the company, which young Coverdale accepted, and 
 in a few weeks had the satisfaction of witnessing the 
 successful issue of his handiwork in the brilliant illu- 
 mination of the factory, to the no small delight of 
 his employer as well as himself Thus commenced 
 his career as engineer and contractor for the con- 
 struction and erection of gas works, which has made 
 his name famous throughout the northwest. 
 
 His next enterprise in this line was the construc- 
 tion and erection of an apparatus for illuminating a 
 large paper-mill at Louisville, Kentucky ; and soon 
 afterward he built the city gas works at Springfield, 
 Ohio, which was at that time (1853) the smallest 
 town in the United States operating a coal-gas sys- 
 tem, there being only thirty-seven private consumers 
 and seven street lamps. He remained in the em- 
 ploy of the company some eighteen months, during 
 which time the private consumers had increased to 
 one hundred and thirty-five, and the street lamps to 
 one hundred. 
 
 In 185s he was employed as engineer to superin- 
 tend the construction of gas works at Rock Island, 
 Illinois, at a salary of one thousand dollars per an- 
 num ; having completed which, he returned to Ohio 
 and secured a contract for the construction of gas 
 works at Piqua, in that state, this being his first ad- 
 venture as engineer and contractor on his own ac- 
 count. From that time to the present he has de- 
 voted himself exclusively to the building of gas 
 and water works, with the most satisfactory results, 
 having in the meantime constructed some thirty-five 
 
 gas works in various parts of the valley of the Mis- 
 sissippi, among which may be mentioned those of 
 the cities of Memphis, Tennessee ; Pine Bluff, Ar- 
 kansas; Bowling Green, Kentucky ; Lancaster, Belle- 
 fontalne, Circleville, Findlay, Lima, Piqua, Gallipo- 
 hs and Ironton, Ohio; Vincennes, Indiana; Rock 
 Island, Illinois ; Des Moines, Davenport and Mus- 
 catine, Iowa, and Topeka, Kansas. 
 
 During his residence in the United States he has 
 become thoroughly imbued with American ideas, 
 and even more enthusiastic in his admiration of our 
 institutions than many "to the manor born," even 
 in the northern states, — for having winced under 
 the cold shade of aristocracy in his native land, he 
 could entertain a more lively sense of the ennobling 
 qualities which spring from the principles of our 
 great " Declaration of Independence " than any one 
 without his previous experience could possibly do. 
 Hence no sooner did wicked hands attempt to lay 
 waste and yjrofane this glorious temple of Liberty 
 than he buckled on his sword in defense of the in- 
 stitutions of his adopted country. His skill as an 
 engineer, and his sound judgment and steady habits, 
 rendered him one of the most valuable and reliable 
 officers of the volunteer army. 
 
 In the spring of 1861 he recruited a company of 
 eighty-five men in the ctiy of Cincinnati at his own 
 expense, which were mustered into the 48th Ohio 
 Volunteer Infantry, in which regiment he was com- 
 missioned a second lieutenant ; and soon after leaving 
 camp with his company he participated in the mem- 
 orable battle of Shiloh, where his coolness and cour- 
 age were conspicuous. While on the road to Mem- 
 phis, a few days after, he was detailed and placed in 
 charge of a corps of engineers for the purpose of 
 rebuilding and repairing the bridges which had been 
 burned down or rendered impassable by the rebels ; 
 and the skill and vigor which he displayed in this 
 emergency brought him into prominent notice, and 
 he was accordingly detached from his regiment and 
 appointed on the staff of General Denver. After 
 serving with him for several months he was trans- 
 ferred to the staff of General Sherman with the 
 rank of lieutenant, where he*^ remained during the 
 Atlanta campaign and through the " march to the 
 sea," being on duty early and late, in season and 
 out of season, untiring and indefatigable, and yet 
 withal modest and unobtrusive. His devotion to 
 duty, however, did not escape the keen eye of his 
 vigilant chief, by whom his valuable services were 
 duly appreciated and fittingly rewarded by perhaps 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 6ll 
 
 the most signal and flattering compliment bestowed 
 upon any officer during that never-to-be-forgotten 
 struggle. On the morning after the capture of At- 
 lanta General Sherman sent the following telegram 
 to the President : 
 
 Atlanta, Georgia. 
 Abraham Lin'COLN, President of the United States: 
 
 I ask as a personal favor that Lieut. R. T. Coverdale, of 
 the 48th Ohio Volunteers, be appointed an assistant quar- 
 termaster with the rank of captain in the regular army, and 
 assigned to duty at my headquarters. 
 
 Wm. T. Sherman. 
 
 Six hours later the following answer was received : 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C. 
 Major-Generai, W. T. Sherman: 
 
 In accordance with your request just received, Lieut. R. 
 T. Coverdale is appointed an assistant quartermaster wilh 
 the rank of captain in the regular army, and his commis- 
 sion as such forwarded to you. 
 
 A. Lincoln, President. 
 
 This is perhaps an unprecedented instance of an ap- 
 pointment by telegraph to a captaincy in the United 
 States army. 
 
 At the termination of the " march to the sea," 
 Captain Coverdale was placed on duty at Savannah, 
 Georgia, as post quartermaster, where he had charge 
 of all the military railroads and transportation cen- 
 tering at that point. On the evacuation of that cen- 
 ter of supply he was transferred to Atlanta, Georgia, 
 in the same position, where he remained until, at his 
 urgent request, he was honorably mustered out in 
 1865, having served his adopted country faithfully 
 for over four years. 
 
 But the greatest sacrifice of Captain Coverdale 
 on the altar of his adopted country is yet to be re- 
 corded : he gave his only son, the joy of his heart 
 and the hope of his house, dearer to him than his 
 own life, to the cause of freedom and humanity. 
 
 Our subject was married in England in the year 
 1841, to Miss Elizabeth Jewett. Four children were 
 born to them, two of whom died in infancy and two 
 hved to maturity, a son and daughter. The son, 
 John Thomas, was born on the nth of January, 1844, 
 carefully educated, and was one of the most prom- 
 ising young men in all the country; tall, graceful, 
 intelligent, his form cast in manly mould, and ani- 
 mated with a noble soul, he was the light of the fire- 
 side, the favorite of his companions and the life of 
 the social circle. He enlisted early in the war in the 
 Sth Ohio Infantry, and refusing many offers of pro- 
 motion, his talents and attainments qualifying him 
 for high position, remained in the ranks ; was a moral 
 soldier; fought in all the battles of Virginia until 
 that of Cedar Mountain, where he fell mortally 
 
 wounded, his right lung pierced with a minie-ball, 
 and died in hospital ten days after, at the age of 
 nineteen. His last words were, " Tell my father and 
 mother I die for the Union." His company com- 
 mander, Captain Symmes, in a letter to his mother 
 conveying the sorrowful tidings, employed the fol- 
 lowing language : " If he was as good a son as he 
 was a soldier, then you might well be proud of him." 
 His remains were interred in Circleville, Ohio. The 
 daughter and only surviving child, Mary Ann, is the 
 wife of J. J. Childs, Esq., secretary of the Musca- 
 tine Gas Works. The latter was born in Tyrone, 
 Steuben county, New York, worked his way through 
 Antioch College, Ohio, by teaching, and was gradu- 
 ated with honors in i860, and subsequently was 
 principal of the Franklin Schools at Saint Louis, 
 Missouri, for ten years, and afterward was engaged 
 for two years in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the book and 
 job printing business. 
 
 He was married on the 31st of December, 1863. 
 He is a distinguished Mason, a Knight Templar 
 and S.P.R.S. of the Scottish rite, 32°. 
 
 Captain Coverdale removed to Muscatine with his 
 family in the spring of 1877, and purchased a con- 
 trolling interest in the gas works of that city, of 
 which he is now president. 
 
 His wife died on the 13th of January, 1872. 
 He was brought up in the national church of his 
 country, and is now an adherent of the Protestant 
 Episcopal church of the United States, to the sup- 
 port of which he has ever been a generous giver. 
 
 Among the leading characteristics of Captain Cov- 
 erdale are great benevolence and deep and practical 
 sympathy for suffering. Not only does he divide 
 with the needy to the extent of his means, but often 
 to the inconvenience and embarrassment of himself 
 and the stinting of his family. He has never been 
 satisfied with the cold and nicely-balanced idea of 
 duty as bounded by circumstances. When he has 
 done all that is commanded him in the moral law, 
 and all that is expected of him by his fellow-men, 
 he still regards himself as an "unprofitable serv- 
 ant," and as falling far short of the requirements of 
 Christ's law of love and self-sacrifice ; hence he is 
 ever awaiting opportunity to do good to his fellow- 
 men. Such a man is not likely to amass wealth, and 
 Mr. Coverdale is not classed with the rich. 
 
 In his domestic habits, he is among the most so- 
 cial, genial and companionable men to be found. 
 He loves the society of the good and wise. His 
 mind is well stored with knowledge, and his conver- 
 
6l2 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 sation is always instructive. He is charitable in his 
 judgments, ever seeking to put a favorable con- 
 struction upon the actions of others. His domestic 
 relations were eminently happy. His wife was one 
 of the best and noblest of her sex, and he was the 
 most mild and devoted of husbands and fathers. 
 He governed by love and example, guiding his chil- 
 
 dren with his eye, and keeping from them nothing 
 that would add to their happiness or well-being. 
 
 In some regards he was rather peculiar ; he has 
 generally waited on himself, rarely asking a servant 
 to do anything for him that he could do himself. 
 When the world shall be inhabited by men like Mr. 
 Coverdale, the millennium will be at hand. 
 
 JOHN W. H. VEST, M.D., 
 
 MONTEZUMA. 
 
 TOHN WILLIAM HENRY VEST, the oldest 
 J living medical practitioner in Poweshiek county, 
 Iowa, and a man of excellent reputation, is a native 
 of the " Old Dominion," and was born in Bucking- 
 ham county on the 17th of May, 1822. He is a son 
 of John and Elizabeth Price Vest, plain farming peo- 
 ple, who moved to Hillsboro, Highland county, Ohio, 
 when John W. H. was ten years old. Peter Vest, the 
 father of John, came from France ; the Prices were 
 from Germany. The maternal grandmother of John 
 W. H. died in Ohio on the day she was ninety years 
 old. John vest participated in the second war with 
 the mother country. 
 
 The subject of this sketch prepared for college at 
 the Hillsboro Academy when Professor C. Sams was 
 at the head of it, but went no farther with his literary 
 studies at school, teaching most of the time from six- 
 teen to twenty-two years of age. He read medicine 
 with Dr. J. B. McConnell, of Russellville, Brown 
 county, Ohio ; attended lectures during the winter of 
 1847-8 in Sterling College, Columbus, Ohio; prac- 
 ticed eight years at New Market and New Vienna in 
 the same state; attended another course of lectures 
 at Columbus, and graduated in March, 1856. He 
 then located in Montezuma the next month, and 
 here practiced steadily until the civil war had pro- 
 gressed one year. 
 
 On the 22d of August, 1862, Dr. Vest went into 
 the service as surgeon of the 28th regiment Iowa 
 Volunteers, and served until the 4th of December, 
 1864, when he resigned. Soon after going south he 
 was made surgeon-in-chief of the third division, 
 thirteenth army corps, on General McGinnis's staff; 
 when the thirteenth and nineteenth army corps were 
 united he became medical director on the staff of 
 General Ransom, and was subsequently transferred 
 and made medical director in the field on General 
 McClernand's staff.' Still later he was relieved of 
 
 this duty and placed in charge of General McCler- 
 nand, who was ill, taking him from Alexandria, 
 Louisiana, to New Orleans, and thence to Alton, Illi- 
 nois. He was on the operating board at Magnolia 
 Hill and Champion Hill, Mississippi ; also at Black 
 River, Vicksburg, and through the campaign in the 
 Shenandoah valley, making a brilliant record as a 
 surgeon. 
 
 While in the service Dr. Vest had fine opportuni- 
 ties for improvement in his profession, but does not 
 seem to have been satisfied, for directly after leaving 
 the service he went to Philadelphia, attended a full 
 course of lectures in Jefferson College, and received 
 a second medical diploma; also two private diplo- 
 mas, one in anatomy and the other in school prepara- 
 tion. 
 
 It is almost needless to say that the doctor has a 
 high standing among the medical men of the state. 
 He belongs to both the county and state medical 
 societies, and was president of the former body in 
 1875. His rides are quite extensive. He has a 
 partner. Dr. E. H. Sheafifer, a graduate of the med- 
 ical department of the Iowa State University, and a 
 young man of excellent qualifications. 
 
 In politics, Dr. Vest is a firm republican ; is a 
 council member of the Masonic order, and belongs 
 to the encampment of Odd-Fellows. 
 
 He married Miss Margaret Phibbs, of Adams 
 county, Ohio, on the 23d of December, 1847. She 
 has had six children. The eldest child, Mary E., 
 was the wife of John McDonald, of Montezuma, and 
 died at the age of twenty-eight. The youngest of 
 the six children died in infancy. The other four 
 are living. John Watts has a family, and lives on a 
 farm in Poweshiek county ; the second son, William 
 E., is a medical student, and Martha and Fred are 
 school teachers. 
 
 Dr. Vest has a farm of four hundred and eighty 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 613 
 
 acres, one mile from town, two-thirds of it in timo- 
 thy. He has fifty head of horses, more than half of 
 them of the Bashaw stock. He has six hundred ap- 
 ple trees on his farm ; has a fine taste for horticul- 
 ture, and were he less popular as a physician, might 
 have more time to devote to fruit growing. He lets 
 nothing, however, crowd in upon his medical studies. 
 
 He takes nine or ten periodicals devoted to his pro- 
 fession, and is a progressive man. 
 
 The doctor has gray hazel eyes, gray hair, a par- 
 tially bald, large head ; is five feet and ten and a half 
 inches tall, and weighs two hundred and twenty-five 
 pounds. He is mirthful in disposition, well stocked 
 with knowledge and anecdotes, and is a good talker. 
 
 HON. HIRAM T. SHARP, 
 
 ATLANTIC. 
 
 HIRAM T. SHARP, the mayor of Atlantic, is 
 a son of John Sharp, farmer, and Sarah n^e 
 Mather, and was born near Watkins Glen, Steuben 
 county, New York. The Sharps settled in New 
 Jersey at an early day, and one of this branch of 
 the family was General Sharp, who is buried at West 
 Point. John Sharp was a captain of state militia. 
 
 The Mathers are an old American family, Sarah 
 Mather being a direct descendant of Cotton Mather. 
 She is still living, her home being in Delavan, Wis- 
 consin, where her husband died in 187 1. He moved 
 with his family from Steuben county to Delavan 
 when Hiram was about twelve years old, settling on 
 a farm which the son aided in cultivating. 
 
 The mind of Hiram, however, was upon his books 
 more than on his manual employment, he carrying 
 a book in his pocket when engaged in plowing and 
 other farm labor. He received his education in the 
 district school and the normal department of Milton 
 College, Rock county, teaching for several years ; 
 having' charge, the last year of his teaching, of the 
 English department of the Delavan Seminary. 
 
 Mr. Sharp commenced reading law in 1863, at 
 Delavan, with A. S. Spooner ; continued his legal 
 studies for six months in Chicago, and finished them 
 at the law school in Albany, New York, graduating 
 in May, 1864. After practicing one year at Delavan 
 
 and two years at Burlington, Wisconsin, he came to 
 Iowa, prospecting awhile, and located at Atlantic in 
 December, 1868, still continuing his law practice. 
 
 Mr. Sharp was elected justice of the peace in 
 1873, and still holds that office. Since settling in 
 Cass county he has been county attorney and city 
 attorney one term each, and a member of the school 
 board three years. He was elected mayor in the 
 spring of 1877, and makes an efficient and popular 
 executive, filling that office to the entire satisfaction 
 of the people. 
 
 In politics, he has always been connected with the 
 republicans, and is active and influential in the party. 
 
 He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
 church, and a trustee of the same. He was the' first 
 Sunday-school superintendent in Atlantic. 
 
 On the 2d of May, 1867, Miss Sara T. Billings, of 
 Burlington, Wisconsin, became the wife of Mr. Sharp, 
 and they have had four children, losing one of them. 
 
 The subject of this brief sketch is a tall, sparely- 
 built man, being six feet in height and weighing 
 only one hundred and fifty pounds. He has gray 
 eyes, a sandy complexion, an easy carriage, and a 
 pleasing address. He is perfectly free from affecta- 
 tion, very cordial, and a good converser, using the 
 language of a scholar without pedantry, and having 
 the manners of a gentleman. 
 
 HON. ISRAEL KISTER, 
 
 BLOOMFIELD. 
 
 ONE of the pioneer farm-openers in Davis coun- 
 ty, Iowa, was Israel Kister, for the last two 
 years mayor of the city of Bloomfield. He was the 
 first county recorder when Iowa became a state, and 
 treasurer of state just after Iowa became a common- 
 63 
 
 wealth. He has been identified with the history of 
 the county from the day that the Indians vacated 
 this their reservation. He has an unspotted public 
 record, having discharged every duty devolving up- 
 on him with the utmost fidelity. 
 
6i4 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Mr. Kister is a son of John and Susan (Hutten) 
 Kister, the Kisters being of German descent, and 
 was born in York county, Pennsylvania, on the 4th 
 of February, 1810. His ancestors on both sides were 
 pioneers in that state. The parents of Susan Hutten 
 were Quakers, and she broke away from that anti- 
 war denomination by marrying a man who made an 
 effort to " take a hand " in the second fight with 
 Great Britain, though, on account of some physical 
 disability, he was not accepted by the examining 
 surgeon. When fifteen years of age Israel accom- 
 panied the family to Wooster, Ohio, where he at- 
 tended the village school, and subsequently learned 
 the saddle and harness maker's trade, following it 
 most of the time for several years. He was in- Texas, 
 prospecting and working at his trade, when the rev- 
 olution occurred there more than forty years ago. 
 He returned to the north through Tennessee, where 
 he worked a short time, reaching Ohio in 1837, and 
 spending some time as clerk in a hotel at Massillon, 
 Stark county. Soon afterward he taught school one 
 season near Rushville, Indiana. 
 
 In 1839 Mr. Kister came to Van Buren county, 
 Iowa, where he taught the first school on " Chicken 
 Ridge," in the western part of the county; did some 
 farming and served as justice of the peace ; in March, 
 1843, settled permanently in Davis, the next county 
 westward, where he farmed for a number of years, 
 
 dealing also at times in live stock. It was during 
 this period that he held various offices of trust and 
 responsibility, some of them requiring his temporary 
 absence from the farm. He was elected county 
 recorder, as before stated ; commissioner's clerk in 
 1846, and treasurer of state in 1849. After the civil 
 war broke out he went into the pension agency busi- 
 ness, and has since been engaged in settling estates, 
 acting as administrator and guardian, being a busy 
 and a very useful man. He is very careful and ac- 
 curate, and has the fullest confidence of the com- 
 munity. He has made himself quite serviceable at 
 times in the local school board, and other official 
 positions in the municipality of Bloomfield, before 
 being placed at its head. 
 
 Mr. Kister has always been a democrat, and in 
 his earlier years was quite active in politics, attend- 
 ing county, district and state conventions. 
 
 He is a member of the Universalist church — a 
 man of generous impulses and pure life. 
 
 Mr. Kister has a second wife. His first was Miss 
 Susan Freeman, of Stark county, Ohio ; married on 
 the 4th of August, 1837. She died on the 26th of 
 August, 1853. His present wife was Miss Catherine 
 T. Douglas, of Bloomfield, formerly of Pennsylvania; 
 married on the 9th of February, 1854. Mr. Kister 
 has no children of his own; he has one adopted 
 child, a daughter, eighteen years old. 
 
 PETER G. BALLINGALL, 
 
 OTTUMWA. 
 
 PETER. G. BALLINGALL, one of the most pub- 
 lic-spirited citizens of Ottumwa, is a native of 
 Scotland, and was born in Glasgow, on the 3d of 
 March, 1830. He came to America when about 
 seven 'years old; was in the province of Ontario, 
 Canada, three or four ye^rs, acting as errand boy for 
 a wholesale tobacconist, and selling matches made 
 by his step-father ; before he was eleven years old 
 he walked from Cobourg, seventy-three miles below 
 Toronto, to Chicago, by a roundabout way, a dis- 
 tance of seven or eight hundred miles ; at the age of 
 thirteen was a waiter boy in the New York House, 
 Chicago; after one season went into the City Hotel, 
 kept by Brown and Tuttle ; accompanied them to 
 the old Sherman House, and remained with them 
 seven years, serving in every capacity from bell-boy 
 at six dollars per month to that of steward at six 
 
 hundred dollars a year. At the end of this period 
 he was appointed by the Court of Chancery receiver 
 of the Lake House, at a salary of eighteen hundred 
 dollars a year, and managed so acceptably to the reg- 
 ular boarders that on leaving in January, 1855, the 
 guests presented him with an elegant hunting-case 
 gold watch. Among the guests were several men 
 who have since become quite prominent, such as 
 R. L. Wilson, E. C. Latned, John H. Kenzie, H. 
 Newhall, C. S. Dole, and John R. Palmer. Such 
 tokens of regard are a stimulus to a young man, 
 leading him to try to do well in the future. 
 
 Soon after leaving the Lake House Mr. Ballingall 
 traveled through most of the southern states ; sailed 
 from Charleston, South Carolina, for New York; 
 was driven back by a storm as far as the Bermudas ; 
 went from New York city to Boston, and there en- 
 
dJl 
 
 / // 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 617 
 
 gaged to return to Chicago and become steward 
 of the Briggs House. The following notice is from 
 the Chicago "Tribune " of the 10th of April, 1855 : 
 
 We are glad to learn that our old friend Ballingall, so 
 long and universally known and admired as steward of the 
 Sherman House, and lately connected with the Lake House, 
 will go into the Briggs House as its steward. There could 
 be no one step taken which would give the house more cer- 
 tain popularity than this. Mr. Ballingall's name is, in itself, 
 a tower of strength, and he will be sure to not let his already 
 acquired laurels rust in his new position. 
 
 A few months later he became proprietor of the 
 Haskall House, Galesburgh, Illinois; closed out his 
 interest at the end of one year, and in the autumn 
 of 1856 became manager of the Ivins House, Keo- 
 kuk, Iowa, where, on Christmas morning following, 
 he was the recipient of a silver service from his 
 guests. The next spring he removed to Benton's 
 Port, Van Buren county, forty miles from Keokuk ; 
 opened the Ashland House in a partnership, which 
 did not lead on to fortune ; removed to fairfield at 
 the end of a year, and a few months later to Agency 
 City, then the western terminus of the Chicago, Bur- 
 lington and Missouri River railroad, and opened the 
 Revere House. Moving westward as the railroad 
 progressed, in the summer of 1858 Mr. Ballingall 
 settled in Ottumwa, still running a hotel, and engag- 
 ing in many other pursuits. At one time he had 
 seventeen licenses for as many branches of business. 
 For nine years he was proprietor of a stage line 
 from Ottumwa to Bloomfield, and till recently run a 
 stage to Sigourney. The Ottumwa "Courier," on 
 the 14th of July, 1870, thus spoke of his operations 
 as a stage proprietor : 
 
 With persistent energy, amid trials and vexations of no 
 mean kind, he has constantly kept a line of coaches run- 
 ning to the end of the North Missouri railroad, through 
 sunshine and rain ; and when that treacherous stream. Big 
 Soap, swelled with pretensions and overflowed its banks, in 
 order not to stop communication, Mr. B. built a pontoon 
 bridge across its bosom during the darkness of the night 
 and pelting of the storm, so that passengers should not be 
 delayed, and that they could pass hither and thither on time 
 and in safety. He has coach lines running all over this 
 country ; superintends the Depot Hotel, and we know not 
 what else, besides holding the most thankless position a man 
 was ever placed in — democratic trustee in a republican 
 city council — where the same spirit of unconquerable busi- 
 ness proclivities marks his proceedings. And with all his 
 idiosyncrasies he is always the same affable, genial, whole- 
 souled gentleman, one we could illy spare from our commu- 
 nity, and whose fame for his business peculiarities is one 
 well merited. 
 
 An irrepressible, slashing, dashing, energetic enigma. 
 Has more vim and perseverance in him than any othej 
 man we know. It is as Impossible for him to let a dollar 
 lie useless as it is to get along without breathing. Here, 
 there, everywhere at the same time, the nearest an omni- 
 present entity that can be reared in this imperfect world. If 
 Pete had the means he would build the whole face of the 
 globe over, and sigh for more ground. His first great am- 
 
 bition is to do good and be accommodating, and to accom- 
 plish this end he permits no surmountable obstacle to block 
 his pathway. With an indomitable will and plenty of nerve 
 to back it, Pete is decidedly a man for the public ; no 
 demonstration of a public kind can be set on foot but that 
 he is in the front with cheery voice and restless soul, ready 
 and anxious to do something. 
 
 The " Iowa Homestead " of Des Moines, edited 
 
 by J. Duane Wilson, thus spoke of Mr. Ballingall in 
 
 July, 1871: 
 
 " Pete," as he is familiarly called, is equal to any emer- 
 gency. For a number of years he catered in Chicago, 
 and is well known to thousands. Twelve or thirteen years 
 ago he came to' this promising town, and has been one of 
 its moving spirits from the date of his arrival. He takes 
 advantage of every opportunity for improvement, and never 
 lets money rot or rust in his possession. One man of his 
 staiup in a community is worth a thousand miserly drones, 
 and a hundred of such could make a large city in about six 
 days. He is not called rich, in what this world calls riches, 
 but he is worth more than the entire generation of antedi- 
 luvians who have a being in the common den of idleness, 
 lust and selfishness. The citizens of Ottumwa are beginning 
 to learn that they have a man in their midst who is worth 
 his weight in gold. His business is everywhere, and he 
 turns his hand to everything. The press is enthusiastic in 
 his praise, and those who envy him his position must yet 
 learn to pay him homage. 
 
 In 1866 he built the Ballingall House, a four-story 
 brick structure with mansard roof, one of the finest 
 hotel buildings in the Des Moines valley, and he is 
 also proprietor of the Depot Hotel, finding no diffi- 
 culty in operating both. 
 
 Mr. Ballingall is interested in the pork-packing 
 business ; has attended three national conventions 
 of pork packers, and was vice-president of the con- 
 vention which met at Indianapolis in 1876. 
 
 He has always been a democrat, and is an active 
 and warm partisan. He often attends the state con- 
 ventions of his party, and was a delegate to the na- 
 tional democratic convention in 1876. In 187 1 he 
 ran for state senator in a strong republican district, 
 and greatly reduced the usual republican majority. 
 He has been in the city council as alderman ten 
 years. 
 
 He was a leading spirit in organizing the library 
 association of Ottumwa, and is one of its oldest di- 
 rectors. He is foremost in all commendable enter- 
 prises. In March, 1873, he received from his fellow- 
 citizens a fine gold watch and chain, the whole 
 costing five hundred and twelve dollars, as a token 
 of their appreciation of his services as an enterpris- 
 ing man. The inside front case is most elegantly 
 engraved with the following inscription : " Hon. P. 
 G. Ballingall, by his guests at_ Soldiers' Reunion at 
 Des Moines, 1870, and other friends in Iowa, in 
 token of esteem." On the chain is a gold heart, 
 with the date of presentation on one side, and on 
 
6i8 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 the other the inscription, "The live man of the 
 place." The Hon. E. H. Stiles, reporter of the su- 
 preme court of Iowa, made the presentation speech. 
 In the course of his remarks he very appropriately 
 said : 
 
 It seems to me that one of the most gratifying facts of a 
 man's existence and life, one of the most pleasant reflections, 
 is that there is something about his character that attracts 
 man to man. These vows of sympathy bind man to man 
 as brothers ; it is one of the most pleasant reflections that a 
 man has, that he is loved in life, and will be mourned when 
 dead. 
 
 Mr. Ballingall was commissioned major of the 5th 
 regiment of the Iowa National Guard, on the 20th 
 of May, 1876, and was presented by the Sheridan 
 Guards with a handsome gold-mounted sword, with 
 steel and bronze scabbard and gilt regulation belt, 
 engraved on the hilt, " Presented to Major P. G. 
 Ballingall, by the Sheridan Guards, Ottumwa, June 
 25, 1876"; and on the scabbard, " Major P. G. Bal- 
 lingall." Was commissioned colonel on the loth of 
 
 April, 1877. He was made temporary president of 
 the convention of the national guard of the state, 
 held at Dubuque on the 6th of June, 1877 ! also 
 permanent president of the convention held at Des 
 Moines on the 6th of February, 1878, and has re- 
 ceived the nomination from nearly all the compa- 
 nies in the state for major-general. 
 
 Mr. Ballingall's employes presented him with an 
 elegant gold-headed ebony cane, on the 14th of Jan- 
 uary, 1878. 
 
 Colonel Ballingall is a Methodist in religious sen- 
 timent, but very liberal. 
 
 It will be seen that he began early in life to paddle 
 his own canoe ; and he has so managed as never to 
 get stranded. As an energetic, industrious man, 
 he has few equals, always planning some public or 
 private improvement, and never resting or halting 
 until he sees it completed. Such men are the most 
 useful citizens in any community. 
 
 HON. AARON KIMBALL, 
 
 CRESCO. 
 
 AARON KIMBALL, state senator representing 
 L Howard, Chickasaw and Bremer counties, is a 
 son of Thomas D. Kimball, a farmer, and Mary Ann 
 Youngs, and was born in New York city on the i6th 
 of March, 1836. The Kimballs were an early New 
 Jersey family. The mother of Aaron was a native of 
 Chester, Orange county. New York. When he was 
 a little more than a year old the family moved to 
 Middlebury, Elkhart county, Indiana, where the son 
 spent his youth in aiding his father in tilling land. 
 The winter of 1851-52 he gave to study in the On- 
 tario Indiana Academy, and the next three winters 
 he taught district schools, spending his summers on 
 the farm. In March, 1854, we find him in the fresh- 
 man class of the University of Michigan, in which 
 institution he remained three years, paying his way 
 by manual labor and with the funds accumulated 
 by teaching before entering college. At length, his 
 exchequer being exhausted, he left at the close of 
 the junior year; in March, 1857, came to' Howard 
 county, of which he has since been a resident, and 
 of which he early became a leading citizen. The 
 first year and a hqlf in the county he served as 
 deputy recorder and treasurer, and taught school 
 meantime at Vernon Springs. In that township, in 
 January, 1859, he settled on a farm, which he culti. 
 
 vated until January, 1865, when he became clerk of 
 the district court and of the board of supervisors, 
 a position to which he was reelected, and in which 
 he was offered a third term; but Cresco, a new 'town 
 on the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul railroad, 
 needed a bank ; Mr. Kimball moved to this place, 
 and on the 14th of May, 1869, the banking house 
 with which he is now connected was organized. 
 The name of the firm is Kimball and Farnsworth, 
 his partner being John Farnsworth, a native of Mus- 
 catine county, Iowa. Theirs is the oldest bank in 
 Howard county, aod it is a substantial and highly 
 reputable institution. 
 
 Mr. Kimball was elected to the state senate in 
 October, 1877, and while we write he is serving his 
 first term. He is on the committees on ways and 
 means, soldiers' orphans' home, and suppression of 
 intemperance, and chairman of the committee on 
 college for the blind. 
 
 The " Howard County Times," the republican 
 organ at Cresco, thus spoke of the politics of Mr. 
 Kimball, on the 4th of October, 1877 : 
 
 Politically, he is of the republican faith, beginning with 
 the Fremont campaign in Indiana, when Henry S. Lane 
 was elected governor, and the old-time republican gospel 
 was propounded by such men as Kinsley S. Bingham, An- 
 son Burlingame, Cassius M. Clay, and Schuyler Colfax, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 619 
 
 down through the intervening years ; and while not an ar- 
 dent partisan, he has been a consistent and earnest republi- 
 can, believing the principles and policy of this party to more 
 nearly represent his own convictions than any other of the 
 great political parties of the country. 
 
 Mr. Kimball is thoroughly identified with the in- 
 terests of the county and state, and has done valu- 
 able service to both. In January, .1871, he was made 
 a director of the State Agricultural Society, and la- 
 bored assiduously to advance its interests. 
 
 He is a member of the Congregational church, and 
 an earnest worker in the Sunday-school cause. His 
 character has always been above suspicion. 
 
 Mr. Kimball has a second wife : his first was Mrs. 
 Irene S. Kelley, of New Bedford, Massachusetts; 
 married on the 21st of August, 1858; she died on 
 the 19th of August, 1870, leaving one child, Mary F. 
 His present wife was Miss Emma W. Laird, of In- 
 dianapolis, Indiana; married on the 20th of March, 
 1872 ; she has two children, Lois C. and Ruth L. 
 
 Mr. Kimball is six f^et in height, weighs two hun- 
 dred and ten pounds, and his fine physique, dignified 
 bearing, frank address and cordial manners naturally 
 arrest the attention of strangers. It is not surprising 
 that he is most popular where best known. 
 
 N. L. VAN SANDT, M.D., 
 
 CLARINDA. 
 
 A LEADER of the people, a man of most excel- 
 lent judgment and an iron will, a keen observer 
 of human nature, a man of pronounced opinions upon 
 all subjects, professional or political, one who likes 
 his friends and hates his enemies ; in fact, a perfectly 
 reliable man, one whose good discretion lets him see 
 the right, which he follows, let it lead where it may; 
 such can truly be said of Dr. Van Sandt. 
 
 His father, John Van Sandt, was born in Fleming 
 county, Kentucky, on the 23d of September, 1793. 
 In the meridian of life he removed to Brown county, 
 Ohio, where the subject of this sketch was born on 
 the 7th of May, 1825. He was by nature opposed 
 to the institution of slavery, and being a man of fixed 
 character he made many enemies, and was subjected 
 to long-continued lawsuits in defense of his princi- 
 ples, which exhausted his means. John Van Sandt 
 married Miss Nancy Northcote, daughter of the Rev. 
 Benjamin Northcote, who was a Methodist minister 
 of the Kentucky conference for upward of sixty 
 years, and remained upon his estate in Fleming 
 county, Kentucky, until his death in 1850, at the 
 advanced age of eighty-seven. 
 
 John Van Sandt was an energetic and inteUigent 
 farmer, a rabid abolitionist at a time when it cost 
 something to be such, and at the age of fifty-four 
 he died at Hamilton county, Ohio. 
 
 Dr. Van Sandt worked upon his father's farm dur- 
 ing the summer months, and attended a district 
 school until he was eighteen, when he went to an 
 academy ten miles off, at which place he resided, 
 being in disfavor with his step-mother. From this 
 academy he went to Woodward College, Cincinnati, 
 
 where he remained awhile, and then returned to the 
 school at College Hill, where he had previously been, 
 and which had been reconstructed, finally finishing 
 his instructions at the hands of a private tutor near 
 his father's home. 
 
 About this time he began the study of medicine 
 for one year under Dr. Avery at Reading, Ohio, and 
 then took a course of lectures at the Eclectic Med- 
 ical Institute, Cincinnati, from which he graduated in 
 1850. This year he married Miss Eliza Heald, of 
 Miami county, Ohio, after which he located in Troy, 
 Ohio, and practiced medicine there for eight years. 
 From Troy he removed to Iowa, located at Clarinda, 
 at which place he has continuously resided, practic- 
 ing his profession. 
 
 Dr. Van Sandt was originally a whig in politics, 
 then a free-soiler, and subsequently a red-hot repub- 
 lican. He has been an active politician ever since 
 he came to Clarinda. He was a zealous supporter 
 of all the war measures of President Lincoln's ad- 
 ministration. He was elected to the tenth assembly 
 of Iowa in 1863, and was again elected to fill the 
 unexpired term of Hon. Charles Linderman. 
 
 Although continuously prosecuting his profession 
 while at home, he has found time to devote an im- 
 mense amount of exertion in the development of a 
 farm of one hundred and thirty acres, which he pur- 
 chased in 1862, situated near the city, and where he 
 now resides. This is indeed a model farm, so far as 
 success in winter wheat and fruit raising is concerned. 
 He was the first to cultivate fall wheat to any extent 
 in Page county. In his reports to the agricultural 
 I bureau at Washington he demonstrated the fact, as 
 
620 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 the result of his experiment, that fall wheat produced 
 in four crops averaged sixty-eight bushels to the acre, 
 as against forty-six bushels of spring wheat per acre 
 for the same four crops. His fruit growing, too, is 
 an immense success. In apples of a superior quality 
 and variety, in " Concord " grapes and in cherries, 
 his farm takes the lead of every other in Page county. 
 Dr. Van Sandt has had born to him two children, 
 one of whom died in infancy ; the other is a young 
 man of twenty-five, of varied education and a supe- 
 rior mind, well stored with the higher order of literary 
 attainments. He is at present with his father in the 
 real-estate business, of which he has the management. 
 
 The doctor was appointed postmaster under Presi- 
 dent Grant, from 1871 to 1873, and has been United 
 States pension agent since 1863 to the present time, 
 with the exception of two years. 
 
 He is a Presbyterian in religious views, but, like 
 Prof. Swing, takes no stock in Calvinism. 
 
 Clarinda was a close inland town, fourteen miles 
 away from the main trunk of the Chicago, Burling- 
 ton and Quincyj-ailroad, and by the exertions of Dr. 
 Van Sandt and a few others the Nodaway Valley 
 railway via Clarinda was constructed, which has 
 proved not only to be the making of the city, but in 
 itself a source of profit to its projectors. 
 
 GENERAL HIRAM SCOFIELD, 
 
 WASHINGTON. 
 
 HIRAM SCOFIELD, soldier and lawyer, was 
 born at Hadley, Saratoga county. New York, 
 on the ist of July, 1830, and is the eldest son of Will- 
 iam Scofield and Susannah n^e Bishop. The Scofield 
 family in the United States is descended from Eng- 
 lish ancestors who settled in Stamford, Connecticut, 
 about the year 1730, where a large colony of -the 
 descendants still reside, though large offshoots have 
 found their way in the middle and western states. 
 Major-General J. M. Schofield is of the same lin- 
 eage, and not very distantly related to our subject. 
 
 The grandfather of our subject, Neazer Scofield, 
 who was fipurth in descent from the first settler of 
 that name in America, was born in Stamford, Con- 
 necticut, in the year 1752, and married Thankful 
 Scofield, a relative of his own. 
 
 He was a soldier of the revolutionary war, serving 
 in southern Connecticut, in the vicinity of Long Isl- 
 and, and up the Hudson river ; was present at the 
 engagement in which General Wooster was killed, 
 and saw him fall. He was also present in New York 
 city at its evacuation by the federal forces in 1777. 
 About the year 1800 he removed with his family to 
 Saratoga county, New York, going up the Hudson, 
 and being among the pioneers of the mineral-spring 
 region, since become one of the most fashionable 
 summer resorts in the nation, if not the world. He 
 was a pensioner of the government up to the time 
 of his death. He was, moreover, a man of large 
 intelligence and considerable influence in his day 
 and generation, and a leading member of the Pres- 
 byterian church. He died in Saratoga county. New 
 
 York, in the year 1846, in the ninety-fourth year of 
 his age. 
 
 The father of our subject, William Scofield, was 
 born in Stamford, Connecticut, in the year 1793, 
 and removed with his parents, when but a lad, to 
 Saratoga county. New York. He was a tiller of the 
 rough and comparatively unfruitful soil of the last 
 named locality, from which he was able, with the 
 utmost frugality and industry, to wring out a sub- 
 sistence for his family, who, it will be naturally in- 
 ferred, were brought up in habits of industry and 
 economy. 
 
 Mrs. Scofield was a most excellent woman, am- 
 bitious, energetic, and devoted to the interests of 
 her children. To her influence and efforts is mainly 
 due the superior education that all her children at- 
 tained. She was a devout christian, an exemplary 
 member of the Presbyterian church, as was also her 
 husband, both of whom lived to old age. He died 
 in Washington, Iowa, in the year 1874, in the eighty- 
 first year of his age, and she in 1862, in the seven- 
 tieth year of her age. 
 
 The preparatory studies of our subject were pur- 
 sued in the public schools of his neighborhood, and 
 at the Cambridge Academy, Washington county, 
 New York, after which he entered Union College, 
 Schenectady, then under the presidency of the Rev. 
 Eliphalet Nott, D.D., from which he was graduated 
 with honors in the class of 1853. 
 
 After quitting college he removed to Little Rock, 
 Arkansas, where he engaged in teaching for two 
 years, reading law at the same time under the di- 
 
tHB UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 621 
 
 rection of the celebrated Albert Pike. Returning 
 to his home he attended the law school of Albany, 
 New York, from which he was graduated in 1856. 
 
 ..In the year following he removed to Washington, 
 Iowa, which has since been his home, where he en- 
 gaged in the practice of his profession, at which he 
 has long since taken a leading rank. 
 
 Immediately after the outbreak of the rebellion, 
 and in response to the first call of President Lincoln 
 for troops to defend the national flag, he enlisted in 
 the 2d Iowa Infantry, and was mustered into the 
 service on the 27 th of May, 1861, and served one 
 month as a private, for which he received the mu- 
 nificent sum of eleven dollars. He was then pro- 
 moted to the rank of second lieutenant, and soon 
 after to that of first lieutenant. 
 
 His first military service was in northern Missouri, 
 guarding the Hannibal and Saint Joseph railroad, 
 then down the Mississippi to Bird's Point, under 
 General Fremont. He commanded his company at 
 the battle of Fort Donelson, on the 14th and isth of 
 February, 1862, in which the regiment lost heavily, 
 but covered itself with glory, and wrung from the 
 imperturbable Halleck the most enthusiastic admira- 
 tion. Colonel Tuttle, who commanded the regiment, 
 in his official report, among other staff and line offi- 
 cers, commends Lieutenant Scofield by name for 
 noble deportment in this memorable struggle. In 
 his history of "Iowa and the Rebellion," L. D. In- 
 gersoll thus refers to the conduct of the 2d Iowa at 
 the siege of Fort Donelson : 
 
 Colonel Tuttle led the advance. Not a man spoke, not a 
 gun was fired from the ranks. Silent as the grave and in- 
 exorable as death the 2d Iowa pushed its way up the hill 
 through a storm of grape, shell and ball. Many dropped 
 dead, many were wounded, but not a groan or a cry was 
 heard. The regiment moved as noiselessly as so many lions 
 stealing upon their prey. Reaching the works, the men 
 bounded over with wonderful agility. . . . The enemy re- 
 sisted with great stubbornness, but the whole regiment 
 forming in line inside the rebel works drove the enemy 
 before them. 
 
 On the surrender of the fort, on the following day, 
 the 2d Iowa was awarded the post of honor, and 
 was the first to enter the rebel stronghold, marching 
 in at the head of the grand column, which made a 
 most imposing display. The 2d marched up to the 
 citadel, when Corporal V. P. Townley, the only one 
 of the color guard who had escaped uninjured, 
 planted the stars and stripes upon the captured fort 
 amid the wild huzzas of the victorious army. This 
 was the most complete victory of the Union army. 
 The surrender of the rebels was unconditional. 
 
 Soon after the fall of Donelson our subject was 
 
 promoted to the rank of assistant adjutant-general 
 and placed on the staff of General Lauman, and in 
 that capacity he participated in the battle of Shiloh, 
 where he received a musket ball through the leg, 
 which for a time rendered him unfit for service. In 
 the latter part of 1862 he was placed on the staff of 
 General McCarthy in the same capacity, and served 
 through the Tennessee campaign and down the river 
 to the neighborhood of Vicksburg. Took part in 
 the siege and capture of Corinth ; the battle of the 
 Hatchie, under Generals Ord and Hurlburt, where 
 his gallantry, courage and skill were conspicuous, 
 and received the well-merited commendation of his 
 superiors. 
 
 In May, 1863, he was promoted to the command 
 of the 8th Louisiana Colored Infantry, afterward the 
 47th United States Colored Infantry. After his ap- 
 pointment to the rank of colonel he commanded the 
 post at Lake Providence, and at Milliken's Bend 
 during the siege of Vicksburg, and was among the 
 first to enter the city after its capture. He subse- 
 quently commanded the second brigade in the di- 
 vision of colored troops in the siege of Blakely and 
 in the operations against Mobile, where himself and 
 his command won an imperishable fame, and already 
 fill one of the brightest pages in the history of the 
 rebellion ; was stationed and commanded at Alex- 
 andria, Louisiana, during the summer and fall of 
 1865. He also did considerable duty on court-mar- 
 tials ; his legal knowledge, no less than his cool and 
 impartial judgment, eminently fitting him for that 
 duty. He was mustered out at Baton Rouge, Lou- 
 isiana, on the 6th of January, 1866. He was brevet- 
 ed brigadier-general in April, 1865. 
 
 Such is a brief outline of the military career of 
 Hiram Scofield, a career second to that of but few 
 heroes of the war, and of which his state and coun- 
 ty, no less than his immediate friends and relatives, 
 may well be proud. 
 
 On his retirement from the war he resumed the 
 practice of his profession at Washington, Iowa, in 
 partnership with his brother William, also a lawyer 
 of high standing, and has long since taken the high- 
 est rank at the bar of his adopted state. 
 
 In politics, the general was raised in the demo- 
 cratic faith, though always opposed to slavery, and 
 at the outbreak of the rebellion found his place in 
 the republican party, where he has since remained, 
 except in 1872, when he favored the election of 
 Horace Greeley to the Presidency. He was a presi- 
 dential elector, and voted for General Grant in 1868. 
 
622 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 He has also filled the office of city solicitor of Wash- 
 ington for several years. He has never been con- 
 nected with any secret societies. 
 
 He was raised under Presbyterian influence, and 
 still prefers that branch of Christianity, but is not in 
 union with any church. 
 
 In personal appearance, General Scofield is of 
 dark complexion, full beard, regular features, and 
 intellectual countenance ; five feet eleven inches in 
 height, and weighing one hundred and eighty-five 
 pounds. His habits are studious, and he loves re- 
 tirement and quiet, though ambitious and desirous 
 of success. 
 
 As a lawyer, he is thoroughly read, gentlemanly 
 and dignified, always trying his cases upon their 
 merits and the law governing them. 
 
 As a military man, he was brave, skillful and pa- 
 triotic. Entirely loyal, and desirous to do his whole 
 duty to his country, he was contented to serve in any 
 capacity where his superiors might be pleased to 
 place him, or his services could be most useful. 
 
 As a disciplinarian, he was stern and unyielding, 
 and his command was noted for order and punctili- 
 
 ous compliance with every military regulation, yet 
 he was always approachable and sympathetic. 
 
 As a politician, while he has been an uncompro- 
 mising abolitionist, and consequently a republican, 
 yet principles rather than party measures have always 
 received his approval. His prospects for an election 
 to congress, once second to none, were sacrificed to 
 his unswerving devotion to principle. Of late he 
 has, therefore, eschewed party affiliations, supporting 
 only such men and measures as meet his approval. 
 
 As a citizen, he is quiet and unostentatious, cor- 
 dially indorsing and supporting any measure of real 
 public benefit. 
 
 In the selection of his books he shows a taste for 
 the unique as well as the valuable, and has gathered 
 in his library many volumes prized alike for age, 
 quaintness or literary merit. In converse with these 
 he spends most of the time snatched from profes- 
 sional labor. 
 
 In October, 1856, he married Miss Amelia B. Wil- 
 son, daughter of Henry Wilson, of Iowa county, 
 Iowa, formerly of Ontario county. New York, by 
 whom he has two children, Clara B. and Cora J. 
 
 LEVI B. NELSON, 
 
 TOLEDO. 
 
 AMONG the younger business men of Toledo, no 
 ir\. one has made a better record than Levi Buel 
 Nelson. His career is all the more praiseworthy 
 because he had no school privileges after he was 
 thirteen years old, yet educated himself for respon- 
 sible positions, and has shown himself possessed of 
 uncommon business talents and capabilities. He is 
 a son of Seth B. Nelson, a physician, and Jane Gray 
 Graham, and was born at Horsehead, Chemung 
 county, New York, the 4th of May, 1838, he now 
 being in his fortieth year. Seth B. Nelson moved to 
 Tioga county about 1843, and there his son lived 
 until seventeen, clerking in a dry-goods store as soon 
 as he was large enough to be of any service. Being 
 cut off from school privileges at an early age, he 
 educated himself, securing a good business outfit. 
 
 On the 31st of March, 1856, young Nelson reached 
 his present home, and two days afterward became 
 deputy recorder and treasurer of Tama county, hold- 
 ing that position until July, 1861. On the 22d of 
 that month he was mustered into the United States 
 service as sergeant of company C, loth Iowa Infant- 
 
 ry. He was immediately assigned duty in the adju- 
 tant's office, and was soon designated by the colonel 
 to act as his aid. The latter place he held until the 
 colonel resigned. Mr. Nelson was mustered out in 
 September, 1862, because of ill health. 
 
 Returning to Toledo, he went into the hardware 
 business, combining with it agricultural implements 
 and real estate. In 1869 he sold out his mercantile 
 interests, continuing real estate and the loan agency 
 until the present time with good success. He has a 
 partner, Mr. C. P. N. Barker, who attends to this 
 department. 
 
 In the spring of 1873 the Toledo Savings Bank 
 was organized, Mr. Nelson was appointed its cashier, 
 and the duties of that office still occupy his undi- 
 vided and close attention. It is a popular institution 
 which he is managing, and its success is owing in 
 no small measure to his method of conducting it. 
 There is no better business man in Toledo. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Nelson was a liberal in 1872; be- 
 fore that time was, and since has been, a republican. 
 He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic order, and 
 
THE UNITED STATES BTOGRAPHICAL B/CT/ONAHr. 
 
 623 
 
 a member of the Congregational church, acting as 
 trustee in the latter society. He is active in the 
 Sunday-school, warm and generous hearted, and in 
 all respects a valuable citizen. 
 
 On the 20th of October, 1866, he was united in 
 marriage to Miss Eliza M. Hendry, of Delaware 
 county, New York. They have had three children, 
 
 and, including an adopted son, have three living. 
 Mrs. Nelson was educated at a private school in 
 New Haven, Connecticut. Previous to the Ameri- 
 can revolution her paternal great-grandfather and 
 his two brothers were taken prisoners in Delaware 
 county, New York; the brothers weie killed, and he 
 was taken to Canada and there died in prison. 
 
 HON. DELANO T. SMITH, 
 
 MARSHALL TO WN. 
 
 DELANO T. SMITH, real-estate dealer and fine 
 stock raiser in Marshall county, Iowa, and dur- 
 ing the rebellion one of the active, useful friends of 
 the republic, is a native of New York, his birth dat- 
 ing at Litchfield, Herkimer county, the 6th of No- 
 vember, 1830. His father was a man of unusual 
 natural powers, of great industry, energy and enter- 
 prise, owning at different times several farms in the 
 vicinity where he lived. Most of these farms were 
 bought more to afford homes and business for rela- 
 tives and friends than for speculative purposes, an 
 act of benevolence and enterprise which, owing to 
 the great financial crisis of 1837, came nigh costing 
 him all of his hard-earned gains. He died in 1844 
 of inflammatory disease, caused by overwork, after a 
 sickness of only ten days, being the only illness of 
 his life, leaving a widow and three sons, Irving D., 
 Delano T., and Melville C. The subject of this 
 sketch was then thirteen years of age. His mother, 
 Mrs. Julia Smith, succeeded to the management of 
 the estate, and most of the land was sold and the 
 debts paid, leaving the family in possession of the 
 homestead of some two hundred acres. Mrs. Smith 
 managed the farm and reared her three children 
 with marked ability, was a devoted mother, and one 
 of the most generous and large hearted women in 
 the country. Her son Irving is now among the 
 largest farmers in Iowa, and the Hon. Melville C. 
 Smith one of the most enterprising and prominent 
 business men and politicians in the city of New York. 
 She died in Iowa in May, 1876, at the age of seventy, 
 having spent the last few years of her life with the 
 subject of this sketch. 
 
 Delano gave his youth to the cultiv^ion of land 
 and his own mind, finishing his school education at 
 the Clinton Liberal Institute, commencing to teach 
 at sixteen, while pursuing his academic course. He 
 taught five years, first in Herkimer and later in the 
 64 
 
 high schools of Ontario and AVayne counties, steadily 
 the first two or three years, and later only a part of 
 the time, giving the residue to the study of law. He 
 read with Hon. James C. Smith, of Lyons, Wayne 
 county, now judge of the supreme court, residing in 
 Canandaigua. He finished his legal studies at the 
 National Law School, Ballston Spa, and was admitted 
 to the bar at Albany, New York, in 1852. 
 
 After practicing a year in the village of Herkimer 
 with Judge Graves, he moved to Dixon, Illinois; was 
 two years in company there with H. J. Sibley and 
 Colonel C. N. Levanway, prominent attorneys since 
 deceased ; and in 1855 removed to Minneapolis, Min- 
 nesota. In June of that year the land there was 
 made subject to preemption, and he engaged largely 
 in real estate, continuing the business there some 
 ten years with marked success. He was elected to 
 the territorial legislature in 1857, and was also a 
 member of the senate during the first two years after 
 Minnesota was admitted as a state. 
 
 Among the many favorable notices of Mr. Smith 
 found in the Minnesota papers we insert the follow- 
 ing : 
 
 Hon. D. T. Smith . . . left Washington about two weeks 
 since, where he has been occupying a responsible post in 
 the treasury department. He is also the president of the 
 sanitary commission, which has done and is still doing so 
 much for the relief of our wounded and suffering soldiers; 
 and Mr. Smith has in some instances taken the wounded 
 into his own house, and, assisted by his estimable lady, has 
 given them the best of care and attention. The blessings 
 of those who were ready to perish be upon him. 
 
 This, after his unanimous nomination in Minne- 
 sota for the senate : 
 
 Mr. Smith is a true friend of the workingmen every- 
 where, and they may rely with unwavering confidence upon 
 his defense of their interests in the legislature. Talented, 
 honest, industrious and prudently progressive, he will be 
 elected by those M'ho have the interests of Hennepin county 
 at heart, and will stand up an embodiment of the integrity 
 and intelligence of that county in the senate of the State of 
 Minnesota. 
 
624 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 He was a prominent actor in shaping the laws of 
 that state, and his valuable services have not been 
 forgotten by its citizens. At a subsequent period, 
 when he and his brother were about to take up their 
 abode in New York, the " Minnesota State Atlas " 
 thus spoke of their departure : 
 
 HoNS. Delano T. and Melville C. Smith. — Last 
 week we alluded to the fact that the above named Minne- 
 sotians contemplated moving to New York city, and ex- 
 pressed our regret that the state was to lose two so worthy 
 and prominent citizens. We are glad to learn that although 
 they are to establish a business office in New York they 
 will retain most of their interest in Minnesota, and may 
 still be considered as largely identified with our state. The 
 Messrs. Smith were early settlers in Minnesota, and from 
 the first, as business men and citizens, ranked among the 
 most enterprising and prominent. Always foremost in what- 
 ever concerned the moral and material welfare of the com- 
 munity, earnest and energetic, and honest even above sus- 
 picion, they have won the fullest confidence of our people. 
 Though largely involved in real-estate transactions at the 
 time of the terrible financial crash of '57, they were among 
 the few who went through that trying ordeal with credit 
 unimpaired and integrity unimpeached. PoliticaHy, both 
 are effective workers, and on the right side, and to carry 
 out their present business plans resigned important positions 
 of trust and confidence. In expressing our regrets at their 
 departure, and heartily wishing them that success they so 
 eminently deserve, we but express the feelings of all who 
 know them. 
 
 At the commencement of Mr. Lincoln's adminis- 
 tration Mr. Smith was very highly recommended by 
 more than half of the United States senate, by most 
 of the prominent members of the house of repre- 
 sentatives, and by all the leading officials of Minne- 
 sota, for one of the most responsible positions under 
 Secretary Chase ; and so strong were these recom- 
 mendations, such a full indorsement of his strict 
 integrity, marked ability and true patriotism, that 
 the President remarked, on reading them, that he 
 should cheerfully sign his appointment to any office 
 in the treasury department, and that they were suf- 
 ficient to justify him in taking him into his cabinet. 
 
 At the solicitation of the secretary of the treasury 
 in 186 1 Mr. Smith took the appointment to the chief 
 clerkship of the third auditor's office of the treas- 
 ury department, with the understanding and promise 
 that he should soon be made "the auditor ; but owing 
 to the exigencies of the war a vacancy was not made 
 as was contemplated by the president and secretary, 
 and he therefore remained in that position until Oc- 
 tober, 1863, when he resigned at the suggestion of 
 Secretary Chase, and accepted the appointment to 
 the office of United States direct lax commissioner 
 for Tennessee, and at once entered upon its duties. 
 
 In the winter of 1864-65 he went from Memphis 
 to Washington by the direction of the secretary of 
 the treasury, Mr. Fessenden, to aid in securing ad- 
 
 ditional legislation to more efficiently collect the 
 direct taxes in the rebellious states. He laid the 
 matter before the proper committees of the house 
 and senate, and persisted in his efforts until the law 
 .pertaining thereto was amended in accordance with 
 his views, and as desired by the government. Sub- 
 sequently, however, President Johnson issued an 
 order forbidding the sale of property for the non- 
 payment of taxes in the insurrectionary states, thus 
 rendering the law, so recently amended, inoperative, 
 substantially stopping all the collections thereunder. 
 For that reason, and desiring to engage in business 
 with his brother in the city of New York, Mr. Smith, 
 in July, 1865, resigned the office of tax commissioner, 
 much to the regret of all having knowledge of his 
 faithful and efficient discharge of its important du- 
 ties. On this event the New York "Tribune" thus 
 editorially commented : 
 
 The Hon. Delano T. Smith, tax commissioner for Ten- 
 nessee, has resigned his position, to the regret of the Presi- 
 dent and Secretary McCullough, by whom he was esteemed 
 a very faithful officer. 
 
 Mr. Smith is one of the truest patriots, and during ^ 
 the progress of the civil war few men had deeper 
 concern for the country. While in Washington, he 
 was president of a union league and of other organi- 
 zations having for their end the salvation of the 
 nation. He was a member also of the executive com- 
 mittee of the National Union League, and worked 
 effectually in that capacity with leading men of the 
 country. 
 
 After resigning his office in Tennessee he spent a 
 short time in Minneapolis arranging his business and 
 property interests, and in the autumn of 1865 re- 
 moved to the city of New York, where he remained 
 and engaged actively in business for four years. 
 During a part of this time he was at work, in con- 
 nection with his brother Melville, in projecting the 
 "Arcade Railway," to run under Broadway in that 
 city, one of the most important projects ever con- 
 ceived for the benefit of New York. It would vir- 
 tually have made Broadway and other streets double, 
 and provided ample accommodation for the trade 
 and travel of that overcrowded city. Notwithstand- 
 ing it was estimated to cost sixteen million dollars, 
 and was to make so great a transformation of the 
 streets, the Smith brothers secured the necessary 
 influence and a pledge of the required capital, and 
 the legislature of the state passed a bill authorizing 
 the construction of the work. The enterprise en- 
 countered the bitter opposition of the "Tweed 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTION ART 
 
 625 
 
 ring," then in the zenith of its power, and through 
 its influence John T. Hoffman, then governor, was 
 induced to veto the bill, and thus this great project 
 was for a time defeated. Commodore Vanderbilt, 
 who pledged two million dollars in aid of the origi- 
 nal undertaking, has since adopted the plan in what 
 is known as "The South Avenue Improvement," 
 which cost six millions to construct, and it is not 
 unlikely the original purpose may yet be fully car- 
 ried out. 
 
 Not finding life in that great city to agree with 
 his health, Mr. Smith again moved west, and on the 
 1st of September, 1869, reached Marshalltovn. Here 
 for eight years he has been engaged in real estate, 
 money loaning, and, after one year, stock raising, 
 making every branch a success. He is now, withal, 
 an extensive farmer; has a thousand acres or more 
 in Logan township, eighteen miles from Marshall- 
 town, under excellent improvement; six hundred 
 and forty acres in Plymouth county, near Lemars, 
 besides his stock farm, " Highland Home," adjoining 
 the city. On this farm and that in Logan he usually 
 has from forty to sixty thoroughbred shorthorn cat- 
 tle, two or three hundred thoroughbred Berkshire 
 swine, and two hundred or more graded cattle. He 
 is one of the most extensive stock raisers in the 
 county. 
 
 Mr. Smith has always been a republican, and has 
 advocated the principles of the party by pen as well 
 as tongue. The first political article he ever wrote 
 
 was against the fugitive slave law, and was published 
 in the Lyons, New York, "Gazette" and other pa- 
 pers in Wayne and Ontario counties. In the days 
 of his Minnesota campaigns few stump speakers had 
 more weight with the people. He was earnest, forci- 
 ble and eloquent, and being well posted and on the 
 right side, produced conviction, and was remarkably 
 successful as a politician in whatever he undertook. 
 
 He has had two wives : the first was Mary E. Cook, 
 of Springville, Erie county, New York; married in 
 1852, died at Minneapolis in 1857, leaving one child, 
 Mary J. His present wife was Miss Mettie A. Pal- 
 mer, daughter of Chauncey Palmer, a prominent iron 
 founder and builder of Utica, New York. She is the 
 mother of five children, one son and four daughters, 
 all living. 
 
 In this brief sketch we have done scant justice to 
 the important events in Mr. Smith's busy life, and 
 still less have we portrayed those characteristics 
 which make him so respected and honored, and most 
 by those who know him best. Starting comparatively 
 without means, he has been " the architect of his 
 fortune," and stands prominent among our noble 
 array of self-made men. Temperate in habits, honest 
 and upright in motive and action, kind and con- 
 siderate of others, sincere and patriotic, of untiring 
 energy, quick and clear in his perceptions, discreet 
 and comprehensively thoughtful, he has justly earned 
 and is more than entitled to his marked success and 
 position among men. 
 
 JESSE CLEMENT, 
 
 CHICAGO. 
 
 JESSE CLEMENT, once for eleven years a resi- 
 dent of Iowa, and one of the writers of this 
 volume, comes of revolutionary stock. His grand- 
 father, Moses Clement, at the age of seventeen was 
 on guard the night before the battle of Bunker Hill, 
 and witnessed that early blow struck for the inde- 
 pendence of the colonies. At the end of six months 
 the young private returned to his farm in Dracut, 
 Middlesex county, Massachusetts, where he subse- 
 quently married Rachel Perham, of Tyngsborq, Mas- 
 sachusetts, and had a family of fourteen children. 
 
 The second of these children was Asa Clement, a 
 farmer and poultry merchant, and the father of Jesse, 
 who was born on the 12th of June, 1815. His mother 
 was Elizabeth Wilson, of Pelham, New Hampshire, 
 
 and died when the son was eleven years old. He 
 was reared on the farm, but had no taste for agri- 
 cultural pursuits, and always took his newspaper or 
 book into the hay-field. At nineteen years of age 
 he left the farm for the academy at New Hampton, 
 New Hampshire, and in the course of five years at- 
 tended school a little more than three, teaching dis- 
 trict schools during five consecutive winters, and oc- 
 casionally a select school for a short time. He had 
 a hard struggle, particularly during the early part of 
 his academic life, boarding with a farmer and pay- 
 ing in work at six cents an hour. 
 
 From May, 1840, to December, 1842, Mr. Clement 
 taught in the English department of the institution 
 where he had been educated ; in the last named 
 
626 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 month he went to Buffalo, New York, and was there 
 connected with the " Western Literary Messenger " 
 for fourteen years, being its sole editor the last twelve. 
 From 1847 to 1857 he was also a traveling corre- 
 spondent of the "Buffalo Commercial Advertiser." 
 During this period he had the compiling and entire 
 supervision of nine city directories. In addition to 
 these labors he wrote more or less poetry for the 
 " Knickerbocker Magazine," the " Ladies' Book," 
 the "Union Magazine," and the "Southern Literary 
 Messenger." In 1850 and 185 1 he edited "The No- 
 ble Deeds of American Women," a volume of five 
 hundred and eighty pages, and wrote the first life of 
 Adoniram Judson, the pioneer American missionary 
 to Burmah. He also wrote regularly for three or 
 four Baptist papers ; for one of which he has writ- 
 ten thirty years, for another more than twenty. 
 
 In April, 1857, Mr. Clement removed to Dubuque, 
 Iowa, and became one of the founders of the " Daily 
 Times," of which he was associate editor until Feb- 
 ruary, 1863, when he engaged in the business of life 
 insurance, following it ten years. During these years, 
 however, he did not wholly relinquish his literary 
 labors, often delivering lectures, poems and addresses 
 before colleges, literary societies and various other 
 organizations. In the spring of 1868 he removed to 
 Chicago. For the last five years he has been a travel- 
 ing correspondent of the " Daily Inter-Ocean," writ- 
 ing more or less for other papers, secular and re- 
 
 ligious, and doing some literary work on the Wiscon- 
 sin, Iowa and Minnesota volumes of The United 
 States BioeRAPHicAL Dictidnary. 
 
 Mr. Clement was originally a democrat, with free- 
 soil proclivities, but he left the party in thorough 
 disgust in 1854, or at the time that an effort was 
 made to nationalize slavery. 
 
 He is a member of the University Place Baptist 
 Church, and has been one of its deacons since it 
 was organized. He held the same office in Buffalo 
 and Dubuque, and has been an earnest worker in 
 all christian organizations. He was among the first 
 members of the Young Men's Christian Union, of 
 Buffalo, acting at times as treasurer, president or 
 manager, and was at the head of the Sunday-school 
 associations of both places. 
 
 Mr. Clement was first married on the 21st of Au- 
 gust, 1841, to Miss Mary E. Blood, by whom he had 
 two children, only one of whom survived her. This 
 daughter, Ada Elizabeth, is the wife of William J. 
 Gilbert, law-book publisher, of St. Louis, Missouri. 
 His present wife was Lucetta H. Blood, to whom he 
 was married on the 25th of April, 1859. She has 
 two sons : Ernest Wilson, aged eighteen, a sopho- 
 more in the University of Chicago, and Clarence, 
 aged eleven. His wives were daughters of David 
 Blood, Esq., of Dracut, Massachusetts; both were 
 women of fine mental qualities, and earnest workers 
 in religious and benevolent enterprises. 
 
 HON. JAMES S. HURLEY, 
 
 WAPELLO. 
 
 THE father of James Simpson Hurley was born 
 in the gallant State of New Jersey when the 
 infant republic had been but ten years an inde- 
 pendent nation. His grandfather had borne a con- 
 spicuous part in the heroism of that time, and his 
 patriotism legitimately descended to his children, 
 and they in turn imparted it to their issue. 
 
 The father of J. S. Hurley was a Quaker, who 
 had become one of the early pioneers of Ohio, and 
 the subject of our biography was born in Cham- 
 paign county, in that state, on the i8th of May, 
 1829. 
 
 In 1814 his father had married Miss Elizabeth 
 Downs, of New Jersey, a lady of rare qualities of 
 mind and of good education. Bringing her chil- 
 dren into a new country, upon the very outskirts 
 
 of civilization, there were for a long period no 
 schools to which she could send them, and she 
 consequently devoted much of her time to their 
 instruction, and to her unceasing care in this di- 
 rection J. S. Hurley owes nearly all the material 
 education he ever received. She also implanted 
 in his young heart the right principles of conduct 
 which have been so conspicuous in his after career. 
 In 1840 his father removed to Iowa. James Simp- 
 son Hurley worked upon his father's farm for four 
 years after his settlement in Wapello, when a dis- 
 trict school was established, which he attended dur- 
 ing three or four winters. His father died in March, 
 1848, when the cares of the farm and the family de- 
 volved upon him. This continued until 1852, when 
 he entered the academic department of Knox Col- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 627 
 
 lege, at Galesburg, Illinois, but in six months' time 
 he was obliged to return to the farm and superin- 
 tend its affairs. He commenced reading law in the 
 office of B. F. Wright, at Wapello, with whom he 
 remained until -the fall of 1853, and then went to 
 the law school at Dubuque during the winters of 
 1853-4, and was admitted to the bar in 1854, in the 
 fall of which year he commenced his practice. In 
 the succeeding year he was elected to the office 
 of prosecuting attorney for Louisa county, which 
 office also involved the duties of the county judge 
 during that official's absence. He was first elected 
 to fill a vacancy, and was subsequently elected for 
 the full terra of two years, acting in the double 
 capacity almost the entire time. The new consti- 
 tution of Iowa was adopted in August, 1857. By 
 its provisions the election of a district attorney for 
 each judicial district was instituted in lieu of prose- 
 cuting attorney for the county at large. 
 
 At the expiration of his term of prosecuting at- 
 torney he devoted himself to the practice of law 
 until October, 1861, when he was elected to the 
 state senate for four years from January, 1862. In 
 the first session of this legislature the most impor- 
 tant committee he served on was that of schools 
 and universities, and among others that on new 
 counties and on commerce. During the first ses- 
 sion he introduced and had the management of the 
 bill for the settlement of claims for swamp lands 
 which were given to the states by an act of con- 
 gress in 1850. By the provisions of this bill a vast 
 amount of land was reclaimed by the state. There 
 were two regular sessions and one special session 
 during these four years. 
 
 In the regular session of 1864 he was on the 
 committee on incorporation and on banks, and was 
 chairman of the committee on the state library. 
 In this latter committee he had charge of the bill, 
 which finally became a law, placing this library 
 upon a substantial basis, and it now stands the 
 fourth best in the United States, the tabular state- 
 ment of state libraries being New York, Massachu- 
 setts, Pennsylvania, Iowa artd California. 
 
 For his persistency in the advocation of his bill 
 Mr. Hurley was bitterly assailed by the partisan 
 press for the expense incurred, but all now admit 
 the genuine worth of the possession of the library, 
 and it has justly become the pride of the state. 
 
 Mr. Hurley was elected president of the agricul- 
 tural society of Louisa county in 1866, which at 
 that time did not possess one dollar of property. 
 
 At the end of four years he turned the office over 
 to his successor, and property to the amount of 
 four thousand dollars. 
 
 About this time he conceived the idea of organ- 
 izing a railroad from Burlington to Cedar Rapids 
 to connect with the road then being built from 
 Cedar Rapids north, and at a meeting called for 
 that purpose at Burlington he presented his articles 
 of incorporation, which were adopted and the com- 
 pany formed, of which he became a director and a 
 member of the executive committee, in both of 
 which capacities he served until the road was com- 
 pleted. 
 
 In the fall of iSdg he was again elected to the 
 state senate for a term of four years. In the first 
 session he was placed on the judiciary, constitu- 
 tional amendments and banks committees, and was 
 chairman of the committee on public lands. In 
 the second session, commencing in January, 1872, 
 he was chairman of the judiciary committee and 
 member of the committee on elections, congres- 
 sional districts and compensation of public officers. 
 During this session he introduced the bill enlarg- 
 ing the powers o^the circuit judges, reducing the 
 number in each judicial district and increasing their 
 salaries, which became a law ; also a bill for the 
 increase of salaries of the supreme judges, which 
 became a law. He also introduced the bill regulat- 
 ing taxation of railway property in the state, which 
 became a law. This regular session adjourned to 
 a consideration of the revision of the laws, which 
 resulted in what is known as the code of 1873. 
 
 In 187 1 Mr. Hurley made a copartnership with 
 Mr. John Hale, of Wapello, which copartnership 
 is still continued. It enjoys a very large business, 
 practicing in all the courts of the state and in the 
 federal courts. His mother died at Wapello in 
 1874, leaving eight children. His eldest brother 
 is a physician, the other two brothers are farmers. 
 
 Of the Hon. James Simpson Hurley it may with 
 strict justice be said that he was untiring in his 
 services in the various committees upon which he 
 served, and was- the author of bills of immense im- 
 portance to the present and future welfare of his 
 state. In his double term of senatorship, passing 
 through a period of eight years, we find him ever 
 on the alert to secure wise and wholesome legis- 
 lation. His record will be found to be as purely 
 devoted to the interests of the whole state as that 
 of any public servant known to the annals of Amer- 
 ican legislation. 
 
628 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 Mr. Hurley was married in May, 1857, to Miss 
 Martha M. Garrett, of Garrettsville, Portage county, 
 Ohio, by whom he has had nine children, five boys 
 and four girls. Four of the former are demised. 
 
 His early political affinities were with the whig 
 party. He assisted in the formation of the repub- 
 lican party in the State of Iowa, and has always 
 voted with that party. 
 
 Mr. Hurley is a great lover of fine-bred cattle. 
 
 He has a stock farm of four hundred acres near 
 the limits of the city of Wapello, where, since 1872, 
 he has raised large herds of fine steers. 
 
 Being of Quaker descent he naturally inclines to 
 that persuasion. His general manner would be- 
 speak his religious proclivities. He is very unde- 
 monstrative in his style, but very incisive in all he 
 undertakes, and he holds to any expressed opinion 
 with wonderful tenacity. 
 
 DARIUS SCOFIELD, M. D., 
 
 WASHINGTON. 
 
 DARIUS SCOFIELD, was born at Hadley, 
 Saratoga county. New York, on the 31st of 
 July, 1834, and is the second son of William Sco- 
 field and Susannah nh Bishop. His father was a 
 native of Stainford, Connecticut, where the ancestors 
 had resided for five generations previously, the first 
 of the line in America having emigrated from Eng- 
 land and settled in the last-named place about the 
 year 1730, where they have been*generally tillers of 
 the soil. From this stock, so far as we can learn, 
 have descended all the men now bearing that name 
 in the United States, though some of them have 
 varied the orthography of the name to that of Scho- 
 field. 
 
 The grandfather of our subject was Neazer Sco- 
 field, a soldier in the revolutionary war, and about 
 the year 1800 moved from Stamford, Connecticut, 
 to Saratoga county, New York, where he died in the 
 year 1846, in the ninety-fourth year of his age. He 
 was a pensioner of the government up to the time 
 of his death. He was also a leading member of the 
 Presbyterian church, and a man of considerable in- 
 fluence in the community where he resided. 
 
 Although the father of our subject, William Sco- 
 field, was a hard-working, industrious and frugal 
 man, with excellent habits and refined tastes, yet it 
 was chiefly through the influence of his mother, a 
 woman of much ambition and energy, that he and 
 his brothers attained, what might be termed at that 
 early day, a liberal education. Darius was from an 
 early period a diligent student, and very soon de- 
 voured all the historical and scientific works in the 
 family library. Books were not then as attainable 
 as now, a circumstance which led to the more thor- 
 ough appreciation and study of those possessed. 
 
 Our subject was prepared for college at the Cam- 
 
 bridge Academy, in Washington county. New York, 
 reading for a classical course and for entering col- 
 lege two years advanced ; quite usual for students 
 of that academy. 
 
 At the close of his academic course, under the 
 advice of medical friends, who saw in him talents 
 especially adapting him to the medical profession, 
 he abandoned his contemplated collegiate course, 
 and in the year 18154 commenced the study of medi- 
 cine under the tutorship of Dr. J. H. Bartholf, then 
 of Cambridge, afterward of New York city, and still 
 later connected with the medical department of the 
 regular United States army. After the removal of 
 Dr. Bartholf he pursued his studies under the di- 
 rection of Dr. J. B. Busneson, of Luzerne, Warren 
 county. New York, and was graduated from the Al- 
 bany Medical College in December, 1858, after 
 which he located, for the practice of his profession, 
 at Corinth, Saratoga county. New York, where he 
 remained, with marked success, until August, 1863, 
 when he entered the medical department of the vol- 
 unteer service of the United States army. 
 
 At first he was placed on duty at the rendezvous 
 on Ricker's Island, New York harbor, where he re- 
 mained several months, and in October, 1863, he 
 was assigned to the 176th New York State Volun- 
 teers, and proceeded to Bonne Carre, Louisiana, 
 about forty miles from New Orleans, where his regi- 
 ment was then stationed. Here he remained till 
 February, 1864, when he was transferred to Madi- 
 sonville, Louisiana, and from there was, by order of 
 the secretary of war, assigned to the 8th Louisiana 
 Colored Volunteers (afterward the 47 th United 
 States Colored Infantry), under the command of his 
 brother, Colonel Hiram Scofield, which was then on 
 duty at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and where he re- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 629 
 
 ceived his commission as assistant surgeon of the 
 regiment from the secretary of war, thus becoming 
 an officer in the regular army. He remained on duty 
 with his regiment until July, 1864, when he was de- 
 tailed to United States General Hospital No. 3 
 (then known as "Old Marine "), at Vicksburg, Mis- 
 sissippi, as the executive officer of that institution, 
 and was afterward placed in sole charge, but was re- 
 lieved in a few months, at his own request, in order 
 that he might accompany his regiment, which had 
 been ordered to join the expedition of General 
 Canby against Mobile, pending which he was for a 
 time detailed as assistant surgeon at the " parole 
 camp," in the rear of Vicksburg, to aid in the care 
 of the sick and disabled prisoners of war, which 
 were received from Cahawba and Andersonville 
 prisons, Georgia. At the breaking up of this camp 
 in May, 1865, he proceeded to his command at Mo- 
 bile, where he was soon afterward smitten down 
 with a severe attack of pleurisy, which compelled 
 him to relinquish duty for a period of twenty days. 
 In June, 1865, he moved with his regiment to New 
 Orleans, and thence to Alexandria, on Red river, 
 where he remained on duty until December, 1865, 
 when he was ordered to Baton Rouge, where he was 
 mustered out of the service on the 6th of January, 
 1866. 
 
 During the period of his military service, which 
 was of the most arduous and laborious character, he 
 was never excused from duty more than three days, 
 except as specified above. 
 
 In May, 1866, his father sold the old homestead 
 in New York and removed to Iowa, where two sons 
 had preceded him. The father having determined 
 to make Iowa his home, our subject was induced to 
 follow the example, mainly for the pleasure of keep- 
 ing the family as near united as possible. Being at 
 this time in ill health, it became very much a ques- 
 tion whether he should ever be able to resume the 
 practice of his profession. In the autumn of that 
 year, however, he was so far restored as to be able 
 to open an office at Daytonville, Washington county, 
 where he was soon favored with an extensive patron- 
 age (more, in fact than his strength was equal to), 
 so that in 1871 he was constrained to move into a 
 new field, that he might, for a time at least, enjoy 
 that relaxation which seemed necessary for his com- 
 plete recovery, but which was otherwise unattain- 
 able. Accordingly, in the month of March of the 
 last-named year, he located in Washington, which 
 has since been his home, where he soon again as- 
 
 sumed a leading position, and his health being now 
 restored, he enjoys the largest and most lucrative 
 practice in the city. 
 
 He has held the position of local surgeon for the 
 Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Com- 
 pany for four years past. For the past two years he 
 has been physician to the commissioners of insan- 
 ity for Washington county, and has been for the 
 same period examiner for several life insurance com- 
 panies. He has also been several times president 
 of the Washington County Medical Society, and 
 also president of the Eastern District Medical So- 
 ciety of Iowa. He is likewise a member of the State 
 Medical Society of Iowa. He enjoys the fullest con- 
 fidence and esteem of his neighboring physicians, by 
 whom he is frequently called upon as counsel or to 
 assist in the performance of critical surgical oper- 
 ations. He is, moreover, a gentleman of large lit- 
 erary attainments, a great student, and frequently 
 employs his pen in the domain of science, and espe-- 
 cially on subjects pertaining to his own profession. 
 His essays on the more intricate and complicated 
 questions of disease and its treatment, read before 
 the various societies with which he is in union, are 
 always highly appreciated by his brethren ; and while 
 they evince a remarkable familiarity with the sub- 
 jects discussed, demonstrate at the same time the 
 possession of talents of the very highest order on the 
 part of the writer. 
 
 He has been a Master Mason for about eleven 
 years, having been initiated in Dayton Lodge, No. 
 149, in 1866. He took chapter degrees in Cyrus 
 Chapter, No. 13, at Washington, Iowa, in 187 1, and 
 is still a member of both bodies, in one or both 
 of which he has been constantly an officer since he 
 became a member. He has also been for four years 
 past a member of the Ancient Order of United 
 Workingmen at Washington, and medical examiner 
 for the order at that point. 
 
 He has served repeatedly on school boards in 
 Iowa as president or director, and was elected three 
 terms in succession as councilman from the first 
 ward in Washington, and is a gentleman of consid- 
 erable executive ability. 
 
 He is not in communion with any religious de- 
 nomination, but having been raised in a Presbyte- 
 rian family, he prefers that branch of the christian 
 church. 
 
 He has always been a republican in politics, hav- 
 ing cast his first vote for the martyred Lincoln. 
 
 He was married in i860 to Miss Caroline G. Her- 
 
630 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 rick, a native of Hadley, New York, who died in 
 Washington, Iowa, in December, 1874, leaving two 
 children surviving her, the eldest of whom, Willie, 
 died in May, 1875, at the age of five years; a little 
 girl, three years old, named Caroline, still lives. 
 
 The doctor is tall and slender, but of active, nerv- 
 ous organization ; is grave, dignified and somewhat 
 
 reserved ; slow to form acquaintances, but strongly 
 attached to friends and home, and is seldom from 
 home except on professional business. He is, how- 
 ever, spending the current winter (1877-8) in Belle- 
 vue Hospital Medical College, where he is undergo- 
 ing a supplemental course of instruction in medicine 
 and surgery. 
 
 JOSEPH D. PUTNAM, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 JOSEPH DUNCAN PUTNAM, entomologist and 
 J corresponding secretary of the Davenport Acad- 
 emy of Natural Science, was born at Jacksonville, 
 Illinois, on the i8th of October, 1855, and is the son 
 of Charles E. Putnam and Mary Louisa nee Duncan. 
 His father is a lawyer of the highest standing in 
 Davenport, and his mother is daughter to the late 
 Governor Joseph Duncan, of Illinois. Both families 
 are descended from revolutionary stock of great dis- 
 tinction, and have always occupied the foremost 
 social positions. 
 
 Charles E. Putnam was the son of a farmer in 
 affluent circumstances ; his mother's maiden name 
 was Eunice ne'e Morgan. He received an excellent 
 private school and academic education, and after- 
 ward read law in the office of Hon. Augustus Bockes, 
 judge of the supreme court in New York, and sub- 
 sequently in the office of Beach and Bockes, in Sara- 
 toga, New York. Hon. W. A. Beach has since be- 
 come famous as the principal lawyer in the Tilton- 
 Beecher case. He was admitted to the bar on the 
 ■ 20th of May, 1847, being then twenty-two years of 
 age ; practiced law for several years in Saratoga, 
 susequently in New York city, and, during the sum- 
 mer of 1850, in Georgia. In the autumn of 1853 
 he removed to the west, and the following spring 
 formed a copartnership with the late Judge G. C. R. 
 Mitchell, at Davenport, which continued until the 
 election of the latter to the bench of the fourteenth 
 judicial district in the fall of 1857. He subsequently 
 formed a partnership with Joseph B. Leake, now 
 General Leake, of Chicago, which continued until 
 the latter entered the military service. In i860 his 
 present partnership with the Hon. John N. Rogers 
 was formed. 
 
 Through life Mr. C. E. Putnam has been devoted 
 to literary pursuits. In his youth he was for a num- 
 ber of years secretary of the Saratoga Literary So- 
 
 ciety, composed of the 61ite of both sexes of the 
 village. He has since been a diligent student, and 
 possesses not only a good law library, but one of the 
 finest private collections of miscellaneous books in 
 the west. Mr. Putnam is possessed of a moderate 
 fortune, and occupies a high social position in the 
 community. He has been president of the Daven- 
 port Savings Bank since its organization, and was 
 for a time president of the First National Bank. He 
 is also president of the Davenport Plow Company, 
 of the Davenport Gas Light Company, and director 
 of many other enterprises. He has, by his business 
 ability and integrity, secured the confidence and 
 esteem of his fellow-citizens, and is regarded as 
 among the' most benevolent, generous and useful 
 citizens of the place. 
 
 On the 9th of December, 1854, he was united in 
 marriage to Miss Mary Louisa Duncan, daughter of 
 Governor Joseph Duncan, of Illinois. The Duncan 
 family is of Scotch origin, the American ancestor 
 having settled in Virginia early in the eighteenth 
 century. On the maternal side, Mrs. Putnam is the 
 great-granddaughter of the Rev. James Caldwell, the 
 well-known revolutionary patriot, of New Jersey, who 
 was shot by a British sentinel, at Elizabeth, on the 
 24th of November, 1781, whose memoirs form a part 
 of the annals of his country, and to whose memory 
 and that of his wife, Hannah, who had been previ- 
 ously murdered by the British on the 25 th of January, 
 1780, a monument was erected at Elizabeth, New 
 Jersey, in 1846. 
 
 Mrs. Putnam is a graduate of the Jacksonville 
 Female College, of which her father was the princi- 
 pal founder. She is a lady of rare mental gifts and 
 of the highest literary attainments, and naturally 
 takes the highest social position. Her home is the 
 center of refinement and elegance, and is the syno- 
 nym of all that is generous, affectionate and hos- 
 
THE UN^ITBD STATES BWGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 63' 
 
 pitable. She has also taken a very active interest 
 in various patriotic and charitable causes, among 
 which may be named the Washington Monument 
 Association, Ladies' Educational Society, Mount 
 Vernon Association, Soldiers' Aid Society, Presby- 
 terian Church, Academy of Natural Sciences, etc. 
 
 Joseph D. Putnam, the first-fruits of this marriage, 
 received his rudimental education at his home. Be- 
 tween the ages of ten and seventeen he attended the 
 public schools of Davenport, and became proficient 
 in the ordinary English and mathematical studies, to 
 which were subsequently added a slight acquaintance 
 with the Greek, Latin, German and French languages. 
 He also derived much aid in his studies from the large 
 and well selected library of his father. He early de- 
 veloped a taste for drawing. He always displayed 
 great talent for systematizing and arranging, and 
 rarely left anything unfinished. 
 
 At the age of eleven or twelve years he began col- 
 lecting fossils, minerals, coins, postage stamps, auto- 
 graphs, plants, shells, insects, etc., but gradually nar- 
 rowed down the scope of his efforts in this direction 
 to the item of insects alone, and has ultimately con- 
 fined his attention to but a few families of these. 
 During the years 1868 to 1870 he was in the habit 
 of taking long walks with Mr. W. H. Pratt in quest 
 of shells and insects, thereby greatly augmenting his 
 collection. In 1871 he made a visit to Saratoga 
 county, New York, on a like mission, and in 1872 
 accompanied Dr. C. C. Parry to Colorado, where, 
 during three months spent high up in the mountains, 
 near Empire City, large collections were made. The 
 season was spent in a log cabin, where they did their 
 own cooking, etc., and made numerous excursions 
 to the surrounding Alpine summits and to Middle 
 Park, always on foot.* Here they were visited by the 
 two most eminent American Botanists, Dr. John 
 Torry and Dr. Asa Gray. The winter following was 
 spent in hard study. In 1873, again in company with 
 Dr. Parry, he was attached to Captain Jones's expe- 
 dition to the Yellowstone as meteorologist, and car- 
 ried a barometer for over one thousand miles on 
 muleback, through some of the roughest districts of 
 northwestern Wyoming and the National Park, as- 
 cending lofty and dangerous peaks to measure them, 
 making many hair-breadth escapes and meeting with 
 thrilling adventures. In his report of the expedi- 
 tion Captain Jones makes frequent and honorable 
 mention of young Putnam, and the important and 
 valuable service which he rendered to the cause of 
 science. He was absent five months on this occasion, 
 65 
 
 and, in addition to his duties above described, col- 
 lected a large number of insects. 
 
 After returning home he resumed his studies with 
 the intention of entering Harvard College the next 
 year, but taking a severe cold, which settled on his 
 lungs, his health became so impaired that he was 
 forced to give up all idea of a college course. The 
 following year was spent in Colorado for the benefit 
 of his health, and the summer of 1875 was spent in 
 company with Dr. Parry among the Mormons, near 
 Mount Nebo, Utah. In October they removed to 
 San Francisco, whence he was brought home in 
 November, in a very critical state of health. He 
 has remained under the parental roof ever since, 
 except during a visit to Cambridge, Philadelphia and 
 other eastern cities, in 1876, where he formed the 
 personal acquaintance of many eminent entomolo- 
 gists and other naturalists. 
 
 During Mr. Putnam's various expeditions he col- 
 lected over twenty-five thousand specimens of insects, 
 many of which have been catalogued and classified, 
 besides a large collection of fossils. He also discov- 
 ered many new species of grasshoppers and other 
 insects, some four of which have been named after 
 himself. All the fossils and natural history specimens 
 collected have been presented by him to the Daven- 
 port Academy of Natural Science, of which, on the 
 2d of June, 1869, he became a member, and of which 
 he has since been a moving spirit. On the 28th of 
 April, 187 1, he was elected recording secretary, a 
 position which he retained until January, 1875, when 
 ill health caused him to resign. He was appointed 
 a member of the publication committee on the 26th 
 of November, 1875, and chairman of the same on the 
 26th of January, 1877, and elected corresponding 
 secretary on the 23d of November, 1876, which office 
 he still holds. In the spring of 1876 he commenced 
 the publication of the proceedings of the Academy, 
 which are contained in two large octavo volumes of 
 small type. During the same period he has kept up 
 a regular correspondence with all the principal acad- 
 emies of the same denomination in Europe and 
 America, in all over four hundred, much of the 
 foreign correspondence being conducted in German 
 and French, and all this by a man so delicate in 
 health and constitution that he seems only a fit sub- 
 ject for the ward of a lung hospital. 
 
 His success as a student and original investigator 
 is in great measure due to that painstaking industry 
 that only gives over when work is accomplished or 
 physical powers exhausted. There was a rapid de- 
 
632 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 velopment of his intellectual character in connection 
 with the geographical explorations in which he was 
 engaged from his sixteenth to eighteenth years, in 
 Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, and the opportunities 
 so well improved, for enlarged observation, soon 
 showed that the seed had fallen upon good soil, giv- 
 ing promise of a rich and abundant harvest. 
 
 Recognizing, when quite young, the important uses 
 of the printing press as the readiest means of com- 
 municating and fixing definitely the fleeting forms of 
 knowledge, he gave attention to its practical details 
 long enough to master its difficulties ; at the same 
 time his instinctive desire for accuracy made him an 
 excellent proof reader. 
 
 His correspondence with strangers when a mere 
 lad elicited answers which showed an appreciation 
 
 of his early maturity, and justified the encomium 
 bestowed upon him by Professor Asa Gray : " Though 
 young in years, in sage experience oldr" 
 
 The names of the other members of the family, of 
 which Joseph Duncan is the eldest, are, Charles 
 Morgan, John Caldwell, Henry St, Clair, William 
 Clement, George Rockwell, Elizabeth Duncan, Ed- 
 ward Kirby, and Benjamin Risley, each a natural 
 born genius, and already well up in the arts and sci- 
 ences. They own a printing press, with a large 
 stock of types of every variety. They draw, paint, 
 engrave, compose, etc. ; they published a quarterly 
 magazine called the " Star of Woodlawn," devoted 
 to the development of amateur and domestic litera- 
 ture. Such is a brief sketch of one of the most 
 remarkable families in the country. 
 
 JOHN A. DRAKE, 
 
 CENTERVILLE. 
 
 JOHN ADAMS DRAKE, banker at Centerville 
 and Drakeville, came to Iowa the year after it 
 was set off, with Wisconsin, from the territory of 
 Michigan, becoming a town builder the year Iowa 
 became a state. In his seventy-fifth year he is quite 
 active for a man of that age, and takes great un- 
 abating interest in public matters. The Drakes are a 
 wealthy family, and descendants, remotely of course, 
 from Sir Francis Drake. 
 
 James Drake, a Virginian by birth, and grandfather 
 of John A., settled on Swift creek, Nash county 
 North Carolina, and died in 1790, leaving a large 
 amount of property. Benjamin, the father of our 
 subject, inherited the homestead ; married Celia 
 Thayer, and had eight children, five sons and three 
 daughters. John A. was born on this homestead on 
 the 2ist of October, 1802, and reared on a farm. 
 He was educated in a log school-house, with fair op- 
 portunities for improvement, having a good teacher. 
 In 1829 he removed to Wilson county, Tennessee, 
 worked a short time at the carpenter's trade, and in 
 October, 1830, located at Rushville, Schuyler coun- 
 ty, Illinois. There he remained for seven years, en- 
 gaged in house-building, merchandising, and filling 
 some important offices. He removed to Fort Madi- 
 son, Iowa, in 1837, and there traded in real estate, 
 remaining in Lee county nine years. During that 
 period he held at different times the offices of justice 
 of the peace, master in chancery and probate judge. 
 
 In 1846 Judge Drake founded the town of Drake- 
 ville, Davis county, where he traded until the spring 
 of 187 1, when he started a private bank. In 1876 
 the Appanoose County Bank was started at Center- 
 ville, the county seat ; Mr. Drake was elected its 
 president, and in March, 1877, removed to Center- 
 ville. 
 
 At the time of writing he is still running the 
 Drakeville bank, but is preparing to close it. His 
 faculties seem to be unimpaired, but there is no ne- 
 cessity for burdening himself with cares at this pe- 
 riod of life and in his comfortable circumstances. 
 
 Mr. Drake was a member of the legislature in the 
 session held at Iowa city in tRe winter of 1852-53, 
 representing Davis county. 
 
 He was formerly a whig, but is now a republican. 
 
 He has been a member of the Christian church a 
 long time, and was an elder many years. The char- 
 acter of no man in Appanoose county stands fairer. 
 He is a christian gentleman and philanthropist. 
 
 On the 1 2th of June, 1826, Miss Harriet J. O'Neal, 
 of Franklin county, North Carolina, became his 
 wife, and she is the mother of fourteen children, 
 seven of whom are now living, two sons and five 
 daughters. The sons are elsewhere mentioned in 
 this work. The daughters are all married: Nancy 
 M. is the wife of J. B. Lockman, of Drakeville; 
 Jane, of F. M. Kirkham, of Centerville ; Henrietta 
 J., of G. T. Carpenter, of Oskaloosa; Adeline, of M. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 633 
 
 H. Kirkham, of Centerville, and Ella, of C. W. Lane, 
 of Centerville. 
 
 Having lived a christian life at least forty-five 
 years, and having always been a man of temperate 
 
 and virtuous habits, Mr. Drake enjoys a green old 
 age, free from the remorse attending wasted energies 
 and sin-blighted hopes, and has a spiritual elasticity 
 which an age of folly might behold with envy. 
 
 REV. GEORGE S. BRADLEY, A.M., 
 
 WILTON. 
 
 GEORGE SAUNDERS BRADLEY, professor 
 of ancient and modern languages, etc., was 
 born in Canterbury, Merrimack county. New Hamp- 
 shire, on the 28th of May, 1830, and is the son of 
 John L. and Hannah Bradley n^e Mason, both of 
 New England parentage. 
 
 The name (Bradley) is of English origin, the fam- 
 ily tracing their lineage back to Abraham Bradley, 
 who is supposed to have immigrated to New Eng- 
 land early in the eighteenth century, and settled in 
 Haverhill, Massachusetts, from whence, in 1730, he 
 removed to Concord, New Hampshire. Benjamin 
 Bradley, the grandfather of our subject, was second 
 in descent from Abraham Bradley, and was a sol- 
 dier of the revolution, and fought at Bunker Hill 
 and other hotly contested fields of that memorable 
 struggle. He was also the hero of some thrilling 
 adventures with the Indians. He was a man of 
 powerful frame-work, and lived to the age of eighty 
 years. His mother is the daughter of Benjamin 
 Mason, of Chichester, New Hampshire, a large and 
 portly man, noted as a great story-teller and a firm 
 believer in witches. He lived to the age of eighty 
 years. The Mason family is likewise of English 
 lineage. 
 
 The ancestors on both sides as far back as known 
 were tillers of the soil, men of probity and sterling 
 worth, inheriting and transmitting the strict religious 
 principles of the early New England colonists. 
 
 His father, John L. Bradley, was the owner of a 
 small farm on a rock-bespattered hillside in the 
 Granite State, and the father of a family of eight 
 vigorous and healthy children, of whom George S. 
 was the eldest ; from which circumstances it may be 
 inferred that the children were early initiated into 
 habits of economy and frugality. They were like- 
 wise early taught good morals by their mother, who 
 was a most excellent christian woman and devotedly 
 attached to her children. She gave them their first 
 start in reading and arithmetic. 
 
 Until the age of seventeen our subject worked on 
 
 his father's farm, attending school for a number of 
 terms at the New Hampshire Conference Seminary, 
 at Tilton. He also attended for several terras at 
 the Gilraanton Academy, defraying his own expenses 
 as best he could. His object in early life was to fit 
 himself for the profession of teaching, and he passed 
 through many struggles and privations in order to 
 attain this end. The severe discipline of this pe- 
 riod prepared him for endurance and success in 
 after life, while it has given him a hearty sympathy 
 for students who, like himself, have had to work 
 their own way to an education. In the hour of his 
 greatest necessity God raised up for him a friend in 
 the person of the Rev. Edmund B. Fairfield, his 
 pastor and teacher in New Hampshire, subsequently 
 president of Hillsdale College, Michigan, and now 
 Chancellor of the University of Nebraska. This 
 gentleman often gave him jobs of work, for which 
 he ])aid him generously, but ofttimes his purse was 
 empty and he knew not where the next dime would 
 come from. By the advice of this excellent friend 
 he removed to Michigan in 1849, and by his influ- 
 ence he was appointed tutor in Hillsdale College, 
 where he taught and studied for seven years. He 
 was an ambitious student, and was rarely second 
 in his class. He gained a thorough knowledge of 
 the Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages (to which 
 he has since added German), as well as the natural 
 sciences, being especially proficient in chemistry. 
 This institution conferred upon him the degree of 
 A.M. in 1871. 
 
 Before leaving New Hampshire he had experi- 
 enced religion and united with the Freewill Baptist 
 church, and during his early christian experience he 
 greatly desired to go to India as a missionary. This 
 aspiration was encouraged by Rev. B. B. Smith, 
 since a successful missionary among the Hindoos. 
 With this end in view he entered the theological 
 department of Oberlin (Ohio) College in 1858, where 
 he was placed under the instruction of the cele- 
 brated Rev. Charles G. Finney, under whose tuition 
 
634 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 he remained two years, having in the meantime 
 taught school one winter at Mount Gilead and an- 
 other at Xenia, Ohio. The labor and anxiety inci- 
 dent to these years of study and self-sacrifice so 
 impaired his health that his friends persuaded him 
 to relinquish his missionary' plans and to accept a 
 tutorship in Hillsdale College, which he retained 
 for a short time, and in 1859 accepted the principal- 
 ship of the seminary at North Parsonfield, Maine, 
 which he conducted successfully for two years, when 
 he returned to the west and was called to the pas- 
 torate of the Baptist church at Mount Pleasant, Ra- 
 cine county, Wisconsin. Here he remained for three 
 years, when he accepted a commission as chaplain 
 of the 22d Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He joined 
 his regiment at Nashville, Tennessee, on the 19th 
 of April, 1864, and made the famous ''march to the 
 sea," participating in all the hardships, dangers and 
 privations, as well as the glories, of that memorable 
 campaign, being present at the '' grand review " in 
 Washington, on the 2Sth of May, 1865, which pro- 
 claimed the war ended and the authority of the gov- 
 ernment restored in the rebellious states. 
 
 After his discharge from the army he returned to 
 his former charge at Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, and 
 remained there two years longer. In the spring of 
 1867 he opened a private seminary at Rochester, 
 which he conducted successfully for two years over 
 and above his pastoral duties. In 1869 he became 
 principal of the Evansville (Rock county, Wisconsin) 
 Seminary, which he conducted with very consider- 
 able success for six years. In 1875 he received a 
 very flattering invitation from the board of directors 
 of the Collegiate Institute at Wilton, Iowa, to take 
 charge of that institution, jvhich he accepted, and 
 conducted for two years with marked success. In 
 1877 he was invited by unanimous vote of the board 
 of directors to take the superintendence of the pub- 
 lic schools of Wilton, Iowa, which he accepted, and 
 is T\o\s (1877) the incumbent of that office. 
 
 As a teacher, the professor has been eminently 
 successful ; his pupils have always been warmly 
 attached to him. His scholars, who are now quite 
 numerous, are scattered over the nation from Maine 
 to California, and are among the most prosperous 
 business and professional men to be found in the 
 country. As a pastor, he has also been a great fa- 
 vorite and not less successful, though he considers 
 teaching to be his mission, but his versatility of tal- 
 ents would have qualified him for any of the pro- 
 fessions. During the many years he has devoted to 
 
 teaching he has rarely been without one or two 
 churches to look after. He has seen many of his 
 students converted to God, a large number of whom 
 he has devoted to Christ in baptism. As a public 
 speaker, he is terse, logical, argumentative and en- 
 thusiastic. He has also been a voluminous and 
 conspicuous writer. At the age of sixteen he com- 
 menced contributing articles to the " Boston Culti- 
 vator," which were generally credited to a popular 
 writer living in the same town. In 1858 he spent 
 a vacation in Canada West, gathering facts and 
 sketches of slave life in the south, which he pub- 
 lished in the " Morning Star " of Dover, New Hamp- 
 shire. He has also written a good many polemical 
 articles for the press, under such titles as " Second 
 Adventism," "Women Speaking in Meeting," 
 "John's Baptism," "Foundations of Moral Obliga- 
 tion," " Infant Salvation," " Union of Baptists," etc., 
 some of which had a wide circulation, and were af- 
 terward put into pamphlet form. In 1874 he was 
 editor and proprietor of a weekly newspaper in Ev- 
 ansville, Wisconsin, entitled " The Evansville Jour- 
 nal." He was also one of the prime movers in 
 starting the " Christian Freeman " of Chicago, a 
 weekly denominational paper, which was finally 
 merged into the " Baptist Union " of New York, 
 and has for many years written largely for both the 
 secular and religious press. But the largest contri- 
 bution to the current literature of the period, and 
 that by which he is best known to the public, is his 
 history of " The Star Corps,- or Notes of an Army 
 Chaplain during Sherman's Famous March to the 
 Sea," which he published in 1865, giving a minute and 
 thrilling history of that memorable campaign, inter- 
 spersed with anecdote and incident of march, camp, 
 skirmish, forage, devastation arid all the horrors of 
 war. While m^ny of the incidents are so ludicrous 
 as to stir the risibles, others are so sad as to moisten 
 the eyes with tears. The volume is interspersed 
 with a number of very spirited and meritorious pa- 
 triotic songs and poems, which are of the chaplain's 
 own composition. 
 
 The professor has also been an extensive lecturer 
 on educational topics, especially before teachers' 
 institutes, and has won an honorable place as a pub- 
 lic speaker. As early as the year 1856, while teach- 
 ing in central Ohio, he became very much interested 
 in the "' spelling reform," and since then he has been 
 an ardent advocate of the phonetic system, and has 
 written and lectured largely on the subject. 
 
 He has never been sectarian in his religious work, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 635 
 
 but has operated in harmony with all evangelical 
 denominations. In 1873 he held a public discus- 
 sion in Evansville, lasting for three days, with some 
 of his brethren of the " close communion " school, 
 in which he took the ground that all believers have 
 a right to the Lord's Supper, and should be invited 
 thereto by all christian churches. He has recently 
 written a lecture on a " New Theory of Creation," 
 in which he denies the eternity of matter, and ad- 
 vances the idea that matter is force, and that the 
 world is only an exhibition of God's eternal power. 
 His conclusions are arrived at by an original and 
 ingenious method of reasoning, making, upon the 
 whole, a novel and interesting theory. He has al- 
 ways taken a prominent part in ministers' meetings 
 and institutes, and at all times and in all places has 
 strenuously advocated the principles of total absti- 
 nence. 
 
 Reared among the hills of New England, he early 
 imbibed an ardent love of liberty ; and although his 
 relations and associates were all democrats, yet he 
 seemed to drink in abolition principles by instinct, 
 and from early boyhood antagonized the institution 
 of slavery, and consequently found his place in the 
 republican party, the principles of which he has in- 
 variably advocated. He has never held any polit- 
 ical office, but has often been honored by his own de- 
 nomination of christians with positions of trust and 
 responsibility. In 1874 he was elected to a profess- 
 orship in Hillsdale College, which he declined. 
 
 He has given considerable attention to the subject 
 of natural history, and has a very fine ornithological 
 cabinet, as well as a number of specimens of the 
 smaller native quadrupeds of the west. He is also 
 
 the owner of one of the finest libraries of the coun- 
 try, embracing an endless variety of subjects, be- 
 sides one hundred large scrap-books, each devoted 
 to a special department of literature. 
 
 On the 1 2th of December, 1858, he married Miss 
 Sally Ann Weaver, a native of Somerset, Michigan, 
 a lady of very high literary attainments, who has 
 generally assisted him in his educational labors, 
 taught classes in his seminaries and written exten- 
 sively for the press. She has, moreover, drank 
 deeply of the sacred " Castalian fount," and is one 
 of the sweetest poetical writers of the period. Many 
 of her poems, elicited by incidents of the late war, 
 are interspersed through the volume above alluded 
 to, adding a peculiar charm to its pages. She seems 
 to fathom the depth of human affection, and to bring 
 to the surface the best and purest feelings of human- 
 ity. They have had a family of four children, only 
 one of whom survives, namely, Charles Clement, 
 born in 187 1. 
 
 The professor, like his forefathers, is a splendid 
 specimen of humanity ; over six feet high, of easy 
 manners, pleasing countenance and dignified bear- 
 ing; strong in his friendships and uncompromising 
 in his principles. Sensitive of his good name, he is 
 scrupulously upright in character. He is an inde- 
 pendent thinker, outspoken in the advocacy of his 
 opinions and penetrating in his judgment. In his 
 relations to society he realizes that he is one of the 
 people, and that their interests are his inter-ests, and 
 that it is in their prosperity alone that he can pros- 
 per. With his irresistible will power and nerve force 
 he is destined to carve a niche still higher up in the 
 temple of fame. 
 
 HON. GEORGE W. RUDDICK, 
 
 WAVERLr. 
 
 GEORGE WILLIAM RUDDICK is of Scotch- 
 Irish pedigree, his ancestors, in the days of 
 persecution, fleeing from Scotland to the north of 
 Ireland, whence his father, William Ruddick, emi- 
 grated to this country, settling in Sullivan county, 
 New York. There George W. was born, in the town 
 of Thompson, on the iitli of May, 1835. His 
 mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Conner, who 
 died when he vifas less than two years old. His 
 father was a farmer and lumberman, and died at the 
 old homestead in Sullivan county on the istof Octo- 
 
 ber, 1861. The son worked at farming and lumber- 
 ing until fourteen years of age, then spent two years 
 at an academy in Kingsville, Ashtabula county, Ohio, 
 supplementing it with a similar course of instruction 
 at Monticello, New York, and at eighteen commenced 
 reading law in the same place with A. C. Niven. In 
 September, 1855, he entered the law school at Al- 
 bany, graduated the following spring, and came 
 directly to Iowa. After a few weeks spent in pros- 
 pecting he concluded to settle in Waverly, and here 
 he is still to be found. Part of the time he has 
 
636 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 practiced alone, and the remainder of the time with 
 other parties; from 1858 to i860 with H. A. Miles, 
 the firm being Ruddick and Miles, and for a short 
 time, commencing in 1865, with O. F. Avery, the 
 firm being Ruddick and Avery. During the twenty- 
 one years that Mr. Ruddick has been in the Cedar 
 valley he has probably had more offices bestowed 
 upon him than have been held by any other man in 
 Bremer county. He was elected prosecuting attor- 
 ney of the county in 1857, and held the office until 
 the new constitution did away with it ; was elected 
 to the general assembly in 1859, and served in the 
 regular session of i860 and the special or war session 
 of 1861-; was elected county judge in 1862, holding 
 the office two years; was elected circuit judge in 1867, 
 and entered upon the duties of that office on the ist 
 of January, 1868; held it nearly two years, when he 
 was elected judge of the twelfth judicial district, to 
 fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon. W. 
 B. Fairfield. To the latter office he has been twice 
 reelected, having held it seven consecutive years. 
 
 Judge Ruddick has emphatically a logical mind, 
 and is remarkable for the clearness of his perceptions, 
 and his comprehensive and masterly grasp of the 
 details of a case. He is not swift to decide, but is 
 correct in his conclusions, and is no doubt the best 
 equity lawyer in the district. He has great executive 
 ability, a good measure of dispatch in business, and 
 is impartial. He has been strongly recommended 
 by lawyers and others who best know him for the 
 supreme bench of the state. 
 
 Judge Ruddick has always acted with the repub- 
 lican party, and in being elected to office from time 
 to time has usually drawn much more than the party 
 vote. He is very popular in his judicial district. 
 
 On the 15th of December, 1859, he was united to 
 Miss Mary Estella Strickland, of Andover, Ohio, and 
 they have four boys. 
 
 Judge Ruddick is of full medium height, of good 
 proportions, of dignified bearing, and in social and 
 moral character and legal qualifications is an honor 
 to the bench. 
 
 JOSEPH R. GORRELL, M. D., 
 
 NE WTON. 
 
 AMONG the physicians of Newton no one has a 
 . better reputation for skill than Joseph R. Gor- 
 rell. He is as much a student now as he ever was; 
 devotes his leisure to reading his medical periodicals 
 and other scientific works, and hence is constantly 
 progressing in knowledge, and, as a practitioner, in 
 the confidence of the people. His mind is of that 
 inquisitive, inquiring cast which is never satisfied 
 without trying to look to the bottom of a subject, 
 and without seizing any newly developed truths in 
 medical science, and making use of them. Such 
 minds can never become dry, they must expand. 
 
 Dr. Gorrell is of distant English descent, spring- 
 ing from early settlers in Pennsylvania, his parents 
 being Joseph and Esther Glass Gorrell. His pater- 
 nal great-grandfather was in the first war with the 
 mother country. 
 
 Joseph R. was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, on 
 the 6th of May, 1835, and at ten years of age moved 
 with his parents to Wells county, Indiana, where 
 they settled on a farm, and where the son remained 
 until about sixteen years of age. He then spent 
 four years at institutions of learning in Fort Wayne ; 
 read medicine at Bluffton, with Dr. J. R. McCleary ; 
 
 attended one course of lectures in the University pf 
 Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and another in Buffalo, 
 New York, where he graduated in the spring of 1859. 
 
 After practicing three years at Newville, DeKalb 
 county, Indiana, in the autumn of 1862 Dr. Gorrell 
 was commissioned assistant surgeon of the 129th 
 regiment Indiana Volunteers; went south in the win- 
 ter following, and served nearly two years in that 
 capacity ; was then commissioned surgeon of the 
 30th Indiana, but owing to poor health resigned and 
 returned to the north. 
 
 Late in the winter of 1865 Dr. Gorrell settled in 
 Newton, where he soon secured a remunerative prac- 
 tice. He makes a specialty of no one branch of the 
 healing art; has a good name both as a physician 
 and surgeon, and usually has as much business on 
 his hands as any one man ought to be obliged to 
 attend to. Pecuniarily as well as professionally he 
 has been quite successful. 
 
 He is a member of the State Medical Society, and 
 has been treasurer of the county society. 
 
 In politics, he is a republican, but seeks no office. 
 He is thoroughly devoted to his profession. 
 
 The wife of Dr. Gorrell is a daughter of J. E. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 ^11 
 
 Hendricks, Esq., editor and publisher of " The An- 
 nalist,'' of Des Moines. They were married on the 
 2d of December, i860, and have two children. 
 Dr. Gorrell is an extensive reader of scientific 
 
 works outside of his profession ; is a great admirer 
 of the writings of Herbert Spencer, Huxley, Tyndall, 
 and that class of thinkers, and indorses, in the main, 
 their views of religion as well as science. 
 
 WILLIAM S. GRIMES, M.D., 
 
 DBS MOINES. 
 
 WILLIAM STEWART GRIMES, for twenty 
 years a medical practitioner, and three of 
 these years in the Union army, is a native of Wheel- 
 ing, West Virginia, and was born on the 2 2d of Au- 
 gust, 1835. His father, William Grimes, was a black- 
 smith by trade, and his grandfather was General 
 Washington's blacksmith in the revolutionary war. 
 The Grimes family were from Coot Hill, Ireland, 
 and settled in Virginia. The mother of Dr. Grimes, 
 whose maiden name was Rebecca Buff, and who was 
 a native of Virginia, died when he was born. The 
 son lost his father when only twelve years old, and 
 he was reared in Cincinnati by an aunt, Sarah Ber- 
 tholf, who is still living in that city in her eightieth 
 year. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was educated at Wood- 
 ward College, Cincinnati, and graduated in 1854. 
 He read medicine with the celebrated Dr. R. D. 
 Mussey, of that city ; attended lectures at the Mi- 
 ami Medical College, Cincinnati; graduated in 1857; 
 came to Iowa and practiced in Council Bluffs until 
 the civil war broke out in 1861. He accompanied 
 the 4th Iowa Infantry, Colonel Dodge, to the south 
 as assistant surgeon ; served in that capacity one 
 year, and was promoted to surgeon 29th regiment. 
 Colonel T. H. Benton, remaining in that position un- 
 til July, 1864, when an affliction of the eyes com- 
 pelled him to resign. After the battle of Pea Ridge, 
 and while with the 4th regiment, he spent six months 
 
 in the hospital at Cassville, Missouri, taking care of 
 the sick and wounded. He was at home a short 
 time when the 29th was raised, and aided in the 
 work. 
 
 On leaving the army Dr. Grimes located in Des 
 Moines, where he has been the leading surgeon for 
 a dozen years or more. His opportunities for edu- 
 cation while in the army were very favorable, and he 
 improved them to the best of his abilities. 
 
 Not fully satisfied, however, with his medical and 
 surgical attainments. Dr. Grimes spent the winter of 
 1873-4 at his old medical Alma Mater, Miami Col- 
 lege, attending lectures and devoting especial atten- 
 tion to surgical science, in which he is very proficient. 
 He is also an aurist and oculist, having an extensive 
 practice in both these branches of the healing art. 
 
 In politfcs, the doctor is an unwavering republi- 
 can, but he will not turn aside from his profession 
 to accept any civil office. 
 
 His religious connection is with the Baptists. 
 
 Dr. Grimes was first married in 1857, to Miss Ida 
 C. Campbell, of West Point, Lee county, Iowa ; the 
 second time, in 1870, to Mrs. Julia G. Mayne, of Du- 
 buque, Iowa. By her he has three children. 
 
 Although unusually tall, six feet and four inches, 
 the doctor is well proportioned, and, without being 
 corpulent, weighs two hundred and thirty pounds. 
 He has a ruddy complexion, dark hazel eyes, a san- 
 guine-bilious temperament, and a very quick step. 
 
 JOHN CONAWAY, M.D., 
 
 BROOKL TN. 
 
 JOHN CONAWAY, for the last four years state 
 J senator representing Poweshiek and Tama coun- 
 ties, is a native of Cadiz, Ohio, born on the i6th of 
 November, 1822. His parents were Charles and 
 Frances Arnold Conaway. The Conaways were from 
 Ireland, and among the pioneers in Maryland and 
 
 Virginia. The subject of this notice spent his youth 
 in and near his native town, tilling the soil, and im- 
 proving his mind so far as a common school afforded 
 opportunities. At twenty years of age he entered 
 the academy at Hagerstown, Carroll county, spend- 
 ing two years there, teaching during the winter sea- 
 
638 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 sons. He read medicine, while continuing his teach- 
 ing, for four years, two with his cousin. Dr. Enoch 
 Conaway, of Franklin, Harrison county, and two 
 with another cousin, Dr. Henry Conaway, of Rogers- 
 villa, Tuscarawas county; practiced five years at 
 Bakersville, Coshocton county; attended lectures at 
 the Eclectic Medical Institute, Cincinnati ; gradu- 
 ated on the 25th of February, 1854; practiced three 
 years more at Bakersville, and on the ist of May, 
 1857, reached Brooklyn, Poweshiek county, where 
 he settled, and where he has been the leading phy- 
 sician for twenty-one years. He has had a very 
 extensive ride, often reaching into Iowa county on 
 the east and sometimes into Tama on the north. 
 He has a good name wherever known. 
 
 The winter of 1866-7 Dr. Conaway spent in New 
 York city, attending lectures in Bellevue Hospital 
 Medical College, the Eclectic Medical Institute and 
 the Ophthalmic Hospital, giving himself a thorough 
 brushing up in several branches of the healing art, 
 and increasing the confidence of the people in his 
 skill. His medical education is thorough. During 
 the last seven years he has been associated with 
 Charles D. Conaway, a younger brother, and both 
 have ordinarily all the business they could desire. 
 
 For the last five years Dr. Conaway has been 
 United States medical examiner for pensions. 
 
 He was state senator from January, 1874, to Janu- 
 ary, 1878; was chairman of the committee on town- 
 ship and county organizations, and acted on four or 
 five other committees. While in that body he was 
 appointed to visit the Hospital for the Insane at 
 Mount Pleasant. 
 
 Ur. Conaway was a democrat until the repeal of 
 the "Missouri Compromise," and has since usually 
 acted with the republicans. When elected to the 
 senate he was nominated and supported by the " Pa- 
 trons of Husbandry." 
 
 He is a Master Mason and an Odd-Fellow. He 
 is a member of the Methodist Episcopal chujch, has 
 been a steward nearly thirty years, and is a trustee 
 of the Wesleyan University, a Methodist school lo- 
 cated at Mount Pleasant. 
 
 The doctor's wife was Miss Mary E. Cunning, of 
 Rogersville, Ohio; married the 7th of October, 1849. 
 They have lost three children, and have three still 
 living. Frances is the wife of O. F. Dorrance, a 
 merchant of Brooklyn, Iowa; Florence Narcissia is 
 a music teacher, and Freeman R. is a student in the 
 State Normal School at Cedar Falls. 
 
 WESLEY W. WEBSTER, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 WESLEY WENTWORTH WEBSTER,manu- 
 facturer, was born near Chester, Meigs county, 
 Ohio, on the 9th of September, 1835, and is the son 
 of Isaac A. Webster and Lydia nie Ashton, the for- 
 mer a native of Connecticut and the latter of Penn- 
 sylvania. 
 
 The Websters were among the earliest colonists 
 of New England, of Puritan ancestry, and for many 
 generations have been among the leading minds of 
 the country. The celebrated statesman and jurist 
 of the Bay State, as well as the no less distinguished 
 lexicographer, were both of the same lineage, and 
 not very remotely connected with our subject. 
 
 His father removed to Ohio in r8io, and was 
 among the early pioneers of "the west," as that 
 state was then supposed to be, and was familiar with 
 all the hardships and privations of frontier life, man- 
 fully battling with the difficulties of the situation. 
 He became the owner of a tract of heavy-timbered 
 land, on which he erected mills, which he operated 
 
 with fair results, and also farmed the land as fast as 
 it was cleared. He was an honest, energetic busi- 
 ness man, of intelligence and high moral principles. 
 He and his wife were both members of the Method- 
 ist Episcopal church, and exemplified in their lives 
 the sincerity and earnestness of their profession. 
 The mother died in 1857, and the father in 1865. 
 They had a family of eight children, four sons and 
 four daughters, of whom our subject was the fourth, 
 who were all raised in habits of industry and fru- 
 gality, and enjoyed all the facilities for education 
 that were afforded by the primitive condition of the 
 country. They were also taught in early life the 
 value of money, by being obliged to earn it by work. 
 In short, this was by no means the least important 
 part of their secular training, and it has contributed 
 more to their success in after-life than any other dis- 
 cipline. 
 
 Wesley W. Webster received what was then con- 
 sidered a good common-school education, which 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 639 
 
 was supplemented by a couple of terms at an acad- 
 emy, where he studied the higher mathematics and 
 some of the more advanced English branches. 
 From the earliest period of his career he was char- 
 acterized by great thoroughness and energy ; what- 
 ever his hand found to do he did with all his might, 
 and he has seldom failed of accomplishing his pur- 
 poses, whatever they may have been : this very fre- 
 quently in the face of difficulties that would have 
 disheartened and overcome many a man of greater 
 age and more robust health, for W. W. Webster was 
 for many years the victim of feeble health and deli- 
 cate constitution. 
 
 The boundless prairies of the west, of which, dur- 
 ing the last years of his school life, he had heard 
 much, had a peculiar fascination for his youthful 
 mind, and the more so on account of its contrast 
 with the wooded and hilly country of his nativity, 
 and he resolved to make a home somewhere in the 
 valley of the Mississippi. Accordingly, after quit- 
 ting school in 1856, in company with an older broth- 
 er, he went on a tour of observation through the 
 states of Illinois, Iowa and Kansas, and was won- 
 derfully charmed with the scenery and the pros- 
 pects, his anticipations being more than realized. 
 Having completed their tour and laid plans for the 
 future, they returned to Ohio and spent some two 
 years in helping to carry on their father's business 
 and placing it in a shape to be conducted in their 
 absence ; which completed, our subject, in the au- 
 tumn of 1859, removed to Muscatine, Iowa, where 
 he spent two years in learning the marble and gran- 
 ite-monument business. 
 
 In August, 1862, with other young men of his ac- 
 quaintance, he enlisted in the 126th regiment Illi- 
 nois Volunteer Infantry, and spent the next two 
 years in helping to. quell the rebellion, participating 
 with the sixteenth army corps in the campaign of 
 the Mississippi, being present at the siege and over- 
 throw of Vicksburg and at the capture of Little 
 Rock, Arkansas. In 1864, however, his health, which 
 was never at any time robust, gave way under the 
 malarious climate of the south, and he was obliged 
 to quit the service as the only way to save his life, 
 although he was very anxious to remain in the field 
 and share the glory of the final triumph over treason 
 and aggravated rebellion, but to stay longer in the 
 south would have been certain death. After quit- 
 ting the military service he returned to the home- 
 stead in Ohio, where a year's careful nursing restored 
 him to health and vigor, and since then he has en- 
 66 
 
 joyed remarkable immunity from disease and in- 
 firmity. 
 
 In the summer of 1865 he returned to Muscatine, 
 Iowa, bought O^t the establishment with which he 
 had formerly been connected, and has since then 
 devoted his energies and personal attention to the 
 marble and granite trade, giving special attention to 
 monumental works, at which he has attained to 
 great proficiency and success. 
 
 He was brought up under Methodist influence, 
 and in early life became a member of that commu- 
 nion, in which he continued until 187 1, when he 
 transferred his membership to the First Presbyte- 
 rian Church of Muscatine, with which he is now in 
 union, being also one of the trustees of the congre- 
 gation. 
 
 He has always been a member of the republican 
 party, and cast his votes against the spread and in- 
 fluence of slavery. 
 
 From the earliest dawn of reason he has been an 
 unflinching advocate of the principles of total ab- 
 stinence, and has never in his life tasted intoxicat- 
 ing drink of any kind nor used tobacco in any shape. 
 He lends his aid toward the promotion of every in- 
 stitution and enterprise for the elevation, enlighten- 
 ment and moral progress of the people. He is pres- 
 ident of the Citizens' Association of Muscatine, a 
 member of the board of directors and of the exec- 
 utive committee of the Muscatine water-works, a 
 director of the county agricultural society ; has 
 helped to build up schools and churches, and has 
 always been a promoter of the best interests of the 
 city of his adoption. 
 
 'In personal appearance, Mr. Webster is tall and 
 graceful. His manner is pleasant and agreeable ; a 
 fluent conversationalist, easily forms acquaintances, 
 and readily remembers faces and names. He is 
 well posted generally, but more especially in the de- 
 tails of business. His whole air is that of the agree- 
 able, quick-witted business man. He is always on 
 the move, travels a great deal in pursuit of business 
 and health, both of which are now thoroughly estab- 
 lished. He also takes pleasure in spending his 
 money for the good of others,, and is among the 
 most benevolent and public-spirited of the citizens 
 of Muscatine. The handsome and creditable mon- 
 ument which ornaments the court-house square, 
 and was erected to the memory of the soldiers of 
 Muscatine county who fell in putting down the 
 slaveholders' rebellion, is largely the result of his 
 energy and generosity. He undertook its construe- 
 
640 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 tion when no one else could be found to risk the 
 chances of compensation, and it is strongly sus- 
 pected that he fell considerably short, of the con- 
 tract price from the subscription list which was 
 turned over to him for collection. 
 
 Mr. Webster is an example of what industry and 
 unflagging perseverance may accomplish. Though 
 yet a young man, he has achieved a success in busi- 
 ness rarely reached in a lifetime of laborious effort. 
 Coming to Muscatine as the employe of the only 
 marble establishment in the place, he soon became 
 its proprietor, and has so extended and enlarged its 
 business that it now rivals those of metropolitan 
 cities. 
 
 On the 25th of May, 1865, he married Miss Eliza 
 Jane Galbraith, a native of Pennsylvania, of Scotch 
 
 ancestry, who in childhood removed with her par- 
 ents to Ohio, where her early years were passed. 
 They have three very promising daughters, namely, 
 Nola, Alice, Jessie Bell and Inez, all of whom are 
 being carefully educated for useful and honorable 
 stations in life. 
 
 As a husband and father, Mr. Webster is kind and 
 indulgent, taking pleasure in ornamenting and beau- 
 tifying his pleasant home, situated on one of the 
 choicest sites in the picturesque city of Muscatine, 
 commanding an extensive view of the great river 
 and of the country on both sides of it for many 
 miles north and south. Nor is it too much to say 
 that his house is one of the most delightful to be 
 found throughout the length and breadth of the 
 great valley of the Mississippi. 
 
 ELIJAH D. WALN, 
 
 MOUNT VERNON. 
 
 THE first general mercantile trader in Mount 
 Vernon was Elijah Dick Wain, who took up 
 land near the present site of the city in the autumn 
 of 1841. At that time this part of Linn county was 
 a wild, unbroken country, with few cabins of any 
 kind in sight, and quite as many red men as white; 
 now his present farm is in the corporation, with 
 twelve hundred neighbors around him. No vestiges 
 of savage life remain, but in their place are the 
 most impressive indices of civilized, christianized 
 society, and an institution for the highest literary 
 culture. 
 
 Mr. Wain is a native of Virginia, and was born in 
 Winchester, Frederic county, on the 29th of Decem- 
 ber, 1814. His father was Samuel Wain, a farmer 
 and miller, and his mother was Margaret Dick. One 
 of his great-grandfathers, John Bonard, a native of 
 Hesse, has a singular history. At the age of seven- 
 teen he was drafted into the army of Germany, was 
 captured by the French and enlisted in their army 
 in order to get out of prison ; served in the French 
 army until captured by the English, in whose army 
 he enlisted to again obtain his liberty. When the 
 revolution broke out he was sent to this country as 
 a ''red-coat,'' and while fighting against the colonies 
 met a brother German, who, in the Teutonic tongue, 
 enlightened him in regard to our struggle for liberty. 
 He immediately forsook the British army and aided 
 the Yankees in gaining their independence. After 
 
 seventeen years of age he heard no news from his 
 relatives in Hesse, excepting that they had left the 
 old world. At the close of the revolution he set- 
 tled in Frederic county, Virginia, and died there in 
 1824, aged one hundred and ten years. 
 
 Elijah D. was the eldest child, who lived to ma- 
 ture years in a family of nine children. At the age 
 of fifteen years he lost his father, and the widowed 
 mother and children moved to Pickaway county, 
 near Circleville, Ohio^ where he spent three seasons 
 on a farm. When about eighteen he obtained em- 
 ployment in a store at New Lexington, Highland 
 county ; remained there one year, and then spent 
 five years as a clerk in a wholesale dry-goods house 
 in Cincinnati, at the end of which time he returned 
 to New Lexington and embarked in mercantile trade 
 for himself, continuing it until 1841, when he immi- 
 grated to Iowa. After spending a few weeks at Iowa 
 City he bought a squatter's claim, and in October of 
 that year settled near the spot where his present 
 home is found. There being but few families in the 
 township he concluded to adopt the occupation of a 
 farmer for a few years and wait for mercantile op- 
 portunities to present themselves. In May, 1849, he 
 opened the first general variety store, and the sec- 
 ond store of any kind, in Mount Vernon. It stood on 
 the southwest corner of Main and Jefferson streets, 
 opposite the brick store built in 1856, which he now 
 owns and which is occupied by Mr. E. T. Gough. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 641 
 
 Mr. Wain retired from mercantile life in i860, and 
 since then has attended to his farm, besides operat- 
 ing at times in the insurance business. 
 
 He was one of the first movers in the literary en- 
 terprise projected about 1850 and resulting in the 
 founding of Cornell College, one of the most pros- 
 perous institutions of learning in the state. The 
 first prime movers were Rev. George B. Bowman, 
 Elijah D. Wain, Jesse Holman and A. I. Willits, the 
 last named man being the person who laid out the 
 village of Mount Vernon. The first money raised 
 for the starting of this institution was paid by Mr. 
 Wain. He has always been its warm friend, and has 
 given thousands of dollars toward its grounds, build- 
 ings and endowment. He was secretary of its board 
 of trustees for ten or twelve years, cheerfully giving 
 much time as well as much money. 
 
 Mr. Wain was one of the representatives from Linn 
 county to the general assembly in 1858, and has held 
 several offices in the municipality of the place. He 
 is now a member of the school board, and is an ar- 
 
 dent worker in educational matters. In politics, he 
 is a republican, with whig antecedents. 
 
 His church connection is with the Methodist Epis- 
 copal. He has been a class leader and is now pres- 
 ident of the official board. 
 
 On the loth of September, 1836, he was joined in 
 wedlock with Miss Mary Jane Adams, of New Lex- 
 ington, Ohio. They have nine children living and 
 have lost three ; two died in infancy, and one son, 
 Charles Adams, in his twenty-first year. He was 
 accidentally killed while getting on the cars at Cedar 
 Rapids on the 12th of August, 1877. Alonzo T., the 
 eldest child, has a family and lives in Mount Vernon ; 
 Melissa J. is the wife of G. W. Hayzett, sheriff of 
 Black Hawk county; Cinderella M., of Lucas R. 
 Wilson, of Ehvood, Clinton county; Ann Eliza, of 
 Henry D. Fullerton, of Wright county; Josephine 
 R., of Albert C. Powers, of Peoria, Illinois; Sarah 
 E., of William T. Wright, of Harvey county, Kansas, 
 and George E., Minnie S. and Edith are single and 
 live at home. 
 
 JOHN W. GILLETT, 
 
 ATLANTIC. 
 
 ONE of the earliest settlers in northeastern Iowa, 
 a pioneer in what is now Clayton county, and 
 the first man to turn a furrow there, was John Wooley 
 Gi.llett, a native of Maryland. He first saw the light 
 of this world in Worcester county, on the gth of July, 
 1809, and although he is approaching his seventieth 
 year, he is quite active. His father, John Gillett, was 
 a farmer. In 1830 John W. went to Camden, New 
 Jersey, and worked two or three years for a gardener 
 who raised fruit and vegetables for the Philadelphia 
 market. After spending a year in Virginia Mr. Gil- 
 lett came to the Mississippi river, worked awhile at 
 the carpenter's trade (which he had picked up) at 
 Dubuque, Galena, and other points in that part of 
 the country, and in 1836 located in Clayton county, 
 then in Wisconsin territory. He settled on three 
 hundred acres of land one and a half miles north- 
 east of where Garnavillo now stands. There were 
 then but two or three families in the county, and the 
 country was as wild as nature, undisturbed, could 
 make it. Deer, elk, bears and wild turkeys were 
 abundant, and now and then a few bison were seen. 
 Mr. Gillett cultivated his farm for nearly forty 
 years, until he saw Clayton county everywhere thickly 
 
 populated. He was deputy sheriff one term, and 
 assessor and supervisor several years in succession. 
 He has always been very robust, and a great driver 
 of business until quite recently. 
 
 In March, 1876, having disposed of his Clayton 
 county property, Mr. Gillett removed to Cass county, 
 settling in Atlantic, and purchasing a farm of one 
 hundred and sixty acres four miles southwest of the 
 city. He is a good farmer and has the best of crops. 
 In 1877 he raised seven hundred bushels of spring 
 wheat on twenty-six acres. 
 
 Mr. Gillett has a second wife, his first being Miss 
 Emma Castle, of Garnavillo, Iowa; married in 1852. 
 She had eleven children, and died in February, 1875. 
 Six of her children survive her. In September, 
 1876, Miss Lizzie Goff, also of Garnavillo, became 
 his wife. She has one child. 
 
 At an early day in Clayton county Mr. Gillett and 
 a dozen other men tracked some bears into their cave 
 in a ledge of rocks, where they had taken up their 
 winter quarters. These brave men debated what 
 should be. done, for some time, each one deciding 
 that he was too large to get into the crevice. Finally 
 they procured four or five gallons of whisky, drank 
 
642 
 
 TtiB UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 freely, and then all made up their minds that they 
 could go in. With gun and lighted candle and long 
 rope one after another crept in eighty feet, one of 
 the party at a time, and shot his bear. The experi- 
 ment was repeated until no live animal was left, each 
 bear, before being shot, approaching the marksman 
 a few steps, snuffing and appearing very stupid. 
 Fastening the strong rope to the dead animals, one 
 
 at a time was pulled out, and at length eight full 
 grown bears lay at the mouth of the cave, and the 
 residue of the whisky soon disappeared. 
 
 Mr. Gillett has had a thorough taste of frontier 
 life, has a good memory, and a rich store of anec- 
 dotes of the olden times in " the Turkey river coun- 
 try," and his reminiscences are decidedly amusing 
 and interesting. 
 
 WILLIAM _w. Mcknight, 
 
 WINTERSET. 
 
 ONE of the oldest bankers and most successful 
 business men of Madison county, Iowa, is 
 William W^lie McKnight, a native of Washington 
 county, Indiana. He was born near the town of 
 Salem, on the i6th of September, 1822, his parents 
 being Robert R. and Anna Little McKnight. His 
 paternal ancestors were early settlers in Pennsylva- 
 nia. His maternal grandfather, Alexander Little, 
 was a member of both houses of the Indiana legis- 
 lature, and marshal of the state at an early period 
 in its history. 
 
 William W. aided his father on a farm in his 
 youth ; supplemented his common-school privileges 
 with a year's attendance in the preparatory depart- 
 ment of Hanover College, Jefferson county, Indiana; 
 taught three years in his native county; spent four 
 or five years in Marion and Hendricks counties, in 
 the mercantile trade and in teaching, and in April, 
 1855, settled in Winterset. Here, after dealing in 
 land about two years, he resumed the mercantile 
 business, following it until September, 1864. The 
 following January he aided in organizing the Na- 
 tional Bank of Winterset, and became its cashier. 
 That position he held, with the exception of about 
 eighteen months, until January, 1877, when he retired 
 from the bank. During the ten years or more that 
 
 he was cashier he had the entire management of the 
 institution, and there showed his excellent business 
 capacities. He made it a very popular institution, 
 and left it firm and sound. 
 
 Mr. McKnight owns several large farms near Win- 
 terset ; is doing an extensive business in the agricul- 
 tural line, and something also in brokerage. He is 
 in independent circumstances, and can live at ease 
 the residue of his days. 
 
 Mr. McKnight has avoided public life as much as 
 possible, and with the exception of acting several 
 years on the village or city school board (mainly in 
 the capacity of treasurer), he has kept out of offices 
 of the least consequence. On that board he did 
 valuable service to the community, and has been 
 prominent in other interests of great benefit to the 
 public. He is whole-hearted and generous, a kind 
 neighbor and valuable citizen. 
 
 Mr. McKnight is a republican, with whig antece- 
 dents ; a Knight Templar in the Masonic fraternity, 
 and is now serving his third term as treasurer of the 
 grand chapter. He is a communicant in the Pres- 
 byterian church. 
 
 His wife was Miss Hannah Likins, of Vermilion 
 county, Illinois; married in December, 1855. They 
 have seven children. 
 
 PRESLEY SAUNDERS, 
 
 MOUNT PLEASANT. 
 
 THE original proprietor of the site of Mount 
 Pleasant was Presley Saunders, who made the 
 purchase of the government at the first fend sale in 
 what is now the State of Iowa. He is a native of 
 Fleming county, Kentucky ; was the son of Gunnell 
 
 and Mary (Mauzy) Saunders, both Virginians by 
 birth, and was born on the 12th of July, 1809. His 
 branch of the Saunderses was of English origin, and 
 is an old Virginia family, spreading thence westward 
 into Kentucky. The maternal grandfather of Pres- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 64^ 
 
 ley was a revolutionary soldier, and his father was 
 in the second war with England. 
 
 The subject of this notice lived in Kentucky until 
 about 1827, farming, with very limited opportunities 
 for education. At the date mentioned he moved to 
 Springfield, Illinois, and engaged in farming there 
 for about seven years within the present corporation 
 of that city. In 1831 he volunteered in the Black 
 Hawk war, and served until its close the next year, 
 Black Hawk himself being captured in what is now 
 the State of Wisconsin in August of that year. 
 
 Two years after the close of this war Mr. Saunders 
 crossed the Mississippi, entered the so called " Black 
 Hawk Purchase," about which there had been great 
 excitement, and in 1834 reached the spot where 
 Mount Pleasant now stands, then in Michigan terri- 
 tory. Here he pitched his tent in a wild region 
 among the Indians before the land had been sur- 
 veyed. Late in 1835 he drove the first stakes for 
 the location of Mount Pleasant, where his squatter's 
 claim was located. At that time there was an In- 
 dian trading-post at Rome, eight miles farther west, 
 kept by William Phelps. In 1836 he opened a small 
 frontier store, and has continued the same business 
 up to the present time, his being probably the oldest 
 mercantile house in the state. 
 
 Mr. Saunders was on the first grand jury that con- 
 vened west of the Mississippi river, in what is now 
 
 Iowa, it then being in Michigan territory. In 1862 
 he added banking to his mercantile business ; in 
 1864 organized the First National Bank of Mount 
 Pleasant, and has been its president ever since, the 
 only office he has ever held. He is one of the most 
 prudent, careful and successful business men of the 
 place, and has always borne an irreproachable char- 
 acter. The first settler in the place and an excel- 
 lent citizen, he is held in high esteem. He has lived 
 a very quiet life, never allowing himself to be car- 
 ried away by political excitement. 
 
 He is a republican, with whig antecedents. 
 
 Mr. Saunders has had two wives : his first was 
 Miss Edith Cooper; married in 1829, at Springfield, 
 Illinois. She had three children, and died in 1836. 
 Only one child, Mary, the wife of John McCoy, of 
 Mount Pleasant, is living. She was the first child 
 born in Mount Pleasant. His present wife was 
 Miss Huldah Bowen, of Mount Pleasant; married in 
 1837. She has had four children, all living and all 
 married : Smith and Alvin are merchants in Mount 
 Pleasant ; Eliza is the wife of John Bowman, of Cal- 
 ifornia, and Etna is the wife of Frederic Hope, of 
 Mount Pleasaht. All of Mr. Saunders' living chil- 
 dren were born in Mount Pleasant : Mary in Mich- 
 igan territory. Smith in Wisconsin territory, Alvin 
 in Iowa territory, and Eliza and Etna in the State 
 of Iowa. 
 
 CHARLES G. PERKINS, 
 
 ONA WA. 
 
 CHARLES GOVE PERKINS, postmaster at 
 Onawa, is a native of the Granite State, dat- 
 ing his birth on the 23d of January, 1830, at Wind- 
 ham, Rockingham county. His father, James W. 
 Perkins, was a physician early in life, and later a 
 Congregational minister. The Perkinses came to 
 this country from England somewhere about the 
 beginning of the eighteenth century and settled in 
 Massachusetts. The grandfather of Charles Gove 
 was in the revolution, taken prisoner, carried to 
 England and released at the close of the war; and 
 his father was a private in the second war with the 
 mother country. 
 
 Dr. Perkins left Windham when the subject of 
 this sketch was less than a year old ; practiced two 
 or three years in New Boston, New Hampshire, and 
 about 1833 became pastor of the Congregational 
 
 Church at New Hampton, in the same state. He 
 afterward preached at Warner, Alstead and Hock- 
 sett, and died in 1873. His wife, whose maiden 
 name was Fanny Cochran, died in 1874. Charles 
 G. was educated mainly at Francistown and Pem- 
 broke academies. 
 
 In 1846 he started on a whaling voyage, going 
 around Cape Horn into the Pacific and Arctic 
 oceans, his first trip lasting four years. He made 
 other voyages, the seafaring period of his life lasting 
 between seven and eight years. 
 
 In 1853 Mr. Perkins started the tailoring and 
 ready-made clothing business at Mont Vernon, New 
 Hampshire, and two years later removed to Wiscon- 
 sin, settling on a farm in New Chester, Adams coun- 
 ty. There, while engaged in agricultural pursuits, 
 he served on the board of supervisors five or six 
 
644 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 years, and as deputy sheriff two years, being post- 
 master all the time he remained in Wisconsin. 
 
 In February, 1862, Mr. Perkins enlisted as a pri- 
 vate in company G, 19th Wisconsin Infantry, which 
 was in the eighteenth array corps. He served three 
 years ; was with the regiment in all the skirmishes 
 and battles in which it participated, and, like two 
 brothers who also served the same length of time, he 
 never received even a scratch. He came out a first 
 lieutenant of the company. 
 
 In September, 1865, Mr. Perkins settled in Onawa, 
 farming for four years. He was elected recorder of 
 Monona county in 187 1, but resigned before his 
 term had expired. He was a member of the four- 
 teenth general assembly, representing Monona, Craw- 
 ford, Shelby and Audubon counties, and serving on 
 the committees on agriculture, on highways and on 
 
 some special committees. He was appointed post- 
 master in February, 1873, and in this, as well as 
 every other position he has occupied, he has served 
 the people with the utmost faithfulness. In many 
 ways he is a very useful citizen. 
 
 Mr. Perkins has always affiliated with the repub- 
 lican party, cherishes its principles with the greatest 
 cordiality and firmness, and works earnestly to fur- 
 ther its interests. 
 
 On the 9th of October, 1853, he was united in 
 marriage with Miss Ruth Stearns, of Lowell, Massa- 
 chusetts. They have had five children and have 
 lost two of them. Mary W., the eldest of the living 
 children, is the wife of John Cleghorn, dealer in 
 agricultural implements, Onawa ; Charles W. and 
 Addie M. are single, aiding their father in the post- 
 office and his store. 
 
 W. H. GIBBON, M.D., 
 
 CHARITON. 
 
 THIS distinguished army surgeon was born at 
 Ellicott's Mills, Maryland, on the 31st of Jan- 
 uary, 1832. His father, Mason Gibbon, was born 
 at Salem, New Jersey, in 1797. His mother's maid- 
 en name was Mary Marr Brooks ; she was born at 
 Roadstown, Cumberland county. New Jersey, and 
 is still living at Philadelphia. Dr. Gibbon's father 
 was a civil engineer, and was engaged upon the sur- 
 vey of the Philadelphia and Baltimore railroad at 
 the time of the birth of the subject of this sketch. 
 He died when the son was but fifteen years of age. 
 
 Dr. Gibbon attended the Salem Academy, New 
 Jersey, until he was twelve years of age, shortly af- 
 ter which ■ his family removed to Philadelphia, at 
 which city the doctor attended a public school until 
 he was seventeen ; after which he was employed as 
 clerk in a dry-goods store at Philadelphia until he 
 was twenty years of age. 
 
 Preferring Esculapius to dry goods, the doctor then 
 commenced reading medicine with his uncle. Dr. 
 Quinton Gibbon, at Salem, New Jersey, with whom 
 he remained studying and attending lectures at the 
 Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, and from 
 which he graduated in 1857. He then traveled for 
 a year, and in the spring of 1858 he came to Chari- 
 ton, Iowa, where he commenced the practice of his 
 profession. 
 
 On the 2d of November, 1861, he was commis- 
 
 sioned assistant surgeon of the isth Iowa regiment, 
 and in the succeeding year was commissioned sur- 
 geon of the same regiment. In this capacity he 
 served at the battle of Shiloh, and was with the army 
 of the Tennessee from that time until the capture of 
 Vicksburg, and subsequently participated in the At- 
 lanta campaign, and was with the 17th army corps 
 during Sherman's memorable "march to the sea." 
 He was mustered out of the service at the expira- 
 tion of his term of service at Savannah, Georgia, 
 and returned to Chariton, where he at once recom- 
 menced the practice of medicine, in which he is still 
 engaged. 
 
 During Dr. Gibbon's entire term in the field he 
 was one of the board of operators, and displayed 
 great skill in the manipulation of his many and ar- 
 duous duties. Upon his retirement from the service 
 Major Pomutz, then in command of the isth Iowa 
 Veteran Volunteers, issued the following order : 
 
 [General Order.*; No. 20.] 
 Headquarters 15TH Iowa Infantry Veteran Volunteers, 
 Savannah, Georgia, December 22, 1864. 
 Surgeon William H. Gibbon, of this regiment, having 
 this day been honorably discharged the United States ser- 
 vice, the commanding officer of this regiment cannot for- 
 bear giving expression to the just appreciation by him- 
 self, as well as by the officers and men of his command, of 
 the unabated zeal, efficiency and practical skill with which 
 the surgeon has discharged his important duties while con- 
 nected with and in charge of the medical department of this 
 regiment. In the earlier part of the military life of this 
 command, during the memorable battles of Shiloh and Cor- 
 
THR UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 645 
 
 inth, he acquired the individual confidence of the officers 
 and men by his efficiency in the line of his profession, as 
 well as by his courageous conduct while bravely and skill- 
 fully attending to the wounded soldiers in the immediate 
 rear of the line of battle, then fiercely engaged with the 
 enemy. That confidence, well merited then, he retained 
 and deserved ever afterward through the entire period of 
 his three years' service. The soldiers felt sure that what- 
 ever vigilant care, knowledge of science and practical skill 
 could accomplish for the sick and wounded, was secured to 
 them while under his treatment. 
 
 During the eventful campaign of this year, resulting in 
 the capture of Atlanta and Savannah, being one of the se- 
 lected board of operators, he displayed those highest quali- 
 fications in practical surgery that have stamped him as 
 " one of the best field surgeons of the army." While the 
 surgical operations performed by him have rescued and 
 preserved the life and limb of many a brave officer and sol- 
 dier of this and other commands, the same are justly re- 
 corded as a triumph of the art and science of his profession. 
 
 This command, in hereby tendering thanks to the sur- 
 geon for his past services, earnestly hope he mav soon re- 
 turn to the field of his wonted invaluable usefulness to the 
 army. 
 
 The adjutant will forward an official copy of this order to 
 the surgeon. 
 
 By order of Major George Pomutz, commanding regi- 
 ment. Wm. C. Stidger, Adjutant. 
 
 To this we may also add that for meritorious ser- 
 vices as surgeon, especially at Vicksburg and At- 
 lanta, Dr. Gibbon was breveted by the United States 
 as lieutenant-colonel. 
 
 On the 4th of September, 1861, he was married to 
 Miss Laura R. Gibbon, of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, 
 by whom he has one child, Anna Gibbon. 
 
 Dr. Gibbon has had three brothers and two sis- 
 ters. The youngest brother, Captain Leonard Gib- 
 bon, of the 19th Michigan Infantry, was killed at 
 the battle of Bentonville, North Carolina ; the other 
 two are in private life in Philadelphia, together with 
 their sisters. 
 
 Dr. Gibbon has been a republican ever since the 
 organization of that party. In religious matters, he 
 is an Episcopalian. 
 
 HON. JOSEPH R. ZUVER, 
 
 SIOUX CITT. 
 
 JOSEPH R. ZUVER, circuit judge of the fourth 
 district, is a native of Kittanning, Armstrong 
 county, Pennsylvania, a son of Jacob and Catherine 
 Claypole Zuver, and was born on the 16th of Sep- 
 tember, 1833. His paternal grandfather came from 
 Germany, and nothing is known of the family far- 
 ther back. Joseph was the third child in a family 
 of ten children, eight of whom are yet living. An 
 elder brother had a feeble constitution, and at fifteen 
 years of age Joseph had not only to take care of 
 himself, but, in a large measure, of his parents and 
 the younger m.embers of the family. 
 
 At the age mentioned, with an ordinary common- 
 school education, he commenced flat-boating on the 
 Alleghany and the Ohio rivers, operating on these 
 streams, in various capacities, most of the time until 
 thirty-four years old. He was a steamboat pilot 
 during the first year of the civil war, and captain of 
 a boat in 1862, i866 and 1867. 
 
 During this period he also learned the carpenter's 
 trade, working at it at different periods. He also 
 taught school three terms, and had pressing invita- 
 tions to continue teaching; but he could make more 
 at flat-boating and steamboating, and his responsi- 
 bilities compelled him to make all the money that he 
 could, without any regard to congeniality of pursuits. 
 
 In the spring of 1868 Judge Zuver came to the 
 
 Missouri slope in lovi^a; read law in Missouri Valley, 
 Harrison county ; was admitted to the bar at Mag- 
 nolia, then the county seat, in June, 1869, and prac- 
 ticed in Missouri Valley and in Magnolia until he 
 went on the bench. He was appointed circuit judge 
 on the 7th of September, 1874, to fill a vacancy oc- 
 casioned by the resignation of the Hon. Addison 
 Oliver, now in congress ; was elected by the people 
 the next month, to fill the unexpired term ; was re- 
 elected in 1876, and now holds the office, his term 
 expiring on the 31st of December, i88o. Before 
 going on the bench he was regarded as among the 
 best read lawyers in the judicial district, and since 
 assuming the ermine he has exhibited his eminent 
 fitness for the honor, he having most of the qualities 
 which make a good jurist. 
 
 Judge Zuver was a whig in early life, and has 
 acted with the republican party since i860. He is 
 a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and 
 of the Masonic fraternity, and is a man of undoubted 
 honesty and of high moral character. 
 r hi judge was first ma rried in January, 1861, to 
 Miss Mary J. Richardson, of Pennsylvania. He had 
 six children by her, and five of them are living. His 
 present wife was Mrs. Josie Marshall, of Missouri 
 Valley, Iowa ; married on the isth of February, 1872. 
 
 Though a well read lawyer, the judge has only 
 
646 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 moderate literary attainments. Realizing his defi- 
 ciency in this respect, he takes good care that his 
 children shall be well educated. They are all in the 
 graded schools of Sioux City, and his eldest son, in 
 his sixteenth year, is the best scholar, of his age, in 
 the school. His attainments are almost astonishing. 
 
 While in Pennsylvania and Harrison county, Iowa, 
 the judge did much good work in the school board, 
 and probably the cause of education has no warmer 
 friend in the state. Sioux City has been his home 
 since June, 1875, and as a citizen the people are be- 
 ginning to realize and appreciate his worth. 
 
 MAHLON J. DAVIS, M. D., 
 
 LEWIS. 
 
 MAHLON JAMES DAVIS, one of the best 
 physicians and surgeons in the Nishnabotna 
 valley, belongs to an old Pennsylvania family. He 
 was born in Juniata county, in that state, on the 20th 
 of October, 1838, and is consequently in his fortieth 
 year. His parents were Judah and Charlotte Leas 
 Davis, both of whose ancestors were early settlers in 
 the Keystone commonwealth. Mahlon lived on his 
 father's farm until about fourteen years of age, when 
 he was placed in the Tuscarora Academy, in his na- 
 tive county, and a little later in the Kishacoquillas 
 Seminary, Mifflin county. After receiving a good 
 academic education, including the higher mathemat- 
 ics and classics, he commenced in 1859 reading med- 
 icine with Dr. D. M. Crawford, of Millerstown, Perry 
 county ; took two courses of medical lectures in the 
 University of the City of New York, and received 
 his diploma in March, 1862. 
 
 Civil war had been in progress nearly a year, and 
 after praqficing for a few months in Newport, Perry 
 county, in August, 1862, Dr. Davis went into the reg- 
 ular army as acting assistant surgeon, being located 
 for a long time in the hospitals at Washington, Dis- 
 trict of Columbia. In May, 1864, he was assigned 
 to the position of surgeon-in- chief of the artillery of 
 the second army corps, on the staff of General Haz- 
 ard, being in some of the heaviest campaigns and serv- 
 ing until mustered out in November, 1865. 
 
 Dr. Davis returned to Newport the same month, 
 and the next summer located at Lewis, where he is 
 still in practice, and where he soon secured the con- 
 fidence of the people. Few young men just out of a 
 medical college have had better opportunities to im- 
 prove themselves in surgery, or made better use of 
 such opportunities. His experience in the army has 
 been of great assistance to him, and he stands among 
 the foremost men in his profession in this part of the 
 state. He has other qualifications besides skill to 
 make him an eminently useful physician. 
 
 In addition to his general practice Dr. Davis acts 
 as examining surgeon for pensions, has a drug store, 
 and is also postmaster. He is a very busy man. 
 
 In politics, he is a republican, firm and active, and 
 has at times served as chairman of the county cen- 
 tral committee. 
 
 In religion, his views may be denominated liberal. 
 
 Dr. Davis is a Freemason, and was master of the 
 Lewis lodge for three or four years. 
 
 On the 27th of December, 1864, he chose for his 
 wife Miss Priscilla K. Shuman, of Millerstown, Penn- 
 sylvania, a cousin of Hon. Andrew Shuman, lieut.- 
 governor of Illinois ; they have three children. 
 
 Dr. Davis has a phlegmatic temperament, a fair 
 complexion and gray eyes ; he is five feet and eight 
 inches tall, is always good-natured and inclined to 
 be jovial. 
 
 CHARLES A. L. ROSZELL, 
 
 CLARKSVILLE. 
 
 AMONG the lawyers who early settled in Butler 
 /i. county, Iowa, is Charles A. L. Roszell, a man 
 of fine literary as well as legal attainments. He is 
 a son of Elisha Roszell, a farmer, living in Alabama, 
 Genesee county. New York, at the time the son was 
 
 born, on the 25th of March, 1833. His mother's 
 maiden name was Hannah Nethaway. The Roszells 
 were descendants of the Huguenots. 
 
 Charles received his academic education at the 
 Caryville Collegiate Seminary, Genesee county, and 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 647 
 
 the Clinton (Oneida county) Liberal Institute ; en- 
 tered the University of Virginia, at Charlotteville, in 
 1852, and received his diploma four years later. He 
 spent two years in the law department of Harvard 
 University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; took his de- 
 gree of LL.B. in 1858; came directly to Iowa, and 
 after spending a short time at Independence, Bu- 
 chanan county, settled in Clarksville in 1859. Here 
 he has built up a fine reputation as an attorney, and 
 attended very closely to his profession, except during 
 three years' absence in his country's service. 
 
 In the summer of 1862, when the call was made 
 for six hundred thousand volunteers to aid in put- 
 ting down the rebellion, Mr. Roszell raised a com- 
 pany and went into the service as captain of com- 
 pany G, 3 2d Iowa Infantry. He was at the head of 
 his company during three years ; was in a dozen 
 battles or more; had forty of his men hit and thir- 
 teen killed in a single engagement, the battle of 
 Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, yet was one of the few for- 
 tunate ones who were never wounded. He was 
 mustered out with his regiment in August, 1865. 
 
 Captain Roszell was elected to the general assem- 
 bly on the independent ticket in October, 1873, ^"d 
 
 in the session of 1874 served on the judiciary com- 
 mittee, and on the special committees to visit the 
 blind asylum at Council Bluffs, and to report on the 
 condition of the people in the district infested by 
 grasshoppers. 
 
 Captain Roszell has been a life-long democrat, 
 and was known during the civil strife as a war dem- 
 ocrat, no man in the Shellrock valley striving harder 
 than he to restore the Union. 
 
 In religious sentiment he is a Universalist. 
 
 On the 29th of December, 1867, Miss Mary Veber, 
 of Clarksville, became his wife, and they have one 
 child, a son, eight years old. 
 
 Captain Roszell has a fair complexion, dark hazel 
 eyes, a bilious temperament and a solid build. He 
 is five feet ten and a half inches tall, and weighs 
 one hundred and eighty-five pounds. His manners 
 are graceful; his disposition is social; his language 
 polished, and he is a pleasant converser. Before a 
 jury he excels in the elegance of his diction, the 
 strength of his logic and his persuasive rhetoric. He 
 started out in professional life with a thorough prep- 
 aration and a laudable ambition to succeed, and has 
 not been disappointed. 
 
 GEORGE H. GRIMMELL,. M.D., 
 
 JEFFERSON. 
 
 GEORGE HENRY GRIMMELL, the oldest 
 medical practitioner in Greene county, Iowa, 
 is the son of a physician and a native of Virginia, his 
 birth dating in Loudon county on the i6th of Febru- 
 ary, 1830. His parents were Henry C. and Mary Ann 
 Swartzfager, both of German descent. When George 
 reached the age of ten or eleven years the family 
 moved to Malta, Morgan county, Ohio, where the 
 son assisted his father in the office and attended a 
 district school. He began to read medicine at an 
 early age, taking a fancy for the science and being 
 encouraged by his father. When twenty-three years 
 of age he attended a course of medical lectures in 
 Saint Louis, Missouri; practiced several years in Des 
 Moines city and Boone county, Iowa, and settled in 
 Jefferson in August, 1865. 
 
 In the winter of 1860-61 Dr. Grimmell attended a 
 course of lectures in the medical department of the 
 State University at Keokuk, and received an honor- 
 ary degree ; attended a second course at the same 
 place, the institution now being known as the Col- 
 67 
 
 lege of Physicians and Surgeons, and graduated in 
 February, 1877. He seems ambitious to excel in the 
 medical science, is yet in his prime, and, should his 
 life be spared, will continue to progress. He evi- 
 dently believes in concentrating his talent and labor 
 and attending to his chosen profession with the ut- 
 most assiduity. 
 
 When the doctor first settled in Jefferson he had 
 some extensive and very hard rides, extending over 
 bridgeless streams, into the edges of Calhoun, Dal- 
 las, Carroll, Guthrie and Boone counties. The valley 
 of the North Coon river, and of other streams in this 
 part of the state, is now much more thickly settled, 
 the counties adjoining Greene are well supplied with 
 physicians, and Dr. Grimmell rarely goes out of the 
 county, except to attend to some difficult case of 
 surgery. He has all the rides he could desire in a 
 radius of eight or ten miles of his home. He started 
 out some twenty-five years ago with a pocket case, 
 saddle-bags, a single horse and no carriage; he now 
 drives blooded horses second to none in the county. 
 
648 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 he has every convenience for expediting calls, and is 
 surrounded by all the comforts which a liberal com- 
 petency can afford. Financially, as well as profes- 
 sionally, he is a success. 
 
 In politics, Dr. Grimmell is a democrat, but in 
 local matters votes for the best man. He is a Royal 
 Arch Mason ; in religious connection, a Methodist. 
 
 He is a member of the Central District Medical 
 Association, which embraces six or seven counties in 
 the vicinity of Greene county. His standing in the 
 profession is excellent. 
 
 Dr. Grimmell has had two wives, the first being 
 Miss Annettie McCall, of Boone county; married on 
 
 30th of August, 1861. She died on the 3d of July, 
 1873, leaving five children, all yet living. His pres- 
 ent wife was Miss Hannah Scott, a native of Ontario, 
 Canada; married on the 16th of November, 1874. 
 She has one child living and has lost one. 
 
 Dr. Grimmell has been a director of the Greene 
 County Agricultural Society since it was organized ; 
 was one of the prime movers in getting it up, and is 
 very active in contributing to its efficiency. He has 
 quite a taste for fine stock, and keeps blooded horses 
 and hogs and the best strain of fowls. He is a valu- 
 able citizen of the county, infusing a spirit of lauda- 
 ble enterprise in more than one direction. 
 
 DANIEL C. GREENLEAF, M. D., 
 
 BLOOMFIELD. 
 
 THE branch of the Greenleaf family of which 
 Dr. Greenleaf is a representative, and which 
 embraces a great many physicians, clergymen and 
 other professional men, sprung from Edmund Green- 
 leaf, a native of Devonshire, England, born about 
 1600, and dying in Boston, Massachusetts, in 167 1. 
 In his will he bequeathed money to all his children, 
 and to his grandchild, Sarah Winslow, he bequeathed 
 five pounds, adding, "if her father pay me the four 
 pounds he oweth me." When he married the sec- 
 ond time he declares that he kept his wife's grand- 
 child " three years to schooling, diet and apparel." 
 She had several children by her first husband, Mr. 
 Hill, and Mr. Greenleaf states that he sent her son, 
 Ignatius Hill, to the Barbadoes, "in mackerel, cider, 
 and bread and cheese, as much as come to twenty 
 pounds, and never received one penny of it." When 
 he married the widow Hill she brought him a silver 
 bowl, a silver porringer and a silver spoon, but she 
 lent or gave them to her son, James Hill, without 
 her husband's consent. Alas for Mr. Greenleaf! 
 he had not heard Mr. Weller's advice to his son to 
 " beware of vidders." Israel Greenleaf, great-grand- 
 son of Edmund, the common ancestor, and grand- 
 father of our subject, was the father of twenty-two 
 children. 
 
 Daniel Clinton Greenleaf is a native of Switzer- 
 land county, Indiana, and was born in the town of 
 Bevay, on the 31st of March, 1823. His parents 
 were Stephen Greenleaf, a millwright, and Pauline 
 Anderson, both born near Boston, Massachusetts. 
 Stephen Greenleaf had a small farm, on which the 
 
 son spent most of his time until eighteen years of 
 age, pursuing his studies during the winters, as most 
 lads do under such circumstances. About this date 
 he began the study of medicine, for which he seemed 
 to have a natural relish. Before finishing his read- 
 ings, in 1845, he went to Texas; was there, with his 
 trunk well lined with medical books, when General 
 Taylor called for troops with which to fight the 
 Mexicans ; enlisted as a private, and served under 
 General Taylor for six months. 
 
 Returning northward, Mr. Greenleaf finished his 
 medical studies ; attended lectures in the medical de- 
 partment of the Missouri University at Saint Louis, 
 and graduated in 1850. He had practiced pre- 
 viously between one and two years in Saint Louis ; 
 on receiving his diploma removed to Bloomfield, and 
 with the exception of two more years spent in Saint 
 Louis (1860-1) he has been a resident of this place ' 
 since March, 1850. 
 
 In May, 1863, Dr. Greenleaf was commissioned 
 surgeon of the 4th Iowa Infantry, and was mustered 
 out in August, 1865. He was very attentive to the 
 wants of the regiment in his line, no man ever suf- 
 fering because the doctor was off" duty. Day and 
 night for twenty-seven months he was at his post, 
 and won the highest esteem of officers and soldiers 
 by his unwearying attentions and skillful services. 
 
 Dr. Greenleaf was a representative in the Iowa 
 legislature in 1855 and 1856, and voted for George 
 G. Wright for chief justice and James Harlan for 
 United States senator, and for the bfll removing the 
 capital from Iowa City to Des Moines. He is a re- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 649 
 
 publican, and was formerly a whig, but never be- 
 comes so absorbed in politics as to neglect his pro- 
 fessional business. 
 
 The doctor is a third-degree Mason, a member 
 and trustee of the Methodist Episcopal church, and 
 a man of sterling character. Were he a good col- 
 lector of his own medical bills, he would be still 
 more independent in his pecuniary circumstances. 
 
 In June, 1853, he was joined in wedlock with 
 
 Miss Amanda Young, whose home was at Keosauqua, 
 Van Buren county. She died in 1858, leaving two 
 children : Stephen Greenleaf now a physician in 
 Unionville, twelve miles west^ of Bloomfield, and 
 Eugene Young Greenleaf, a teacher and law-student 
 in Bloomfield. The present wife of Dr. Greenleaf 
 was Miss Augustine V. Young, of Bloomfield ; mar- 
 ried in 1859. She has had eight children, all of 
 them yet living. 
 
 REV. JAMES McKEAN, 
 
 AN AM OS A. 
 
 JAMES McKEAN was born near Pease's Mill, 
 on Ten-Mile Creek, Washington county, Penn- 
 sylvania, on the 24th of September, 1795. His 
 father's name was Hugh McKean, who was born in 
 Antrim county, Ireland, in 1753. The father of 
 Hugh McKean died in 1763, at an advanced age. 
 
 The family came originally from Scotland, and 
 were what is known as the Scotch-Irish, settling in 
 Ireland about the close of the sixteenth century, and 
 were originally Scotch covenanters. Hugh McKean 
 emigrated to America at the close of the revolution. 
 He intended to come before, but the war interfered. 
 
 James' youth was spent on a farm west of New 
 Wilmington, on the Pulaski road, one mile from the 
 Shenango creek. He joined the army at the age of 
 nineteen years, in the war against Great Britain, at 
 Erie, Pennsylvania, and was a member of Captain 
 Rea's company. Colonel Christy, Pennsylvania Mili- 
 tia. On his discharge he marched home ninety 
 miles. The weather was cold and the snow very 
 deep, and in after-life he was afflicted with bron- 
 chitis and weakness of the chest arising from dis- 
 eases contracted in his army career. 
 
 TJie schools at that early day were few, and clas- 
 sical education was hard to obtain. He worked by 
 the job or by the month, and in any way that was 
 remunerative and honorable to obtain funds. He 
 was one of the men who in the year 1818 helped to 
 clear the ground where Wooster, Ohio, now stands, 
 receiving fifteen dollars per month for his services. 
 For several years he attended the academy at Mer- 
 cer, Pennsylvania, under the care of a teacher named 
 Amberson, and went over the whole college curri- 
 culum, but owing to failure of health was not able 
 to finish the course at Jefferson College, Pennsyl- 
 vania, where several of his classmates graduated. 
 
 He was married to Nancy Smith, of Mercer county, 
 Pennsylvania, in May, 1822. His health failing from 
 over-study while at school, he was not expected to 
 live, and retired to his farm in Neshannock township, 
 Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, where his health 
 was comparatively restored; and after about nine 
 years, having studied theology under the charge of 
 Rev. William Wood, pastor of Neshannock Church, 
 and for about two years under care of Beaver pres- 
 bytery, he was licensed to preach by the presbytery 
 of Beaver, and about the year 1834 was sent as a 
 missionary to Ohio, where he was settled as pastor 
 of Waynesburg, Still Fork and Bethlehem churches 
 at a salary of four hundred dollars per year, which 
 at that early day was all that they could pay. As 
 the churches grew stronger, and his labors increased, 
 he gave up Bethlehem and Still Fork by consent of 
 the presbytery, at about the year 1845, and retained 
 Waynesburg alone of the three original churches, 
 and for nine years preached at Waynesburg and New 
 Harrisburg until the year 1856, when he removed to 
 Scotch Grove, Jones county, Iowa. 
 
 At the time he first preached in Ohio within the 
 bounds of the Still Fork congregation there was an 
 organization of infidels under the lead of one Per- 
 marr and Zach. Wathy, who were followers of Hume, 
 Bolingbroke and Thomas Paine. This leader gave 
 him an opportunity for a public discussion, and the 
 question was as to the credibility of the religion of 
 Christ. He completely and forever demolished the 
 society, which never met after the discussion. 
 
 As a debater, he had hardly an equal in logic and 
 strength of argument. He lectured on temperance 
 and slavery, and persistently fought every foe of man 
 and of the country. For years during the winter 
 months he preached in school-houses and private 
 
650 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 dwellings, all over his county and beyond. Nearly 
 every church from the Ohio river west in the Steu- 
 benville presbytery was privileged to hear his faith- 
 ful exhortations and pungent logic. The disease of 
 his throat so increased upon him that, at the age of 
 sixty years, he was compelled to give up the pastor- 
 ate in Ohio and remove to Iowa. Here for several 
 years he preached one-half his time to the church 
 of Wayne. 
 
 He died on the ist of September, 1876, at Scotch 
 Grove, Iowa, and was buried in the cemetery of the 
 Presbyterian Church. A man of inflexible courage 
 and great will power, he had naturally what is 
 called an iron constitution, was of great activity 
 and strength, and when in the army could throw 
 any man in his company and regiment. 
 
 He had eight children, as follows : Jane McKean, 
 who died and was buried at Bethlehem, Ohio; Rev. 
 James W. McKean, president of Lenox Collegiate 
 Institute and captain of company C, 44th Iowa 
 Infantry Volunteers, who died at Memphis, Ten- 
 nessee, in officers' hospital, on the 9th of July, 1864; 
 Dr. Hugh C. McKean, the beloved physician of 
 Scotch Grove, where his name and memory are still 
 held sacred in the minds of many to whose health 
 he had contributed, — ^^he died in November, 1865; 
 F. S. McKean, attorney-at-law, Anamosa, Iowa, for 
 
 many years auditor of Carroll county, Ohio, and 
 county treasurer of Jones county, Iowa, who died 
 on the 2Sth of December, 1867 ; Francis C. Mc- 
 Kean, captain of company D, of the 9th regiment of 
 Iowa Infantry Veteran Volunteers, and attorney and 
 counselor-at-law, who died at Evans, Colorado, on 
 the 5th of May, 1874; Dr. Alexander McKean, of 
 Scotch Grove ; C. B. McKean, of Scotch Grove, 
 and John McKean, of Anamosa, judge of the cir- 
 cuit court, eighth judicial circuit. 
 
 Father McKean was a jovial, good natured, good 
 humored man ; had a great fund of Irish wit, which 
 amused his friends and overcame his opponents, 
 bright as the light and fresh as the dew of the 
 morning. Still he had a great admiration for drill, 
 and every son was a good scholar in Latin and 
 mathematics, and several were proficient in Greek; 
 two were graduates of Jefferson College, Pennsyl- 
 vania (James W. and John). James W. was one 
 of the " honor " men of his class of about sixty 
 men, class of 1859. He was a great teacher; he 
 taught his children, taught his churches, taught all 
 within the reach of his influence, the true granite 
 principles of government, logic, religion and moral- 
 ity. He died on the ist of September, 1876, in 
 the joyful expression and profession of an uncom- 
 promising faith. 
 
 HON. JOHN McKEAN, 
 
 ANAMOSA. 
 
 JOHN McKEAN, judge of the eighth judicial cir- 
 cuit, is a native of Lawrence county, Pennsylva- 
 nia, and was born on the 19th of July, 1835, his 
 parents being James and Nancy (Smith) McKean. 
 The McKeans are of Scotch-Irish pedigree, and 
 came from the parish of Balymena, Antrim county, 
 Ireland, and settled in Lawrence county, Pennsyl- 
 vania. Hugh McKean, the pioneer, and the grand- 
 father of the subject of this sketch, came over at 
 the close of the American revolution. James Mc- 
 Kean was a soldier in the second war with England, 
 and was stationed for some time at Erie, Pennsylva- 
 nia. He studied at the Mercer Academy, became 
 a Presbyterian minister, and preached for nearly 
 forty years, dying in Scotch Grove, Jones county, 
 Iowa, in September, 1876. 
 
 The wife of James McKean was also of Irish de- 
 scent. She was a native of Westmoreland county, 
 
 Pennsylvania, and a very pious and worthy woman, 
 the mother of eight children, of whom John was the 
 fifth child. 
 
 James McKean moved with his family to Carroll 
 county, Ohio, when John was an infant, and the 
 father having a farm, the son, when arrived ,at a 
 suitable age, spent his summers in agricultural and 
 his winters in intellectual pursuits, attending a com- 
 mon school until sixteen, and then spending one 
 year at the New Hagerstown Academy. A little 
 later he studied at New Richmond College, Jeffer- 
 son county, for eight months. 
 
 In October, 1854, John and an elder brother, 
 James W. McKean, came to Jones county, Iowa, 
 with a two-horse wagon, pitched their tent in Scotch 
 Grove township ; camped in the woods on section 
 three in the winter and spring, and during that pe- 
 riod fenced forty acres of prairie land and built a 
 
J:7^nyff3MU&Ssns.J3£arcJai^ SiF.T 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 653 
 
 small frame house, nearly all of it with material of 
 their own getting out. The remainder of the family 
 reached Scotch Grove the ensuing June. The next 
 winter John taught a select school, he having been 
 similarly employed two seasons before leaving Ohio. 
 
 In May, 1856, James and John returned to the east, 
 entered Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Pennsylva- 
 nia, and graduated in August, 1859. In March of 
 that year John McKean was Franklin debater, and 
 received the award of honor in a logical contest 
 held that month, five learned men acting as judges. 
 
 On leaving college Mr. McKean returned to Jones 
 county, Iowa, located at Anamosa, the county seat, 
 where he read law with Thomas S. Pierce, and was 
 admitted to practice in 1861, and has ever since 
 been a member of the Jones county bar. 
 
 During the last ten or twelve years he has spent 
 no inconsiderable part of his time in the service of 
 the state. He was a member of the lower house of 
 the general assembly in 1866 and i868, and was in 
 the senate in the regular sessions of 1870 and 1872. 
 Being nominated for circuit judge in the summer of 
 1872, he resigned his seat in the senate and did not 
 attend the adjourned session. While in the house he 
 was chairman of the committee on constitutional 
 amendments, a very important committee in that 
 juncture of our national history, and in the senate 
 was always on the committees of ways and means 
 and the judiciary. While in the house he intro- 
 duced the bill, which became a law, allowing town- 
 ships, towns and cities to levy a five-per-cent tax to 
 aid in constructing railroads. 
 
 As a legislator, he showed himself an ardent friend 
 of the State University, the Agricultural College, and 
 of educational matters generally. He served for six 
 years as regent of the State University. He had 
 great influence in the legislative body, and while in 
 the senate he originated, the measure and secured 
 the passage of a bill for a second penitentiary, located 
 at Anamosa, Jones county, and the whole state owe 
 him a debt of gratitude for his services rendered in 
 the legislature. 
 
 Judge McKean took his seat on the bench in Jan- 
 uary, 1873; was reelected at the end of four years, 
 and his present term will expire in January, 1881. 
 He is one of the best equity lawyers in the state ; is 
 noted for his honesty, and carries all the best traits 
 of his character to the bench, being above bribery 
 or corruption. 
 
 He was a democrat until the civil war burst upon 
 the land, and shortly afterward from a war democrat 
 became an out-and-out republican, to which party 
 he owes his repeated political honors. 
 
 The judge is a Freemason, a member of the com- 
 mandery, and an Odd-Fellow. 
 
 He is a member of the Presbyterian church, an 
 elder in the same, and a man of the purest christian 
 character. He was for some time a trustee of the 
 Lenox Collegiate Institute, a Presbyterian school, 
 located at Hopkinton, Delaware county, Iowa. 
 
 The wife of Judge McKean was Mrs. Nancy A. 
 Carr, of Jones county. They were joined in wed- 
 lock on the i6th of November, 1865, and have six 
 children. 
 
 WILLIAM L. CULBERTSON, 
 
 CARROLL. 
 
 WILLIAM LINN CULBERTSON, son of 
 David Culbertson, farmer, merchant and 
 stockdealer, and Mary G. Linn, is a native of Perry 
 county, Pennsylvania, and was born on the 3d of 
 December, 1844. The Culbertsons, from which 
 branch he descended, are an old Pennsylvania fam- 
 ily. His maternal grandfather, William Linn, was 
 in the second war with the mother country. 
 
 William L. spent his boyhood in Philadelphia, 
 where his father was a merchant for several years, 
 the son giving his time mainly to studies in the 
 public schools. In i860 he came to Iowa with his 
 father, locating at Princeton, Scott county, on the 
 
 Mississippi river, here attending a private school 
 and clerking. In 1862, while civil war was raging 
 in the south, he enlisted as a private in company G, 
 20th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and served three 
 years; was in many engagements, but received no 
 wounds, and was never off duty except while a pris- 
 oner four months in 1864, at Tyler, Texas. 
 
 In the winter of 1866-67 Mr. Culbertson attended 
 Dun's Commercial College in Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- 
 vania; returned to Princeton, where he had enlisted, 
 and remained there until the summer of 1868, when 
 he settled in Carroll county, where he has since re- 
 sided. Opening a farm near Glidden, in the eastern 
 
654 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 part of the county, he cultivated it two seasons ; was 
 appointed county auditor in 1870; elected to the 
 same office two years later, and held it, in all, four 
 years. At the expiration of this time he became 
 county treasurer, for one term. During these six years 
 that he was in county offices, his residence was at the 
 county seat, which he has since made his home. 
 
 In April, 1876, Mr. Culbertson purchased the 
 Bank of Carroll, of Orlando H. Manning, and is its 
 sole proprietor. It is a substantial institution. 
 Since residing at the county seat Mr. Culbertson 
 has dealt largely in real estate ; has done more or 
 less insurance business, and has succeeded in his 
 operations generally. He is a member of the board 
 of supervisors ; an eminently practical business man, 
 
 and one of the most trustworthy and reliable citizens 
 of the county. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Culbertson is a republican, unwa- 
 vering, active and influential. In Odd-Fellowship, 
 he is a past chief patriarch, and a member of the 
 grand lodge. 
 
 On the sth of May, 1873, Miss Ruth O. Johnson, 
 of Carroll, became the wife of Mr. Culbertson, and 
 they have one child, a daughter, 
 
 Mr. Culbertson has a light complexion, gray hazel 
 eyes and a very pleasant expression of the counte- 
 nance. He is five feet eight and a half inches in 
 height, and weighs one hundred and thirty pounds. 
 His manners are easy, courteous and winning, and 
 he is just the person to make and retain friends. 
 
 ASA C. AND AMBROSE A. CALL, 
 
 ALGONA. 
 
 THE pioneer settlers in Kossuth county, Iowa, 
 and the plotters of Algona, the county seat, 
 were Asa C. and Ambrose A. Call, brothers by the 
 ties of nature and in enterprise. Their parents were 
 Asa Call and Mary Metcalf. Their grandfather, Asa 
 Call, was in the first war with England, and their 
 father was in the second. Asa C. was born in Geau- 
 ga county, Ohio, on the 26th of September, 1825; 
 Ambrose A. in Huron county, on the 9th of June, 
 1833. Their father died before the younger son was 
 two years 6ld, and in 1835 their mother moved to 
 Cattaraugus county. New York, and five years later 
 returned to the west, settling at South Bend, Indiana. 
 An elder brother, Joseph Call, was at the head of the 
 family during these years. 
 
 When about eighteen, Asa C. took a district school, 
 and for two or three years alternated between teach- 
 ing and attending school at Oberlin, Ohio. In 1850 
 he went to California and Oregon, acting, part of the 
 time while there, as a commissioner, treating with 
 the northern tribes of Indians. While in the far 
 west he built-and ran a ferry on Snake river, near old 
 Fort Bois, in eastern Oregon. He returned early in 
 1854, married Miss Sarah Heckart, of Elkhart, In- 
 diana; went to Iowa city in June of the same year, 
 invested in government lands near that place, and on 
 the 9th of the following month, with his brother 
 Ambrose, pitched his tent on the present site of Al- 
 gona. Here he took up government claims, the land 
 being unsurveyed, and, with his brother, stuck down 
 
 stakes for life. Their location is on an open prairie, 
 on the east branch of the Des Moines river, and they 
 were then the only white settlers north of Fort Dodge 
 and west of the Cedar until you reach the Missouri 
 river. 
 
 The two brothers laid out the town in the spring 
 of 1856, at which time several families had settled 
 in or near "Call's Grove," the name by which this 
 immediate section was known for some time. A few 
 families settled here in the autumn of 1854. 
 
 At the organization of Kossuth county, in the 
 autumn of 1855, Mr. Call was elected judge. About 
 this time he commenced reading law, and a year or 
 two later was admitted to the bar, but he has prac- 
 ticed very little. He has held several offices by ap- 
 pointment, but is not a very decided politician. He 
 has, however, been a delegate to one or two repub- 
 lican national conventions, and aided in nominating 
 the present President of the United States. 
 
 Judge Call is a member of the blue lodge in the 
 Masonic order. 
 
 His wife died in June, 1876, leaving seven children. 
 
 Since laying out and naming the town of Algona 
 m 1856, the judge has laid out one or two other 
 towns farther west, and has devoted his great ener- 
 gies largely to the development of the agricultural 
 resources of the upper Des Moines valley. He is 
 an enterprise projector and town builder, one of the 
 men who have aided essentially in making Iowa 
 what it is, the empire state of the west. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 655 
 
 Ambrose A. Call left home at fifteen, taught a 
 district school occasionally before coming to Iowa, 
 reached Algona the month after he was of age, im- 
 proved his claims, and in i860 started the Algona 
 " Pioneer Press,'' the first paper in the county. The 
 writer of this sketch was then editing a daily paper 
 in Dubuque, and well recollects the little hebdomadal 
 sheet which used to reach his office when it was 
 nearly a week old. Now Algona has two large 
 weekly papers, and they reach Dubuque by rail in 
 the short space of fifteen hours. He was a journalist 
 for about four years. 
 
 Mr. Call was elected county supervisor the first 
 year of the existence of that officer. He was assist- 
 ant assessor of internal revenue four or five years, 
 resigning in 1868. He has been a mail contractor 
 since i860, the heaviest single contractor in Iowa, and 
 
 that is his chief business at the present time. Like 
 his brother, he has had his ups and downs, his re- 
 verses in land speculations, but both have enough 
 lands and houses, barns and cattle on the prairies to 
 make them independent. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Call has always been a republican. 
 He belongs to one secret order, the Masonic. 
 
 In October, 1859, Miss Nancy E. Henderson, of 
 Oskaloosa, Iowa, became his wife, and she has be«;n 
 the mother of six children, five of them yet living. 
 
 During the early part of the centennial year Mr. 
 Call wrote a series of letters historical of the county, 
 and by invitation, on the Centennial Fourth of July, 
 read an epitome of those letters. His writings in 
 this line will increase in value, and will be quoted as 
 historical authority by the generations to come. He 
 has the annals of Kossuth county by heart. 
 
 WILLIAM WATSON, M. D. 
 
 DUBU.'-^UB. 
 
 WILLIAM WATSON, for nearly a quarter of 
 a century a practicing physician in Dubuque, 
 is a native of Leeds, England, and is the son of 
 Joseph and Ann (Metcalf ) Watson, and was born 
 on the 14th of May, i8z6. When he was a year old 
 his parents emigrated to the United States; spent 
 four years in Middletown, Connecticut, and then set- 
 tled in Onondaga county. New York, where Joseph 
 Watson engaged in the manufacture of woolen goods. 
 In 1844 William came as far west as Ohio, where he 
 taught a district school, and the next spring came 
 to Beloit, Wi'feconsin. Two years later his father fol- 
 lowed, and settled on a farm sixteen miles west of 
 Beloit. After working two years at the carpenter's 
 trade, which he had partly-learned at the east, Will- 
 iam supplemented the privileges of the common 
 school enjoyed in New York State with one year's 
 attendance at a seminary in Beloit, paying his way 
 by working at his trade mornings and evenings, and 
 Saturday afternoons, thus acquiring a good educa- 
 tion and much experience that was of great service 
 to him in after-life. 
 
 He commenced reading medicine in the country 
 in 1849; a year later went to Beloit and read with 
 Dr. Asahel Clark ; attended a course of lectures in 
 Rush Medical College, Chicago, in the winter of 
 1851-2; practiced eighteen months in McGregor, 
 Iowa, — the first physician to locate there ; attended 
 
 a second course of lectures at Rush Medical Col- 
 lege ; graduated in February, 1854, and two months 
 later he made a permanent settlement in Dubuque. 
 Only one physician. Dr. Asa Horr, still remains here 
 who was in practice at that time. In November, 
 1854, Dr. Watson formed a partnership with Dr. R. 
 S. Lewis, and that partnership was not dissolved un- 
 til the demise of Dr. Lewis, on the 9th of September, 
 i86g. Since that date Dr. Watson has been alone 
 in the practice, and is doing now, as he always has 
 done, a thrifty business. Medicine and surgery have 
 been his sole occupation, and no man in Dubuque 
 has ever been more asslduou-s in the duties of his 
 profession. In boyhood he was a great reader and 
 has since been a diligent student, and is now reaping 
 the reward of his assiduity. 
 
 On the 20th of October, 186 1, Dr. Watson entered 
 the army as surgeon of the nth Iowa Infantry, state 
 service; resigned on the 4th of March, 1863, to ac- 
 cept the position of assistant surgeon, United States 
 Volunteers, under an appointment of President Lin- 
 coln, being commissioned by the secretary of war 
 and was assigned to hospital duties at Memphis, 
 Tennessee. In August, 1863, he was placed in charge 
 of the Jackson Hospital ; the next month was pro- 
 moted to sufgeon of volunteers; was ordered to 
 Louisville, Kentucky, in February, 1864, and placed 
 in charge of Crittenden Hospital, and the next month 
 
656 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 was ordered to Rock Island, Illinois, to take charge 
 of the post and prison hospitals located there. He 
 remained at that post until mustered out, on the 24th 
 of October, 1865. On returning to Dubuque he re- 
 ceived a brevet commission of lieutenant-colonel. 
 While in the service he was thoroughly devoted to 
 his duties, and untiring in his efforts to relieve the 
 sick and wounded. He left the army with an un- 
 tarnished and truly bright record. 
 
 In politics, Dr. Watson was a democrat until the 
 republican party was organized ; he changed his 
 views and is still adhering to the latter party. He 
 has never sought office. 
 
 The doctor is an Odd-Fellow, and has been a rep- 
 resentative to the grand lodge two or three times ; 
 but, owing to a press of business, rarely attends the 
 meetings of the local lodge. 
 
 He is a member of the Dubuque County Medical 
 Society and of the State Medical Society, and has 
 
 been president of both. He was president of the 
 State Medical Society in 1868, when it held its first 
 annual meeting at Des Moines. Three times he has 
 been a delegate to the American Medical Associa- 
 tion, and was a delegate to the international medical 
 congress which met at Philadelphia in 1876. No 
 man in the state is in better standing with the med- 
 ical profession. 
 
 Dr. Watson was first married in Portland, Maine, 
 in November, i860, to Miss Lucy Giddings, who 
 died on the 13th of March, 1862, leaving one child, 
 Fred, a student in the Dubuque High School. He 
 was married a second time, on the 14th of Septem- 
 ber, 1868, to Miss Lucy F. Conkey, of Dubuque. 
 
 The parents of Dr. Watson came from Wisconsin 
 to Iowa in 1866, and his mother died in December, 
 1872, aged seventy years. His father is still living, 
 in his eightieth year — a hale old gentleman, with 
 mental faculties impaired only in the slightest degree. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM H. GALLUP, 
 
 NEVADA. 
 
 THE present member of the general assembly 
 from the forty-fifth senatorial district, William 
 Harrison Gallup, has been an Iowa journalist fifteen 
 or sixteen years, and is well known throughout the 
 state. He is a native of Schoharie county. New York; 
 is the son of Nathan and Permelia Baird Gallup, and 
 was born in the town of Summit, on the 17th of May, 
 1840. The Gallups were originally from Scotland, 
 and settled in Connecticut, where the father of Will- 
 iam H. was born. His grandfather was a revolu- 
 tionary pensioner, dying at an advanced age — up- 
 ward of ninety — in Schoharie county. New York. 
 
 Nathan Gallup was a farmer, and to that occupa- 
 tion his son was raised, giving, however, in youth, 
 much more attention to books than to bucolics. He 
 attended the Charlotteville Seminary in his native 
 town, three or four years; at nineteen entered the 
 New York State and National Law School at Pough- 
 keepsie, and was admitted to the bar at Newburgh, 
 in i860. He came to Iowa the next spring, and after 
 practicing a short time at Marshalltown bought the 
 "Times," of that place, and conducted it, except for 
 a few months, about three years ; at the close of 1864 
 removed to Boonesboro, fifty miles farther west; 
 there published the " Standard " one year, and then 
 moved it to the new town of Boone, continuing to 
 
 conduct it until 1869, making it a very influential 
 journal. 
 
 In 1870 Mr. Gallup located at Nevada, the seat of 
 justice of Story county, and has since been the edi- 
 tor and proprietor of the " Nevada Representative," 
 a strong paper devoted to the interests of the county, 
 and politically, of the republican party. 
 
 At short periods, between the publication of dif- 
 ferent newspapers, Mr. Gallup has done a little at 
 the law business, and now is of the firm of Dyer and 
 Gallup, but he does nothing in the legal line while 
 in the editorial chair. He evidently believes in do- 
 ing one thing at a time, and doing it well. 
 
 In the autumn of 1875 Mr. Gallup was elected by 
 his republican friends to the state senate, and in the 
 session of 1876 was chairman of the committee on 
 agricultural college, which is located in Story county, 
 and was a member of four other committees. He 
 was the author of the bill allowing townships and 
 cities to vote a five per cent tax in aid of railroads, 
 and is a valuable member of the legislature. His sena- 
 torial term will expire on the 31st of December, 1879. 
 
 Mr. Gallup is a member of no church organization, 
 and is liberal in his religious views. 
 
 On the 26th of August, 1862, he was joined in wed- 
 lock with Miss Albina Dyer, of his native town, and 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICITONARr. 
 
 657 
 
 she has been the mother of five children, only two of 
 them now living. 
 
 Mr. Gallup is a man of prepossessing manners and 
 physique ; is very approachable and cordial ; is five 
 
 feet nine and a half inches tall, weighs two hundred 
 pounds ; has an abundant, cheerful and cheering flow 
 of animal spirits, and the magnetic power of a cul- 
 tured mind and good conversational gifts. 
 
 JOSIAH P. WALTON, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 TOSIAH PROCTOR WALTON, scientist, was 
 J born at New Ipswich, Hillsboro county. New 
 Hampshire, on the 26th of February, 1826, and is 
 the eldest son of Amos Walton, who built, owned 
 and operated a saw-mill in a suburb of that town, 
 known as "Tophet Swamp," so called from its sup- 
 posed resemblance to the valley of the same name 
 in Holy Writ. 
 
 The tradition respecting the genealogy of the Wal- 
 ton family is that two brothers of that name emi- 
 grated from England about the year 1660, one of 
 whom settled near Boston, Massachusetts, and the 
 other in New York. Our subject claims descent 
 from the former. The records on file in the family 
 show that Josiah Walton, great-grandfather of our 
 subject, was born in Rindge, Massachusetts, in 1734; 
 that he was first a colonial soldier and was wounded 
 in a battle with the French and Indians near Lake 
 'George, in the old French and Indian war of 1755 ; 
 that he was subsequently in the revolutionary army 
 and fought at the battle of Bunker Hill, in 1775, and 
 was severely wounded. He died at New Ipswich, 
 New Hampshire, in June, 1828, in the ninety-fifth 
 year of his age. 
 
 Amos Walton, son of Josiah Walton and father of 
 our subject, was born in Temple, New Hampshire, 
 in 1800, received an academic education at the New 
 Ipswich Academy, being a classmate of Franklin 
 Pierce. He married Miss Eunice Oaks and had two 
 sons, J. P. and John W. Walton, both still living. 
 Having spent his early life on a rock-bespattered 
 farm in New Hampshire, he concluded to "go west" 
 to secure land for his. boys. He accordingly started 
 from Lowell, Massachusetts, in October, 1837, in- 
 tending to settle in Missouri, and to this end visited 
 the iron mountains and other points in that state, 
 as well as the city of Saint Louis; but happening 
 to be in the latter city at the time of the murder of 
 Lovejoy, at Alton, Illinois, and being averse to slav- 
 ery and fearing trouble from that quarter, he decided 
 to settle farther north, so as to be entirely free from 
 68 
 
 its influence. His next objective point was Quincy, 
 Illinois, but on the way thither he met with a gentle- 
 man who spoke very enthusiastically of the country 
 in the neighborhood of Muscatine, Iowa, or, as it was 
 then called, Bloomington, and offered him tempting 
 inducements to settle in Muscatine county, then in 
 the Territory of Wisconsin, where he accordingly 
 located. The postoffice address at that time was 
 " Iowa Postoffice, Black Hawk Purchase, Wisconsin 
 Territory." His family, which consisted of his wife 
 and two sons, followed in the next June (1838). The 
 country being then new, and full of malaria, most of 
 the emigrants were afflicted with ague, the Walton 
 family suffering much from the disease. The health 
 of the family being thus seriously impaired and their 
 money all spent, their situation became critical. At 
 this juncture the "land sales," as the phrase was, 
 came on, and their first claim of a half-section was 
 entered by a speculator. After this Mr. Walton 
 rented a small improved farm in the neighborhood 
 of Bloomington, now Muscatine, and raised garden 
 produce, which he hauled to the village in a wagon 
 and sold from house to house to the citizens. It is 
 probable that our subject, then a boy of twelve years, 
 drove the first market wagon that was ever employed 
 in Iowa. This occupation he followed for two years, 
 but his father dying quite unexpectedly in 1841, and 
 his mother marrying again in 1842, the family was 
 scattered and Josiah P. thrown entirely on his own 
 resources. He worked during the summer of 1842 
 with a farmer named Burdett for his board and a 
 suit of very common clothes, and during the winter 
 following he worked for a man named William Fish 
 for about the same terms. In the spring of 1843, a 
 separation having taken place between his mother 
 and step-father, the little family was again united, 
 and the mother rented a farm on Muscatine Island, 
 which the boys operated on " halves," as the condi- 
 tions were then expressed. Here the young Waltons 
 and their mother passed the most trying period of 
 their lives. They had no money to hire help or to 
 
658 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 buy provisions, and nothing but their "Yankee tact " 
 and the mercy of a kind Providence carried them 
 through. In the spring they caught a large supply 
 of "buffalo" fish, salted and dried them. Cornraeal 
 and dried fish, with the vegetables they could raise, 
 served them as food. They raised some forty acres 
 of corn and a small crop of oats and wheat, and in 
 the fall sold their proportion of the corn at ten cents 
 per bushel. They bought a pair of horses and some 
 other necessary articles. In the following spring they 
 hired the farm for another year, giving one third of 
 the increase for rent. The season was good, the 
 crop large and the proceeds considerable. The boys 
 had grown stronger, and, with the little stock they 
 had accumulated, in the autumn of 1844 they moved 
 onto a new farm, now consisting of six hundred acres, 
 on the northern border of Louisa county, which they 
 entered, or bought of government, and on which the 
 mother and younger brother, John W. Walton, still 
 reside. 
 
 From the foregoing brief outline of the family his- 
 tory it will be seen that Josiah Proctor Walton had 
 but few of the early advantages of the youth of the 
 present day, and that he is in the strictest sense of 
 the term a self-made man. He enjoyed the privilege 
 of a public school in Lowell, Massachusetts, previous 
 to the age of twelve years, when he moved to Iowa, 
 where the schoolmaster had not yet arrived and 
 where the contest for food and raiment was quite as 
 much as he could maintain, without a thought of 
 school. At the age of twenty-two, in the year 1848, 
 he went to learn the carpenter's trade in Muscatine, 
 at a compensation of thirteen dollars per month, one 
 half to be paid in goods from the store and the other 
 half in a town lot, valued at fifty dollars, — the lot on 
 which he now resides and on which stands one of 
 the most beautiful and tasty villas in the city of 
 Muscatine, ornamented with evergreen shade trees, 
 aquaria, tropical plants and many curiosities of art 
 and nature symbolical of the appropriate name which 
 it bears — "Evergreen Nook." 
 
 Although, as the reader will infer, comparatively 
 unlettered, young Walton was a natural genius ; had 
 a taste for mechanics and for the natural sciences 
 quite extraordinary in a boy of his previous experi- 
 ences and habits. During the year which he served 
 at the carpenter trade he picked up sufficient knowl- 
 edge of the art of house building to start him in the 
 profession of architecture, in which he has since dis- 
 played very considerable taste and ingenuity. Ac- 
 cordingly, in the fall of 1849 he commenced business 
 
 for himself as architect and builder, which he has 
 since continued with very considerable success. The 
 high school buildings of Muscatine and Wilton, the 
 Episcopal Church, the large mansion of Mr. Benja- 
 min Hershe (the finest in the state), the beautiful 
 suburban Gothic residence of Dr. Weed, besides 
 many others in Muscatine, were built by him from 
 plans of his own devising. 
 
 He has taken meteorological observations for the 
 Smithsonian Institute and the war department for 
 the past fifteen years, and has now in his possession 
 the oldest' continuous records of this kind in the 
 State of Iowa, commencing in the year 1839. 
 
 He was one of the trustees of the Library Associ- 
 ation of Muscatine for several years, and one of the 
 organizers of the Scientific Club, and is the principal 
 manager of the lectures and entertainments of that 
 organization. He also belonged to the Odd-Fellows 
 society, and is an active Mason, having filled nearly 
 all the offices in lodges, encampment and command- 
 ery. 
 
 In 1864 he was appointed by Governor Kirkwood 
 to receive the vote of the 37th Iowa Infantry for 
 President and state officers, which was then stationed 
 at Alton, Illinois. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Walton was formerly an old-line 
 whig, but for the past twenty years he has been 
 known as a radical republican. 
 
 He was raised in the communion of the Congre- 
 gational church, but the antipathy of that sect to 
 secret societies caused him to abandon it and to 
 unite with the Episcopal church, to which he now 
 adheres. He has officiated as vestryman, warden 
 and Sunday-school superintendent for many years. 
 He is a consistent, earnest and zealous churchman, 
 and while he acted as superintendent his school was 
 greatly increased in numbers and was among the 
 most prosperous in the city. 
 
 He was married on the 2d of June, 1857, to Miss 
 Mary Elizabeth Barrows, of Sauquoit, Oneida coun- 
 ty. New York, a graduate of the Liberal Institute, 
 Clinton, New York, a lady of culture, refinement and 
 high literary attainments. Their family consists of 
 three daughters, Alice Barrows, Lilly Proctor and 
 May Oakes, all of them possessing liberal mental 
 endowments. The two eldest are graduates of the 
 city high school, and have given considerable atten- 
 tion to the study of entomology, botany and natural 
 history. They have accumulated perhaps the finest 
 collections of entomological specimens in the west, 
 equal to any exhibited at the "Centennial," and are 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 659 
 
 great enthusiasts in this department of science. The 
 cabinet also embraces a very fine and valuable geo- 
 logical department, as well as one of the finest col- 
 lections of specimens of natural history to be found 
 in the west. They have, likewise, a very fine floral 
 collection. The youngest daughter is still a member 
 of the high school, but is not behind her elder sisters 
 in the pursuit of natural science. 
 
 In personal appearance, Mr. Walton recalls the 
 memory of the pioneer. Plain in dress, straightfor- 
 ward in speech, blunt and honest in manner, yet 
 warm-hearted and sympathetic in nature. He is a 
 fair specimen of the better class of men who first 
 settled Iowa and made it what it now is, tlie most 
 progressive state of the northwest. Reared, as he 
 was, on the border, with scarcely any school facili- 
 ties, he has, mainly by reading and personal observa- 
 tion since he attained to manhood, acquired such 
 knowledge of men and things as has given him a 
 prominent place in society. He takes a deep inter- 
 est in everything tending to improve the morals and 
 enlighten the minds of the community. He is fond 
 of lectures, essays and disquisitions on scientific sub- 
 jects, but he is not so much of an enthusiast as to be 
 carried away by any mere theory. He wants to see 
 everything demonstrated before accepting it as true. 
 Such men are of incalculable benefit to the race. 
 
 He also takes a lively interest in politics, schools 
 and nearly all other matters of public concern, 
 though he has never been an office seeker, being too 
 plain-spoken for that. 
 
 While he does not needlessly offend, he too dearly 
 prizes his own independence to forego the privilege 
 of expressing his opinions freely. 
 
 He is abstemious and economical in his personal 
 habits, though in no sense parsimonious. His house 
 is a model of taste and elegance, and he has spared 
 neither time nor expense in the education of his 
 daughters, whose literary and scientific attainments 
 are of a very high order. 
 
 We should not omit to mention that Mr. Walton 
 possesses one of the finest libraries in the state, which 
 he has been accumulating for over twenty-five years. 
 Besides a full collection of standard literature it in- 
 cludes over twenty-five years of the " New York 
 Weekly Tribune,'' substantially bound, twenty years 
 of "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly," ten years 
 of the " Scientific American," besides several other 
 monthly periodicals, copies of the early law books 
 of Iowa and many literary curiosities not usually 
 found in private collections. 
 
 Mr. Walton was one of the twelve men who signed 
 the call for the first republican convention of the 
 State of Iowa. 
 
 JOHN L. DANA, 
 
 NEVADA. 
 
 ONE of the first lawyers to settle in Story county, 
 Iowa, was John Lockwood Dana, a member of 
 the Vermont branch of the family. He is a native 
 of Huron county, Ohio, and was born in New Haven 
 township, on the 25th of March, 1827. His father, 
 Joseph Dana, a soldier in the war of 1812-15, and 
 in the battles of Bridgewater and Lundy's Lane, was 
 a teacher in his younger years, and later in life an 
 agriculturist. His mother was Alcy Lockwood. When 
 John L. was five years old, the family, consisting of 
 nine children, moved to Lower Sandusky, now Fre- 
 mont. Both parents died in the spring of 1850, the 
 mother aged seventy, the father eighty-two years. 
 
 The subject of this sketch had a strong avidity for 
 knowledge, and spent nearly three years at Oberlin, 
 paying his board, tuition, and for his text-books, with 
 money earned by cutting wood, at thirty-seven and 
 a half cents a cord. Owing to the demise of his 
 
 parents, he left the college in the middle of the soph- 
 omore year, and afterward read law for one year at 
 Oberlin, and attended the Cincinnati Law College. 
 In 1852 Mr. Dana and his brother took a company 
 of gold seekers to California, by the overland route. 
 They went with about one hundred yoke of oxen 
 and twenty wagons, there being eighty-eight men, 
 who paid one hundred and fifty dollars each. Five 
 died on the way. They went by boat to Kaneville, 
 now Council Bluffs ; thence with teams, and eighty- 
 five, including the two Danas, reached Sacramento 
 in safety. Mr. Dana returned the same year by the 
 Isthmus. The following year he went to California 
 a second time, riding one horse from Council Bluffs 
 to Salt Lake entirely alone, being twenty-eight days 
 on the way, and often obliged to hide from the Indi- 
 ans at night. He sometimes rode through herds of 
 bison, with five or ten thousand -n a herd ! When he 
 
66o 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 went through the first time there were no white in- 
 habitants between Council Bluffs and Hangtown, now 
 Placerville, California. 
 
 Mr. Dana was admitted to the bar at Sigourney, 
 Keokuk county, Iowa, in October 1854, and law has 
 since been his occupation ; in connection with it also 
 attending to war claims. At the end of one year he 
 removed to Nevada, then recently made the seat of 
 justice of Story county, and containing at that time 
 perhaps twenty families. He has also operated in 
 the land business, buying and selling for other par- 
 ties, and being prospered in every branch. 
 
 As a lawyer, Mr. Dana has been a marked success. 
 He is well read, and one of the best counselors in 
 this part of the state. He is true to his client, up- 
 right and reliable ; an honor to the legal profession. 
 
 Mr. Dana was a member of the general assembly 
 in the session of 1858, and in 1862 was elected to 
 the senate by a large majority, but owing to the fact 
 that the governor had failed to issue a proclamation 
 declaring a vacancy, he did not get his seat. While 
 in the legislature, and for two or three years after- 
 ward, no man in Story county worked as hard as he 
 to secure the Agricultural College. The success of 
 the enterprise is probably due to his untiring efforts. 
 
 In November, 1864, Mr. Dana was elected captain 
 of a military company, organized at Nevada under 
 the state laws, but it was never called into service. 
 He has been mayor of the city one term ; a member 
 of the school board several terms, and its president 
 most of the time while in the office ; and in other po- 
 sitions has made himself eminently serviceable to 
 the community. At one time he acted as an attor- 
 ney for the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Com- 
 pany, in relation to lands granted by Story and other 
 counties in this vicinity to that company. 
 
 Mr. Dana assisted in organizing the republican 
 party, soon after settling in Iowa, and has affiliated 
 with it since that time, being active in all political 
 matters. 
 
 On the 1 6th of February, 1854, he was united in 
 marriage with Miss Harriet A. Davis, daughter of the 
 Rev. John Davis, of Risdon, now Fostoria, Ohio, and 
 forty years or more a preacher of the United Breth- 
 ren persuasion. They have three children : Frank, 
 aged nineteen, who graduated at seventeen from the 
 Iowa Law School, and is practicing with his father ; 
 Florence, aged sixteen, a graduate of the Nevada 
 graded school, and Mabel, aged thirteen, now being 
 educated in the same school. 
 
 WILLIAM F. KING, D. D. 
 
 MOUNT VERNON. 
 
 WILLIAM F. KING, president of Cornell 
 College, was born near Zanesville, Ohio, on 
 the 20th of December, 1830. His father; James J. 
 King, was a farmer in good circumstances, and his 
 mother, Mariam Coffman King, was a woman of re- 
 markable force of character. Both parents are still 
 living in Zanesville, having rounded up their four- 
 score years. William was the eldest of three sons, 
 all of whom are graduates from the Ohio Wesleyan 
 University, Delaware. His brother Isaac is pastor 
 of a prominent church in Columbus, Ohio, and his 
 brother John is a successful lawyer in Zanesville. 
 As far as we can ascertain, the parental traits, indus- 
 try, integrity, intelligence and high religious charac- 
 ter, stamp themselves on all the children. Parents 
 and children are all members of the Methodist Epis- 
 copal church. Both parents sprung from old families 
 of Virginia. The mother of our subject was brought 
 by her parents to Ohio about the year 1800, and has 
 lived most of the time on the old family homestead. 
 
 His father was born near Mount Vernon, on the Po- 
 tomac, the day that George Washington was buried, 
 and on reaching manhood moved to Ohio, and was 
 united in marriage with Miss Coffman in 1830. 
 
 The subject of this brief memoir early manifested 
 a taste for reading and study, and a loving obedi- 
 ence to his parents. Having spent several terms in 
 the high school in Zanesville, he, in the spring of 
 185 1, entered the Wesleyan University, then under 
 the presidency of that accomplished educator, Bishop 
 Edward Thomson, LL.D., and at the close of his 
 freshman year he took charge for one year of the 
 Unionville Academy, in Tennessee, whither he went 
 for personal observation of the institution of slavery, 
 and to obtain the means for carrying him through 
 college. The next autumn he returned to the uni- 
 versity, and graduated with honor, in the classical 
 course, in 1857. 
 
 In college, as everywhere else, Mr. King spent his 
 time to the best advantage, and having a well-bal- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 66 1 
 
 anced mind, he did equal justice to the different de- 
 partments of the course of study. 
 
 Immediately after receiving his diploma he was 
 invited to become a member of the faculty of his 
 Alma Mater, where he held the position of tutor in 
 mathematics for five years. On resigning his place 
 in the faculty, his associates unanimously passed a 
 series of resolutions in which they speak of his great 
 fidelity and diligence, and his distinguished success 
 as a teacher ; his ubanity and christian courtesy ; 
 the dignity and generous sociality which character- 
 ized his intercourse with the faculty and students, 
 and the sincere regret of the faculty in being called 
 upon to sever the connection with Mr. King. The 
 resolutions end with expressing " a sincere desire 
 that he may find elsewhere a field of usefulness 
 worthy of his talents, and suited to the magnitude of 
 his aspirations." 
 
 When, in 1862, he resigned his chair in the uni- 
 versity, he was intending to go abroad to travel and 
 study for two or three years, but the civil war broke 
 up his plans. In the autumn of the year just men- 
 tioned he joined the Ohio annual conference, and 
 was soon afterward transferred to the upper Iowa 
 conference, and appointed professor of ancient lan- 
 guages in Cornell College. 
 
 In June, 1863, at the close of his first year, oc- 
 curred the death of President Samuel M. Fellows, 
 A.M., at which time the board of trustees put Pro- 
 fessor King in charge of the college, and from that 
 date he has been responsible for its administration. 
 He has been at its head for fifteen years, making him, 
 if we mistake not, the oldest college president in the 
 Methodist church, a high compliment alike to Presi- 
 dent King and the college. 
 
 In 1870 he received the honorary degree of D.D. 
 from the Illinois Wesleyan University at Blooming- 
 ton. 
 
 In 1873 President King sent in his resignation to 
 the board of trustees on account of ill health, but 
 the board, unwilling to lose his services, urgently, 
 requested him to accept leave of absence for one 
 year, and a continuance of his salary while abroad. 
 The latter generous offer he declined, but made his 
 trip. He sailed on the 28th of June, 1873; traveled 
 extensively in Ireland, Scotland, England, Belgium, 
 Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and 
 Greece ; studied somewhat carefully the leading gal- 
 leries, museums and universities ; wrote letters for 
 ■some of the leading journals in this country — letters 
 which attracted considerable attention; and with his 
 
 health restored he returned and resumed his college 
 work in the fall of 1874. 
 
 For the last two years much of his time has been 
 spent in superintending the erection of the large 
 new stone chapel ; this care being in addition to his 
 usual work. While he has received tempting offers 
 from other fields, he has given his time faithfully 
 and exclusively to the service of the college and the 
 church; Cornell having made grand progress under 
 his administration. 
 
 In 1876 President King was a delegate to the last 
 general conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
 church, the highest legislative body of that denomi- 
 nation. He has been a. member of the church since 
 ten years of age. 
 
 In politics, he is a republican, but does not think 
 it consistent with his relations to the college to ac- 
 cept office. 
 
 In August, 1865, he was married to Miss Maggie 
 McKell, eldest daughter of William McKell, Esq., 
 of Chillicothe, Ohio, and they have one child. Mrs. 
 King is a woman of high culture, graceful manners 
 and generous heart. Mrs. King is an own cousin of 
 the wife of President Hayes, and possesses many of 
 that exalted woman's admirable qualities. 
 
 President King is a vigorous and graceful writer, 
 and a forcible and attractive speaker ; and one who 
 knows him well assures the writer of this sketch that 
 " his urbanity, his liberal culture, his executive abil- 
 ity and his energy, coupled with great prudence and 
 deep insight into character, have conspired to make 
 his administration ofCornell College one of the most 
 successful in the west." 
 
 To the sketch of President King we add a brief 
 history of Cornell College, which is one of the oldest 
 and best institutions of learning in the state. Its 
 founding and early growth are largely due to Rev. 
 George B. Bowman, through whose influence the 
 Iowa Conference Seminary was located at Mount 
 Vernon, in 1851. It was opened in November, 1853 ; 
 Rev. S. M. Fellows, A.M., principal. 
 
 In 1857 a college organization was consummated, and the 
 name of Cornell College was given it in honor of W. W. 
 Cornell, Esq., its generous benefactor, of New York city. 
 Its first president was Rev. R. W. Keeler, D.D., who was 
 succeeded in i860 by Rev. S. M. Fellows, A.M. Since his 
 death, in 1S63, it has been under the presidency of Dr. King. 
 The ladies' hall was completed in 1853, and was used for 
 general schoo Jpurposes until the main building was erected, 
 in 1S57. Five years later the gentlemen's hall was built, all 
 being plain brick buildings, well suited for college uses. 
 
 Under the pressing demand for more room, a stately 
 stone building, for chapel, library and museum purposes, has 
 recently been erected, as already intimated. It is one of 
 the most solid, useful and attractive educational buildings 
 
662 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 in the west. This fine array of buildings is well fitted up 
 with appliances for instruction. The new and tasteful 
 chapel will seat twelve hundred persons. Six literary so- 
 cieties have neat halls for their weekly use. The library is 
 large; the museum has a valuable collection, and the new- 
 laboratory is well stocked with material for its uses. 
 
 The location of the college, on the Chicago and North- 
 western railway, is unsurpassed in beauty in the state, the 
 sight being high and healthy, and taking in a grand sweep 
 of country. It was a neat compliment to the school itself, 
 made by Bishop Haven, when he said that "the college is 
 worthy of its seat." An annual attendance of aboui five 
 hundred students, male and female, indicates its popularity. 
 Twenty classes have been graduated, with an aggregate of 
 one hundred and seventy-three alumni, of whom fifty-nine 
 are women and one hundred and fourteen men. The alumni 
 have already given fourteen thousand dollars toward the 
 endowment of their chair. The late Bishop Hamline and 
 the Hon. Dennis N. Cooley have each endowed a chair, 
 and other friends are progressing in the same direction. 
 
 The assets at this date (March, 1878,) are, endowment, sev- 
 enty thousand dollars; buildings and ground, ninety thou- 
 sand dollars; library, museum and apparatus, ten thousand 
 dollars; total, one hundred and seventy thousand dollars. 
 
 The college has a scientific and an engineering, as well 
 as classical, course. The last four years the general govern- 
 ment has furnished the college a West Point army officer, 
 to serve as professor of military science; and has also fur- 
 nished arms and equipments. Students are organized for 
 drill, instruction and exercise, and they have better health, 
 and a greatly improved physical bearing. Much attention 
 is also paid to the physical training of the ladies. The in- 
 stitution has a remaitably pure record ; its affairs are man- 
 aged with striking success; there is perfect harmony be- 
 tween the faculty and trustees, and what is truly remarkable, 
 " no rumor even of unfaithfulness or folly in the manage- 
 ment of its funds stains the pages of its history." 
 
 The high moral and literary tone of this institution, and 
 its successful management, are alike flattering to its presi- 
 dent and all his associates. • 
 
 HON. EPENETUS H. SEARS, 
 
 SIDNET. 
 
 EPENETUS HOW SEARS, one of the early 
 district judges in southwestern Iowa, and a 
 prominent man in this part of the state for a quarter 
 of a century, was born in the town of Ballston, Sara- 
 toga county, New York, on the 3d of May, 1816, his 
 parents being Alexander and Mary (How) Sears. 
 He descends from the New England Searses, who 
 early settled in northeastern New York. Both of 
 his grandfathers were in the revolutionary war, and 
 his paternal grandsire was wounded in one of the 
 battles. His maternal grandsire died in Saratoga 
 county when past ninety years of age. 
 
 Alexander Sears was in the northern array in 
 1812-14, when it was operating at Plattsburgh and 
 in that vicinity. He died when our subject was 
 only twelve years old. His wife lived until in her 
 eighty-ninth year. 
 
 Epenetus received an academic education at Gal- 
 loway, in his native county, and at Amsterdam, 
 Montgomery county, teaching occasionally to meet 
 pecuniary obligations, he being dependent entirely 
 on his own resources. About this period his health 
 failed, and he spent nearly a year in New Orleans 
 in order to improve it. The next year he was a 
 clerk for the builders of the Croton water-works. 
 
 Going to Chautauqua county, in the western part 
 of the state, in 1844, he located at Sinclairville, and 
 for two or three years alternated between reading 
 law and teaching school, being admitted to practice 
 in the court of common pleas at Mayville, the county 
 seat, in 1845. A little later he was reexamined and 
 
 admitted to practice in the supreme court and court 
 of appeals. 
 
 Mr. Sears commenced practice at Sinclairville, 
 and with the exception of a few months spent at 
 Franklinville, in Cattaraugus county, he remained 
 there until 1853, when he removed to Sidney, Iowa. 
 At that time the village did not contain more than 
 two hundred inhabitants. Here he continued in the 
 practice of his profession until January, 1855, when, 
 by commission of Governor Grimes, he went on the 
 bench of the old fifth judicial district to fill a va- 
 cancy caused by the resignation of Judge A. A. 
 Bradford, who has since been a congressman from 
 Colorado. Governor Grimes was a whig and Mr. 
 Sears was then a democrat, the governor giving as 
 his reason for making the appointment a desire to 
 secure the fittest man in the district. At that time 
 the district embraced twelve counties in the south- 
 western part of the state. It was long before any 
 railroads made their appearance, and when the pub- 
 lic roads were very poor, and it was often a tedious, 
 and sometimes, when streams were swollen, a peril- 
 ous task to get to and from a county seat. At the 
 May election held in 1855, Judge Sears was elected 
 to the same office by the people ; was reelected at 
 the end of four years, and served in all nearly nine 
 years, making a popular and eminently trustworthy 
 jurist. 
 
 While he was on the bench Governor Kirkwood 
 appointed him one of his aides, with title of lieuten- 
 ant-colonel, and he had charge of the southwestern 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 663 
 
 military division of the state, holding that position 
 until the governor went out of office. 
 
 Early in 1865 he received the appointment from 
 President Lincoln of direct tax commissioner for 
 the State of North Carolina, and performed the du- 
 ties of that office from May of that year until De- 
 cember, 1866. This was one of the latest appoint- 
 ments made before Mr. Lincoln was assassinated. 
 While in North Carolina Judge Sears had an attack 
 of hemorrhage of the lungs, and has not been very 
 healthy since that time. He does a little law prac- 
 tice, such as his strength will permit, but, having a 
 competency, so far as regards work, he is " taking 
 the world easy." 
 
 Judge Sears was a democrat until 1857, though he 
 was strongly opposed to the repeal of the Missouri 
 compromise, and voted for Mr. Buchanan in 1856 
 under protest. For the last twenty years he has 
 acted heartily with the republican party. In 1868 
 he was a delegate to the national convention which 
 nominated General Grant. 
 
 He is a mem.ber of the Presbyterian church, a 
 ruling elder of the same, and for the last seven years 
 has been the superintendent of the Sunday school. 
 He represented the presbytery in the general assem- 
 bly at Philadelphia in 1870, and at Detroit in 1872, 
 and is a wise counselor in an ecclesiastical body. 
 
 His wife was Miss Julia A. Allen, of Sinclairville, 
 
 New York, chosen on the 5th of October, 1848. 
 
 They have one child, an adopted daughter, Adelaide, 
 
 the wife of Jeremiah Mosser, artist, of Sidney. 
 
 In the " History of Fremont County," written by 
 
 L. Lingenfelter, Esq., an attorney of Sidney, he thus 
 
 speaks of Judge Sears when on the bench : 
 
 When upon the bench he presided with dignity, and 
 commanded the respect of every member of the bar, every 
 officer of the court, every witness and juror who attended 
 its sessions, as well as every spectator. He was ever in his 
 place to execute justice upon the guilty, or to protect the 
 rights and the liberties of the poor man when innocently 
 charged with an offense. I recollect of a very exciting time 
 in his court in this county in 1859. In 1857 the new con- 
 stitution of Iowa provided that a negro might testify the 
 same as another person in all courts of judicature, federal 
 or state. Under its provisions, and the statute made there- 
 under, it happened at the September term of the district 
 court for 1859 there were three free blacks, to wit: Green 
 Garner, Henry Garner and Thomas Reed, subpoenaed, and 
 were in attendance to testify in a certain case against some 
 parties who were wealthy, respectable and influential. 
 When the case came on for trial the court-house was 
 crowded with men full of excitement, who were intent 
 upon an interruption should these witnesses be put upon 
 the stand. Threats were audibly made against the law- 
 yers, the parties interested, the witnesses, the officers of the 
 court, and even against the court itself, should they attempt 
 to testify. But Judge Sears quailed not; he was firm, fear- 
 less and unmoved. He called upon the sheriff to bid the 
 spectators be seated and be quiet, stating they should have 
 a good opportunity to hear all the evidence; "that what was 
 now- transpiring was something new, to be sure, but it was 
 now the law, and he hoped no man who loved the enforce- 
 ment of the law would see it violated. This had a good 
 effect. The witnesses were sworn, testified, subjected to a 
 cross examination, and then retired without molestation, 
 and no one else injured or insulted. 
 
 REV. JESSE W. DENISON, 
 
 DENISON. 
 
 TESSE WOOD DENISON, the founder of the 
 J town of that name, the seat of justice of Craw- 
 ford county, Iowa, was born in the township of Berne, 
 Albany county, New York, on the 9th of April, 1818. 
 His parents were Thomas and Polly Crary Denison. 
 The Denisons are of English descent; the Crarys 
 are an old Connecticut family, of whose history far- 
 ther back we have no knowledge. 
 
 The subject of this sketch passed his early life on 
 his father's farm ; at eighteen he commenced his 
 academic studies at Schoharie Court House; entered 
 the junior class of Union College, Schenectady, in 
 1842, and graduated in 1844. He studied theology 
 in New York city and Covington, Kentucky ; grad- 
 uated in 1846, and was pastor, successively, of the 
 Baptist churches in Upper Alton, Rock Island and 
 Brimfield, all in Illinois. 
 
 In 1856 Mr. Denison located in Crawford county, 
 becoming at the same time agent of the Providence 
 Western Land Company, which he organized, and 
 which embraced about thirty stockholders. He en- 
 tered about twenty-one thousand acres of wild land 
 in Crawford county, three thousand in Harrison, and 
 one thousand each in Shelby and Pottawattamie 
 counties. 
 
 For twenty years real estate was his main business, 
 yet he found time for a great deal of other work — 
 looking after public schools, establishing Sunday 
 schools and churches, in which he always evinced 
 the greatest interest. He organized the Baptist 
 church of Denison during the first year of his resi- 
 dence in the county, and was its pastor until 1863. 
 
 After leaving the pastorate Mr. Denison engaged 
 in the grain and lumber trade, and bought and 
 
664 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 shipped poultry; at the same time he was also busily 
 occupied in his land operations. Always ready to 
 encourage manufactures, and thus aid in building up 
 the town, he became interested in the manufacture 
 of concrete brick, and only two or three years ago 
 started a soap factory, which he is still managing 
 and carrying on with success. 
 
 In the autumn of 1859 Mr. Denison was elected 
 to the lower house of the general assembly, and 
 served in the regular session of i860 and the extra 
 session of 1861. He has held various local offices, 
 discharging his duties with the utmost faithfulness. 
 In public spirit and enterprise he is a leader. 
 
 Mr. Denison has had two wives, the first being 
 Miss Mary W. Briggs, daughter of Professor A. 
 
 Briggs, formerly of Waterville College, Maine. She 
 died on the 27th of December, 1855, leaving two 
 daughters, both now married. Mary L. is the wife 
 of Thomas Hooker, of Dallas county, Iowa, and 
 Julia P. is the wife of Rev. A. M. Duboc, of Livonia 
 Station, Livingston county. New York. Mr. Deni- 
 son's present wife was Miss Eliza B. Lewis, of Provi- 
 dence, Rhode Island, a cousin of his first wife; mar- 
 ried on the 3d of August, 1859, She has had three 
 children, two of them, Willie S., aged sixteen, and 
 Maria Louisa, aged eleven, still living. 
 
 As one of the town builders of Iowa, Mr. Deni- 
 son has done a noble work, and his name will be 
 remembered gratefully and long 'after he has closed 
 his labors and gone to his rest. 
 
 HENRY OSBORNE, M.D., 
 
 COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 ONE of the oldest medical practitioners in west- 
 ern Iowa, and one of the most eminent sur- 
 geons, is Henry Osborne, who has been a resident 
 of the state since 1852. He is a native of Morgan 
 county, Ohio, and was born near McConnellsville, on 
 the 29th of January, 1830, his parents being Thomas 
 A. and Lorena Beckwith Osborne. His maternal 
 grandfather belonged to the engineer department in 
 the revolutionary war. 
 
 Henry was on a farm in his native county until 
 seventeen years of age ; commenced to teach a win- 
 ter school at eighteen, and a year or two later began 
 the study of medicine. In 1852 he came to Wapello 
 county, Iowa, took up wild lands, improved them for 
 two or three years, and in 1855 resumed his medical 
 studies, reading with Dr. E. C. Atkinson, of Dover, 
 Lee county. He attended lectures at Keokuk ; grad- 
 uated in February, 1857 ; practiced with his precep- 
 tor at Dover and at Pilot Grove, in the same county, 
 five years, and in the autumn of 1862 went into the 
 service as contract surgeon, first at Keokuk and then 
 at Saint Louis; served in that capacity until January, 
 1863, when he was commissioned surgeon of the 3d 
 Missouri Infantry Volunteers ; was with that regi- 
 ment until the close of the siege of Vicksburg, and 
 during that siege had charge of Colonel Woods' 
 brigade hospital. At its close, by especial order of 
 the department of Adjutant-General L. Thomas, Dr. 
 Osborne was ordered to report to Colonel I. F. Shep- 
 ard, acting brigadier-general in charge of the organ- 
 
 izing of colored regiments at Milliken's Bend, and 
 other points in western Louisiana, the doctor to act 
 as ranking surgeon of that command. He was in 
 and around Vicksburg, in the capacity here men- 
 tioned, nearly two years. 
 
 In the spring of 1865 he went to New Orleans 
 with the command of General John P. Hawkins, 
 and in a very short time joined General Fred. Steele, 
 who commanded a column which operated against 
 Mobile, marching from Pensacola Bay across the 
 country to Fort Blakeley, on the east of Mobile Bay. 
 There Dr. Osborne was chief of one of the oper- 
 ating corps during that siege. At its close he joined 
 General Hawkins' troops, and went up to Cahaba, 
 Selma and Montgomery, remaining there about two 
 months ; then returned to New Orleans and, at the 
 end of one month, joined the command of General 
 A. J. Smith, at Alexandria, Louisiana, the doctor be- 
 ing at this time in company with General A.Watson 
 Webber, as his chief medical officer. He remained 
 in the vicinity of Alexandria until June, 1866, when 
 he was ordered to Baton Rouge to be mustered out 
 witli other officers. Few surgeons left the army with 
 a better record, the doctor being very vigilant as 
 well as skillful in the discharge of his duties. 
 
 After spending a few months in visiting friends in 
 Ohio and eastern Iowa, Dr. Osborne located at Coun- 
 cil Bluffs, where he is still practicing. His long ex- 
 perience and his high reputation as a surgeon call 
 him over a wide range of territory, and make his 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 665 
 
 practice all that one man could desire. He is an 
 eminent success in his profession. 
 
 Dr. Osborne is a republican, but will accept no 
 office. He is a Master Mason. 
 
 His wife was Miss Rhoda M. Arnold, of Dover, 
 Iowa. They were married on the 19th of Septem- 
 ber, r86o, and have had three children, losing their 
 
 first-born. Mrs. Osborne has good patriotic and 
 fighting blood in her veins. Her great-grandfather 
 on both sides fought in the first war with the mother 
 country; both grandfathers in the second, and four 
 brothers in the late civil war, one of those brothers 
 losing his life after battling more than three years to 
 save the Union. 
 
 HON. STEPHEN L. DOWS, 
 
 CEDAR RAPIDS. 
 
 ^'^HE Dows family, from which Stephen Leland 
 Dows descended, originally spelled the name 
 Dowse. They were among the early settlers in Mas- 
 sachusetts, coming from England only a few years 
 after the Plymouth colony arrived. They located near 
 Boston. The great-grandfather of Stephen L. resid- 
 ed in Charleston at the outbreak of the revolution, 
 and at the time of the battle of Bunker Hill his prop- 
 erty was destroyed. He was one of the brave men 
 who aided in gaining our independence. Thomas 
 Dows, the eccentric and celebrated bibliopolist, of 
 Cambridgeport, was a great-uncle of Stephen. He 
 was a self-made man, largely self-educated, and col- 
 lected one of the largest private libraries in the United 
 States, giving it, at his demise, to the Massachu- 
 setts Historical Society. According to the condi- 
 tions of the gift, this library is kept in a fire-proof 
 building, and no book is allowed to go out of the 
 building. He left property set aside especially for 
 the endowment of the Dows course of lectures, which 
 is given annually at Cambridge, the best talent in the 
 country being employed for that course. In the town 
 of Sherborn he caused a town hall to be erected 
 at his expense, on which he placed an astronomical 
 clock. 
 
 The paternal grandmother of Stephen L. was a 
 Leland, a family equally as distinguished as the Dows 
 family. The pedigree of the family is traced back 
 distinctly to John Leland, born in London, England, 
 in 1512, an accomplished scholar flourishing during 
 the reign of Henry VIII. Among his descendants 
 in the old world were Rev. Drs. John and Thomas 
 Leland, eminent authors of the eighteenth century. 
 Henry Leland, the progenitor of all who bear the 
 name except by adoption, in this country, is supposed 
 to have emigrated to the United States about 1652, 
 and settled in what afterward became the town of 
 Sherborn, Massachusetts. His children, who lived 
 69 
 
 to grow up, were Experience, Hope Still, Ebenezer, 
 and Eleazer, from whom has sprung a numerous fam- 
 ily, many members of which are quite distinguished, 
 as American biographical history shows. All left 
 issue but Eleazer. Among the prominent men in this 
 family was " Elder " John Leland, many years a res- 
 ident of Cheshire, Massachusetts. He lived a short 
 time in Virginia, and in 1789, in a Baptist general 
 conference, he boldly denounced slavery as a " vio- 
 lent deprivation of the rights of nature." The prom- 
 inent professional men and eminent scholars of this 
 name are numbered by the hundred. There are elev- 
 en generations of the Leland family in this country. 
 
 Stephen Leland Dows was born in New York city, 
 on the 9th of October, 1832, his parents being Adam 
 Dows, a merchant in early life, and Maria Lundy, a 
 daughter of Captain Lundy, of New York city. His 
 grandfather, James Dows, was a soldier in the war of 
 1812-15, and was killed while on picket duty. 
 
 At fourteen years of age the subject of this sketch 
 went into a machine shop at Troy, New York, in which 
 city his parents then lived. At the end of two years 
 he left the city of Troy, and started westward with a 
 cash capital of seven dollars and fifty cents, and a pass 
 to Buffalo on a line boat. He landed in Milwaukee 
 with seventy-five cents in his pocket ; after a little de- 
 lay proceeded to Green Bay, where he spent one year 
 in lumbering; then went to Lake Superior, and was 
 one of the first winterers in the then new town of 
 Marquette ; worked there in the first machine shop 
 built, and run the first engine ever started there ; at 
 the end of two years, returned to Green Bay, acting 
 as engineer until the spring of 1853, when he went to 
 Muskegon, Michigan, and superintended a lumbering 
 establishment. 
 
 In 1855 the health of Mr. Dows failed, and he came 
 to Cedar Rapids and became engineer and superin- 
 tendent of the Variety Manufacturing Works. In 
 
666 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 company with other men connected with these works, 
 in i860 he conveyed a quartz mill to Gold Hill, in 
 the Rocky movmtains, and'with two young men re- 
 turned overland the next winter, driving a pair of 
 mules from Denver to Omaha in seventeen days, and 
 having on one occasion a narrow escape from Indians, 
 being saved from robbery, and perhaps murder, by 
 the coolness and self-possession of Mr. Dows. 
 
 After superintending the Variety Works another 
 season, in August, 1862, he went into the army as first 
 lieutenant company I, 20th regiment Iowa Volunteer 
 Infantry; in a short time was promoted to acting 
 brigade quartermaster of the first brigade, second 
 division, army of the frontier; from exposure and 
 overwork became disabled, and was obliged to leave 
 the service in one year. 
 
 Since 1863 Mr. Dows has been engaged in public 
 works and manufactories. He has been an extensive 
 and successful railroad contractor; started, and.is run- 
 ning, in connection with Mr. J. H. Shaver, an exten- 
 sive cracker factory in Cedar Rapids, and built with 
 Dr. J. E. Ely, the Dows and Ely block, better known 
 as the post-office block, at the corner of Washington 
 and Eagle streets, this being one of the finest build- 
 ings in the city. Mr. Dows has other property in the 
 city and outside of it ; is a great encourager of man- 
 ufacturing and other industries tending to advance 
 the interests of Cedar Rapids, and has done a good 
 work toward building up a city second in enterprise 
 to no other in the interior of Iowa. 
 
 In 187 s Mr. Dows was elected state senator to rep- 
 resent Linn county, and in the sessions of the gen- 
 eral assembly held in 1876 and 1878 he was chairman 
 of the committee on public buildings, and on four 
 or five other committees — railroads, manufactories. 
 
 appropriations, and penitentiary. In 1878 he was 
 chairman of the committee appointed to visit the 
 penitentiary at Fort Madison. His practical turn of 
 mind, his solid good sense, his sound judgment and 
 great industry make him a valuable legislator. On 
 matters pertaining to the mechanic arts he is regarded 
 as the Nestor of the upper house. His senatorial 
 term will expire in December, 1879. He has always 
 been a republican. 
 
 Mr. Dows is a member of the Second Presbyterian 
 Church in Cedar Rapids, and an elder of the same. 
 For some years he was superintendent of the Sunday 
 school. He is a man of benevolent disposition, very 
 generous to the poor, dispensing his charities in the 
 most secret manner. 
 
 On the 31st of October, 1855, Miss Henrietta W. 
 Safely, daughter of Thomas Safely, of Waterford, 
 New York, was married to Senator Dows, and they 
 have had six children, all yet living but the first-born, 
 Minnie Maria, who died in budding womanhood, in 
 her fifteenth year, on the 14th of July, 1871. The 
 living children are Elizabeth Holroyd, aged nine- 
 teen ; Elma Ellsworth, aged sixteen ; William Greene, 
 aged thirteen ; Stephen Leland, aged eleven, and Su- 
 san Henrietta, aged six. Mrs. Dows is a noble, chris- 
 tian woman, and is thoroughly devoted to the interests 
 of her family. Like her husband, she is very social, 
 abounding in hospitality, and is a rich entertainer. 
 
 Mr. Dows is a purely self-made man. Cast upon 
 his own resources at an early age, he educated him- 
 self, and developed into a skillful mechanic, and later 
 in life into an eminently successful railroad contrac- 
 tor, and a legislator with but few peers in the com- 
 monwealth. With rare exceptions, whatever he has 
 touched has "turned to gold." 
 
 JACOB L. CHASE, 
 
 OSAGE. 
 
 JACOB LIBBY CHASE belongs to a family of 
 early settlers in Maine, in which state he was born 
 on the 27th of October, 1823, his native town being 
 Limington, York county. His parents were Moses 
 Chase, a farmer, and Mary Libby. His maternal 
 grandsire was a private soldier in the seven years' 
 struggle for freedom from the British yoke, and his 
 father, Moses Chase, was in the second war with the 
 mother country, acting as fife-major. Jacob was 
 reared a farmer, and pursued that calling until 1852, 
 
 when he went to Portland and carried on the provis- 
 ion and grocery trade, until burnt out in 1854. At 
 that date he shifted his location, opening a dry-goods 
 store in Saco ; continued in that line of trade until 
 1856, in which year, on the 31st day of July, he 
 reached Osage, in the State of Iowa, and he has here 
 had a home twenty-one years. Soon after reaching 
 this place he had a contract with his brother, Dr. S. 
 B. Chase, for building a court-house, which was com- 
 pleted in 1859. Subsequently he worked as a joiner 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 667 
 
 and builder, in company with his brother-in-law, W. 
 S. Johnston. In 1862 he was appointed postmaster, 
 and held the office until February, 1871. During 
 this period he also held other offices; was justice of 
 the peace four years, commencing on the ist of Jan- 
 uary, 1864. In June of the year before he was ap- 
 pointed deputy provost-marshal for Mitchell county, 
 serving until the close of the civil war. In the au- 
 tumn of 1865 he received the appointment of assist- 
 ant assessor for Mitchell county, and served until the 
 office was abolished. He was prompt and efficient 
 in the discharge of all his official duties. 
 
 For the last four or five years Mr. Chase has been 
 engaged in selling agricultural implements and ma- 
 chines, and is as well and favorably known in the farm- 
 ing community as any man in Mitchell county. Dur- 
 ing all his years of residence in Iowa he has himself 
 owned a small farm near town, and attended to it, 
 raising from year to year the bread consumed by his 
 own household. 
 
 Mr. Chase is a member of the commandery in the 
 Masonic order, and has held all the offices in the blue 
 lodge, the chapter and commandery. In politics, he 
 is a strong republican, and aided in organizing the 
 party before leaving Maine. His religious views ac- 
 cord with those of the Congregationalists. 
 
 On the 25th of November, 1845, Mr. Chase was 
 united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Johnston, 
 of Standish, Maine. They have five children, four 
 daughters and one son, and have lost two. The two 
 eldest daughters are married, Annie A. being the wife 
 of Joseph F. Rood, of Mitchell county, and Alice 
 M. the wife of Melville White, clerk of Mitchell coun- 
 ty. Most of his children were educated in the graded 
 schools of Osage, and the Cedar Valley Seminary. 
 
 Osage was fortunate in having a good class of cit- 
 izens among its early settlers. They gave tone and 
 character to the place, and their healthful influence 
 has always been strikingly marked. Prominent among 
 this class of men is Jacob L. Chase. 
 
 OSCAR W. GARRISON, 
 
 IOWA FALLS. 
 
 OSCAR WEBB GARRISON, attorney and 
 journalist, is a son of Nathaniel and Abba 
 Miller Garrison, his ancestors being of English and 
 Welsh origin. Both great-grandfathers participated 
 in the struggle for American freedom, and both 
 grandfathers were in the second war with England. 
 His four grandparents lived past ninety years. His 
 father, who was a carpenter by trade, was an early 
 settler in Ithaca, New York. 
 
 Oscar was born in Mecklenburg, Tompkins coun- 
 ty. New York, on the 29th of August, 1839, and spent 
 the first eighteen years of his life in his native town, 
 where he acquired a common-school education, also 
 working at his father's trade part of the time and 
 teaching two or three terms to defray expenses. 
 
 In 1857 he struck out for himself; prospected 
 awhile in the western states, and finally located at 
 Oregon, Ogle county, Illinois, reading law with H. 
 A. Mix, an eminent lawyer in that part of the coun- 
 try, teaching school during the winters at Oregon, 
 Ashton and Rochelle, and working more or less in 
 the county clerk's office during the summers. He 
 was admitted to the bar by the supreme court of 
 Illinois on the 16th of May, 1863 ; formed a partner- 
 ship with Hon. J. K. Edsell, of Dixon, now attorney- 
 
 general of the state; continued in practice with him 
 at Dixon one year, and then practiced alone in Ore- 
 gon until April, 1866, when he removed to his pres- 
 ent home. Here he has been in legal practice since 
 that date, uniting other business with it most of the 
 time. He was deputy revenue collector for Hardin 
 and three other counties for a year or two. In May, 
 1871, purchased the "Sentinel" newspaper and job 
 office, and has since conducted it, with the exception 
 of fourteen or fifteen months. He doubled its circu- 
 lation in two years after assuming its management. 
 It is the oldest newspaper in this part of the Iowa 
 valley. He makes it a paper of great influence. 
 While conducting it he also does more or less legal 
 business, being well read and an able and wise coun- 
 selor. He is an indefatigable worker. 
 
 Mr. Garrison was the first mayor of Iowa Falls, 
 and has done much valuable work in the school 
 board in different capacities. His hands, as well as 
 pen, are busy in advancing the interests of the city 
 and county. He has recently completed a seven 
 thousand dollar brick residence, with pleasant sur- 
 roundings, for his own occupancy. Since the first 
 year that he was in this city he has prospered in his 
 business, thrift having attended his industry. 
 
668 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Mr. Garrison has always been a republican, and 
 occasionally takes the stump during an exciting cam- 
 paign. He is thoroughly posted on political matters 
 and makes a strong canvasser. 
 
 He belongs to the blue lodge in the Masonic fra- 
 ternity. 
 
 Mr. Garrison is a member of the Baptist church, 
 
 and superintendent of the Sunday school, a Work in 
 which he takes great delight and in which he makes 
 himself very useful. 
 
 On the 6th of September, i860, he married Miss 
 Mary A. Mix, daughter of Dr. W. J. Mix and niece 
 of Hon. H. A. Mix, of Oregon, Illinois. They have 
 three sons and lost a daughter in infancy. 
 
 HON. DANIEL P. STUBBS, 
 
 FAIRFIELD. 
 
 DANIEL P. STUBBS is of pure English stock. 
 The progenitor of the family in this country, 
 Thomas Stubbs, a Quaker, settled in Pennsylvania 
 about 1700, immigrating thence to Georgia, the 
 family spreading into Ohio and other states. 
 
 Daniel P. was born in Preble county, Ohio, on the 
 7th of July, 1829, his parents having moved from 
 Georgia to that state in 1805, and settled in the 
 beech woods thirty miles north of Cincinnati. The 
 maiden name of his mother was Delilah Parham, 
 whose remote ancestors were Welsh. Her father 
 was a revolutionary soldier, was in several battles, 
 and at the surrender of General Cornwallis. 
 
 The subject of this brief memoir spent his minor- 
 ity in his native county aiding his father in tilling 
 the soil, and devoting what time he could command 
 to cultivating his mind, supplementing the facilities 
 of the district school, with a few months' attendance 
 at the Union County Academy, at Liberty, Indiana, 
 1852. He taught district schools in 1853 and 1854, 
 and in 1855 was principal of the Academy one term 
 where he had been a student. 
 
 Before commencing to teach he had obtained the 
 funds for purchasing a copy of Blackstone's Com- 
 mentary by working in a saw-mill at fifty cents a 
 day. That copy he still retains. He read law while 
 conducting his different schools. 
 
 From teaching in the academy Mr. Stubbs went 
 to Greencastle, Putnam county, Indiana; connected 
 himself with the law department of Asbury Univer- 
 sity; studied with the greatest avidity, and graduated 
 in February, 1856. On receiving his diploma he re- 
 turned to Liberty with some law in his head but no 
 money in his pocket. 
 
 Simultaneously with the hanging out of his shin- 
 gle he became editor of the " Union County Her- 
 ald," now called the " Liberty Herald," a paper es- 
 tablished in 1852. 
 
 In 1857 Mr. Stubbs abandoned the editorial chair, 
 and the Buckeye State, concluding that the west must 
 have a better field for a young attorney. He visited 
 Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa, and thought 
 he saw the finest opening in Fairfield, which, since 
 October of that year, has been his home, and where 
 he has had about as much legal business as any one 
 man could reasonably desire. He is a very hard 
 worker ; prepares his cases with the greatest care ; 
 is thoroughly posted on the points of law ; is an 
 earnest and impressive pleader, and is first class, 
 both as a jury and court lawyer. In criminal cases 
 especially he has gained a high and wide reputation. 
 While we write he is engaged in a trial for murder 
 in the court of Knox county, Illinois. 
 
 Mr. Stubbs was mayor of Fairfield in 1859 and 
 i860 ; draft commissioner in 1862, and member of 
 the state senate from 1864 to 1868. He was at dif- 
 ferent times on the committees on federal relations, 
 railroads, and charitable institutions ; was on the 
 judiciary committee during the entire time he was a 
 member of that body, and president pro tem. the last 
 session. He was the author of the following joint 
 resolution, which passed the general assembly, and 
 was ratified and approved on the 24th of January, 
 1864: 
 
 Section i. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, 
 except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall 
 have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United 
 States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 
 
 Sec. ■^. Congress shall have power to enforce this article 
 by appropriate legislation. 
 
 Mr. Stubbs likewise penned the following resolu- 
 tion in regard to Jefferson Davis, and the secretary 
 of state of Iowa was empowered and requested to 
 send a certified copy of it to the President of the 
 United States : 
 
 Resolved, By the general assembly of the State of Iowa, 
 that Jefferson Davis is not a proper subject for executive 
 clemency, and that it is the duty of the President of the 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 669 
 
 United States to cause the said Davis to be brought to a 
 fair and impartial, but speedy, trial before the proper tribu- 
 nal, and that if he be found guilty of the crime of treason, 
 that he suffer the penalty provided by law. 
 
 Mr. Stubbs was originally a liberty party man, and 
 voted for John P. Hale for President in 1852. Since 
 1856, until recently, he has acted with the republi- 
 can party, and has been one of its leaders in the 
 state. He helped renominate Mr. Lincoln, at Balti- 
 more, in 1864; was a member of the national exec- 
 utive committee the next four years, and was acting 
 on that committee when General Grant was nomi- 
 nated, at Chicago, in 1868. He is now an independ- 
 ent, and was the so-called " greenback " candidate 
 for governor in 1877, receiving about thirty-four 
 thousand votes. He is one of the ablest advocates 
 of what is known as the "soft money" system in 
 the state. He made thirty-five speeches in advocacy 
 of that doctrine in the canvass of 1877, and they 
 are characterized by great cogency of logic, as well 
 as- strength of language. 
 
 In 187 1 Mr. Stubbs was a candidate on the re- 
 publican ticket for member of the general assembly, 
 and was defeated by a third candidate taking the 
 field and dividing the republican vote. 
 
 About that time there was a great fight between 
 certain property holders in Jefferson county and the 
 Chicago and Southwestern Railroad Company. Mr. 
 Stubbs accepted a retainer fee of one thousand dol- 
 lars from the railroad compd,ny, and the hue and cry 
 was raised that he had '" sold out '' to the company, 
 and enough republicans voted for the independent 
 candidate to defeat the democratic candidate. 
 
 When the railroad was built to Marshfield, Massa- 
 chusetts, one of the first roads of the kind in the 
 United States, Daniel Webster accepted a retainer 
 fee of five hundred dollars ; the fact is stated in his 
 history, and is no discredit to him. The fact that 
 Mr. Stubbs had an opportunity to accept such a fee 
 from a railroad company is simply a compliment to 
 his abilities as an attorney. It has been done by 
 hundreds of the ablest lawyers in the United States, 
 and a few voters in Jefferson county, Iowa, seem to 
 have been the first persons in the country to discover 
 that such an act is disparaging to one's character. 
 
 On the 4th of July, 1877, Mr. Stubbs was the ora- 
 tor of the day at Riverton, Iowa, and we here give 
 the concluding part of his speech, made on that oc- 
 casion, as a specimen of his oratory, and to show in 
 part his political sentiments at this time : 
 
 Our government has passed through an ordeal the most 
 severe and trying to which a republic could possibly be sub- 
 
 jected. It arose from a disregard of the principles laid down 
 in our declaration of rights, from a practice in opposition to 
 the doctrine that all men are created equal, that every man 
 under the jurisdiction of our flag has equal rights before 
 the law. 
 
 With more than four millions of people in servitude, de- 
 prived of all rights, treated as chattels, disposed of as the 
 caprice and avarice of masters might dictate, our boast of 
 the equality of all men becomes an absurdity, standing out 
 in such bold relief that nations scoifed at our exultations. 
 With the theory of universal freedom on the one hand and 
 the practice of slavery on the other, an " irrepressible con- 
 flict" was, sooner or later, but the natural result. It was 
 the oppresses! crying to be free in a land where liberty' had 
 been made the chief stone of the corner. How the institu- 
 tion got a foot-hold upon our soil we need not recount, surely 
 none living at the time of our trouble were culpable with 
 instituting it. When the declaration was penned slavery 
 was upon our soil; when the articles of confederation were 
 formed it was here, and when the constitution was adopted 
 and ratified it was fastened upon us so that it appeared to 
 be one of the institutions of the country ; it seemed to have 
 found a resting place in the laws of the land, and it claimed 
 the protection of the government, though the voice of free- 
 dom and humanity continually cried out against it, and yet 
 there appeared to be no way to free our land from the foul, 
 the disgraceful stain. Philanthropy was not wanting, ab- 
 horrence for the institution was not lacking, but how to 
 rid ourselves of it was the problem that vexed philanthro- 
 pists, statesmen and philosophers. 
 
 When treason fired upon the flag the forces of the nation 
 were marshaled, not for the purpose of interfering with slav- 
 ery, but to defend the flag and to uphold the supremacy of 
 the laws. No one believed or thought that the conflict between 
 slavery and freedom was culminating in a deadly strife, the 
 one to live and the other to go down. When the fathers 
 resolved to oppose the odious stamp act and the duties im- 
 posed on their tea, they had no idea that the struggle would 
 end in the establishment of their independence and of self- 
 government, yet they did achieve a far more glorious tri- 
 umph than their dreams had pictured. They found that 
 their cause had become one of life and death, and defiantly 
 it was proclaimed, " give me liberty or give me death," and 
 they each made this their watchword, their shiboleth. So, 
 with our contest in the late struggle, we accomplished more 
 than we anticipated. A wise and philanthropic President 
 saw in our constitution that a way was opened, the sea of 
 opposition had given way, and the road to deliverance for 
 more than four millions of human beings was made plain ; 
 a way made by the madness of the very people who fain 
 would have riveted tighter and tighter the manacles upon 
 the oppressed. This blow, stricken by the oppressors against 
 the government, was like the impious feast of Belshazzar 
 when he assembled his people, and his thousand lords drank 
 wine from the golden vessels taken from the temple, and 
 bowed themselves down to Baal. At the uprising of slav- 
 ery for better guaranties, when in high carnival it fired 
 upon our country's flag, then, too, the hand-writing ap- 
 peared upon the wall, proclaiming, as it did at the idolatrous 
 revelings of Babylon, " Thy days are numbered." The 
 one overthrew an irreverent king and gave his land to the 
 Medes and Persians, and the other abolished slavery and 
 gave to America universal freedom. 
 
 It was indeed a fearful struggle; it cost the shedding of 
 the most precious blood of the country, that of our young 
 men; it filled the land with mourning widows and father- 
 less children, and mothers who refused to be comforted 
 because their sons were not, and entailed upon us a debt 
 of vast proportions that we are in honor bound to pay, 
 though it weighs heavily upon the industry of the country. 
 The struggle is over and our banner shows with new luster ; 
 it no longer floats in mockery over the land of the slave; it 
 is now truly the emblem of liberty; wherever it floats is 
 the home of the free. Our constitution is nobler and bet- 
 ter; neither slaverv nor involuntary servitude shall exist 
 
670 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 within the United States, or any place subject to their ju- 
 risdiction, is now one of its broad guaranties; our age has 
 made good the principle declared by our fathers, but which 
 they failed to establish as a practical self-evident truth. 
 
 Great revolutions are never accomplished without leav- 
 ing behind them traces of distrust and heart-burnings and 
 animosities, which time alone can banish. To heal up 
 wounds and mollify the lacerations made in this struggle is 
 the great work of the day committed to our hands; it can- 
 not be too speedily accomplished. We should not withhold 
 the olive branch, nor should the oil and wine of consola- 
 tion be spared. All suffered, and none more than those 
 who precipitated the contest upon the country. We should 
 remember that men are not always responsible for their edu- 
 cation ; we receive our impressions from the circumstances 
 in which we move. The whole south, for forty years pre- 
 ceding the war of the rebellion had been taught in the family 
 and from the sacred desk, that slavery was not only per- 
 missible but a divine institution; that the constitution and 
 laws of the country not only allowed it, but actually guar- 
 antied it. Some of the best statesmen the country ever 
 produced practiced it. Nearly all acquiesced in it, and few 
 condemned it. Its existence appeared to be quite as well 
 settled under our national administrative system as any- 
 thing could be. Should we not have more charity than to 
 censure and upbraid men for believing what they have al- 
 ways been taught.' To tantalize the people with former 
 faults when they acknowledge them to be faults is unchari- 
 table, unkind ; no glory can be drawn from such a course ; 
 you never will and never can make a family feud look 
 grand, magnify it as you will ; generally all parties are to 
 blame, if not in the contest itself, they are in the cause that 
 brought it on. It may excite the baser passions to hear re- 
 counted family dissensions and conflicts, but cannot appeal 
 to the better feelings of our nature. The great, the good, 
 the immortal Lincoln, who died a martyr to freedom's 
 cause, who died that men might be free, when the south 
 was just ready to strike the fatal blow that engulfed us in 
 the bloody war, said to them, " we are not enemies, but 
 friends." 
 
 "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every 
 battle-field and patriotic grave to every living heart and 
 hearth-stone all over this broad land, will yet swell the 
 choru^ of the Union when again touched, as surely they 
 will be, by the better angels of our nature." 
 
 Has not the time come when those chords should be 
 
 again touched by the better angels.' His sentiment never 
 changed. In his last state paper, a document that will live 
 while literature and the English language live, and only a 
 few days before the occurrence of that awful tragedy that 
 filled the land with mourning, and w;hen the great work he 
 had been called on to perform was nearly completed, he said, 
 " with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firm- 
 ness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us 
 strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the na- 
 tion's wounds, and do all which may achieve and cherish a 
 just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all na- 
 tions." These words, coming from a heart filled with pa- 
 triotic devotion and an unbounded love for all under the 
 circumstances that prompted them, and in the light of what 
 had transpired, in significance fall but little short of those 
 other living words uttered when the rocks were rent asun- 
 der and the sun veiled his face from the scenes of Calvary: 
 " Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." 
 
 Is it not fitting and proper, standing as we do upon the 
 beginning of our second century, still full of the vigor of 
 national youth, to ask ourselves if the time has not fully 
 come when these sentiments should take hold of the hearts 
 of the people, and the chords of our natures be touched by 
 the hand of benevolence and peace, so that America may 
 stand as the master-piece of national greatness,, and self- 
 government be reestablished with newness of life, and upon 
 a basis, sure and steadfast, that can never be shaken. 
 
 In religious sentiment, Mr. Stubbs is quite liberal. 
 
 On the nth of October, 1855, he was married to 
 Miss Carrie Hollingsworth, a native of Union county, 
 Indiana, and they have four children, two girls and 
 two boys. 
 
 Mr. Stubbs is a man of rather striking build and 
 physique; is six feet and two inches tall, and weighs 
 about two hundred pounds. He has sufficient brain 
 power, being quite as tall intellectually as he is phys- 
 ically. He is an independent actor and thinker, and 
 would do his duty if it brought the heavens down 
 on his head. 
 
 FRANCIS M. EVERETT, M. D., 
 
 COR y DON. 
 
 FRANCIS M. EVERETT, the leading surgeon 
 in Wayne county, Iowa, and a gentleman of 
 thorough professional polish, is a native of Mason 
 county, Virginia, where he was born, on the 14th of 
 October, 1840. His father, Warren D. Everett, a 
 native of New York state, was a physician, who re- 
 moved to Iowa in 1 848, and died at Corydon on the 
 7 th of October, 1864. The maiden name of Francis' 
 mother was Partha J. Morris. This branch of the 
 Everett family are remotely related to Alexander H. 
 and Edward Everett. In the infancy of the subject 
 of this sketch the family moved to Monitor county, 
 Missouri, and five or six years later to Knoxville, 
 Marion county, Iowa. 
 
 Francis received an academic education in the 
 preparatory department of the Iowa Central Univer- 
 sity at Pella ; commenced reading medicine with his 
 father at Peoria, Wayne county, in i860; attended 
 lectures at Keokuk, and graduated in 1863, practic- 
 ing in Corydon since that date. During this period 
 he has attended two more courses of lectures at 
 Keokuk, and during the latter course, held four years 
 ago, he was assistant demonstrator of anatomy. It 
 is almost needless to say that the opportunities thus 
 enjoyed at Keokuk have been of incalculable benefit 
 to him, and given him a high and wide reputation, 
 especially in surgery, which he makes a specialty. 
 His rides extend all over Wayne county, and into 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 671 
 
 the adjoining counties of Decatur, Lucas and Appa- 
 noose, in this state, and into Putnam county, Mis- 
 souri, the line of which state is twelve miles from 
 Corydon. His acquaintance is very extensive, and 
 he is much respected both as a professional man and 
 private citizen. 
 
 Dr. Everett has been on the local school board at 
 different times — the only civil office which he would 
 accept, he giving his time exclusively to the study 
 and practice of medicine and surgery. The secret 
 of his success lies in his untiring industry. He is 
 as diligent in his studies as was Dr. Richard Rush. 
 
 Politically, the doctor is a democrat ; religiously, 
 a Baptist. He is a deacon of the Corydon church, 
 and the purity of his life has never been questioned. 
 
 He venerates the christian as well as the medical 
 profession. 
 
 He is a Master Mason, but devotes very little time 
 to the order. 
 
 On the 2ist of October, 1861, Miss Fidelia C. Bar- 
 low, of Wayne county, Iowa, was joined in wedlock 
 with Dr. Everett, and they have had five children, 
 four of them yet living, and all are. being educated 
 in the Corydon graded school. 
 
 Dr. Everett has quite a taste for agriculture and 
 horticulture, and has a pleasant homestead of one 
 hundred and fifty acres adjoining the town on the 
 south, with a fine orchard. He has a competency, 
 and while comfortable himself likes to make other 
 people so. 
 
 HON. JOHN T. STONEMAN, 
 
 MC GRBGOR. 
 
 JOHN THOMPSON STONEMAN, state senator 
 J from Clayton county, is a native of Chautauqua 
 county. New York, and was born in the town of 
 Ellery, on the 24th of February, 1831, his parents be- 
 ing George and Catherine Cheney Stoneman. The 
 Stoneraans are of English pedigree, and were among 
 the early settlers in Chenango county, New York. 
 The Cheneys were an early Rhode Island family. 
 George Stoneman moved with his family to Busti 
 when the son was in his infancy, and there, on a farm 
 four miles from Jamestown, the subject of this sketch 
 lived until sixteen years of age. He was the fourth 
 child in a family of eight children, four sons and four 
 daughters, of whom General George Stoneman, the 
 gallant cavalry officer in the late civil war, was the 
 eldest child. 
 
 John T. prepared for college at the Jamestown 
 Academy, devoting his summers at this period to la- 
 bor on the farm ; at twenty, went to Covington, Ken- 
 tucky, and taught school one year; he then entered 
 Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, and 
 graduated in 1856. 
 
 While in Kentucky Mr. Stoneman commenced 
 reading law with Judge R. B. Carpenter, now of 
 Charleston, South Carolina ; and during his college 
 course he spent his vacations at the Albany (New 
 York) Law School. He was there admitted to the 
 bar in January, 1855, and on graduating from college 
 came to the west, settling in McGregor in October, 
 1856. Here he has been in the steady practice of 
 
 his profession since that date, part of the time alone 
 and part in connection with other parties. He is 
 now of the firm of Stoneman and Chapin, his part- 
 ner being Asahel Chapin, junior, who has recently 
 married his partner's adopted daughter. As a lawyer, 
 Mr. Stoneman has devoted his talents and energies 
 to his profession with unwearied industry. Dignified 
 before the court, and respectful to the jury, he com- 
 mands respect and wins the confidence of his hear- 
 ers. He is an easy, fluent speaker, a man of strong 
 sympathy and deep convictions, and disdains to stoop 
 to any of the shallow artifices of the profession. 
 Powerful and courteous in argument, resolute in the 
 defense of what he believes is right, he has won among 
 his associates a high and honorable place, and has 
 fair promise of a long life of public usefulness in his 
 profession. He practices in all the courts, state and 
 federal. 
 
 Mr. Stoneman was the first recorder of the town 
 of McGregor, he being elected in 1857. He was 
 mayor of the city in 1863, and was elected to the 
 state senate in 1875, ^is term of office expiring on 
 the 31st of December, 1879. He is on the judiciary 
 committee, and three or four others, and one of the 
 ablest men on the democratic side. 
 
 Mr. Stoneman was originally a whig, and for the 
 last seventeen or eighteen years has acted with the 
 democrats, he being one of the leading members of 
 his party in northern Iowa. He has been a candi- 
 date for different offices, but being on the minority 
 
672 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 side in politics, has usually been defeated. He was 
 the democratic nominee for congress once ; two years 
 later the democratic and liberal candidate, and when 
 Mr. Harlan was reelected the second time for the 
 United States senate, and Hon. J. B. Howell was 
 elected, Mr. Stoneman received, on both occasions, 
 
 the votes of the democratic members of the general 
 assembly. He has abilities to fill any position in 
 which his party, if in the majority, could place him. 
 In March, 1858, Miss Caroline Southland, of Busti, 
 New York, became his wife, and they have one child, 
 Carrie, who is attending the high school in McGregor. 
 
 CASTANUS B. PARK, M.D. 
 
 GRAND JUNCTION. 
 
 CASTANUS BLAKE PARK, son of Castanus 
 B. Park, senior, deceased in 1869, and Elzina 
 Tenney, was born in Grafton, Windham county, Ver- 
 mont, on the 14th of December, 1834. The branch 
 of the Park family from which he descended early 
 settled in Connecticut, his grandfather moving thence 
 to Vermont when its forests were but slightly denud- 
 ed. His great-grandfather was in the continental 
 army. Castanus B. Park, senior, was a merchant and 
 farmer, but the son in early life showed no taste for 
 either pursuit. Having a strong desire for knowl- 
 edge, he spent most of his youth in school, finishing 
 his literary education at Chester Academy, in his 
 native state. He prepared for college, but abandoned 
 the notion of entering. Commencing to read medi- 
 cine with Dr. L. G. Whiting, of Chester, Vermont, 
 he finished with Professor James H. Armsby, of Al- 
 bany ; attended three courses of lectures there and 
 one course in the University of New York, and grad- 
 uated in the spring of 1856. 
 
 Dr. Park commenced practice without much delay 
 in Darlington, La Fayette county, Wisconsin ; the 
 next year crossed the Mississippi river ; invested in 
 real estate in Mitchell county, Iowa; practiced a little 
 at Saint Ansgar, in that county ; returned to Grafton, 
 Vermont, in 1859, and there followed his profession 
 until after the civil war had commenced. 
 
 In the summer of 1862 Dr. Park entered the ser- 
 vice as surgeon of the i6th Vermont Infantry, a nine- 
 months regiment ; returned to Brattleboro at the 
 expiration of that period, and at the solicitation of 
 Governor Holbrook accepted the position of surgeon 
 of the nth regiment. Before returning to the south 
 he became the recipient of a splendid token of the 
 esteem in which he was held by the i6th regiment. 
 He received a complete silver service, sixteen pieces 
 in all, accompanied by the following letter from the 
 pen of Captain L. E. Knapp, of company I of that 
 regiment : 
 
 TowNSHEND, Vermont, September 24, 1863. 
 
 Dr. C. B. Park,^ — Dear Sir: Your visible connection 
 with our regiment as its surgeon has ceased, but the remem- 
 brance of your fidelity, energy and unceasing care will lin- 
 ger long in the hearts of its individual members. In the 
 first place you won our confidence by manifesting a skill in 
 the art of healing which few possess ; then, by untiring dili- 
 gence and continued watchfulness, you almost robbed dis- 
 ease of its terrors and death of its victims. But this is not 
 all ; your whole intercourse with us was characterized by 
 gentlemanly deportment and kindly consideration. Neither 
 the annoyaiices of dealing with unpleasant subjects nor the 
 necessary inconveniences of camp life induced neglect or 
 sourness. 
 
 In order to manifest our appreciation of your services the 
 accompanying silverware has been selected, and I have the 
 honor of presenting it to you in behalf of the "enlisted men" 
 of the i6th Vermont regiment. Accept it, not for its intrin- 
 sic worth, but for the memories which cluster around it. 
 Receive it as an expression of grateful remembrances from 
 hearts that have been quickened to nobler emotions by de- 
 votion to the principles of freedom and humanity. 
 
 I am, yours respectfully, Lyman E. Knapp. 
 
 I 
 
 To this graceful letter Dr. Park made a feeling 
 
 and appropriate reply, and went forward to further 
 
 duties in his country's service, remaining in the field 
 
 until the rebellion had ended, the latter part of the 
 
 time as a brigade surgeon. The character of his 
 
 services during the last two years in the army is well 
 
 presented in a work entitled " The Vermont Brigade 
 
 in the Shenandoah Valley," by Aldace F. Walker, 
 
 lieutenant-colonel of the nth. On pages 165 and 
 
 166 he says : 
 
 Among all the faithful soldiers of the brigade the one 
 who will be longest remembered with affection b^ the great- 
 est number, and with the greatest reason, is Castanus B. 
 Park, of the nth regiment, the brigade surgeon. As a 
 worker, Dr. Park was indefatigable, and his skill was equal 
 to the requirements of his position. Of all its medical 
 staff the brigade were justly proud, the assistant surgeons 
 as well as the surgeons being always found at their posts, 
 and shrinking from no labor that might benefit their men 
 on the march, in the camp or in battle. Their duties 
 were often extremely arduous, for in case of an engagement 
 the work of the surgeons was but just begun when ours was 
 over. At and after the battle of Cedar creek Dr. Park was 
 at his table for forty-eight hours consecutively, and during 
 this campaign it was his duty to perform all the capital 
 operations required in the brigade. The number of ampu- 
 tations which he performed was exceedingly large, but he 
 traced with care the after history of each patient, and in no 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 673 
 
 instance did one fail of recovery. This fact speaks equally 
 well for the physique of the men and for the science of the 
 doctor. 
 
 After the war was ended he returned to Grafton ; 
 practiced until the spring of 1867, when he returned 
 to Iowa; made investments at Grinnell; did some 
 surgery and less general practice, intending to go 
 out altogether, and in 1869 located where the village 
 of Grand Junction now stands, at the crossing of the 
 Chicago and Northwestern and the Keokuk and Des 
 Moines Valley railroads. There was then no house 
 within two miles of this point, but as the latter road 
 was to cross the former at that place he knew a town 
 must rise. He purchased the best lands for farming 
 purposes, built a warehouse, the first here, and has 
 since been engaged in farming, merchandising in 
 hardware and agricultural implements, lumber and 
 grain dealing and stock and fruit raising. He has 
 twenty or thirty head of thoroughbred shorthorns 
 and other cattle, the best breeds of hogs, an orchard 
 of twenty acres, a vineyard and all kinds of small 
 fruit which will grow in this latitude. He has laid 
 
 out his grounds with much taste, and has the most 
 delightful homestead of four hundred and forty acres 
 in this part of the state. 
 
 The doctor still practices a little when necessary, 
 having all the difficult cases of surgery in this section. 
 
 He was appointed county commissioner several 
 years ago, and is now serving his fourth term, having 
 been reelected three times. 
 
 In politics, he is a republican, with whig antece- 
 dents. He is a third-degree Mason. 
 
 In 1876 he was appointed by the State Medical 
 Society a delegate to the American Medical Associ- 
 ation, but could not attend. 
 
 He is a member of no church, but a generous con- 
 tributor to the funds of church building, church sup- 
 port and benevolent operations generally. There is 
 nothing contracted in his composition. 
 
 The wife of Dr. Park was Miss Nancy D. Carlton, 
 of Andover, Vermont ; married on the 3d of July, 
 1856. They have had three children, two of them, 
 Willie L. and Jennie May, yet living. They are 
 being well educated. 
 
 CHARLES W. DAVIS, A.M., M. D., 
 
 INDIANOLA. 
 
 THE oldest medical practitioner in Indianola, 
 and a man of brilliant parts and great success, 
 is Charles W. Davis, twenty-two years a resident of 
 Warren county. His father, Ephraim P. Davis, was 
 a merchant, a descendant of an old Welsh family, 
 and died in Indianola on the 31st of August, 1867. 
 The maiden name of his mother was Nancy Cotting- 
 ham. The family moved to LaFayette, Indiana, when 
 the son was about twelve years old. He was educat- 
 ed at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana; was 
 graduated in 1848, with the expectation at one time 
 of studying for the ministry, but turned his attention 
 to medicine, read with Dr. E. Deming, of La Porte, 
 Indiana, and graduated at Rush Medical College, 
 Chicago, in 1853. 
 
 After practicing three years at Lebanon and Car- 
 lisle, Indiana, Dr. Davis came to Indianola, in the 
 pring of 1856, and has here been in constant prac- 
 tice, excepting when absent in his country's service. 
 In 1862 he was commissioned surgeon of the 34th 
 Iowa Infantry, and in 1864 was promoted to surgeon 
 of United States Volunteers, serving in the latter ca- 
 pacity until nearly the close of the war. Prior to 
 70 
 
 going into the service, he was examining surgeon for 
 volunteers, and after its close was offered the position 
 of United States examiner for pensions, but declined. 
 While surgery is Dr. Davis' specialty, the business in 
 Warren county is limited, and he does a general prac- 
 tice, standing at the head of the profession in this lo- 
 cality. 
 
 The doctor is a good writer on medical science, 
 and years ago contributed to western periodicals, 
 published in the interest of his profession, several 
 valuable papers. 
 
 Dr. Davis was reared in the whig school of poli- 
 tics, with anti-slavery proclivities, and naturally unit- 
 ed with the great party whose rallying cry, as early as 
 1848, was, "Free soil, free speech, free men." 
 
 Religiously, he was reared in the Presbyterian 
 faith, and worships with that body of people, but is 
 not a member of the church. 
 
 His wife was Miss Sallie A. Pursel, of Greencastle, 
 Indiana; married on the 19th of October, 1854. 
 They have one child, William C. Davis, who is just 
 completing his medical studies with his father. He 
 is a young man of much promise. 
 
674 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 Years ago the doctor was a prominent medical ex- 
 aminer for life insurance, and wrote some essays 
 which were included in the literature published by 
 one of the oldest and best New York companies. He 
 is a strong thinker, and embodies his thoughts in clear 
 and graceful language. 
 
 The doctor is six feet tall, broad shouldered, well- 
 developed and muscular, and weighs two hundred 
 and thirty-five pounds. He has an unusually large 
 head, dark brown eyes, light complexion and nervo- 
 sanguine temperament. His conversational powers 
 and his social qualities are excellent. 
 
 RUTLEDGE LEA, 
 
 KEOSAU^UA. 
 
 RUTLEDGE LEA, son of Claiborne and Sarah 
 H. (Roads) Lea, is a native of Greenfield, 
 Highland county, Ohio, dating his birth on the 4th 
 of November, 1843. He was the sixth child in a 
 family of seven children, five of them yet living. His 
 maternal grandfather, Jacob Roads, was in the war 
 of 1812-15, having command of a company. At 
 twelve years of age Rutledge moved with the family 
 to Iowa, remaining one year at Fairfield, Jefferson 
 county, and then settling in Keosauqua, Van Buren 
 county. Here, after receiving a good English educa- 
 tion, young Lea, at the age of seventeen, commenced 
 reading law with J. C. Knapp, now judge of the dis- 
 trict court of the second judicial district of Iowa, 
 and Hon. George F. Wright, now of Council Bluffs, 
 Iowa; subsequently with Noble and Strong, of Keo- 
 kuk, being admitted to the bar at Keosauqua in 
 1864. He commenced practice at Keosauqua, but 
 at the end of a year, his health failing, he relin- 
 quished his practice and began to travel and resort 
 to manual labor for its improvement, running a saw- 
 mill one season near Keosauqua. 
 
 He was deputy collector of internal revenue in 
 the first congressional district in 1864 and 1865, and 
 deputy treasurer of Van Buren county from 1866 to 
 1872. For the last ten years he has been in the 
 constant practice of his profession, being now of the 
 
 firm of Lea and Beaman, his partner being D. C. Bea- 
 man. They have an extensive and growing practice, 
 and have a very honorable standing at the bar. Mr. 
 Lea excels both as court and jury lawyer, having a 
 thorough legal education and being a clear reasoner 
 and an earnest, impressive speaker. He is very tena- 
 cious for the rights of his client, and rarely fails in 
 his case. Few minds at the bar of the second judi- 
 cial district are more systematic and logical than his. 
 He is a very high-minded man, an honor to the pro- 
 fession. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Lea is republican, and was an 
 elector in the first congressional district in 1876, 
 doing excellent work as a canvasser. 
 
 He is a firm believer in the general doctrines of 
 Christianity and a regular church-goer, but a member 
 of no religious body. 
 
 He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic order; 
 was worshipful master of the Keosauqua lodge five 
 years ; is past junior steward of the grand lodge of 
 the state ; has been chairman of the standing com- 
 mittee on finance for the last three years ; has been 
 high priest of Moore Chapter, No. 23, and senior 
 warden of Elchanan Commandery, No. 28. 
 
 Miss Victoria Henry, of Keosauqua, was married 
 to Mr. Lea in April, 1868. They have three children 
 and have lost two. 
 
 SMITH Mcpherson, 
 
 RED OAK. 
 
 SMITH Mcpherson was bom near Indianap- 
 olis, Indiana, on the 14th of February, 1848. His 
 father was a farmer, and of Scotch descent. Smith 
 worked on his father's farm in the summer time, at- 
 tending school in the winter months — an institution 
 under the control of the Society of Friends. At the 
 
 age of twenty-one he left home to attend the Iowa 
 State University, from which he graduated in June, 
 1870, receiving the degree of LL.B. From the uni- 
 versity he entered the law office of his uncle, M. L. 
 McPherson, of Council Bluffs, and read law the re- 
 mainder of that year; then removed to Red Oak, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 675 
 
 continued the study of law, and was admitted to the 
 bar in 1870, since which time he has steadily prac- 
 ticed law. In July, 1874, he was appointed by Gov- 
 ernor Carpenter district attorney for the third ju- 
 dicial district, comprising eight counties in south- 
 ern Iowa; and at the general election the same year 
 was elected to the same office for four years, and is 
 now in the enjoyment of said position. 
 
 He has taken ten degrees in Masonry, and is a 
 member of the encampment of the Independent Or- 
 der of Odd-Fellows. Mr. McPherson is a medium- 
 sized, light-complexioned man, with large, pensive 
 eyes. He is a great lover of books, and possesses 
 a choice collection of the standard literature of the 
 day, together with a fine law library. It rarely hap- 
 pens that one so fond of books is at the same time so 
 active*, man in the affairs of life. His social qualities 
 are of the highest order. He compasses his friends 
 with "hoops of steel." His forensic abilities are of 
 the first order of excellence. He is keen to observe 
 the weak points in a defense at trial, and is a strong 
 and persistent advocate. His pleadings are ever 
 marked with a full knowledge of the law, and all the 
 sophistries of the bar are to him but so many cob- 
 webs to be thrust aside in the clearer light of law 
 and evidence. With all this he is a great favorite 
 with both bench and bar. 
 
 He is a staunch republican, and is frequently be- 
 fore the public in defense of the principles of his 
 party. His political speeches are marked with a thor- 
 ough knowledge of the topic under discussion, which 
 he handles without ever descending to vulgarity, 
 though his irony ofttimes cuts very deep. 
 
 It is only in these comparatively new countries of 
 the west that such prodigies are to be found. Here 
 is a young man of only twenty-nine years of age wor- 
 thily wielding an influence never attained in the met- 
 ropolitan circles of the east short of fifty years of 
 life. The golden opportunities that present them- 
 selves to a young and gifted brain find apt solution 
 amid the ever utilitarian spirits which make up the 
 communities of the newer states of the Union. Mr. 
 McPherson possessed the ability, young as he was, 
 to wield the business of his high office ; the govern- 
 or of his state observed these innate qualities, and 
 appointed him to fill an unexpired term of office, 
 and when he came before the people for their ap- 
 proval they indorsed the governor's judgment and 
 elected him to continue in the same office. 
 
 Mr. McPherson is yet a bachelor, and whether he 
 ever becomes wedded to anything other than litera- 
 ture and law or not, he certainly has a long and bril- 
 liant future before him, coequal with the rising pros- 
 pects of his young and giant state. 
 
 HON. JOHN MAHIN, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 JOHN MAHIN, postmaster, was born in Nobles- 
 ville, Indiana, on the 8th of December, 1833, and 
 is the son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Hare) Mahin. 
 The ancestors on the male side came from Ireland 
 and settled in Rhode Island previous to the revolu- 
 tion; from thence they removed to Kentucky, where 
 a colony of the descendants still reside, and about 
 the beginning of the present century the grandpar- 
 ents of our subject removed to Ohio, where there 
 is another settlement of the family. On the mother's 
 side our subject is descended from German ances- 
 tors of Pennsylvania stock. 
 
 The parents of John Mahin spent their early life 
 in one of the "log cabins" so common in the pio- 
 neer history of Ohio. His father was a Methodist 
 local preacher. 
 
 John received less than a year's schooling alto- 
 gether, being placed in a printing office at an early 
 
 age, in which, as he expresses it, he received his 
 education, graduating at the " case " before reach- 
 ing the age of eighteen. He inherited a strong de- 
 sire for knowledge, had a passion for reading, and 
 before the age of twelve had read the Bible through, 
 and every other book he could lay his hands on, in- 
 cluding novels, newspapers and missionary biogra- 
 phies. For years he was accustomed to walk a dis- 
 tance of two miles each week to borrow the weekly 
 newspaper, which, after being read by the family, 
 was passed to some other neighbor, or returned to 
 the owner. 
 
 From his earliest childhood he was possessed by a 
 strong desire to learn the art of printing; this was 
 the acme of his ambition. Moving to Bloomington, 
 now Muscatine, Iowa, in 1847, he found an opening 
 in the " Herald " office, since changed to the "Jour- 
 nal," where for five years he was a diligent and in- 
 
676 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 dustrious journeyman, pursuing his study of books 
 and men as circumstances permitted. 
 
 In his nineteenth year (July, 1852,) he com- 
 menced publishing and editing the Muscatine "Jour- 
 nal " on his own account. This he continued for 
 two years with very satisfactory pecuniary results, 
 having succeeded where others failed, when he sold 
 his interest, intending to pursue a classical course of 
 study ; with which end in view^^e entered the Ohio 
 Wesleyan University at Delaware, in that state, but 
 was obliged to abandon this cherished scheme after a 
 few months, on account of a serious attack of illness, 
 which for a time threatened his life. In 1856 he re- 
 purchased his interest in the Muscatine " Journal " 
 and resumed editorial control of the paper, which 
 he has since retained, having been sole editor about 
 half that time. 
 
 In April, 1861, he was appointed postmaster of 
 Muscatine by President Lincoln, on the recom- 
 mendation of a large majority of republican electors 
 of the city, and retained the position for eight years. 
 In October, 1869, he was elected to the house of 
 representatives of Iowa for a period of two years, 
 and served with distinction ; taking a lead in the 
 house on the question, then for the first time agitated, 
 of taxing railroads, he favoring the taxation of rail- 
 roads the same as other property. In June, 1873, he 
 was reappointed postmaster, and still retains that 
 office. 
 
 During the war he was one of the most vigorous 
 defenders of the administration; threw his whole 
 power into the Union cause ; was instrumental in 
 raising a large number of volunteers, and in silenc- 
 ing the opposition of "copperheads," so-called at 
 home, his tongue, his pen and his purse being freely 
 employed in the cause of loyalty. He was likewise 
 secretary and actual manager of the Soldiers' Monu- 
 ment Association, of Muscatine county, which erect- 
 ed the beautiful shaft to the memory of the heroes 
 who fell in the cause of union and freedom upon 
 southern battlefields, and which now ornaments the 
 court-house square of Muscatine ; he was also active 
 and mainly instrumental in organizing the Musca- 
 tine Building and Loan Association, of which he con- 
 tinues to be a director, an organization which is ac- 
 complishing untold good in providing homes for the 
 mechanics and laboring men of the city. He is also 
 president of the Iowa Press Association, an organ- 
 ization which has existed for several years. 
 
 He has also been a member and promoter of the 
 several temperance organizations of the city and 
 
 county, and is among the foremost in every good 
 work, whether charitable, benevolent or reformatory, 
 undertaken in his neighborhood. 
 
 He has been a Methodist since his eighteenth year, 
 one of the most active and prominent members of 
 the church, and superintendent of the Sunday school. 
 He publishes a review of the lessons at the close of 
 each quarter for the benefit of the readers of his 
 journal. 
 
 Politically, he was raised in the communion of 
 the old whig party, and since the organization of the 
 republican party on its ruins, he has been one of its 
 most devoted adherents. 
 
 Mr. Mahin has been twice married : first, on the 
 17th of May, 1859, at Muscatine, to Miss Anna Herr, 
 who died on the 12th of March, 1862, childless; sec- 
 ond, on the 20th of September, 1864, to Miss Anna 
 Lee, of Johnson county, Iowa, who still lives, and is 
 the mother of four children, the eldest of whom, 
 Ella Cassel, died in 1870, and three survive: J. Lee, 
 Mabel and Florence. 
 
 Mrs. Mahin's parents were natives of Maryland, 
 and on her father's side she is connected with the 
 family of General Richard Henry Lee, of revolu- 
 tionary fame. She was born on the 'soth of March, 
 1845. She received a liberal education, chiefly in 
 the Iowa State University, and is a lady of superior 
 culture. 
 
 From the preceding brief outline of the leading 
 events of his life, it will be seen that John Mahin, 
 although possessing but few of the advantages of the 
 young men of the present day, has, by dint of in- 
 domitable perseverance, earned the success in life 
 which has crowned his efforts. 
 
 While young, and comparatively inexperienced, he 
 assumed the editorial care and control of the "Jour- 
 nal," with which he is still connected. From the 
 first he displayed a natural fitness for this responsi- 
 ble position, which demonstrated that he had not 
 mistaken his calling. It has been said truthfully that 
 an editor, like a poet, is born, not made. He pos- 
 sesses in a large measure the gifts and qualifications 
 essential to success in the editorial profession. He 
 has not unfrequently been pitted against veteran edi- 
 tors of long and large experience in the heat and 
 excitement of political debate, and we know of none 
 who has reason to boast of his success in the en- 
 counter. He is not a rhetorician; he employs no 
 flowery figures, highly wrought flourishes, or long- 
 drawn sentences. A few well-chosen words express 
 his meaning with clearness. His editorials are gen- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 677 
 
 erally short, crisp, and to the point. In a word, he 
 never writes unless he has something to write ; nor 
 are his taste and judgment less manifest in selecting 
 for his paper ; in other words, he handles the pen 
 and scissors with equal facility. He has achieved 
 success in his calling, of which he has just reason to 
 be proud. 
 
 Two younger brothers of Mr. Mahin are also resi- 
 dents of Muscatine, both printers, who have taste 
 and talent for literature. James Mahin (the eldest) 
 
 has been for a number of years local editor of the 
 "Journal." He has had a liberal academic educa- 
 tion ; has traveled extensively both in Europe and 
 America, and as a writer is graphic, philosophic and 
 humorous. He is now in his thirty-first year, and 
 bids fair to become one of the most noted editors of 
 the country. The younger brother, Frank Mahin, 
 is attending the Harvard Law School, and possesses 
 a mind well adapted to the intricate questions of law, 
 and has already developed fine business qualities. 
 
 HON. JEREMIAH H. MURPHY, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 TEREMIAH HENRY MURPHY, lawyer and 
 J politician, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on 
 the 19th of February, 1835, and is the son of Timo- 
 thy Murphy and Jerusha nee Shattuck. His father 
 was a native of the county of Cork, Ireland, and at 
 the age of fourteen years emigrated with his father 
 and an only brother, Jeremiah, after whom our sub- 
 ject was named, and settled in Massachusetts. Jere- 
 miah afterward graduated at Northampton College, 
 was ordained to the ministry of the Baptist church, 
 and for many years preached the gospel in the states 
 of New York, Wisconsin, Iowa and Kansas. He was 
 a man of much strength and brilliance of intellect, 
 earnest and zealous as a missionary, and died in 1859 
 at Topeka, Kansas. 
 
 The father of our subject, Timothy Murphy, was 
 a man of great self-reliance and individuality of char- 
 acter, energetic and determined. He died in 1866. 
 The mother of our subject is of Puritan stock, de- 
 scended from Pilgrim ancestors, and in her disposi- 
 tion exhibits many of the traits of that noble and 
 self-renouncing race. She is a highly cultured and 
 refined pattern of every social and domestic virtue. 
 
 Thus mingles in the veins of our subject, in equal 
 proportions, the blood of the Celt and the Saxon. 
 Hence the genius and brilliancy which adorn his 
 character, on the one hand, and the grave dignity, an 
 equally important feature of it, on the other. 
 
 The parents of our subject had a family of ten 
 children, four of whom died in infancy and six of 
 whom survive. The survivors are Ellen, Jeremiah 
 H., Bernard, Mary, Timothy and Agnes, all of whom 
 are now residents of Iowa. The father removed to 
 Wisconsin in 1847 and purchased a farm in Fond 
 du Lac county, on which the family resided till 1852, 
 
 when they removed to Iowa county, Iowa, and pur- 
 chased and operated a large farm. 
 
 During the summer of 1852 our subject and his 
 younger brother, with the aid of two yoke of oxen, 
 " broke " some eighty acres of wild land, and in the 
 winter following cut and split some eight thousand 
 rails and stakes and before the end of the following 
 summer had a farm of one hundred and sixty acres 
 fenced and under cultivation. 
 
 Jeremiah H. was raised in Massachusetts till the 
 age of fourteen years, and at the public schools of 
 his native place laid the foundation of an education. 
 On removing to Wisconsin he attended the Apple- 
 ton University for a period of eighteen months, and 
 in 1854 he entered the State University of Iowa, at 
 Iowa City, from which he graduated in 1857. 
 
 After quitting college he walked to Marion, in 
 Linn county, Iowa, a distance of thirty-one miles, 
 and entered the law office of the Hon. William Smith 
 (who was during the rebellion a colonel in the Union 
 army, and still later member of congress, and died in 
 1 871) as a law student, and after nine months' study 
 was admitted to the bar. He commenced his pro- 
 fessional career in Marengo, county seat of Iowa 
 county, where he remained some nine years, with 
 very considerable success. In 1867 he removed to 
 Davenport, which has since been his home, and 
 formed a partnership for the practice of law with H. 
 M. Martin, Esq., which is still in existence. The 
 first ten years of his professional life was devoted 
 mainly to criminal practice, at which he attained to 
 considerable distinction; latterly he has been de- 
 voting his attention more especially to commercial 
 law, with very satisfactory results. 
 
 He has given considerable attention to politics 
 
6/8 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 and has been a life-long democrat. At the age of 
 twenty years he " stumped " the counties of Johnson 
 and Iowa in the interest of James Buchanan. His 
 first public office was that of alderman of the town 
 of Marengo in i860. In the same year he was a 
 deputy United States marshal, and took the census 
 of Iowa county. In 1861 he was nominated for the 
 office of state senator for his county, but declined 
 the candidacy. In 1864 he was a delegate-at-large 
 to the national convention at Chicago which nomi- 
 nated General McClellan for the Presidency. He 
 was also a delegate to the national convention of 
 1866 at Philadelphia; also a delegate to the conven- 
 tion at New York which nominated Seymour and 
 Blair in 1868; a member of the Iowa state central 
 committee for five or six years ; was mayor of Dav- 
 enport in 1873, and in 1874 was elected to represent 
 the city of Davenport in the state senate and is still 
 a member of that body. In the autumn of 1874 he 
 lacked but one vote of receiving the congressional 
 nomination of his party in the second district. In 
 1876 he was nominated by his party for that posi- 
 tion, and ran against Hon. Hiram Price, making a 
 gallant fight, but was defeated. He led the balance 
 of the democratic ticket, however, by sixteen hun- 
 dred votes, and received four thousand more votes 
 than the successful candidate in 1874. 
 
 He is now attorney for the Life Assurance Asso- 
 ciation of America, at Saint Louis, Missouri, which 
 is one of the largest and most prosperous companies 
 in the northwest. He is likewise a stockholder and 
 director in the Davenport water-works, and is in- 
 terested in various other corporations. In religion 
 he is liberal. 
 
 On the loth of May, 1859, he married Miss Mary 
 Green, daughter of Samuel Green, a native of Eng- 
 land. She was raised a Quaker, is a graduate of 
 the Iowa University and a lady of culture and refine- 
 ment. They have two children, Timothy and Jesse, 
 both still in infancy. 
 
 Mr. Murphy is a gentleman of considerable ge- 
 nius, wit, brilliancy and dash, characteristics derived 
 from the Irish element in his composition. He is, 
 moreover, hospitable, generous and open-hearted. 
 As an entertainer he has but few equals in the west. 
 His character in this regard will be more readily in- 
 ferred from the fact that his home is the general 
 stopping-place of politicians of all parties. It is no 
 uncommon thing for opposing candidates to meet at 
 his house as guests while seeking favors and support 
 from friends of their respective political parties. 
 
 As a lawyer, he is full of expedients, but generally 
 tries his cases on their merits, without resorting to 
 subterfuges. 
 
 BENJAMIN GREENE, 
 
 ADEL. 
 
 A pioneer in Dallas county, Iowa, an enterprising 
 man, and at an early day a member of the leg- 
 islature, Benjamin Greene is well worthy of a place 
 among the old settlers who are men of mark in the 
 state. He comes from very old New England stock, 
 the ancestor of the family settling in Newport, Rhode 
 Island, a few years after the collapse of the English 
 commonwealth. His name was originally Clark ; he 
 was a distinguished nobleman ; a military officer un- 
 der Cromwell, and when Charles the Second came to 
 the throne, fled to the West Indies, and thence to 
 Rhode Island. General Nathaniel Greene belonged 
 to this branch of the family, and was a near relative 
 of Silas Greene, the father of Benjamin. Silas was 
 eighteen when the revolutionary war closed (1783), 
 and two years before that date was wounded while 
 aiding to clean out a squad of tories near Newport. 
 Benjamin Greene was born in Richfield, Otsego 
 
 county. New York, on the 4th of March, 1819. His 
 mother was Deborah Brown, who sprung from a very 
 early Massachusetts family. Silas Greene moved to 
 the vicinity of Oswego, on Lake Ontario, when Ben- 
 jamin was four years old. There the son was reared 
 on his father's farm, picking up a fair education in the 
 common schools, and beginning to teach during the 
 winters when only sixteen years of age. 
 
 In 1838, anxious to see the west, he came out as far 
 as Belvidere, Illinois, farming four seasons and teach- 
 ing two winters; returned to Oswego in 1842, and read 
 law and taught school until the spring of 1846, when 
 he came to Iowa, taught a few months at Utica, Van 
 Buren county, and then two years at Keokuk. 
 
 Mr. Greene first saw Adel, his present home, in 
 April, 1849, when the village consisted of perhaps 
 half-a-dozen log cabins, one of them having a few 
 shelf goods, and another a generous stock of tobacco 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 679 
 
 and whisky. He took up a claim one mile south of 
 town and commenced digging a tellar, thinking to 
 locate there, but changed his mind and built in town. 
 Here he sold goods five or six years, in the early part 
 of this period purchasing the claim of the land on 
 which he resides, adjoining the corporation on the 
 south. He has a little over two hundred acres of 
 land, one fourth of it timber, the rest devoted to agri- 
 culture and horticulture, thirty-five acres in orchard. 
 For the last sixteen or seventeen years Mr. Greene 
 has given his attention mainly to nursery and fruit- 
 growing, and has done a great deal to encourage 
 fruit-raising in the county. In his nursery he raises 
 none but the hardy varieties of trees, and they are 
 being scattered all over the country. 
 
 Mr. Greene was elected school-fund commissioner 
 about 1850; served one term, and during that time 
 disposed of a large quantity of the lands in Dallas 
 county selected for that purpose. In 1852, and again 
 in 1856, he was elected a member of the legislature, 
 attending in his second term the last sessiori ever 
 held in Iowa City. He has served several times in 
 
 the board of supervisors and on the school board, 
 and is an eminently practical and efficient business 
 man. 
 
 Mr. Greene is of federal stock in politics, voted 
 the whig ticket in his early manhood, was a republi- 
 can from 1856 to 1872, and has since been ranked 
 among the independents. In religion he is equally 
 independent. He is a great reader of scientific works, 
 and forms his opinions therefrom. 
 
 Mr. Greene was joined in wedlock with Miss Per- 
 melia C. Sturges, of Van Buren county, Iowa, on the 
 nth of October, 1848, and they have five children, 
 four daughters and one son. Ada is the wife of Will- 
 liam S. Russell, of Perry, Dallas county ; Mary is the 
 wife of John B. White, an attorney of Adel, and Em- 
 ma and Arietta are single. Sturges H., an attorney, 
 has a family and lives at Adel. He graduated at the 
 Iowa Law School. The daughters are all well edu- 
 cated. 
 
 Mr. Greene has a family relic which he has seen fit 
 to preserve — a calf-skin pocket-book purchased by 
 his father in 1782, and presented to the son in 1838. 
 
 COLONEL GEORGE DUFFIELD, 
 
 BLOOMFIELD. 
 
 GEORGE DUFFIELD comes of good blood, 
 his grandfather, William Duffield, with a broth- 
 er, being in the revolutionary army. The Duffields 
 are old Pennsylvania and Maryland stock, the father 
 of George moving into eastern Ohio at an early day. 
 His wife, who was born in Jefferson county, Ohio, on 
 the 12th of February, 1828, was Barbara Roop, of 
 Pennsylvania-German pedigree. When George was 
 sixteen years of age, having received a fair common- 
 school education, he accompanied his parents to 
 Iowa, and, after spending one year in Van Buren 
 county, in 1845 they settled in Davis county, where 
 William Duffield yet lives, being in his eightieth year. 
 His wife died in 1875. 
 
 George aided his father in opening a farm in Lake 
 Creek township; commenced teaching winter schools 
 when about eighteen, following that occupation two 
 or three seasons; in 1850 moved into town; clerked 
 two years in a general store, then went into the mer- 
 cantile trade for himself and has continued this busi- 
 ness ever since, except when in the military service. 
 
 In the summer of 1861 Mr. Duffield enrolled a 
 company for the 3d Iowa Cavalry ; was elected cap- 
 
 tain of company E; at the end of one year was pro- 
 moted to major; at the end of another year to lieu- 
 tenant-colonel, in that capacity serving until near 
 the close of the war. Toward the end of its first 
 term of enlistment Lieutenant-Colonel Duffield was 
 detailed as enlisting officer, and more than seven 
 hundred members of the regiment reenlisted. 
 
 During his term of service Colonel Duffield shared 
 in all the hardships and perils of the regiment; had 
 the command of it during the last two years, yet- 
 never received a wound that disabled him for an 
 hour. This military record is creditable alike to him 
 and the state. 
 
 The colonel is still in trade, being one of the older 
 class of merchants in Bloomfield. He has had his 
 ups and downs, but has, on the whole, had a fair de- 
 gree of success. 
 
 He was recorder and treasurer of Davis county 
 from 1855 to 1857, and was a member of the county 
 board of supervisors when the civil war commenced, 
 resigning that office to enter the army. In civil office 
 as well as military he has been faithful and trust- 
 worthy. 
 
68o 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 At an early day Colonel Duffield was a democrat, 
 and voted for Stephen A. Douglas for President in 
 i860. Since that time he has been an ardent, un- 
 wavering republican; but, though firm in his political 
 principles, he lets nothing interfere with attention to 
 business. 
 
 He is a Knight Templar among the Freemasons. 
 
 Religiously, he has a partiality for the Methodist 
 church, where he is an attendant, his wife being a 
 member of it. She was Miss Nancy J. Strahan, of 
 Bloomfield, formerly of Henderson county, Illinois. 
 They were united in matrimony on the 21st of Au- 
 gust, 185 1, and of four children born to them only 
 one is now living. 
 
 AUGUSTUS BORCHERS, 
 
 HAMBURG. 
 
 AUGUSTUS BORCHERS, the man who laid out 
 . Hamburg and gave it its name, is a native of 
 Hanover, Germany, and was born on the 26th of Au- 
 gust, 1817, his parents being Frederic William and 
 Amelia Steffen Borchers. His father died when the 
 son was but four years old. He attended school un- 
 til he was fourteen, and was then apprenticed to the 
 mercantile business, serving until twenty years of age. 
 In 1837 he came to the United States; was two years 
 employed in a store in Baltimore, Maryland, and in 
 1839 removed to Weston, Platte county, Missouri. 
 There he engaged in mercantile trade in company 
 with an elder brother, George Borchers. A few 
 months later he went to Holt county, in the same 
 state, and opened the first store in that county, his 
 brother having an interest in it. 
 
 In August, 1840, he settled on the banks of the 
 Missouri river, in Atchison county, and after trading 
 two or three years with the Indians, the country be- 
 ginning to settle up, he relinquished trade awhile, 
 made a claim, and engaged in agricultural pursuits. 
 He was thus employed when, on the 15th of May, 
 1846, the Mexican war being in progress, and the 
 governor calling for troops, he enlisted as a private 
 in company C, Missouri Mounted Volunteers, and 
 served until the war closed. 
 
 Returning to Missouri, Mr. Borchers clerked in a 
 store at Linden, Atchison county; continued there 
 until the spring of 1850, and then came to Iowa, be- 
 fore Fremont county was surveyed and organized. 
 He traded a short time at a place called " Forks-of- 
 the-road," between the points where Hamburg and 
 Sidney now stand ; and in the autumn of the same 
 year, when Sidney was selected for the county seat, 
 he moved thither, built the first store, was appointed 
 the first postmaster, and continued in business there 
 five years. In 1857 Mr. Borchers laid out Hamburg, 
 naming it for Hamburg in his native country. That 
 
 year he put up the dwelling-house in which he now 
 lives — the first building of that kind in the place. 
 Here he was engaged in the hardware business seven 
 years, being in the firm of C. A. Danforth and Co. 
 Since 1864 he has dealt in real estate, and has been 
 eminently successful in his varied operations. His 
 accumulations have been made by fair and honora- 
 ble means, all his dealings with his fellow-men being 
 in accordance with the strictest principles of integ- 
 rity. He has always made it a rule to encourage 
 settlement, and hence has sold property at low figures. 
 
 At an early day, while a frontier merchant, Mr. 
 Borchers had one or two narrow escapes from death 
 on the Missouri river. One time, while taking a load 
 of potatoes down the river on a flatboat, it struck a 
 snag, went to pieces, and he hung to a limb in the 
 water four hours, and was finally picked up by some 
 French mountaineers. 
 
 Mr. Borchers was in early life an old-line whig, 
 and when that party dissolved he joined the democ- 
 racy, with which party he still acts. He has frequent- 
 ly been importuned to accept political office, but has 
 sedulously refused. He is now treasurer of the school 
 board, and in a quiet way is performing his duties 
 faithfully as a citizen. 
 
 He is Lutheran in religious doctrine and beUef, 
 but there is no organization of the kind in Hamburg. 
 He is a man of the purest moral character. He is 
 a Master Mason, and secretary of the local lodge. 
 
 His wife was Miss Rosamound Nuckolls, of Vir- 
 ginia; married on the 12th of June, 185 1. She had 
 ten children, and died on the ist of March, 1869. 
 Five of her children are with her in the spirit world. 
 Of the living, the eldest daughter, EHzabeth, is the 
 wife of Edward H. Sweetser, of San Francisco, Cali- 
 fornia. Albert is also married, and lives at Dead- 
 wood, in the Black Hills country. The others, Carrie, 
 Florence and George, are single. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 68 I 
 
 Mrs. Borchers was one of the constituent members 
 of the Baptist churches at Sidney and Hamburg, 
 an active, christian woman and an affectionate and 
 true mother. She was an invalid for many years, but 
 never failed to remember the poor. 
 
 In 1870 Mr. Borchers made a trip to Germany, tak- 
 ing with him his eldest daughter, whose name is first 
 mentioned above, and three years later he made an- 
 other trip, taking Albert with him. 
 
 While the old world is making some progress, Mr. 
 
 Borchers has lived to witness grand strides in that 
 direction in the new. 
 
 He has seen Iowa double her population three or 
 four times, Fremont county settled with enterprising 
 and thrifty farmers, and Hamburg, which he founded 
 twenty-one years ago, expand into a city of three 
 thousand inhabitants. The father of the place, and 
 one of the prime movers in making it what it is, he 
 is held in very high respect by its citizens, and by 
 the people generally of Fremont county. 
 
 WILLIAM GORDON, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 THERE are few lives of Americans which afford 
 to the pencil so great a variety of shade and 
 color, such opportunities for bold foregrounds and 
 lengthened vistas, such temptations to paint the poe- 
 try rather than the plain prose of life, as the career 
 of William Gordon ; the descendant of Scotland's 
 proud dukes of Gordon, of Gordon Castle, and on 
 his mother's side boasting the blue blood of the 
 'equally distinguished house of Ogilvie. The son of 
 John Gordon and Margaret Ogilvie, he was born in 
 the parish of Keith, Banffs-hire, Scotland, on the 12th 
 of June, 1814. Gordon Castle, the home of his pa- 
 ternal ancestry, is familiar to students and travel- 
 ers; the Ogilvie farm, which is known as the mains 
 (manse) of Glengerrick, where William passed his 
 boyhood, is scarcely overshadowed in importance by 
 its battlemented neighbor. Here the Ogilvigs have 
 lived for a score of~ generations, and as the last pro- 
 prietor, William Ogilvie, the grandsire of William 
 Gordon, had a family of eleven sons and three daugh- 
 ters, all but one of whom have grown to man's and 
 woman's estate, and some of whom are blessed with 
 large families, it is probable that the old manse will 
 remain with the Ogilvies for all time to come. 
 
 Little of the affluence or splendor of either castle 
 or manse was reflected upon the pathway of William 
 Gordon. Neither of his parents stood in the line of 
 inheritance, and their children were early taught to 
 be the architects of their own fortunes. Accordingly 
 we find William apprenticed at an early age to the 
 carpenter's trade, devoting five and a half years to 
 that initiatory service. Then came a year all his own, 
 which ended with the resolve to change the pent-up 
 life of Scotland for the freedom of America. In the 
 winter of 1833, being then nineteen years of age, he 
 71 
 
 embarked with the sailing ship Universe for New 
 York, and after a long and perilous voyage, during 
 which his ship was twice dismasted, he stepped upon 
 the shores of the new world. Here he sought James 
 Gordon Bennett, a former near neighbor of the fam- 
 ily in Scotland, and was directed by him to the ex- 
 tensive shops of Hon. Richard White, where he found 
 instant employment, and after eight months' service 
 as journeyman was promoted foreman of the works. 
 Among the notable buildings constructed under his 
 foremanship, was the Astor House, erected in 1835. 
 
 On the 1st of August, 1836, he resigned his position 
 with Mr. White, and with a certificate from this gen- 
 tlemen of which few carpenters at that day could 
 boast, pursued his way westward until he strftck the 
 forest site of the present city of Muscatine. At this 
 time Muscatine (then called Bloomington) had but 
 twelve white inhabitants ; it was better known to the 
 Indians, thousands of whom were making it their 
 camping ground. Mr. Gordon has lived to see the 
 twelve white faces multiplied to twelve thousand, and 
 to maintain his rank as the first carpenter to locate 
 in the place, nearly one-half of the city having been 
 built by his hands, or under his superintendence. 
 
 The most notable event connected with Mr. Gor- 
 don's pioneer life in Iowa occurred in 1839-40, on the 
 breaking out of the " Missouri war." This memora- 
 ble war had its origin in a dispute between the states 
 of Missouri and Iowa over a strip of land claimed 
 by Van Buren county, Iowa. In 1839 the governor 
 of Missouri sent the sheriff of Clark county to col- 
 lect the taxes assessed against the disputed territory, 
 and in November of the same year Governor Lucas, of 
 Iowa, ordered out his valiant militia to repel the in- 
 vasion. Colonel John Vanatta, at Muscatine, was 
 
682 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARV. 
 
 commissioned to enlist all the able-bodied men of 
 his county, and move them to the front, and on the 
 ist of December there were mustered at Muscatine 
 about a hundred of the bravest men that ever shoul- 
 dered a musket. At three o'clock, on a day early 
 in December, Colonel Vanatta's force formed into 
 line, and stepping off in the face of a blinding snow- 
 storm to the music of " The Girl I Left Behind 
 Me," began its perilous march. Of this command 
 Lieutenant William Gordon, in the sickness and ab- 
 sence of Captain Norman Fullington, was acting cap- 
 tain, and was only ranked by Colonel Vanatta. 
 
 On the third day the troops crossed Iowa river on 
 the ice, hauling the wagons across by hand. Soon 
 after ascending the bluff beyond Wapello the mail 
 stage was met, the driver of which handed a letter 
 to Colonel Vanatta. The colonel read and passed 
 it to his adjutant, John Marble, requesting him to 
 " read it to the brave soldiers who had fought, bled 
 and didn't die." The letter contained the glad tid- 
 ings that the Hon. Stephen Whicher, of Muscatine, 
 with his colleague, as commissioners appointed by 
 Governor Lucas to settle the dispute, had signed 
 articles of peace with the Missouri commissioners, 
 agreeing to refer the casus belli to the arbitration of 
 congress. The letter added that Colonel Vanatta's 
 army was to continue its march toward Burling- 
 ton, when it would be met by Captain Grimes (after- 
 ward governor and United States senator), and be 
 escorted by his company to the capital of the state. 
 The line of march was taken up, Captain Grimes and 
 his company were duly met, and under this escort the 
 Muscatine boys were proudly conducted to the city 
 and to the state house, where a bountiful spread was 
 laid for them by the ladies of Burlington. Lodging 
 in the capitol building that night, they vacated it the 
 next morning to make way for the legislature which 
 had been convened for that day. And now Mr. Hast- 
 ings exchanged his position, as volunteer staff officer 
 of General Fletcher, for his seat in the legislature, 
 the array turned its face homeward and the Missouri 
 war lived only in history. It may be added that 
 congress finally settled the bloodless dispute in favor 
 of Iowa. 
 
 On the 2 1 St of October, 1840, Captain Gordon 
 united himself in marriage with Miss Eliza Hannah 
 Magoon, daughter of Isaac and Hannah Magoon, of 
 Ware, Massachusetts, who emigrated to Zanesville, 
 Ohio, in 1827, and to Warsaw, Illinois, in 1837, re- 
 moving to Bloomington, Iowa, in 1839 ; of this union 
 there were issue one son and fourdaughters, namely, 
 
 William A., Addie M., Mary E., Agnes S. and Clara 
 Eliza. The son was wounded at the battle of Shi- 
 loh on the 6th of April, 1862, and died from his 
 wounds after years of intense suffering, on the 8th of 
 July, 1866, in the twenty-third year of his age. After 
 the partial recovery of his wound he served for two 
 years as postmaster of the seventeenth army corps. 
 Clara E. died on the 21st of January, 1863, at the 
 age of thirteen years. The other three daughters 
 are living, and married. Addie M. is the wife of 
 Captain John H. Monroe, adjutant on the staff of 
 General McPherson during the late war, and now 
 clerk of the circuit and district courts of Muscatine. 
 Mary E. is the wife of M. L. Mikesell, Esq., of At- 
 tica, Indiana, and Agnes Seleucia is the wife of Will- 
 iam M. Kincaide, Esq. 
 
 In the summer of 1857 Captain Gordon stood as 
 the democratic candidate for sheriff in his county, 
 and was successful in overcoming the strong repub- 
 lican majority in the county, being elected by a very 
 complimentary vote. The principal incident con- 
 nected with his shrievalty, reflecting the highest cred- 
 it upon his sagacity and resolution, was his discovery 
 and arrest of the notorious counterfeiter William 
 Shannon. 
 
 In 1859 Captain Gordon received his nomination 
 for a second term, and was reelected sheriff by an 
 overwhelming majority. He continued in office until 
 the close of his term, and retired to private life with 
 the well-earned title of "the model sheriff of lowar" 
 Subsequently he has served his city and township in 
 three different terms as assessor, acquitting himself 
 with the praise of all honSst-minded citizens. 
 
 In the order of Free and Accepted Masons Mr. 
 Gordon has borne a distinguislred part. He became 
 a member of the order in 1850, and early won the 
 initials of W. M. In the winter of 1854-55, with 
 three other companions, he visited Chicago and re- 
 ceived the red cross and templar knighthood from 
 Apollo Commandery, No. I. The accolade was con- 
 ferred by Sir Knight J. V. Z. Blaney, then eminent 
 commander. On returning to Muscatine, Sir Knight 
 Gordon helped to organize the De Molay Command- 
 ery, No. I, the first commandery in the State of Iowa. 
 He subsequently filled important offices in the chap- 
 ter and commandery. 
 
 A darker shadow than had ever overcast the home 
 of William Gordon fell across its threshold on the 
 8th of August, 1872. On this day died his wife, a 
 leader and one of the most accomplished members 
 of Muscatine society, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTION ART. 
 
 683 
 
 In politics, Mr. Gordon has always been a democrat 
 of the Jeffersonian school. In his religious views, he 
 is a believer in the faith of the Church of Scotland. 
 
 In physique, Mr. Gordon presents a hardy Scotch 
 frame, powerfully knit, six feet in height, and present- 
 ing now, at the age of sixty-three, the elasticity and 
 vigor of robust manhood. The same flexibility mixed 
 
 with strength mark the phases of his character. Stern 
 and unyielding in the performance of duty, no one 
 delights more in the kind and social offices of life. 
 A devoted husband, an indulgent father, a steadfast 
 friend, a faithful officer, William Gordon well merits 
 the wide and deep esteem of his large circle of 
 friends. 
 
 GEORGE W. CROOKS, 
 
 BOONE. 
 
 ONE of the self-educated lawyers of Boone 
 county, and one of the best known men in 
 the same locality, is George Washington Crooks, 
 who first saw the light of this world in Vigo county, 
 Indiana, on the 22d of July, 1836. His father, 
 Jacob Crooks, was a farmer and soldier in the war 
 of 181 2-15, and his grandfather was in the first con- 
 test with the mother country. The Crooks ances- 
 tors were from Germahy, settling in Pennsylvania 
 prior to the revolution. The mother of George W. 
 was Hannah Croy, also of German descent, of whose 
 ancestors little else is known. When he was nine 
 years old the family imrnigrated to Iowa, and after 
 remaining on a farm two years at Fairfield, Jeffer- 
 son county, removed to Boone county. 
 
 George farmed until seventeen, and then worked 
 for several seasons in a grist and saw mill, earning a 
 little money and then spending it in securing a com- 
 mon-school education. He was quite studious in 
 boyhood, and picked up a good deal of knowledge 
 out of school during his leisure hours. 
 
 In 1861 Mr. Crooks was commissioned first lieu- 
 tenant of a company in an independent regiment, 
 which was finally mustered in as the loth Iowa In- 
 fantry, rendezvoused with the regiment at Iowa City, 
 and there became sick and was finally discharged. 
 
 He was elected sheriff of Boone county in 1863, 
 and served from June of that year to the ist of Jan- 
 uary, 1874, being reelected four times. Though 
 always a democrat and living in a republican county, 
 he usually had a fair majority. He discharged the 
 duties of this office very faithfully and to the satis- 
 faction of all parties. 
 
 Soon after becoming sheriff he began to read law 
 in the office of C. W. Lowrey, of Boonesboro ; con- 
 tinued to read more or less every year ; was ad- 
 mitted to the bar in December, 1873, and has since 
 practiced at Boone, being of the firm of Kidder and 
 Crooks. Their practice is very extensive. He was 
 elected to the general assembly in 1877, and is now 
 a member of that body. 
 
 Mr. Crooks is a sound lawyer, conscientious and 
 true, aiming to do what is exactly right and proper. 
 He has a good deal of force of character and indom- 
 itable perseverance, and is still pursuing his literary 
 as well as legal studies. 
 
 Mr. Crooks is a member of the Masonic fraternity, 
 and of the Methodist church, and a man whose char- 
 acter is above suspicion. 
 
 His wife was Miss Rebecca Nutt, of Des Moines, 
 Iowa, chosen on the 19th of July, i860. Thpy have 
 lost one child, and have two children living. 
 
 HON. JOHN H. KING, 
 
 HAMPTON. 
 
 JOHN HEREFORD KING, the only member of 
 J the seventeenth general assembly of Iowa born 
 in this state, is a native of Salem, Henry county, 
 and dates his birth on the 3d of October, 1845, He 
 is the youngest son of Samuel and Content Vernon 
 King, who belonged to the Quaker church, and edu- 
 
 cated their children, eight in all, in the strict dis- 
 cipline of that denomination. 
 
 Born in the Territory of Iowa one year before it 
 became a state, and living on the frontier, young 
 King had very limited opportunities for education, 
 these being confined to a common school and not 
 
684 
 
 THE UlSTITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 of the highest order, though as good perhaps as the 
 average in those territorial days. He had a strong 
 desire for knowledge, and made no inconsiderable 
 progress outside the school-room. Hard work on 
 his father's farm and teaming were his principal oc- 
 cupations until he had arrived at his majority. 
 
 In 1866 he married Miss Permelia A. Andrews, of 
 New Providence, Iowa, and commenced making a 
 farm of two hundred acres of prairie land near New 
 Providence, breaking it with his own hands, and 
 doing most of the fencing. For three seasons he 
 raised a large crop, and taught school during the 
 winters. 
 
 From early youth Mr. King had a desire to study 
 law, but was prevented by his parents. At the age 
 of twenty-four, however, he resolved to commence, 
 and he continued his legal studies with a mountain 
 of financial difficulties to surmount and a family to 
 support, being admitted to the bar at Eldora in No- 
 vember, 1870, at which place he commenced prac- 
 tice on the I St of January, 1871. He moved to 
 Hampton in 1872, and soon rose to prominence at 
 the bar. His progress in his profession has been re- 
 markable and brilliant. 
 
 Mr. King is a thorough and uncompromising re- 
 publican, and has never been anything else. . In the 
 
 party, he early began to show signs of great useful- 
 ness as well as activity, and his merits seem to be 
 fully appreciated at home, for in 1876 he was the 
 choice of his county for congress, his name being 
 strongly urged for nomination " by the Franklin 
 county delegation. In October, 1877, he was elected 
 by an unprecedented and overwhelming majority to 
 represent his county and Cerro Gordo in the popular 
 branch of the general assembly. He was made 
 chairman of the committee on judicial districts, and 
 was also placed on the committees on judiciary, fed- 
 eral relations, senatorial and representative districts, 
 state university, insurance and constitutional amend- 
 ments; was also made chairman of the standing 
 committee on courts and court expenses, and was a 
 prominent member of the special committee on re- 
 trenchment and reform. 
 
 Representative King was rarely out of his seat 
 during the hours when the general assembly was in 
 session, and took a prominent part in the debates, 
 as well as in the committee meetings. He gives a 
 question due consideration before attempting to dis- 
 cuss it, and on the floor shows a clear head and 
 splendid logical powers. Unless prematurely cut 
 off in life, it is not unlikely that the best part of his 
 history is yet to be written. 
 
 HARRISON GURLEY, 
 
 NEW HAMPTON. 
 
 THE Gurleys of whom Harrison is a descendant 
 were from Scotland, the original settler in this 
 country coming over at an early day and locating at 
 Northampton, Massachusetts. Roger Gurley, the 
 father of Harrison, was a mechanic and farmer, and 
 resided in Mansfield, Tolland county, Connecticut, 
 where the son was born on the 14th of January, 1815. 
 The maiden name of his mother was Pamelia Bick- 
 nell. His father was a captain of militia in the war 
 of 1812-15, the youngest child in a large family. At 
 fifteen years of age Harrison commenced a commer- 
 cial life by entering a store at Willimantic, Windham 
 county, having previously been educated in common 
 and select schools. With the exception of one win- 
 ter, when he taught school, he was a salesman and 
 bookkeeper until 1840, when he went into business 
 for himself at Hartford, in company with Charles 
 Boswell, and afterward with Homer Hastings. After 
 a few years the latter firm dissolved, and Mr. Gurley 
 
 continued the mercantile business in the same place 
 until he removed to Iowa in 1855. In the autumn 
 of that year he landed at Grinnell with a stock of 
 goods and opened the first clothing store in that 
 place. In October, 1856, he moved his stock to 
 Chickasaw county and bought the first building, a 
 log hut, ever put up on the site of New Hampton. 
 It stood directly in the middle of the street between 
 where the Gardner or Dixon House and his second 
 store now stand. There were not more than half-a- 
 dozen buildings, huts and all, on the site of the town. 
 This humble log building Mr. Gurley used one year 
 for store and dwelling house. It was afterward used 
 for a postoffice, school-house and church, and was 
 torn down only a few years ago. Mr. Gurley bought 
 about thirty acres of land, which is now the southern 
 part of the city plat, Gideon Gardner having pur- 
 chased forty acres of the land on the north side. The 
 next year Mr. Gurley erected a two-story building, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 685 
 
 which was used by him seventeen or eighteen years 
 as a store, and part of which, at an early day, was used 
 for a dwelling house. A county court was held in it 
 before it was completed, and for a short time the 
 county offices were in the front room on the second 
 floor. 
 
 Mrs. Gurley taught the first school in New Hamp- 
 ton, and had nine or ten pupils, taking them into her 
 own house, in the winter of 1857-58. 
 
 During the first winter in Chickasaw county Mr. 
 Gurley had occasion to pass back and forth on foot 
 between Bradford and New Hampton. The snow 
 was very deep, and on one or two occasions he came 
 very near perishing from exhaustion and cold. 
 
 During the eighteen years that Mr. Gurley was a 
 merchant at New Hampton he owned and cultivated 
 more or less land. He still has a farm of two hun- 
 dred and ten acres, one mile northwest of town, 
 under fine improvement, and has done his full share 
 to develop the agricultural wealth of the county. As 
 a merchant, he was a straightforward dealer, and at 
 an early day commanded the trade for eight or ten 
 miles around. 
 
 In May, 1876, in connection with other parties, he 
 opened the Bank of New Hampton, a savings insti- 
 tution, of which he is the president, and which, under 
 his direction, is quite prosperous. 
 
 Mr. Gurley has been a very active member of the 
 school board for a long time ; was influential in get- 
 ting a railroad to New Hampton, and is vigilant in 
 looking after every interest of the city and county. 
 He has been a member of the Congregational church 
 about forty years and an officer of the same no in- 
 considerable part of the time. He was one of the 
 founders of the New Hampton Church. His influ- 
 ence in every respect is healthful, and the high moral 
 tone of this young city is owing in a large measure 
 to such men as Mr. Gurley, Deacon Gideon Gardner 
 and Captain Powers. 
 
 Mr. Gurley is very liberal ; was originally an anli- 
 slavery whig, and then and now a republican. 
 
 His wife was Miss Isabella Hamilton, of Canaan, 
 New York. They were married on the loth of Sep- 
 tember, 1846, and have had three children. Only 
 one of them, Royal Harrison, aged sixteen, is living. 
 He is receiving a good education. 
 
 HON. SAMUEL McNUTT, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 SAMUEL McNUTT was born near London- 
 derry, Ireland, on the 21st of November, 1825, 
 and is the son of Samuel McNutt and Hannah nee 
 Stuart. The family is of Scotch origin, and de- 
 scended from a long line of distinguished ancestors 
 not less conspicuous in connection with the history 
 of border chivalry than of the more stern and soul- 
 trying events of covenanter times. 
 
 Samuel McNutt, senior, was a man of great kind- 
 ness of heart and of the most generous impulses. 
 He emigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when 
 our subject was but a child, and finally settled in 
 New Castle, Delaware, where he died in 1836, leav- 
 ing a widow and seven children, three boys and four 
 girls, of whom Samuel was the eldest, unprovided 
 for. She never married again, but for forty years 
 devoted her life and energies to the education and 
 interest of her children, and had the happiness to 
 live to see them all comfortably and honorably set- 
 tled in life. Her second son, Robert, was an emi- 
 nent physician in Louisiana at the outbreak of the 
 rebellion, and her third son, James, a physician in 
 
 Missouri. Both joined the Union army. She died 
 in Iowa, on the 24th of December, 1874, at the ripe 
 old age of eighty-five years. 
 
 Working on the little farm in Delaware, Samuel, 
 our subject, passed his boyhood and grew to man's 
 estate. He had been taught, with his brothers and 
 sisters, to read the " Shorter Catechism " as soon as 
 he could talk, and by the time he was thirteen years 
 of age he had committed to piemory the catechism, 
 the psalms of David in meter, the proverbs of Solo- 
 mon, most of the four gospels, the " Scottish Mar- 
 tyrs," and Weem's "Life of Washington." At this 
 time his books were few, but those here named laid 
 the foundation of his character and influence all his 
 after-life. 
 
 He first attracted attention by poetical composi- 
 tions published in the "Temperance Star," Wilming- 
 ton, at the age of sixteen, over the signature of "A 
 Harmony Plowboy," Harmony being the name of 
 his school district. Delaware College was located 
 in the adjoining village of Newark, and one of the 
 professors. Dr. J. S. Bell, offered the " Plowboy " lit- 
 
686 
 
 THE UNIT&D STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DtCTIONART. 
 
 erary assistance and the use of his library. He soon 
 after entered that institution, where he received a 
 liberal education. In those years he contributed to 
 " Peterson's Magazine," " Neal's Gazette," " Godey's 
 Lady's Book," "Saturday Courier," etc. Some of 
 his pieces had a wide circulation in their day. 
 Leaving college in 1848, he engaged in the profes- 
 sion of teaching, and was soon after elected presi- 
 dent of the New Castle County Teachers' Association, 
 which position he held for three consecutive years 
 by election. 
 
 In the meantime he studied law under the direc- 
 tion of the Hon. D. M! Bates, then secretary of the 
 State of Delaware, and in 1851 was admitted to the 
 bar and came west to enter upon the practice of his 
 profession, but being offered a professorship in a 
 collegiate institute located at Hernando, Mississippi, 
 he removed to that state, where he remained some 
 three years. In 1854 he returned to the west and 
 located in Muscatine county, Iowa, where he after- 
 ward purchased some land. During the summer 
 .and fall of 1856 he was principal of one of the pub- 
 lic schools of Muscatine city, and at the close of the 
 term became editor of the " Muscatine Inquirer.'' 
 
 In April, 1857 he became associate editor of the 
 " Dubuque Herald," then under the management of 
 J. B. Dorr, afterward colonel of the 8th Iowa Cav- 
 alry, and remained in that capacity until i860, when 
 Dorr and Co. transferred the " Herald " to the Ma- 
 hony company. 
 
 Up to this period Mr. McNutt had been a demo- 
 crat in politics, and during his connection with the 
 " Herald " had been a warm friend and supporter of 
 the late Stephen A. Douglas ; but when after the 
 election of i860 the southern states began to secede 
 and war seemed imminent, he announced himself as 
 strongly in favor of the administration and of every 
 means that could be used for putting down the re- 
 bellion. The course of the " Herald " (which had 
 lately passed into the control of Mahony and Com- 
 pany) dissatisfying many of its former political 
 friends (the war democrats), Mr. McNutt was in- 
 duced to start a war paper, the " Daily Evening 
 Union," at Dubuque, in which he denounced all as 
 traitors who opposed the administration. This 
 course brought down upon him the enmity of an- 
 other class of his former friends, and after a brief 
 and precarious existence the "Union" was discon- 
 tinued in 1862. , He was now one of the strongest 
 radicals in the state, and became one of the editors 
 of the Dubuque " Times," but in the fall of that year 
 
 he removed back to his farm in Muscatine county, 
 where he has since resided. 
 
 In the summer of 1863, while engaged in recruiting 
 volunteers for the 8th Iowa Cavalry, he was nominated 
 by the republicans of Muscatine county for represen- 
 tative to the tenth general assembly of the state, and 
 was elected by a handsome majority. He was also 
 elected to the eleventh general assembly, and like- 
 wise to the twelfth, thus being returned three times 
 in succession by the same constituency, an honor 
 never previously conferred upon any man in Mus- 
 catine county. In 1869 he was nominated by the 
 same party to the senatorship of the then sixteenth 
 district for the full term, and elected without oppo- 
 sition, receiving all the votes cast for senator, an 
 unprecedented compliment, and served through the 
 thirteenth and fourteenth general assemblies. In 
 both branches of the legislature he was a staunch ad- 
 vocate of all needed reforms, and left a record that 
 stands unrivaled by that of any other member. In 
 the house he was one of the pioneers in the advo- 
 cacy of measures for controlling railway corpora- 
 tions, and the author of several bills for that pur- 
 pose. The principles which- he so ably advocated 
 finally prevailed, and have recently been sustained 
 by decision of the supreme court of the United 
 States. He was the author of the act of 1864 (Ses- 
 sion Laws, chapter seven,) which really made Iowa a 
 free state of this union ; also author of the joint res- 
 olution by which Iowa ratified the amendment to 
 the federal constitution abolishing slavery through- 
 out the republic. In the senate he was the author 
 of many bills on various subjects, and father of some 
 of the most important sections of the code of 1873, 
 among which may be instanced the proviso in sec- 
 tion 866, and all of sections 1305 and 1306. He 
 was the first senator of Iowa who proposed amend- 
 ing the state constitution to allow women to vote 
 (Senate Journal 1870, page 113). In the summer 
 of 1872 he was a prominent candidate before the 
 republican state convention for the office of state 
 treasurer, and although unsuccessful, yet the strength 
 developed in his behalf shows that the hearts of a 
 large number of the loyal sons of Iowa are with him. 
 He was a conspicuous actor in the recent movement 
 on the part of the "Patrons of Husbandry"; was 
 master of a grange, member of the state grange, and 
 for three years president of the Muscatine county 
 council of the order. He delivered numerous pub- 
 lic addresses in connection with the organization 
 throughout his congressional district, all breathing 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 687 
 
 a tone of such true, broad and liberal principles that 
 their sentiments found universal favor. 
 
 Senator McNutt served ten consecutive years as a 
 member of either house, and is everywhere regarded 
 as a wise, patriotic and safe legislator, thoroughly 
 earnest and conscientious in all his sayings and 
 doings; warm and ardent in his temperament; clear, 
 logical and zealous as a speaker, always command- 
 ing unflagging attention. Naturally proud of the 
 character of a " tribune of the people," he is per- 
 haps somewhat imperious in manner and at times a 
 little egotistical, but aside from the arena of debate, 
 genial, social, eminently warm-hearted and full of 
 good humor. His private character is unblemished 
 and unexceptionable.- In church communion, he is 
 
 a Presbyterian, but entertaining broad views of re- 
 ligion and humanity, he is at once one of the most 
 popular and useful men of his day. In personal 
 appearance, he is tall and of dignified presence, 
 dark hair and eyes, with an expression of counte- 
 nance betokening a lively interest in all that is 
 transpiring around him. 
 
 On the 14th- of April, 1857, he married Anna Lu- 
 cas, of Portsmouth, Ohio, niece of ex-Governor 
 Robert Lucas of that state, afterward governor of 
 Iowa Territory, a lady of pleasing manners, aifec- 
 tionate disposition, good appearance, and who takes 
 pride in her husband and her boys, desiring them to 
 excel in all things. The result of this union is three 
 sons : William, Robert and Samuel. 
 
 JOSHUA WORLEY, M. D., 
 
 BELLE PLAINE. 
 
 THE first physician to locate in Belle Plaine was 
 Joshua Worley, a native of Covington, Miami 
 county, Ohio. He is the son of Rev. Caleb Worley, 
 a minister of the Christian denomination, and Eliza- 
 beth Adams, and was born on the 6th of March, 
 1834, the youngest in a family of six children. His 
 maternal grandfather, George Adams, cousin of 
 Daniel Boone, lived in this country in the "times 
 which tried men's souls " and participated in the 
 strife for independence a hundred years ago. Caleb 
 Worley, a Quaker, came from England in 1699, set- 
 tled in Philadelphia, and had two sons, Francis and 
 Henry, who formed the head of the two branches of 
 the Worley family. Francis obtained a tract of land 
 of the Penns, near York, Pennsylvania, and in order 
 to have a neighbor gave a man one hundred acres of 
 land for a cow. The old homestead, it is said, still 
 stands, one and a half miles from York, and is still 
 in the hands of Francis Worley's heirs. Henry 
 Worley immigrated to James river, Virginia, about 
 1730, and raised a family of children, some of whom 
 returned to Pennsylvania. Caleb, one of the sons, 
 settled in Kentucky in 1783, and his son, Nathan, 
 located in Montgomery county, Ohio, in 1804, dying 
 in Germantown, in that county, in 1848. He was a 
 Christian or Disciple minister. His eldest son, Ca- 
 leb, father of Joshua, died at Covington, Miami 
 county, Ohio, in 187 1. 
 
 The subject of this short biography was educated 
 in the common and select schools of Covington, 
 
 doing some work on a farm in the busy season until 
 fifteen years of age ; at seventeen went to Versailles, 
 in his native state, and on a cash capital of three 
 hundred dollars became a hardware merchant, fol- 
 lowing the business four or five years with a gradual 
 increase of success and of capital. Having an in- 
 clination toward the medical profession, at twenty- 
 two he sold out his stock of merchandise: com- 
 menced reading with Dr. J. C. Williamson, of Ver- 
 sailles ; attended two courses of lectures at Starling 
 Medical College, Columbus; practiced one year 
 with his preceptor; attended .a third course of lec- 
 tures in Columbus, and graduated in March, 1861; 
 moved to Koszta, Iowa county, Iowa, the following 
 summer; practiced there one year with Dr. E. P. 
 Miller, and then settled at Belle Plaine, a town just 
 then springing up, now a city of twenty-five hundred 
 inhabitants. 
 
 In May, 1864, Dr. Worley went into the army as 
 assistant surgeon of the 126th Ohio Infantry, and 
 remained until the rebellion was crushed. That 
 regiment was in the sixth army corps, part of the 
 time during the last year of the war in the Shenan- 
 doah valley, Virginia, but most of the time before 
 Petersburg. Surgeons in that locality had usually 
 plenty of cases on hand, and Dr. Worley had little 
 time for idleness. 
 
 At the close of the war, in July, 1865, he returned 
 to Belle Plaine, and has here been in active prac- 
 tice since that time, with the exception of two or 
 
688 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 three seasons spent on his farm near town, on ac- 
 count of ill health. During this period he continued 
 his medical studies, and he makes constant advance- 
 ment in the theory as well as practice of his profes- 
 sion. The opportunities which he had for improve- 
 ment during the year that he was in the army were 
 unusually good, and he reaped the highest advan- 
 tage from them. No man of his age in this section 
 of the state has a better reputation, especially as a 
 surgeon. His rides are quite extensive. He is a 
 
 member of the State Medical Society, and of the 
 Iowa Union Medical Society. His standing is good 
 in both. 
 
 In politics, Dr. Worley is a democrat, but rarely 
 has anything to do with office. His profession ab- 
 sorbs his time. 
 
 He is a Knight Templar among the Freemasons. 
 
 On the 23d of September, 1862, Miss Salome Sul- 
 lenberger, of Koszta, Iowa, became his wife. They 
 have no children. 
 
 GEORGE T. YOUNG, 
 
 LEON. 
 
 GEORGE THOMAS YOUNG, a native of 
 Ashland, Ohio, and the son of Abraham and 
 Mary (Thomas) Young, was born on the 3d of Sep- 
 tember, 1 83 1. His ancestors in this country settled 
 first in Pennsylvania. His great-grandfather fought 
 for American independence. His grandfather was 
 in the whisky rebellion in western Pennsylvania. 
 Abraham Young was a farmer, and raised his son in 
 that calling, the latter supplementing a common- 
 school education with six months' attendance at the 
 Ashland Academy. At nineteen he opened a winter 
 school, teaching two terms in Ohio. At twenty he 
 was appointed deputy clerk of Ashland county, hold- 
 ing that position for one year. 
 
 In the spring of 1853 Abraham Young sold his 
 farm and the family moved to Noble county, Indi- 
 ana, and for two years the subject of this sketch 
 assisted in clearing land in the summer and taught 
 district school in the winter. In the spring of 1855, 
 with one winter's earnings in his pocket, he started 
 westward to seek his fortune, intending to go into 
 southwestern Iowa. On reaching Leon, Decatur 
 county, his funds were exhausted, and he was obliged 
 to stop and seek work. At first he wrote for a few 
 weeks in the county recorder's office, receiving his 
 board in return ; he then took a summer school and 
 taught for two months. At the end of this time the 
 school-house was demolished by a tornado, and his 
 school was thus brought hastily and unceremoniously 
 to a close. He now engaged as a clerk in a store at 
 Leon, and thus busied himself until the next year, 
 when he was elected clerk of the district court, hold- 
 ing that position three terms by repeated reelections. 
 
 In September, 1862, Mr. Young formed a partner- 
 ship with Seth Richards, then of Bentonsport, and 
 
 they opened a mercantile house in Mount Ayr, twen- 
 ty-eight miles west of Leon. There they traded four- 
 teen years, having good success, arid closing out in 
 the autumn of 1876. After spending a year and a 
 half in settling up his business, in the spring of 1878, 
 Mr. Young located once more in Leon, where he has 
 a broker's office in company with Joseph S. Warner, 
 the firm of Young and Warner, doing well. 
 
 Mr. Young is a cautious, prudent man, and man- 
 ages all his matters systematically and with the ut- 
 most care. He came to Iowa with scanty means, 
 but with willing hands, and the skill to apply them, 
 with a resolute heart he has pushed on and has at 
 length acquired a competency. His accumulations 
 have all been made by honest and upright dealings. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Young has usually cooperated with 
 the democrats, but is quite independent, and votes 
 for no one on an unsatisfactory platform. He was 
 on the school board while residing at Leon the first 
 time and also for several years in Mount Ayr, and 
 takes great interest in educational matters. 
 
 He is a member of the Presbyterian church, and 
 an elder of the same. He is a warm friend of the 
 Sunday-school cause, and superintended a school ten 
 or eleven years. He is also an earnest worker in the 
 temperance cause, and has given much time and 
 money to advance it. His heart is in every good 
 enterprise tending to further the interests, mental, 
 moral, and material, of his fellow-men. No com- 
 munity can have too many men of this class. 
 
 Mr. Young aided in organizing the Masonic lodges 
 at Leon and Mount Ayr; has been master of both 
 and is now a Knight Templar. 
 
 On the 23d of December, 1B58, he became the 
 husband of Miss Hattie A. Patterson, of Leon, and 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 689 
 
 they have four children, Helen H., Lulu S., George 
 Willard and Hattie E., all bright and promising. 
 Mrs. Young was president of the Mount Ayr Chris- 
 tian Temperance Union when she left the place; has 
 
 been a teacher in Sunday schools since sixteen years 
 of age and is an active christian philanthropist, often 
 seeking out the needy and in a quiet way supplying 
 their wants. 
 
 COLONEL ABEL B. SMEDLEY, 
 
 CRESCO. 
 
 ABEL BROWN SMEDLEY, three years master 
 i\ of the state grange, and for the last two years 
 lecturer for the national grange, is a native of Jeffer- 
 son county, New York, and was born on the 2d of 
 September, 1825. His father, Joseph Smedley, was 
 a Methodist minister. The maiden name of his 
 mother was Mary Jones. The Smedley family were 
 from England, settling at first in New England, 
 spreading into New York, and thence into the west- 
 ern states. 
 
 The subject of this brief memoir spent his youth 
 in agricultural pursuits, receiving an academic edu- 
 cation at Williamstown, Massachusetts. He was 
 subsequently educated for a master machinist at 
 Fulton, Oswego county. New York ; removed to 
 Wisconsin in 1849, and was an iron manufacturer in 
 Oshkosh until after the civil war commenced. 
 
 In 1862 Mr. Smedley went into the military ser- 
 vice as major of the 32d Wisconsin Infantry; was 
 promoted to lieutenant-colonel in June, 1863; re- 
 turned to Wisconsin in 1864 on account of sickness; 
 at the end of three months returned to the service 
 as lieutenant-colonel of the 46th Wisconsin, and was 
 mustered out in October, 1865. 
 
 In 1868 Colonel Smedley located in the new town 
 of Cresco, which has since been his home. Since 
 coming to Iowa he has devoted himself to agricult- 
 ural and horticultural pursuits, he being one of the 
 most scientific workers in these branches of industry 
 in the State of Iowa. He has a farm of four hun- 
 dred acres in Fillmore county, Minnesota, half a 
 mile from the Iowa line, on which farm he raises 
 large quantities of fruit, some grain and blooded 
 stock, and has one of the finest creameries in this 
 part of the country. 
 
 His homestead in the village of Cresco, contain- 
 ing five acres, is one of the loveliest rural homes in 
 the state. Here Colonel Smedley has more than 
 twenty varieties of grapes, thirty or forty varieties of 
 apples, and all kinds of small fruits which will grow 
 in Iowa, the whole surrounded by a red-fruited bar- 
 72 
 
 berry hedge. On New Year's night, 1878, his beau- 
 tiful residence was reduced to ashes, and with it 
 went seven hundred or eight hundred volumes of 
 books, sixty choice paintings, all framed and hung, 
 and many precious mementos of friendship and 
 love, which no amount of money can ever replace. 
 
 Colonel Smedley was one of the first men in Iowa 
 to start in the grange movement, and in this great 
 " ground-swell " soon became one of the foremost 
 men of the nation. He organized the local lodge, 
 and was its master in 1872, acting at the same time 
 as overseer of the state grange, organizing hundreds 
 of lodges; was master of the state grange from 1873 
 to 1876, and for two years has been lecturer for the 
 national grange. He has visited and lectured many 
 times in all the states of the Union, except those on 
 the Pacific slope, and probably understands the 
 principles and workings of the order better than 
 any other man in the United States. 
 
 He is the author of two or three works, among 
 them " The Patron's Monitor " and a " Manual of 
 Jurisprudence and Cooperation." He also wrote 
 between one and two hundred pages of "The Foot- 
 prints of Time." Probably no man in the country 
 is the author of more grange literature. He has also 
 written a great deal on agriculture and horticulture 
 for various newspapers and periodicals, and on these 
 topics his pen was never perhaps more busy than at 
 the present time. He is very high authority on 
 fruit-growing, butter-making, stock-raising, and kin- 
 dred branches of rural industry. 
 
 On the loth of September, 1867, he was joined in 
 wedlock with Mrs. Jennie Sherman, an artist of Mil- 
 waukee, and they have one child, a son eight years 
 old. 
 
 Mrs. Smedley was born on the 20th of May, 1826, 
 in Madison county, New York, and is the daughter 
 of Nathaniel Tompkins, who removed to Milwaukee 
 in 1849, and from that time until his death in 1868 
 was largely identified with the business interests of 
 that city, Mrs, Sarah J. Tompkins was educated at 
 
690 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 Delancy Institute, near Clinton, New York. Mrs. 
 Smedley was first married to Henry Sherman, of 
 Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1853, with whom she 
 lived three years, during which time was born to her 
 a daughter, now twenty-two years of age. Miss 
 Bertie Sherman attended the Iowa Agricultural Col- 
 lege for three and a half years, and then entered the 
 senior class at the Milwaukee Female College, and 
 graduated on the 21st of June, 1876. Miss Sherman 
 is a young lady of rare attainments. 
 
 Mrs. Smedley, as an artist, may be said to have 
 been born such. Some of the rarest pictures in oil 
 in the state are from her brush. From 1862 to 1868 
 she devoted herself entirely to her profession. Her 
 
 studio in Milwaukee will long be remembered for its 
 rare collection of works of art and the resort of art 
 lovers. Since her marriage to Colonel Smedley she 
 has been, in its broadest sense, a helpmeet to her 
 husband. She is an enthusiast in horticulture, flori- 
 culture and agriculture, and their beautiful home 
 bears ample evidence of her industry and cultivated 
 taste. Her ability and fitness for public life have 
 taken nothing from her charms as a wife and mother. 
 Mrs. Smedley is a living exemplification of the fact 
 that a woman who has the ability and devotes a por- 
 tion of her talents and life to the elevation of her sex 
 and humanity, can at the same time be a wife and 
 mother in the highest sense of these holy attributes. 
 
 GENERAL FRANCIS M. DRAKE, 
 
 CENTERVILLE. 
 
 FRANCIS MARION DRAKE, son of John A. 
 and Harriet O'Neal Drake, was born in Rush- 
 ville, Schuyler county, Illinois, on the 30th of De- 
 cember, 1830. When he was six years old the fam- 
 ily moved to Fort Madison, Iowa, where Francis M. 
 received such education as the schools of the place 
 afforded. In 1846 John A. Drake removed to Davis 
 county and founded the town of Drakeville, now on 
 the southwestern branch of the Chicago, Rock Isl- 
 and and Pacific railroad, the father and two sons, 
 John H. and Francis M., engaging in the mercantile 
 trade there. 
 
 In 1859 the subject of this sketch removed to 
 Unionville, Appanoose county, twelve miles west of 
 Drakeville, there selling goods and dealing in stock 
 until the civil war commenced. 
 
 In the spring of 1861 Mr. Drake raised a company 
 at Unionville, intending to join the 2d Iowa Infant- 
 ry, but was too late. In the meantime the governor 
 furnished the company with arms, and Captain Drake 
 drilled it during the summer. 
 
 In September, 186 1, southern Iowa was invaded 
 by the rebel general Patten ; Governor Kirkwood 
 called out troops, and Captain Drake with his com- 
 pany joined Colonel Edwards' independent regiment 
 of Iowa volunteers and marched into Missouri. At 
 Allenville Captain Drake was made major ; he took 
 command of sixteen companies, and pushed on to 
 attack General Patten, who was retreating to join 
 General Price, Major Drake following him as far as 
 Saint Joseph. There he met General Prentiss, who 
 
 assigned him to the command at Saint Joseph, with 
 Iowa, Kansas and Ohio troops. He was in com- 
 mand there when Colonel Mulligan surrendered at 
 Lexington. 
 
 In September, 1862, Major Drake was commis- 
 sioned lieutenant-colonel of the 36th Iowa Infantry, 
 and_ served in that capacity until February, 1865, 
 when he was breveted brigadier-general for merito- 
 rious services, and continued in the field until mus- 
 tered out, in September, 1865. While serving as 
 brigadier-general he showed on many occasions a 
 good deal of boldness and dash, as well as military 
 skill. 
 
 He was in many expeditions, among them, the 
 Camden, under General Steele, to reinforce General 
 Banks, on the Red river, and on the 4th of April, 
 1864, there was a great contest to see who should 
 get possession of and hold the ford on the Little Mis- 
 souri river, in Arkansas. Colonel Drake finally got 
 possession of the ford, and with five hundred men 
 fought General Marmaduke, with his whole division, 
 for half a day, capturing Lieutenant Fackler, an aid- 
 de-camp on Marmaduke's staff. Colonel Drake was 
 shot through the clothes three times during that day, 
 but received no wound. 
 
 On the 25th of the same month, by special as- 
 signment, Colonel Drake had command of the 2d 
 brigade of General Solomon's division,, and with one 
 thousand men that day, in the battle of Marks' Mills, 
 fought General Fagan, who commanded all the cav- 
 alry forces under Dick Taylor, eight thousand strong. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 691 
 
 according to the official report of the confederates. 
 In that engagement Colonel Drake's horse was shot 
 five times, and he himself was severely, and reported 
 mortally, wounded. He fell and was captured, but, 
 owing to his condition, was paroled immediately. 
 
 After being breveted brigadier-general he relieved 
 General Thayer at Saint Charles, on the White river, 
 Arkansas, and subsequently commanded a brigade 
 in General Shaler's division until the close of the 
 war. His military record is such as the state may 
 be proud of. 
 
 While General Drake was in the service his family 
 resided at Centerville, Appanoose county, which has 
 been his home for the last fifteen years. 
 
 Before going into the army he had read law ; up- 
 on his return he resumed its study, and was admitted 
 to the bar in 1867. For three years he was associ- 
 ated in practice with Judge Amos Harris, the firm 
 name being Harris and Drake. The latter was out 
 of practice three or four years, from the ist of Janu- 
 ary, 187 1, his business being railroad building. He 
 organized a company, and constructed a road from 
 Keokuk to Centerville, a distance of ninety miles, 
 the road being known as the Missouri, Iowa and 
 
 Nebraska railroad. The cars entered Centerville on 
 the 27th of December, 1872. General Drake was 
 made president of the company at its organization, 
 and still holds that office. He is a man of great 
 energy of character and executive ability. 
 
 In May, 1875, he resumed the practice of law, as- 
 sociating with him General A. J. Baker, formerly at- 
 torney-general of Missouri. 
 
 As a citizen of Centerville, General Drake has few 
 peers in enterprise. His whole interest is in the 
 town, and he labors indefatigably to build it up. He 
 has been president of the school board almost con- 
 stantly for nine or ten years. He is a member of the 
 Christian church, and was a delegate to the national 
 convention of that body in 1877. He is very liberal 
 in benevolent enterprises. 
 
 Politically, General Drake is a republican, and was 
 a delegate to the national convention in 1872. 
 
 He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic order, 
 and past chief patriarch in Odd-Fellowship. 
 
 On the 24th of December, 1855, he was united in 
 marriage with Miss Mary J. Lord, of Bloomfield, 
 Iowa, and they have had seven children, all yet liv- 
 ing except one child. 
 
 HON. JAMES G. DAY, 
 
 SIDNET. 
 
 JAMES GAMBLE DAY, late chief justice, and 
 still on the supreme bench, is a son of George 
 Day, a farmer, and Sarah Gamble, and was born in 
 Jefferson county, Ohio, on the 28th of June, 1832. 
 His grandfather, George Day, senior, was from Eng- 
 land, and settled in Maryland. The Gambles are 
 of Irish descent. John A. Gamble, who died in 
 Jersey Shore, Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, in 
 February, r878, and who was once a member of the 
 Pennsylvania legislature, a canal commissioner, a 
 leading politician and banker, was an uncle of Judge 
 Day. James Gamble, another uncle, was a member 
 of congress thirty years ago, and is now a judge of 
 the court of common pleas in that county. Matthew 
 A. Gamble, a third uncle, is a wealthy banker and 
 leading man at Jersey Shore. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was on his father's farm 
 until eighteen years of age; then attended Rich- 
 mond College, in his native county, nearly three 
 years, devoting especial attention to mathematics 
 and the languages ; taught about the same space of 
 
 time in district and graded schools; read law in pri- 
 vate, and entered the law school at Cincinnati in 
 1856, graduating in the spring of the following year. 
 On receiving his diploma he came directly to Iowa, 
 locating at Afton, Union county, where he remained 
 three years, serving as prosecuting attorney the first 
 year. 
 
 In i860 he came to Sidney, his present home, and 
 formed a partnership in the legal profession with L. 
 Lingenfelter, Esq. 
 
 In the autumn of 1861 Mr. Day entered the mili- 
 tary service as first lieutenant company F, isth Iowa 
 Infantry ; was soon promoted to captain of company 
 I, and on being wounded in the battle of Shiloh, on 
 the 6th of April, 1862, was compelled to resign. 
 Before leaving the army he was nominated for judge 
 of the third judicial district; went on the bench on 
 the ist of January, 1863; was reelected four years 
 later, and served in that position until August, 1870, 
 when he was appointed to the supreme bench by 
 Governor Merrill, to fill a vacancy caused by the 
 
692 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 resignation of Judge George G. Wright, who had 
 been elected United States senator. Two months 
 before this appointment the republican state con- 
 vention had nominated Judge Day for the same po- 
 sition, and the people sanctioned the wise choice of 
 the governor. In 1871, and again in 1877, he was 
 reelected, and is still on the bench. During the first 
 year, in accordance with the Iowa statutes, he was 
 chief justice of the supreme court, and again in 1877^ 
 
 Persons best acquainted with Judge Day regard 
 him as a superior court and chancery lawyer, always 
 having excellent briefs, and presenting his points 
 systematically and logically. As a judge, while on 
 the district bench, says an old associate, " he was 
 pleasant and affable, always maintaining the utmost 
 decorum, and was very highly respected by the bar, 
 the officers of the court, and the jurors. He never 
 allowed himself to become irritated, and presided 
 with marked dignity." All the best traits of the 
 true jurist he exhibits on the supreme bench. 
 
 Judge Day has always been a republican, but not 
 a very active politician. 
 
 Religiously, his connection is with the Presbyte- 
 rian church, of which he is an elder. 
 
 In moral and religious character, as well as legal 
 
 attainments and judicial standing, he is an ornament 
 to the state. 
 
 On the Tst of December, 1857, he was united in 
 marriage with Miss Minerva C. Manly, of Steuben- 
 ville, Ohio, and they have seven children. Two of 
 the older ones are at Tabor College, Fremont coun- 
 ty, twelve miles north of Sidney ; others are pursu- 
 ing their studies at home. Mrs. Day, before her 
 marriage, was a teacher, and noted for her efficiency 
 and success. She is an active worker in the temper- 
 ance cause, and in various benevolent enterprises ; 
 very domestic in her habits, and heartily devoted to 
 the interests of her own family. 
 
 Judge Day has a dark complexion, dark hazel eyes 
 and black hair, slightly sprinkled with gray; a bilious- 
 nervous temperament, and a dignified yet easy ad- 
 dress ; is five feet and eleven and a half inches tall, 
 and weighs two hundred and ten pounds. 
 
 His father, who died in 1850, was a prominent 
 whig politician, at one time a member of the Ohio 
 legislature, and during thirty years an elder in the 
 Presbyterian church. The mother of the judge, 
 who died about 1868, was a woman of remarkable 
 force of character, and noted for her many and 
 marked christian graces. 
 
 HON. HENRY H. TRIMBLE, 
 
 BLOOMFIELD. 
 
 HENRY HOFFMAN TRIMBLE is of remote 
 German descent, his parents, John Trimble 
 and Elizabeth Hoffman, having Teutonic blood in 
 their veins. The Trimbles were early settlers in 
 Rockingham county, Virginia, the grandfather of 
 Henry H. being a soldier in the days "which tried 
 men's souls." The Hofifmans were pioneers in Penn- 
 sylvania, and connected by marriage with the Scotts 
 of that state, who were old Indian fighters, some of 
 them being with General Braddock when he suffered 
 his ignominious defeat. 
 
 During the boyhood of Henry H., his father, who 
 was a carpenter in early life, and afterward a farmer 
 and merchant, lived in succession in Rush, Decatur 
 and Shelby counties, Indiana ; his son farming until 
 sixteen years of age. 
 
 He received his literary education in the prepar- 
 atory department of Franklin College, and in the 
 State University at Bloomington and Asbury Uni- 
 versity at Greencastle, all in his native state, grad- 
 
 uating from the last named institution on the 21st of 
 July, 1847. He taught more or less while pursuing 
 his studies, and did other kinds of work, defraying 
 his entire expenses. 
 
 From college Mr. Trimble went directly into the 
 Mexican war, serving one year in the 5th Indiana 
 Volunteers, James H. Lane, colonel. 
 
 On his return from the war, Mr. Trimble read law, 
 at first with Eden H. Davis, of Shelbyville, Indiana, 
 and afterward with the Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks, 
 teaching during this period the Shelbyville Academy 
 for one year. 
 
 His father removed to Iowa in 1848, and he fol- 
 lowed the next year, continued his law studies, and 
 was admitted to the practice by Hon. J. F. Kinney, 
 of the supreme bench at Keosauqua, on the 29th of 
 April, 1850, taking in a very few years a high posi- 
 tion at the bar. 
 
 He was county attorney from 185 1 to 1855, and 
 state senator from 1855 to 1859, being at the last 
 
A'^ ^iy£SB':,ai-S.-^. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 695 
 
 session held at Iowa city and the first held in Des 
 Moines, and on the judiciary committee during his 
 entire term. 
 
 In July, 1861, Mr. Trimble entered the service as 
 lieutenant-colonel of the 3d Iowa Cavalry; served 
 in that position until the 9th of September, 1862, 
 when he was discharged on account of a wound he 
 received in the face at the battle of Pea Ridge, Ar- 
 kansas, on the 7th of March, 1862. The ball en- 
 tered his right cheek, passed through his face, and 
 came out at the bottom of his right ear. It was 
 years before this wound healed,, externally ; it still 
 discharges slightly, and he suffers from it more or 
 less at all times. 
 
 At the October election in 1862 Colonel Trimble 
 was elected district judge of the second district and 
 served four years. His mind is of the analytical 
 type, and he has the ability to analyze thoroughly a 
 question suggested to him. He excels as a trial law- 
 yer, and has great influence with the courts. He has, 
 by study and experience, made himself thoroughly 
 familiar with the general principles of law. As ques- 
 tions arise in the trial of a cause, by a little analyz- 
 ing he assigns them to their proper places. His 
 tenacity is wonderful, and he never gives up until 
 the very last. Regardless of the amount involved, he 
 brings to bear all his professional talent to gain his 
 case. One who has practiced with him and before 
 him, and who has been intimate with him for years, 
 says that he is probably as successful a criminal law- 
 yer as there is in the state. His practice in the fed- 
 eral as well as in other courts has been very exten- 
 sive. He displays masterly skill in the examination 
 of witnesses, and has few peers in any department 
 of legal practice. 
 
 One of his strong points as a lawyer is in cases 
 where the question of insanity is involved. He has 
 made this subject a study for years; has, so to speak, 
 fathomed its lowest depths as a science. Whenever 
 he has a cause in which this question arises, and he 
 has occasion to defend a person on the plea of in- 
 sanity, he astonishes everybody with his wonderful 
 grasp of the subject and the amount of research and 
 learning which he exhibits. 
 
 In 1866 a corporation was organized by the cit- 
 izens of southern Iowa called the Saint Louis and 
 Cedar Rapids Railway Company, the purpose of 
 which was to extend the North Missouri railway, 
 then being constructed, into Iowa. Judge Trimble 
 was chosen one of the directors, and remained such 
 till September, 1868, when the directors, becoming 
 
 dissatisfied with the then president, procured his 
 resignation, and the judge was chosen to take his 
 place. He immediately entered on the duties of 
 his new office ; in four weeks had the railroad bonds 
 negotiated and iron bought. In six weeks track- 
 laying commenced and continued until the track 
 reached the flourishing city of Ottumwa. This is 
 the only direct line of road from the great city of 
 Saint Louis into Iowa, and is one of the most valu- 
 able lines in the state. The judge remained presi- 
 dent of that company until the sale of the road in 
 1875. He also assisted in building the Burlington 
 and Southwestern railway, and has always taken an 
 active interest in all public enterprises. 
 
 Judge Trimble has always affiliated with the dem- 
 ocratic party, and has been a prominent member of 
 it for more than thirty years, having, in fact, a na- 
 tional as well as state reputation as a JDolitician. Be- 
 fore the capital was removed from Iowa city, and 
 when, under the old constitution, the judges were 
 chosen by the legislature, he received the democratic 
 support for member of the supreme bench, coming 
 within two or three votes of being elected, the re- 
 publican majority then being very small. He ran 
 for the same office before the people in 1863. He 
 was a candidate for congress in the first district in 
 1858, running against General Curtis, and coming 
 within five hundred votes of an election, reducing 
 the usual republican majority more than twelve hun- 
 dred votes. He ran a second time for the same 
 office in 1872 against Hon. William Loughridge, then 
 a candidate for reelection, running more than five 
 thousand votes ahead of Horace Greeley, the demo- 
 cratic nominee for President. He was a delegate at 
 large in the democratic national convention which 
 met at Saint Louis in 1876, and cast his vote for 
 Governor Hendricks while there seemed to be any 
 hope for that gentleman's nomination. He was a 
 member of the committee on resolutions in that con- 
 vention. 
 
 No democrat in the state is more popular with his 
 party than Judge Trimble. In all respects his stand- 
 ing is exalted. He is president of the State Bar 
 Association, and in a double sense is at the head of 
 the Iowa bar. 
 
 He is a member of the^commandery in the Ma- 
 sonic order. 
 
 The judge, is a believer in the cardinal doctrines 
 of Christianity, but is not connected with any re- 
 ligious denomination. 
 
 His wife was Miss Emma M. Carruthers, a native 
 
696 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 of Wheeling, West Virginia; married at Shelbyville, 
 Indiana, on the 5th of April, 1849. She is the 
 mother of five children, all yet living, and retains to 
 a wonderful degree the freshness and bloom as well 
 as vivacity of girlhood. A stranger would take her 
 for a lady under thirty years of age. 
 
 The eldest son. Palmer Trimble, is married and 
 an attorney-at-law in the firm of Trimble, Carruthers 
 and Trimble, the middle member being Samuel S. 
 Carruthers, a brother-in-law of the judge, and his 
 law partner since 1867. The second son of Judge 
 Trimble, Frank K., is studying with this firm. 
 
 WILLIAM ISEMINGER, M.D., 
 
 DENISON. 
 
 THE longest resident of Denison in the medical 
 fraternity, and one of the leading practitioners 
 in Crawford county, is William Iseminger, a native 
 of La Porte county, Indiana. He is the son of a 
 farmer, Jacob Iseminger, of German descent, and 
 was born on the roth of July, 1836. His mother 
 was Elizabeth Graybeal, who is of Irish pedigree. 
 William lived on the farm in La Porte county until 
 twenty years of age, sharing in the ordinary educa- 
 tional privileges of farmers' sons. Quite unsatisfied 
 with his literary attainments, in 1856 he went to 
 Greencastle, Indiana, and spent six years in fitting 
 for and going through Asbury University. 
 
 On graduating, Mr. Iseminger came to Iowa, in 
 December, 1862, and taught two seasons in Polk and 
 Jasper counties. He read medicine with Dr. D. V. 
 Cole, of Des Moines; attended two courses of lec- 
 tures at Ann Arbor, Michigan. After spending three 
 years in Vandalia, Jasper county, alternating be- 
 tween teaching and practicing, in May, 1868, he set- 
 tled in Denison, where he has built up an extensive 
 
 business, his rides sometimes embracing a circle of 
 twenty and even thirty miles. In difficult cases of 
 surgery his rides for consultation are still more ex- 
 tensive. His practice is general, as it must neces- 
 sarily be in a country so sparsely settled as Craw- 
 ford and the adjoining counties. He is a careful 
 reader of medical books and periodicals, he know- 
 ing very well that in no other way can one keep 
 pace with the progress of medical science. 
 
 Dr. Iseminger is United States examining surgeon 
 for pensions ; has been the county coroner for six 
 or seven years ; is on the school board, and has held 
 other local offices. He is a practical business man 
 and a very useful citizen. He is a republican. 
 
 He was formerly a member of the Christian or 
 Disciple church, but there is no such an organiza- 
 tion in Denison. In moral and religious character 
 his standing is exalted. 
 
 His wife was Miss Nancy J. Cavett, of Vandalia, 
 Iowa; married on the I oth of September, 1868. They 
 have one child living, and have lost one. 
 
 HON. HUGH W. MAXWELL, 
 
 DES MOINES. 
 
 HUGH WRIGHT MAXWELL, late judge of 
 the fifth judicial district, was the son of Will- 
 iam Maxwell, a farmer, and Charity Wright, and was 
 born in Vermilion county, Illinois, on the 14th of 
 February, 1827. His paternal grandfather, Hugh 
 Maxwell, came from Ireland and settled in North 
 Carolina. The Wrights, were English. Hugh W. 
 farmed with his father in his native county until of 
 age, finishing his education at the Georgetown Sem- 
 inary, near Danville, and graduating in the summer 
 of 1852. The next October he crossed the Missis- 
 sippi river into Iowa, located at Indianola, Warren 
 
 county, where he taught school for two years; also 
 spent some time in surveying during the interim. In 
 1854 he was elected clerk of the district court, which 
 office he held for five consecutive years, studying 
 law at the same time, and was admitted to the bar at 
 Indianola in r857 and practiced steadily until the 
 second year of the rebellion. 
 
 In 1862 Mr. Maxwell went into the army as bri- 
 gade commissary, but at the end of about one year 
 his health failed and he was obliged to resign. Re- 
 turning to Indianola, he resumed practice; in 1864 
 was elected attorney of the district embracing Polk 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 697 
 
 and nine other counties; at the end of two years he 
 was appointed judge, to fill a vacancy caused by the 
 death of Judge J. H. Gray; in the autumn of the 
 same year (1866) was elected for a term of four 
 years; was reelected in 1870 for another term, leav- 
 ing the bench on the 31st of December, 1874. 
 
 On resuming legal practice. Judge Maxwell locat- 
 ed at the capital, where he is still to be found, and 
 is among the foremost attorneys at the Polk county 
 bar. He does business in all the state and federal 
 courts. 
 
 To the lovers of justice the administration of 
 Judge Maxwell was especially satisfactory. To the 
 violators of the liquor law and to criminals he sought 
 to mete out the punishment which they merited. In 
 all cases his sympathies were with the injured. 
 
 Judge Maxwell usually affiliates with the repub- 
 lican party, but never knowingly votes for a man of 
 bad habits. He is a strong advocate of the temper- 
 ance cause. 
 
 He is' a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
 church, a man of unbending integrity, and is living 
 a consistent christian life. 
 
 The judge has had two wives. The first was Miss 
 Mary L. Johnston, of Indianola; married in 1853. 
 She died two years afterward, leaving one son, 
 Trenck J., now a merchant in Olathe, Kansas. The 
 present wife of the judge was Mrs. Frances F. Fox, 
 of Indianola; married in June, 1856. She has had 
 four children, three of them yet living, Mary B., a 
 teacher in Des Moines ; Sallie F. and Franc W. are 
 being educated in the public schools. 
 
 CHARLES E. HEDGES, 
 
 SIOUX ciTr. 
 
 CHARLES E. HEDGES, deceased, was a son 
 of Nathaniel G. Hedges, and was born in 
 Switzerland county, Indiana, on the 21st of June, 
 1834. He remained in that state until his nineteenth 
 year, receiving an academic education. He was the 
 eldest child of the family, which moved to Keokuk, 
 Iowa, in December, 1856. Attracted by the geo- 
 graphical location of Sioux City, then recently sur- 
 veyed and laid out, and its favorable situation as a 
 business point, a month or two after reaching Iowa 
 Charles E. and his father came to this place and 
 opened a real-estate office. A younger brother, Dan- 
 iel T., followed in April. 
 
 In the autumn of 1857 the subject of this sketch 
 formed a partnership with J. W. Bosler in a private 
 bank. During the same autumn Mr. Hedges was 
 elected county recorder and treasurer, which office 
 he held by reelection four years, making, as he did 
 in every kind of business through life, a clean record. 
 
 In i860 the Hedges brothers went into the mer- 
 cantile trade, which was continued for eight years. 
 Charles, meantime, in i86i, was appointed trader at 
 the Yankton Agency, holding it for six years, and 
 residing there the greater part of the time. During 
 the year 1866 he also filled the place of sutler at 
 Fort Randall. 
 
 From 1868 until his death, in 1877, Mr. Hedges 
 resided in Sioux City, all this time in partnership 
 with his brother Daniel in various enterprises. 
 
 Among these were contracts for carrying the mail 
 
 to Fort Sully and to points in Minnesota, and for 
 
 furnishing military and Indian supplies for the United 
 
 States government ; dealing in cattle and grain as 
 
 well as real estate ; running an elevator and a steam 
 
 flouring mill, and building the Woodbury county 
 
 court-house and railroads. Mr. Hedges was one of 
 
 the original projectors and owners of the Covington, 
 
 Columbus and Black Hills railroad, holding the office 
 
 of treasurer of the company for some time, and at the 
 
 time of his death he was one of the directors of the 
 
 new company. He and his brother contracted for 
 
 and graded thirty-six miles of this road a short time 
 
 before his death. 
 
 During some of these years, as we learn from the 
 
 Sioux City "Journal," from which we glean several of 
 
 these facts, the business of Hedges Brothers amounted 
 
 to more than half a million dollars. That daily paper, 
 
 in speaking of his death, in its issue of the isth of 
 
 August, 1877, says : 
 
 The occasion of Charles' death was contingent upon the 
 circumstance that he was at the time engaged in filh'ng a 
 cattle contract with tlie Indian department, in which he had a 
 one-fourth interest; and it is owing to the constant personal 
 attention the Hedges Brothers gave their business, what- 
 ever it might be, that led him to be there. They never 
 shrank from the most arduous work, and no laborer in their 
 employ ever gave so many hard hours a day to their busi- 
 ness as they did themselves. Being men of very strong 
 physical build, they have been able to stand what would 
 long ago have taken down almost any other men. 
 
 Mr. Hedges died on the 9th of August, 1877, 
 
698 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 He was found about twenty-five miles southeast of Lower 
 Brule Agency, on the west side of the Missouri river. He 
 was traveling up the river in charge of his herd of five 
 thousand cattle, and left the herd, going alone in his wagon 
 to hunt a new trail to the agency, saying he would get into 
 Brule Agency and return to the herd next day with pro- 
 visions. Not returning as agreed, search was diligently 
 made for him, and three days later his body was found a 
 short distance from where he had left the herd. He was 
 shot through the head. Everything was found in the buggy, 
 not a single article of any kind missing. The general belief 
 is that it was an accident; in what way happening can 
 never be known. His pi-tol was found with two empty cart- 
 ridges, one of which he exploded before he left the party ; 
 the other it is rot unlikely he discharged by accident, by the 
 revolver falling off the seat on the back of the buggy, and 
 striking with the hammer on the side of the box. 
 
 At the time of his death Mr. Hedges was a mem- 
 ber of the city council and a director of the State 
 Agricultural Society. 
 
 He left a second wife to mourn her great loss. His 
 first wife was Miss Mary L. Krutz ; married at Flor- 
 ence, Indiana, in December, 1868. She died in July, 
 1870. On the gth of January, 1873, he was married 
 to Miss Emma Quintrel, of Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
 He was buried by the Freemasons. 
 
 There was everywhere observable a spirit which showed 
 the sorrow that filled the hearts of the community. ... It 
 was a tribute to the memory of a man the vacancy of whose 
 position will for years be a potent reminder that a head and 
 heart and hand are still that thought and felt and worked 
 for the benefit of the community of which their possessor 
 was a member. 
 
 He was, no doubt, the most energetic man that 
 helped to make Sioux city what it is, the great com- 
 mercial city of northwestern Iowa. 
 
 A few months after the burial of Mr. Hedges his 
 remains were taken to Spring Grove cemetery, Cin- 
 cinnati, Ohio. 
 
 The " Commercial Gazette," of Sioux City, thus 
 spoke of Mr. Hedges at the time of his demise: 
 
 Dame Nature rarely grants to one community more than 
 one such man ; and by his death there certainly exists in 
 the commercial ranks of Sioux City a vaca,ncy which no 
 other man can fill. With the body of a Hercules, the cour- 
 age of a lion, the great force of character which m.ade for 
 him a fortune and a name, he has done for this community 
 in the way of public advancement more than any other man 
 could do. On both sides of the Missouri, from Council " 
 Blufts to Niobrara, over the broad prairies of Dakota terri- 
 tory, on the homesteads of northwestern Iowa and northern 
 Nebraska the common verdict presses itself home to human 
 hearts that his death was a public calamity. 
 
 Like all men of tremendous mental force, he had his ene- 
 mies. The selfish and the envious ones lagging behind him 
 in the race of fortune envied him who was so much their 
 superior. But those who knew his warm and generous 
 nature best loved him best. He leaves a fond wife, a brother, 
 father and sisters to mourn his tragic death. 
 
 The same paper contained a metrical tribute to 
 the memory of Mr. Hedges, concluding as follows : 
 
 " I weep not that the autumn leaves 
 
 Are torn in fragments by the breeze; 
 I weep not that the golden sheaves 
 
 The sun in autumn fallen sees. 
 
 « 
 
 " I weep that manhood in its prime 
 
 Was torn from all that makes life sweet; 
 That human life in summer time 
 Its sad, untimely end should meet. 
 
 "And such a man — of giant form: 
 A form that clad a mighty mind. 
 With soul impetuous, brave and warm 
 As ever dwelt in human kind. 
 
 " Sioux City, mourn your mighty son. 
 
 That gave you much of power and pride. 
 And grant him now, when life is done. 
 The honor envy long denied. 
 
 " Green be the turf above his breast. 
 And lightly o'er his grave the sod; 
 And pray we that his soul may rest 
 In peace eternal with his God." 
 
 JOSEPH T. BEEBE, M. D. 
 
 AFTON. 
 
 AN eminently self-made man, whose brief biogra- 
 Jr\. phy gives but an imperfect narrative of the 
 many exploits of his early life, to which he now in 
 the fifty-sixth year of his age, and in a perfect con- 
 dition of health, adverts with more of the subject- 
 matter of romance than of personal exploits. 
 
 It is only in the western section of the United 
 States that such subjects are to be found. The self- 
 imposed trials through which Dr. Beebe has passed 
 should stimulate the young men of to-day, who have 
 nothing but their innate courage to help them to ad- 
 vancement in the social scale. 
 
 Our subject was born in Knox county, Ohio, on 
 the 27th of June, 1821. His father was John Beebe, 
 and his mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Tal- 
 mage. The doctor has two brothers and two sisters 
 now living. At the age of nine he commenced go- 
 ing to a district school. He worked on the farm in 
 the summer, and went to school in the winter months 
 until he was seventeen, when he went to Dewit 
 Academy, where he remained for seven months. 
 From that time he worked upon the farm in the 
 summer, taught school in the winter, and commenced 
 the study of the preparatory course of medicine; 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 699 
 
 subsequently he read a regular course of medicine 
 in the office of Dr. Page, at Delaware county, Ohio, 
 with whom he remained till 1843, when he went to 
 Cincinnati and registered at the Ohio Medical Col- 
 lege, where he remained for two years under the 
 faculty of said college, from which he graduated in 
 March, 1845, then removed to Columbia City, Indi- 
 ana, and commenced the practice of medicine. 
 
 At the time he left Cincinnati he owed fifty dol- 
 lars on his tuition fee. He took stage to Saint 
 Mary's, from which place, with less than three dol- 
 lars in his pocket, he commenced his walk of sixty 
 miles to Columbia City; when he reached this place 
 his finances were reduced to thirty-one cents, and 
 he was a stranger in a strange land. He stopped at 
 the hotel, and the next day made the acquaintance 
 of one or two brother Methodists, to whom he ex- 
 plained his desire to commence the practice of med- 
 icine, but said nothing of his private impecunious- 
 ness. Receiving encouragement from them, he re- 
 turned to the hotel, then started for the home of a 
 cousin, by marriage, who lived twenty-five miles dis- 
 tant. He spent twenty-five of his thirty-one cents 
 for food, begged his last meal at a farm-house, and 
 finally reached his cousi-n's, to whom he told the 
 story of his advent into Columbia City and his pros- 
 pects there, and from whom he obtained a horse and 
 bridle and ten dollars in cash ; and after resting him- 
 self for a day or two he rode back to the hotel. 
 He continued to board at this place, and at once 
 built up a lucrative practice. This was in March. 
 In the November following he returned to Knox 
 county, Ohio. Here he remained for four weeks, 
 and married Miss Philene Helt, of Sparta. His wife's 
 father moved them to Columbia City. The father 
 returned to Sparta, and young Dr. Beebe and wife 
 went to housekeeping. Here they remained until 
 October, 1847, when Mrs. Beebe's health declining 
 they concluded to go to Mount Gilead, where the 
 doctor bought property, commenced the practice of 
 medicine, and remained there for seventeen years ; 
 during which time he had born to him two boys and 
 one girl. The latter, now Mrs. Rice, resides at Des 
 Moines ; the eldest son is in the wholesale drug busi- 
 ness at Burlington, with the house of Reynolds and 
 Churchill, and the youngest son is in business with 
 his father at Afton. Though blessed with a very 
 large and lucrative practice at Mount Gilead, Dr. 
 Beebe conceived the idea of placing himself in such 
 a position as better to advance the interests of his 
 two sons, and with this in view he, together with 
 73 
 
 some seven other families, determined to go to Afton, 
 Iowa. They were thirty-two days on the road, camp- 
 ing out at night. Reaching Afton, then a hundred 
 miles distant from any railway, he bought two hun- 
 dred acres of land near Afton, which he commenced 
 to improve. 
 
 In January, 1865, he bought a half interest in a 
 drug store at Afton with Dr. Roberts, whom he sub- 
 sequently entirely bought out. 
 
 Early in the spring of 1866 he had built and oc- 
 cupied his new home at the farm, intending to retire 
 from medical practice, having sold his store during 
 the preceding winter. But there was to be only a 
 temporary respite from the cares of business. His 
 old clients and new ones were continually importun- 
 ing him to return to his practice. In the following 
 October he sold his farm to good advantage, and 
 concluded to remove to Brookfield, a division station 
 on the Hannibal and Saint Joe railroad. Here he 
 went into the drug business with his former partner. 
 Dr. Roberts, and resumed his professional practice. 
 
 In 1868 Dr. Beebe returned to Afton, bought out 
 a drug store, and commenced the construction of a 
 dwelling, into which he moved in November follow- 
 ing. At the same time he built a business block. 
 
 It was generally supposed at this time that Crom- 
 well, sixteen miles from Afton, was to be made the 
 division station of the Burlington and Missouri Riv- 
 er railway, and Dr. Beebe also built a house and es- 
 tablished a drug store at this point ; but Cromwell 
 was not made a division station, and the doctor con- 
 fined his enterprises entirely to Afton, where he now 
 built a fine building twenty by eighty feet, and twto 
 stories high, which he fitted up as the leading drug 
 store of the town, which position, it holds to the 
 present day. 
 
 Dr. Beebe was among the first to enlist as a private 
 on the call for three months' troops by the governor 
 at the outbreak of the southern rebellion, but he was 
 soon detached from the ranks and placed upon the 
 medical staff. 
 
 Dr. Beebe has always taken a lively interest in 
 agricultural matters and in the general improvement 
 of stock. For seventeen years he has held office 
 from secretary to president in such societies.. The 
 doctor has also given considerable attention to rail- 
 way matters. 
 
 At a meeting of the stockholders of the Des 
 Moines, Afton and Missouri railroad, held in Febru- 
 ary, 1877, Dr. Beebe was unanimously chosen presi- 
 dent of the road, a very proper choice, as the doc- 
 
700 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 tor has spent much of his time for the past year in 
 raising stock for the road, and in looking after the 
 general survey. 
 
 In May, 1875, the doctor determined upon the in- 
 stitution of a national bank at Afton, and by con- 
 stant and vigorous efforts succeeded in getting the 
 capital stock subscribed. 
 
 In January, 1876, he was elected its president, 
 and was reelected the succeeding year. He has 
 been often elected to the city council, and has ever 
 been very active in the cause of popular education. 
 
 In the summer of 1877 a company was organized 
 , to build the Saint Louis and Northwestern railway, 
 to connect with the Chillicothe and Brunswick rail- 
 way, to run to Storm Lake, in Iowa. From Saint 
 Louis to Storm Lake is a distance of six hundred 
 miles, two hundred and eighty-five miles are still to 
 be built to complete all the connections. In this 
 
 road the doctor has five thousand dollars' worth of 
 stock. Unsolicited by him the directors of this 
 road have also elected him president. 
 
 Dr. Beebe was originally a whig in politics, then a 
 republican. Voted for General Grant, but subse- 
 quently voted for Horace Greeley, and is now a 
 pronounced conservative, holding the individual 
 merits of a nominee to be above the dogmatic creed 
 of any party: 
 
 He has always been a confirmed Methodist in his 
 religious views, and is an active member of that or- 
 ganization. 
 
 It is to such men as Dr. Beebe that the great north- 
 west is indebted for the giant strides it has made in 
 developing its great natural resources. To a very 
 active mind he adds great probity of character and 
 a persistent will, and great energy in successful work- 
 ing out everything he undertakes. 
 
 BENJAMIN F. GUE, 
 
 DBS MOINES. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch, a native of Greene 
 county, New York, was born on the 25th of 
 December, 1829, the son of John Gue and Catherine 
 nee Gurney. His paternal grandfather was named 
 David Gue, while his maternal grandparents were 
 Benjamin and Martha (Bedell) Gurney, of Greene 
 county. New York. During the time of the French 
 revolution his grandfather became a refugee from 
 France, and, immigrating to America, settled in West- 
 chester county, near the city of New York. His 
 parents were both Quakers in their religious belief 
 and persons of wide influence in their community. 
 Lovers of liberty, they became pronounced aboli- 
 tionists, and in the days of the underground railroad 
 their house was used as one of the stations. The 
 first paper our subject ever saw in his home was 
 William Lloyd Garrison's " Liberator," the first anti- 
 slavery paper that was published. When Benjamin 
 was four years old his parents moved to Ontario 
 county, New York, a place noted as the yearly meet- 
 ing place of the Quakers of western New York, Can- 
 ada and Michigan. Here our subject received his 
 first education in the district school, and his father 
 dying when he was ten years old left him the eldest 
 of six children. By the aid of her children and the 
 practice of rigid economy tlie mother kept her family 
 together and gave them an education, 
 
 In the fall of 185 r, being then twenty-two years of 
 age, our subject returned to his native place and en- 
 gaged in school teaching. Prompted by a desire to 
 see the then growing west, he, early in the spring of 
 1852, in company with his younger brother, Joseph 
 H. Gue, went to Iowa, arriving at Davenport, in 
 Scott county, after a tiresome journey of three weeks. 
 Going to the northern part of Scott county, to a place 
 now known as Big Rock, they entered one hundred 
 and sixty acres of prairie land and forty of timber ; 
 they also purchased a team and farming utensils, and 
 began to cultivate their land, living in a log house, 
 and for a year and a half keeping "bachelor's hall." 
 At the end of that time their mother, having pre- 
 viously sold her farm in the east, removed to the 
 west with her family and kept house for them. 
 
 Early becoming identified with the public inter- 
 ests of his adopted state, Mr. Gue became known as 
 an influential man of the people, and in the fall of 
 1857 was elected on the republican ticket to the 
 state legislature, it being the first session held after 
 the state capital was moved from Iowa City to Des 
 Moines. During that session he became one of the 
 authors of the bill providing for the establishment of 
 a state agricultural college. 
 
 In the legislature he was known as a leading and 
 working member, and so commended himself to his 
 
TtiE utfiTED ST ATMS Biographical dictionart. 
 
 701 
 
 constituents that he was reelected in 1859. In the 
 fall of 1 86 1 he was elected to the state senate for a 
 term of four years. During his term he introduced 
 the bill prohibiting the circulation of foreign bank 
 bills, also the bill regulating jury fees, a regulation 
 which resulted in a saving to the state of about sixty 
 thousand dollars annually. He was also one of the 
 authors of the bill providing for the leasing of the 
 land granted to the Agricultural College, by which 
 the college realizes more than thirty thousand dol- 
 lars annually. 
 
 Removing to Fort Dodge before the close of his 
 term of office, he purchased the Fort Dodge " Re- 
 publican," and became its editor. 
 
 In the fall of 1865 he was elected lieutenant-gov- 
 ernor of Iowa, and ex-officio became president of the 
 senate of 1866. During that session he was elected 
 one of the trustees of the Agricultural College, and 
 served in that capacity four years during the con- 
 struction of the building and the organization of the 
 school, being president of the board and chairman 
 of the executive committee and committee on organ- 
 ization. 
 
 Changing the name of his paper to the " Iowa 
 Northwest," he continued its publication for a pe- 
 riod of eight years. 
 
 In the summer of 1872 he removed to Des Moines 
 
 and purchased an interest in the " Iowa Homestead," 
 and became chief editor of the same. Continuing to 
 serve in this capacity until the following December, 
 he was at that time appointed United States pension 
 agent, a position in which he still serves (1878), giv- 
 ing universal satisfaction. 
 
 In his religious belief Mr. Gue entertains liberal 
 humanitarian views, and is identified with the Uni- 
 versalist church. 
 
 He was married in November, 1855, to Miss Eliz- 
 abeth R. Parker, daughter of Francis Parker, Esq., 
 who was afterward killed by Mexicans in Arizona. 
 Of the five children who have been born to them, 
 four are now living. Horace Greeley Gue, born on 
 the 17th of May, 1857, was educated at the Iowa 
 Agricultural College, and is now proprietor of a drug 
 store at Decatur, Illinois; Alice I^. Gue was born on 
 the nth of July, .i860; Gurney Chapline Gue was 
 born on the 30th of October, 1862 ; the next, Birdie, 
 died in infancy ; the youngest, Moinie, was born on 
 the loth of April, 1872. 
 
 Such is a brief outline of the life history of one 
 who, by his own power, has risen from comparative 
 obscurity to a position of honor and influence. He 
 is, indeed, the "architect of his own fortune," and 
 his life furnishes a most worthy example of what 
 may be attained by constant, persistent, honest effort. 
 
 HON. JOHN B. DRAYER, 
 
 MOUNT PLEASANT. 
 
 JOHN BREITENBACH DRAYER, circuit judge 
 J of the first judicial circuit, was born in Labanon, 
 Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, on the 7th of April, 
 1823. His parents were Joseph Drayer, watchma- 
 ker, and Henrietta Breitenbach, both of whom were 
 of German pedigree, the families being among the 
 early emigrants from the old world to Pennsylvania. 
 The grandfather of John B. spelled his name Dreher, 
 Joseph changing the orthography but retaining the 
 German pronunciation. 
 
 The family removed to Hamilton, Ohio, when the 
 subject of this notice was ten years old, and there 
 he learned the trade of his father, working at it until 
 in his nineteenth year, with no literary education ex- 
 cept what he obtained in a common and high school. 
 At the age just mentioned he commenced reading 
 law with Hon. John Woods, since a member of con- 
 gress from Ohio, and was admitted to practice in 
 
 April, 1844, when just twenty-one years old. He 
 practiced at Hamilton about eight years, then at 
 Eaton, Preble county, until March, 1858, when he 
 removed to Mount Pleasant. 
 
 In 1862 Dr. Drayer entered the service as captain 
 company H, 30th Iowa Infantry, and after seven 
 months was obliged to resign through ill health. 
 
 He was elected county judge in 1863, and served 
 from January, 1864, to January, 1869, when he went 
 on the bench. He has been reelected twice, the 
 last time without opposition, and his third term will 
 not expire until the 31st of December, 1879. As a 
 jurist, he is scrupulously conscientious and pains- 
 taking, studying each case with the utmost diligence ; 
 and his decisions are rarely reversed. As a probate 
 judge, it is doubtful if he has a superior in the state. 
 In all the relations of life he has shown himself to 
 be a man of the strictest integrity. 
 
702 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Judge Drayer has been a member of the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal church since 1846, and at one period 
 of his life, since locating in Iowa, he preached for two 
 years, resigning a pastorate in the Brookville circuit 
 to go into the army. His christian record, as well 
 as the ermine which he has worn so long, is un- 
 soiled. 
 
 The judge was originally a whig, and on the de- 
 mise of that party promptly, and with hearty sym- 
 pathy, cast in his fortunes with the noble party of 
 freedom. Before becoming judge he was quite an 
 active politician. He has lost none of his attach- 
 ment to the principles of the republican party, but 
 in his official position his innate sense of propriety 
 deters him from active partisanship. 
 
 He has taken the second degree in Odd-Fellow- 
 ship. 
 
 Judge Drayer has a third wife. His first. Miss 
 Mary M. Withrow, of Butler county, Ohio ; married 
 
 on the sth of January, 1847, died on the 22d of July, 
 1852, leaving two children, both of them since dy- 
 ing. His second wife, Miss Mary J. McCabe, of 
 Eaton, Ohio; married on the 21st of February, 1854, 
 had one child, and died on the 13th of October, 
 187 1. His present wife was Miss Amanda Baird, of 
 Butler county, Ohio; married on the 24th of Decem- 
 ber, 1872. She has one child.- Of the two children 
 by his first wife, a son, Samuel J., died at six years 
 of age; the other. Marietta, was the wife of Dr. 
 George W. Curfman, of Fairfield, Iowa, dying on the 
 9 th of March, 1873. The child by his second wife, 
 Anna, is the wife of William R. Sullivan, secretary of 
 a scale company. Mount Pleasant. 
 
 Judge Drayer had a hard struggle in early life, but 
 overcame all obstacles and pushed manfully forward 
 until he reached his present position. Should his 
 life be prolonged, he has more history, equally hon- 
 orable, to make. 
 
 HON. FREDERICK MOTT, 
 
 WINTERSET. 
 
 THE Mott family, of which Frederick Mott is a 
 descendant, was French, and the name was 
 originally De La Mott. The progenitor of the fam- 
 ily in this country was among the early settlers on 
 Long Island. The subject of this sketch is a native 
 of Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, and was born 
 in Montrose on the 14th of January, 1828. His fatlier, 
 Merritt Mott, was a woolen manufacturer and farmer, 
 and a deacon of the Baptist church more than fifty 
 years, dying at Montrose, Pennsylvania, in 1876, 
 when over eighty years of age. The maiden name 
 of Frederick's mother was Caroline Tupper, a noble 
 christian woman, who died in 1864. During part of 
 his youth the son labored with his father in a woolen 
 factory in his native state. At seventeen he entered 
 Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; was 
 graduated in 185 r, and for three years was at the 
 head of the Derby (Vermont) Academy, reading law 
 at the same time. In 1854 he came as far west as 
 Upper Sandusky, Ohio, where he had charge of the 
 union school two years, and then pushed westward, 
 locating in Winterset. 
 
 Mr. Mott had been admitted to the bar in Ver- 
 mont, and on settling at the seat of justice of Mad- 
 ison county, immediately commenced practice, pur- 
 suing it unremittingly until after the south had risen I 
 
 in arms to destroy the Union. In September, 1862, 
 he entered the army ; was made adjutant of the 39th 
 Iowa Infantry in the spring of 1863; was commis- 
 sioned by President Lincoln as assistant adjutant- 
 general in 1864, and assigned to duty with the third 
 brigade, fourth division, fifteenth army corps, serv- 
 ing in that position until the close of the war. 
 
 Returningto Winterset in August, 1865, he resumed 
 the practice of law ;■ applied himself with diligence 
 to legal studies, and rose so rapidly at the bar that in 
 the autumn of 1868 he was elected judge of the fifth 
 judicial district, serving the full term of four years. 
 The qualifications of Judge Mott for the bench may 
 be inferred from the tenor of the resolutions passed 
 by the Guthrie county bar, on his retiring, one of 
 them reading as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That we recognize and appreciate the marked 
 ability, impartiahty and courtesy with which he has at all 
 times presided over the circuit court of Guthrie county, and 
 congratulate him on the extraordinary success which has 
 attended his judicial labors. The fact that of four hundred 
 and sixty-two cases determined in his court in Guthrie coun- 
 ty during his term of office, not a single one has been ap- 
 pealed, indicates an approbation of his decisions on the part 
 of the litigants in this court, as exceptional and rare as it 
 must be gratifying to the judge. 
 
 The bar of the several counties in the district 
 passed resolutions of a similar tone, all commending 
 
TH& UNITED STATES BtOGRAPtllCAL DiCTtOiSfART. 
 
 703 
 
 the judge for his noble traits of character, and espe- 
 cially for his qualifications as a jurist. 
 
 At the annual meeting of the Iowa Baptist state 
 convention, held in Des Moines in 1870, Judge Mott 
 was elected its president, and the same compliment 
 was paid him at the next three annual meetings of 
 that body. In 1873 the regents of the State Uni- 
 versity elected him to the professorship of pleadings 
 and practice in the law department of that institution, 
 a position which he filled for two years, and then, 
 under the pressure of enthusiasm created by the Bap- 
 tist denomination in favor of their higher schools of 
 education, in connection with the centennial year of 
 the nation, he accepted the presidency of the Uni- 
 versity of Des Moines. That position he held until 
 the close of the centennial year, when, owing to the 
 condition of his health, he resigned, and, returning to 
 his old home, resumed law practice and banking. In 
 1867-68 he was cashier of the National Bank of Win- 
 terset, and that position he again holds. 
 
 During the connection of Judge Mott with the 
 University of Des Moines, the college building was 
 finished ; rooms for the societies and library were 
 provided ; the library was started, and about twenty 
 thousand dollars were added to the endowment. 
 
 Judge Mott early embraced the tenets of the whig 
 party ; cast his first vote for General Scott for the 
 Presidency in 1852, and since the dissolution of that 
 party has acted with the republicans. He is a can- 
 did, sincere and conscientious man, cherishing his 
 political and religious sentiments with equal honesty 
 of purpose. 
 
 The judge has a second wife. His first was Miss 
 Emma E. Dean, of Grayton, Vermont ; married in 
 1856. She died in August, 1868. His present wife 
 was Miss Mary J. Best, a native of Morrow county, 
 Ohio; married in July, 1861 ; they have three chil- 
 dren. 
 
 An old neighbor of Judge Mott, and an associate 
 of his at the bar, thus speaks of him as a man, and 
 a lawyer and jurist : 
 
 He is pleasant in his manner, kind-hearted and charita- 
 ble, ever ready with a kind word when a kind word will do 
 good. He is an earnest christian worker, public-spirited, 
 and an invaluable citizen. As captain and assistant adjutant- 
 general in the army, he was prompt, courteous, efficient and 
 gallant. 
 
 As a judge, he was pleasant in his treatment of the bar 
 and litigants, ever jealous to see that fair play and justice 
 were accorded to all. He was a close student, keeping up 
 with the adjudications with higher courts, and so correct 
 that few of his rulings were ever reversed by the supreme 
 court of the state. He could have received a renomination 
 for judge had he expressed a desire for it, but he declined. 
 
 HON. THOMAS R. STOCKTON, 
 
 SIDNEr. 
 
 THOMAS RICHARD STOCKTON, late cir- 
 cuit judge of the thirteenth judicial district, 
 is a son of Rev. James M. Stockton, a Cumberland 
 Presbyterian minister, and Susan E. Kirkpatrick ; 
 and was born in Adams county, Illinois, on the i6th 
 of August, 1834. This branch of the Stocktons 
 sprung from the old New Jersey family. Samuel 
 Stockton, the grandfather of Thomas, was a soldier 
 in 181 2-1815, ^"d lived in Tennessee. Samuel Kirk- 
 patrick, his maternal grandsire, came from Georgia 
 to Illinois, bringing his slaves with him and freeing 
 them. He aided as a member of the constitutional 
 convention of Illinois, to form the first constitution 
 of that state. Rev. James M. Stockton left Tennes- 
 see because of his hatred of the system of human 
 servitude. 
 
 Thomas spent the first nineteen years of his life in 
 his native state, having only a common-school educa- 
 tion. His father was a country minister, and always 
 owned a farm, on which the son was reared. In 
 
 1853 the family removed to Taylor county, Iowa, 
 where Thomas aided in opening a farm, working 
 very hard and giving the little leisure time which 
 he could command to the study of certain English 
 branches. When about twenty years old he taught 
 a winter school, and continued to teach at intervals 
 for five or six years. He commenced reading law 
 at Clarinda, Page county, while teaching in 1859, 
 and was admitted to the bar at Frankfort, then the 
 seat of justice of Montgomery county, on the i6th of 
 May, 1861, and practiced in Clarinda for five years, 
 occupying diflerent positions during this period. He 
 edited the Page county " Herald " for about fifteen 
 months, commencing in September, 1862, while the 
 proprietor. Major C. B. Shoemaker, was in the army ; 
 was deputy provost-marshal between one and two 
 years after leaving the editorial chair, and was judge 
 of Page county from January, 1864, to January, 1866. 
 Mr. Stockton regards his brief experience as a jour- 
 nalist as one of the most important epochs in his 
 
1o\ 
 
 THE UNITED STATUS BIOGRAPtttCAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 life, it furnishing him a good opportunity for mental 
 improvement. 
 
 In May, 1866, Mr. Stockton moved to Sidney, and 
 here practiced steadily until January, 1873, when he 
 went on the bench, as already indicated, serving four 
 years. During the greater part of this time, for con- 
 venience, he resided in Council Bluffs, returning to 
 Fremont county on leaving the bench. He made a 
 conscientious and impartial judge. The judge spent 
 the summer and autumn of 1877 in the Black Hills, 
 
 practicing law and speculating in the mines. He is 
 a close student, and has a good standing at the bar 
 in his district. 
 
 In politics, he is a republican. In religion, a 
 Presbyterian, and a man of excellent character. He 
 is a Master Mason, and a fifth-degree member of the 
 Odd-Fellows order. 
 
 Miss Lizzie Pierce, of Page county, Iowa, became 
 the wife of Judge Stockton on the 20th of August, 
 1863, and they have three promising children. 
 
 JOHN TEESDALE, 
 
 MO UNT PLEASANT. 
 
 ONE of the oldest representatives of the press 
 living in Iowa is John Teesdale, who, like 
 Dennis A. Mahoney, of Dubuque, Wesley Bailey, of 
 Decorah, and a few others in this state, spent thirty 
 or forty years in a printing ofifice. Mr. Teesdale is 
 a native of York, England, is a son of Robert and 
 Elizabeth (Overton) Teesdale, and was born- on the 
 25th of November, 1816. His parents emigrated 
 to this country when he was two years old and set- 
 tled in Philadelphia, where his father was a merchant, 
 who died when the son was about ten years old. 
 Two or three years later John entered the office of 
 "The Casket," Philadelphia, doing various kinds of 
 wprk, but not much at the case. He partly learned 
 the printer's trade in the same city, in the office of 
 the "American Sentinel," finishing it at Beavertown, 
 Pennsylvania, whither his mother, now married again, 
 removed when he was about sixteen. Two years 
 afterward he spent a short time at the Steubenville 
 Academy, and then went to Wheeling, West Virginia, 
 where he remaiiied for several years, working at his 
 trade part of the time, and also editing the Wheeling 
 " Gazette " and a little later the Wheeling " Times." 
 During this period he spent a short time at Cadiz, 
 setting type and aiding an editor, and six months at 
 Mount Vernon, as one of the editors and proprietors 
 of the "Western Watchman," suddenly leaving the 
 paper because his associate was too timid on the 
 slavery question and they could not agree. 
 
 Mr. Teesdale was the editor of the " Ohio Whig 
 Standard," of McConnellsville, seven or eight years, 
 and went thence to Columbus in 1843; took charge 
 of the "Ohio State Journal," and conducted it four 
 or five years. He was private secretary of Governor 
 Bartley a short time; in 1848 purchased the Akron 
 
 " Beacon," and was its conductor for eight years, 
 selling out and removing to Iowa City, then the cap- 
 ital of the state, in the summer of 1856. 
 
 Mr. Teesdale became the proprietor of the Iowa 
 City " Republican," which he published until elected 
 state printer, in the winter of 1856-57, and his re- 
 moval to Des Moines, which was made the capital 
 in 1858. He was state printer four years. On 
 reaching Des Moines he purchased "The Citizen," 
 soon changed its name to " Iowa State Register," 
 and sold it to Frank W. Palmer, the incoming state 
 printer, in 1861. 
 
 At that time Mr, Teesdale was appointed post- 
 master by Mr. Lincoln, and he held the ofifice until 
 turned out by President Johnson. 
 
 In November, 1868, Mr. Teesdale removed to 
 Mount Pleasant, which has since been his home, 
 though he himself has had brief sojourns in other 
 places. He spent seven months on a daily paper at 
 Omaha, Nebraska, in 1870, and had charge of the 
 " Daily Chronicle," Washington, District of Colum- 
 bia, during the second campaign (1872) of General 
 Grant for the Presidency. 
 
 Since locating in Mount Pleasant Mr. Teesdale 
 was a short time on the " Mount Pleasant Journal," 
 and a short time in trade with his son-in-law, George 
 P. Okell. Latterly he has engaged in no business. 
 
 Mr. Teesdale was originally a whig, and was a 
 delegate to the national convention which nominated 
 General Taylor in 1848. From the birth of the re- 
 publican party he has acted with it, and his pen has 
 wielded a powerful influence in promulgating its prin- 
 ciples. Probably no journalist now living in the state 
 has done more to advance the cause of his party. 
 
 Mr. Teesdale has been a member of the Congre- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 705 
 
 gational church for many years, much of the time 
 an official member. He has been prominent among 
 the laymen of the state, attending congregational 
 state conventions as a delegate and participating in 
 their deliberations. 
 
 The wife of Mr. Teesdale was Miss Mary Dulty, 
 of Wheeling, West Virginia; married in June, 1837. 
 They have had seven children and have lost four; 
 
 one of them is buried at Akron, Ohio, one at Colum- 
 bus and two at Des Moines. The two buried in this 
 state were married ; Addie was the wife of John M. 
 Clark, of Des Moines ; John, junior, who died in Bos- 
 ton in November, 1877, was buried in Des Moines. 
 Of the three living, Mary is the wife of George B. 
 Okell, of Chicago, Robert lives at home and George 
 Dulty is a merchant at Crete, Nebraska. 
 
 JOHN H. DRAKE, 
 
 ALBIA. 
 
 JOHN HAMILTON DRAKE, for many years a 
 J merchant in .Iowa, and now a banker in Albia, 
 received in early life a good business education ; 
 commenced merchandising at eighteen, and has been 
 very successful in his business operations. This is 
 owing, no doubt, in part to his innate shrewdness, 
 and in part to the care and assiduity with which he 
 attended to his business, its minutest details receiving 
 his closest attention. 
 
 Mr. Drake is the son of John A. Drake, one of the 
 oldest merchants in Iowa, and now a banker at Cen- 
 terville, Appanoose county. The Drakes were origi- 
 nally from England, this branch of the family settling 
 in North Carolina, where John Hamilton was born 
 on the 5th of July, 1828. The maiden name of his 
 .mother was Harriet J. O'Neal, who was of Irish de- 
 scent. A great many members of the Drake family 
 were merchants and physicians, and the present gen- 
 eration still follow these pursuits. 
 
 John A. Drake moved with his family to Rushville, 
 Schuyler county, Illinois, in 1830, and seven years 
 later to Fort Madison, Lee county, Iowa. There the 
 subject of this brief sketch remained until 1846, at- 
 
 tending to his education in the graded school at that 
 place. At this date his father removed to Davis 
 county ; started the town of Drakeville, and assisted 
 his son in trade. The latter merchandized there 
 until 1867, when he removed to Albia; continued in 
 trade until 1870, when, in company with B. F. Elbert, 
 he organized a private bank. The next year they 
 and others started the First National Bank of Albia, 
 of which Mr. Drake is president, and Mr. Elbert 
 cashier. It is a stable and prosperous institution. 
 Banking is the exclusive business of Mr. Drake, and 
 he gives to it the same care and oversight that he did 
 to his former business. Though a strong politician, 
 a firm republican, he never lets politics have the pre- 
 cedence over his legitimate calling. He is a Blue 
 Lodge Mason, a member of the Christian church, 
 and a man of the highest integrity of character. In 
 benevolent movements he is one of the foremost cit- 
 izens of Albia. 
 
 His wife was Miss Caroline Lockman, of Drake- 
 ville, Iowa; married on the 29th of August, 1850. 
 Like her husband, she is active in all religious and 
 charitable organizations. 
 
 JAMES H. KNOX, 
 
 INDIANOLA. 
 
 AMONG the many men in Iowa educated in a 
 L printing office, and who are prominent in the 
 politics of the state, is James Hayes Knox, postmas- 
 ter at Indianola. He is a native of Baltimore, Mary- 
 land, dating his birth on the nth of August, 1821. 
 His father, James Knox, was born in the north of 
 Ireland, and was brought to this country by his par- 
 ents when three years old, following, when grown to 
 
 manhood, the trade of a chairmaker. He was in the 
 war of 1812-15. The wife of James Knox was Sarah 
 Hayes. The family moved from Baltimore to Cadiz, 
 Ohio, when James H. was four years old. There the 
 son entered a printing office at the early age of four- 
 teen years, and such an office, as already intimated, 
 proved to be his intellectual training school. 
 
 In his nineteenth year he removed to Knox coun- 
 
7o6 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 ty, in the same state, settling near Mount Vernon, 
 alternating between farming and printing for a few 
 years. In 1852 he published a paper in Mount Ver- 
 non in company with E. A. Higgins, but returned to 
 the farm again in less than two years. 
 
 In November, 1854, Mr. Knox came to Iowa, and 
 halted a short time in Jasper county; in January fol- 
 lowing he became a partner of the late Lieutenant- 
 Governor Needham in the Oskaloosa " Herald "; re- 
 moved, early in 1857, to Indianola, and on the 2d of 
 April of that year published the first number of the 
 " Weekly Iowa Visitor,'' conducting it until some 
 time after the civil war had commenced. 
 
 In 1 86 1 he was appointed postmaster, and resigned 
 the office in August, 1862, to go into the service. He 
 raised a company and went south as captain of com- 
 pany D, 34th Infantry, and at the end of eight months 
 was obliged to resign on account of ill health. 
 
 During the campaign of 1864 Mr. Knox was a 
 writer on the Burlington " Hawkeye," and the two 
 following winters he held a clerkship in the city of 
 Washington. 
 
 In 1866 Mr. Knox repurchased the Indianola 
 " Banner," a new name for the old " Visitor," changed 
 it to the original name and conducted it until 1868, 
 
 when he went out of journalism for four or five years. 
 In 1873 he repurchased a half interest in the paper, 
 now called the "Herald," in company with A. J. 
 Graham, the senior publisher, a neatly printed and 
 ably edited weekly, (jevoted to the interests of War- 
 ren county and the republican party. 
 
 On the 27th of April, 1875, Mr. Knox became 
 postmaster once more. He was a whig in early life 
 and for twenty years has been a very active worker 
 in the interests of the republican party, being a 
 leader in the county organization and prominent in 
 the state conventions. He adheres to his political 
 sentiments with the same sincerity that he does his 
 religious. He is a communicant in the Baptist 
 church, is generous-hearted and liberal and an ar- 
 dent well-wisher to the human race. 
 
 The wife of Mr. Knox was Miss Harriett M. Mil- 
 ler, of Miller township, Knox county, Ohio, a town 
 named for her father, who was a pioneer in that part 
 of the state. They were joined in wedlock on the 
 17th of May, 1847, and have had four children. Only 
 two of them, Ella Augusta and James Miller, are liv- 
 ing. The former is the wife of Lorenzo W. Billingsley, 
 an attorney of Lincoln, Nebraska; the latter is a stu- 
 dent in the Iowa State University. 
 
 CLAIBORN LEA, 
 
 KEOSAU^UA. 
 
 CLAIBORN LEA, one of the early enterers of 
 Iowa land, and a highly successful business 
 man, was a native of Campbell county, Virginia, and 
 was born on the 4th of May, 1799. He was of Eng- 
 lish descent, the pioneer in this country settling in 
 Virginia. The Leas there have been a family of 
 planters. The father of Claiborn was Gideon Lea, 
 his mother, Ann Cavel, a Quakeress preacher, and a 
 woman of strong intellectual power and great chris- 
 tian zeal, who died in her eighty-fourth year. 
 
 Claiborn Lea moved from Virginia to Highland 
 county, Ohio, about 1820, where he worked indus- 
 triously at cabinet-making, and subsequently became 
 a merchant. About 1838 he visited the Territory of 
 Iowa, entered lands as soon as they came into mar- 
 ket, mainly in Van Buren, Clark and Polk counties ; 
 continued to visit this country once in two or three 
 years, increasing his lands here and looking after 
 them, until 1855, when he brought his family to Fair- 
 field, Jefferson county. The next year he made a 
 
 permanent settlement in Keosauqua, dying in No- 
 vember, 1 87 1. 
 
 The latter years of Mr. Lea's life were spent en- 
 tirely in looking after his lands and in making pro- 
 vision for his family. He was fortunate in all his 
 business operations, leaving his widow and children, 
 financially speaking, in independent circumstances. 
 He was an able financier, and a man of fine natural 
 abilities. He educated himself, and became con- 
 versant with the mathematics and several branches 
 of the physical sciences. He was a critical thinker, 
 a great bible student, and a firm adherent to the 
 church of his mother. He was strongly anti-slavery, 
 like the Quakers generally, and had no patience 
 with the apologist of oppression, he being a humani- 
 tarian in the broadest sense of the term. A man of 
 purer character it would be difficult to find in the 
 De Moines valley. The citizens of Keosauqua hold 
 him in tender remembrance. 
 
 Mr. Lea held some offices in Ohio, but none in 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 707 
 
 Iowa. He led a quiet, private, yet busy life. He 
 was the widow's friend, and a prompt almoner where 
 occasion required. 
 
 His widow was Sarah H. Roads, of Ohio ; married 
 on the 8th of December, 1829. The Roads were 
 from Rockbridge county, Virginia. Mrs. Lea has 
 had seven children, five are living and all of them 
 married : Mary Ann is the wife of E. G. Wilson, of 
 Van Buren county, Iowa; Amy E., of A. J. Wright, 
 
 of Bellefontaine, Ohio; Henrietta S., of R. S. Beck, 
 of Carlisle, Kentucky, and Helena F., of J. B. Bleak- 
 more, of Keosauqua. Rutledge, the only son living, 
 is a leading attorney at the Van Buren county bar, 
 his residence being at Keosauqua. The widow of 
 Mr. Lea, now in her sixty-ninth year, is quite active 
 and in the enjoyment of good health. She is a com- 
 municant in the Congregational church, and a highly 
 exemplary christian mother. 
 
 REV. THOMAS F. THICKSTUN, 
 
 COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 THE Thickstuns are traced back to the days of 
 the English Commonwealth, two centuries and 
 a quarter ago. The first man of that name was a gen- 
 eral in Cromwell's army, and was a trusted and firm 
 adherent to the interests of the great Protector. On 
 the accession of Charles II to the throne his generals 
 were obliged to flee the country to save their lives. 
 The ancestor of the family came to this country, 
 changing his name to Thickstun. What his name was 
 originally no one of the descendants knows. Thomas 
 Freeman Thickstun is the son of William and Rachel 
 Freeman Thickstun, and was born in Cussewago, 
 Crawford county, Pennsylvania, on the 3d of July, 
 1824. His grandfather moved from New Jersey into 
 northwestern Pennsylvania in 1802, while William 
 was in infancy, and settled there when the country 
 was an unbroken wilderness. The Freeman family 
 followed a few years later. They were all christian 
 people, and tried to be governed by the scriptures in 
 rearing their children. 
 
 Thomas F. was educated in the common schools 
 of his native county and at the Kingsville Academy, 
 Ohio ; his studies, in addition to the ordinary English 
 branches, being Greek, Latin, logic, chemistry, philos- 
 ophy and the higher mathematics. Several branches 
 he mastered outside of a school-room and without 
 any assistance. In early youth, for a short time his 
 favorite compositions were metrical, but the rhyming 
 fever abated before he had fairly ripened into man- 
 hood. 
 
 At one period of his life he intended to be a phy- 
 sician ; read medicine with Dr. Hiram Boyd, of Craw- 
 ford county, and attended one course of medical 
 lectures at Cleveland, but afterward concluded to be 
 a school-teacher instead of a medical practitioner. 
 He entered that noble profession with characteristic 
 74 
 
 earnestness, and pursued it vigorously for twenty- 
 three years, the schools in which he taught being the 
 Kingsville Academy, the Geauga Seminary, both in 
 Ohio, the Meadville, Pennsylvania, Academy, and 
 the Baptist institution at Hastings, Minnesota. He 
 was seven years at the head of the Meadville Acad- 
 emy, and a good share of that time had two hundred 
 and fifty pupils, one hundred and sixty of them in 
 the normal department General Garfield was one 
 of his pupils at Geauga. He was an enthusiast in 
 that calling, and very popular. His period of teach- 
 ing ended with four years as principal of the Minne- 
 sota school. 
 
 Mr. Thickstun was licensed to preach at Kings- 
 ville, Ohio, in 1851, ordained in 1861, and com- 
 menced his first pastorate at Waverly, Bremer county, 
 Iowa, in 1865. He remained there three years, build- 
 ing a fine house of worship during that time, and then 
 removed to Council Bluffs ; became the pastor of the 
 newly organized Baptist Church, and from a very 
 small beginning, in a hard field for his denomination, 
 he has built up a church of fair strength, having an 
 elegant house of worship erected very largely through 
 his untiring efforts. Since coming to Council Bluffs 
 he has acted for two years as secretary and agent 
 of the Iowa Baptist state convention, a work into 
 which he flung great energy, and which was attended 
 with a marked degree of success. Mr. Thickstun 
 was originally a Presbyterian, being introduced into 
 that church at the age of fifteen, by the Rev. Dr. 
 Nathaniel. West, but embraced the sentiments of the 
 Baptists after careful examination, in 1849. 
 
 He joined a temperance or total-abstinence society 
 when only fourteen years old, kept his pledge in 
 boyhood "like a man," and has long been a cham- 
 pion of the good cause. He had no money in youth 
 
7o8 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 to waste on liquor or tobacco ; put all his earnings 
 to better use, every dollar ever expended in education 
 being the fruit of his own industry. What God did 
 not do for him he has done for himself, being a self- 
 made man in the usual understanding of the term, 
 and possessed of great vigor and elasticity both of 
 body and mind. There is wonderful power in his 
 gesture as well as his rhetoric. It seems to be no 
 hard task for him to obey the scriptural injunction 
 to do with his might whatever his hands find to do. 
 On the 7th of April, 1852, Miss Sophronia M. 
 Lyon, of Cassadaga, Chautauqua county. New York, 
 became the wife of Mr. Thickstun, and they have 
 
 three children living, and have lost two. Hattie E. 
 is the wife of Professor O. M. De Kay, of Council 
 Bluffs. Carrie L. M. is seventeen, and William L. 
 J. is ten years of age. The former is now about to 
 graduate from the high school of Council Bluffs. 
 
 Mrs. Thickstun is a niece of the late Mary Lyon, 
 founder of the celebrated seminary at Holyoke, Mas- 
 sachusetts, and like her aunt is a zealous, energetic, 
 self-sacrificing worker in more than one good cause. 
 On her mother's side she is a direct descendant 
 from John Alden, of the Mayflower. The best chris- 
 ian blood flows in her veins, and is not likely to 
 stagnate from inactivity. 
 
 MILO P. SMITH, 
 
 MARENGO. 
 
 I'^HE subject of this sketch is a descendant of a». 
 English Quaker family which made an early 
 settlement in Pennsylvania. With their peculiar 
 views of war, none of them participated in the strug- 
 gle for independence or in the second war with the 
 mother country. The father of Milo, Samuel W. 
 Smith, was a carpenter by trade, which calling he 
 pursued in early life, and later was a farmer. In 
 1822 he accompanied the Rev. J. B. Finley to the 
 Wyandot mission, in northwestern Ohio, and built a 
 mission church. His wife was Elizabeth Bair, a 
 native of Ohio, and of German ancestry. 
 
 Milo was born in Delaware county, Ohio, on the 
 i6th of July, 1836. The family moved to Washing- 
 ton county, in the same state, when the son was 
 three years old, and there he spent his childhood. 
 He was the sixth child in a family of eleven chil- 
 dren, and his father being in moderate circumstances 
 Milo worked out by the month, sometimes on a 
 farm, sometimes in a tobacco house, but always 
 ready for any kind of work required of him. Until 
 he reached the age of sixteen years he had, on an 
 average, about three months' schooling annually. 
 He then spent a couple of terms at academies in 
 Athens county; taught school during the winter of 
 1854-5 ; started with the family the following spring 
 for Iowa; drove a two-horse wagon all the way, two 
 brothers driving two other teams ; crossed the Mis- 
 sissippi river at Davenport on the 9th of June, and 
 settled on a farm eight miles east of Marion, Linn 
 county. 
 
 For two or three seasons Milo aided in opening 
 
 and improving the farm, teaching school meanwhile 
 during the winters, and thus assisting to pay for the 
 land and stock the farm. In the autumn of 1858 he 
 entered Cornell College, at Mount Vernon, in the 
 same county; taught school the following winter; 
 pushed on with his college studies and graduated in 
 the class of 1861. 
 
 During the next twelve months he read law a 
 short time with Hon. William Smyth, of Marion ; as- 
 sisted his father on the farm, and taught the graded 
 school in the village of Tipton, Cedar county. On 
 the i6th of August, 1862, he enlisted as a private in 
 the 31st Iowa Infantry, Colonel Smyth, commander; 
 was immediately made sergeant-major of the regi- 
 ment ; subsequently became second lieutenant of 
 company C; was promoted to captain, serving in 
 the latter position until after the capture of Atlanta, 
 Georgia, all the while with General Sherman in the 
 fifteenth army corps. His father's declining health 
 now compelled him to resign and hasten northward, 
 but his father died before the captain reached home. 
 In a few days he went to Ann Arbor, Michigan, 
 matriculated in the law department of the State 
 University, and graduated in March, 1866, spending 
 the previous summer in the law office of Colonel 
 Smyth, at Marion. From Ann Arbor Captain Smith 
 came directly to Marengo, possessed of a respectable 
 suit of clothes and a few law books, and one dollar in 
 his pocket. Here he was in general and successful 
 practice until January, 1875, when he became dis- 
 trict attorney for the eighth judicial district, which 
 office he holds at the present time. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 709 
 
 Captain Smith has a great amount of corporeity ; 
 is five feet nine and a half inches tall, weighs two 
 hundred and forty-five pounds, and ordinarily moves 
 with moderate pace only, but when he gets thor- 
 oughly aroused he exhibits great intellectual strength 
 and power. He is a good judge of law: has much 
 practical sagacity ; he is wary, watchful and keen- 
 sighted, and is usually very successful with a jury. 
 He has been city recorder and school director of 
 Marengo, and works nobly for the interests of the 
 place. 
 
 He is a Master Mason, and an earnest worker in 
 the ranks of the great party of freedom. He was 
 early taught to hate slavery and every form of op- 
 
 pression. When he was a lad his father, who lived 
 only fifteen miles from the Ohio river, the boundary 
 line between freedom and slavery, kept a depot on 
 the "underground railway,'' and as soon as he was 
 old enough to ride a horse Milo aided in running 
 off the negroes. The writer once heard him state 
 that on one occasion over fifty fugitives spent the 
 night in his father's house, their pursuers passing by 
 not half a mile away. Just before daylight the ne- 
 groes were secreted in a wood, and all were saved 
 from the clutches of the heartless hunters. 
 
 On the i6th of November, 1866, Captain Smith 
 was united in marriage with Miss Mildred E. Hall, 
 of Tipton, Iowa, and they have three children. 
 
 JOSEPH EIBOECK, 
 
 DES MOINES. 
 
 AMONG the very few Hungarian journalists in 
 L the great northwest is Joseph Eiboeck, who 
 was educated in English in a printing-office, and is 
 an accurate, strong and accomplished writer. He 
 dates his birth at Szelskut (Breitenbrunn), on the 
 2 2d of February, 1838. His father was killed in a 
 duel when the son was quite young. At six years of 
 age Joseph was taken to Vienna and educated in 
 German. After the revolution there of 1848-9, his 
 step-father, Paul Kiene, who participated in it, was 
 compelled to leave Vienna, and he came to this 
 country in 1849, settling in Dubuque, Iowa. Joseph 
 was soon put in the office of the " Miners' Express," 
 now the " Herald," as an apprentice, and since that 
 time, with the exception of two years when engaged 
 in teaching, he has been in the printing business. 
 Thirteen years he was editor and proprietor of the 
 Elkader, Clayton county, " Journal," and nearly four 
 years he has been in the same position on the Ger- 
 man " Staats Anzeiger,'' and the " Herald of Liber- 
 ty," the latter printed in the English language, and 
 both published at Des Moines. While a resident of 
 Clayton county he was also the founder and for a 
 short time conductor of the Elkader "Nord-Iowa 
 Herold," a German weekly. 
 
 Mr. Eiboeck was never in a school-house in the 
 United States until he went in as a teacher, all his 
 acquirements for that office having been secured 
 while printer and editor, he devoting his spare hours 
 and fragments of hours to the different branches 
 necessary to be taught. 
 
 While teaching he wrote a series of lectures, the 
 principal ones being on "Hungary," "Rise and 
 Progress of Literature," and "Benjamin Franklin." 
 These he delivered many times in Iowa and Wiscon- 
 sin. Since that time, partly for health, and partly 
 to see the country and enlarge his stock of knowl- 
 edge, he has traveled through nearly all the states 
 and territories, spending a good deal of time in Cal- 
 ifornia, Oregon and Washington territory. 
 
 In 1873 Mr. Eiboeck was sent by Governor Car- 
 penter as a commissioner to the World's Fair at 
 Vienna, after which he made a tour of the conti- 
 nent, visiting most of the principal cities of Europe. 
 Upon his return from these various travels he de- 
 livered in many Iowa towns very instructive lectures, 
 largely the fruits of his observation. 
 
 In 187 1 Mr. Eiboeck founded at Elkader a se- 
 cret organization, with the name of the "August 
 Order of Ethologists," with a ritual similar to the 
 Masonic, with scenic initiations. One of its tenets 
 was the abolition of the pernicious custom of " treat- 
 ing,'' so fruitful a source of intemperance in the 
 United States. 
 
 In 1872, after disposing of the "Clayton County 
 Journal," he completed the history of that county, a 
 work on which he had been engaged for some years. 
 It was on his return from Europe that he located at 
 Des Moines, and on establishing his two papers here 
 he infused into them much of the tenets and spirit 
 of personal liberty, he being a very prominent ex- 
 ponent, if not th« leader, of that cause in this part 
 
7IO 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 of the country. At the democratic state conven- 
 tion in August, 1877, Mr. Eiboeck was tendered the 
 nomination for lieutenant-governor, to represent the 
 German element, but he declined, one of his doc- 
 trines being that newspaper conductors should not 
 run for office. He was a republican until 1872 ; 
 since then he has acted with the opposition. 
 
 He belongs to more than a dozen societies, in- 
 cluding the Masonic up to the commandery and the 
 Turn-Verein. 
 
 He was born of Catholic parents, but is liberal in 
 his religious views, having no connection with any 
 church. 
 
 Mr. Eiboeck married his wife at Cedar Falls, 
 Iowa: Miss Fannie, daughter of E. R. Garrison, 
 formerly of Detroit. They were united on the 15th 
 of September, 1863, and have one child. 
 
 Mr. Eiboeck is a short, compactly built man, with 
 dark complexion and robust appearance. He has 
 had a little sickness at times, but his health is now 
 perfect and his endurance very great. He has good 
 business talent and untiring application, and evi- 
 dently believes that work is no very severe affliction. 
 Few men apply themselves so closely as he does. 
 Financially, like most printers, he has had some re- 
 verses, but industry in his- case is finally winning. 
 
 MASTON H. JONES, 
 
 BLOOMFIELD. 
 
 MASTON HUNTER JONES, for twenty- 
 seven years an attorney in Davis county, 
 Iowa, is a native of Putnam county, Indiana; is a 
 son of Benjamin and Esther (Alexander) Jones, and 
 was born in a farm-house one and one-half miles 
 from Greencastle, on the 7th of January, 1828. The 
 grandfather of Benjamin Jones, whose name was 
 also Benjamin Jones, came from Wales, and settled 
 on the eastern shore of Maryland, and some of his 
 sons participated in the struggle for independence. 
 The Alexanders were from Scotland, the branch from 
 which Esther Alexander sprung having settled in 
 Rockbridge county, Virginia. 
 
 After he was old enough to work, the subject of 
 this sketch farmed, being master of his own situa- 
 tion after he was sixteen years old. When he had 
 earned a little money he spent two years in the pre- 
 paratory department of Asbury University, Green- 
 castle; then taught and studied by himself for a 
 year or two ; at twenty-two commenced reading law 
 with Delaney R. Eckles, of Greencastle, and finished' 
 with Judge Kenny, of Terre Haute, where he was 
 admitted to practice in March, 185 1. 
 
 Anticipating the advice of Horace Greeley, Mr. 
 Jones came immediately west, reaching the young 
 village of Bloomfield in the month of March, 185 1, 
 with six dollars in money in his pocket, his law 
 library in his carpet sack, and a small silver watch 
 which began to run about the time that Jackson did 
 for the Presidency. Here Mr. Jones has been in 
 steady practice since he pitched his tent in Davis 
 county, enlarging his library from time to time, de- 
 
 termined to know the law, and to know it well and 
 thoroughly. He has never dealt in real estate, ex- 
 cept to purchase and hold it for his own use ; has 
 been the loser once or twice by meddling with rail- 
 road stock, and with the exception of serving one 
 term in the county board of supervisors, has kept 
 out of eVery office not connected with his profession. 
 He served as district attorney from 1870 to 1874, 
 and then refused peremptorily a renoraination. The 
 law is his delight : he is a man of one profession, 
 and in that he is a grand success. In law, he takes 
 a common-sense view of every question that rises ; 
 has a judgment of extraordinary soundness, and es- 
 pousing a just cause, he never fails to win. He is 
 an extensive reader, and has a large fund of knowl- 
 edge outside his profession. In humor, he is pro- 
 lific, rich and highly entertaining. 
 
 In 1864 Mr. Jones went into the one-hundred- 
 days service as lieutenant of company D, 4Sth Iowa 
 Infantry, which regiment did patrol duty on the 
 Memphis and Charleston railroad. West Tennessee. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Jones has been in succession a 
 whig, an American and a republican, and he now 
 calls himself a " greenbacker." He has no politics 
 from policy, is an aspirant to no office, and votes 
 as his judgment and conscience dictate. He is 
 most emphatically an independent thinker and act- 
 or, no trammels of party or creed binding him. He 
 believes in serving God and man, but neither in any 
 slavish sense. He pays more to support religious 
 institutions than most people, and makes the least 
 pretensions to goodness of any. As a citizen, he is 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 711 
 
 attentive to his general duties and is generous to the 
 needy. 
 
 Mr. Jones is a Knight Templar of the. Red Cross 
 in the Masonic order, and is up to the patriarch de- 
 gree in Odd-Fellowship. 
 
 On the 17th of June, 1852, he was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Emmeline Spencer, of Bloomfield, 
 
 and they have four children. Mrs. Jones is a chris- 
 tian woman and a devoted mother. 
 
 Mr. Jones has a solid build, being five feet and 
 ten inches tall, and weighing two hundred and five 
 pounds. His eyes are hazel, with a merry twinlile, 
 and woe to the man who undertakes to joke with 
 him. 
 
 josiAH R. McClelland, m.d. 
 
 LEON. 
 
 TOSIAH ROBINSON McCLELLAND twenty- 
 J five years a physician in Decatur county, Iowa, 
 was born in Monroe county, Kentucky, on the isth 
 of December, 1823. His paternal ancestors were 
 Scotch-Irish. His great-grandfather settled in North 
 ■ Carolina, and his grandfather lived in Scott county, 
 Virginia, where the father of the doctor, Josiah Mc- 
 Clelland, was born. The maiden name of the doc- 
 tor's mother was Rhoda Condra, of whose pedigree 
 nothing is known. 
 
 When the subject of this notice was about two 
 years old the family moved to Jackson county, Ten- 
 nessee, and in 1841 to Mercer county, Missouri, the 
 son being raised on his father's farm. He had the 
 usual education of farmers' sons, such as a subscrip- 
 tion school affords. He spent two years in a mer- 
 cantile house at Princeton, Mercer county, and then^ 
 in July, 1848, commenced reading medicine at the 
 same place with Dr. J. B. Bell, attending lectures in 
 Saint Louis. In 185 1 he commenced practice with 
 his preceptor at Princeton ; at the end of two years 
 moved to Decatur county, where he has since been 
 in constant practice. Being a close student, and 
 making his profession his life-work, he could not 
 
 avoid making good progress, and has an excellent 
 standing for attentiveness and skill. He possesses 
 those amenities which make his presence especially 
 acceptable in the sick room. Though making all 
 departments of medical science his study, physiology 
 has been a favorite branch, and in it he has made 
 marked advancement. He has long been a member 
 of the Decatur County Medical Society, and is its 
 president. 
 
 Dr. McClelland was originally a whig, but of late 
 years has voted with the democrats, though he has 
 not taken so active a part in politics as to interfere 
 in the least with his profession. 
 
 He is a Chapter Mason, and has passed all the 
 chairs in the subordinate lodge of Odd-Fellowship. 
 
 The doctor has been a member of the Christian 
 church since boyhood ; has lived a consistent, irre- 
 proachable life, and is a noble specimen of the chris- 
 tian gentleman. 
 
 His wife was Miss Amanda M. Rhea, of Mercer 
 county, Missouri; married on the i8th of March, 
 1851. They have three children : Etta M., the wife 
 of J. P. Hall, of Leon, and Edgar B and Emma G., 
 who are pursuing their studies in the local school. 
 
 ALBERT PHIPPS, 
 
 CHEROKEE. 
 
 ALBERT PHIPPS, one of the early settlers of 
 . Cherokee county, and a leading spirit in the 
 county agricultural society, was a son of Aaron and 
 Polly Healy Phipps, both parents before their mar- 
 riage being of the same name. His maternal grand- 
 father, Jason Phipps, was in the revolutionary army, 
 going in when a young man. The length of his 
 service is unknown. Albert was born in Milford, 
 
 Worcester county, Massachusetts, on the 7th of Oc- 
 tober, 1820, and is a descendant of a very old New 
 England family, of which Sir William Phipps, one of 
 the colonial governors of Massachusetts, formed one 
 branch. 
 
 The subject of this sketch lost his mother when 
 he was six years old, and lived a few years with an 
 uncle in Connecticut. He was reared on a farm 
 
7l2 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 mainly until sixteen or seventeen years old, with a 
 very ordinary common -school education. At nine- 
 teen or twenty years of age he went to sea, spend- 
 ing two years as a fisherman, mainly on the Grand 
 Bank. Prior to this date he had commenced the 
 bootmaker's trade, and on closing his brief career 
 as a mariner resumed his trade, working at it off and 
 on, in Milford, Massachusetts, for a dozen years or 
 more, farming also, more or less, during the same 
 period. 
 
 In 1856 Mr. Phipps came to Iowa as a member of 
 the Milford Emigration Society, bought land in 
 Cherokee county, and has continued to improve it 
 up to this date. He has a farm a mile or two from 
 the city of Cherokee, the county seat, and has other 
 lands in Cherokee county. He is industrious, eco- 
 nomical and thrifty, but, like other men in the coun- 
 ty, has had some reverses during the last three or four 
 years on account of the invasion and depredations 
 of grasshoppers. He was one of the foremost men 
 in forming an agricultural society in the county, and 
 has been its treasurer. He is the life of the organ- 
 ization and awake to every interest of the county. 
 
 In 1864 Mr. Phipps enlisted as a private in the 
 15th Iowa Infantry, and served until the rebellion 
 terminated and the regiment was mustered out. 
 
 He has been a county supervisor most of the time 
 since locating here ; is chairman of the board, and 
 at an early period, for two years, was the board, 
 managing the business entirely alone, the county 
 being only one township. He has held nearly every 
 town office, and has been and still is a very useful 
 citizen. His integrity was never doubted. 
 
 In politics, he was originally a democrat, but has 
 acted with the republican party since i860. 
 
 The wife of Mr. Phipps was Miss Martha Little- 
 field, of Hopkinton, Massachusetts ; married in 1842. 
 They have had six sons and two daughters, all yet 
 living. Luther, John A. and Henry L. are married ; 
 the other sons, Frank, Arthur and Nathan are single. 
 Addie is the wife of N. T. Burroughs, banker, of 
 Cherokee, and Mattie Eliza, the younger daughter, 
 is unmarried. They are a family of well-reared, 
 excellent children, and their general good demeanor 
 and correct habits are a comfort to their parents. 
 
 Considering his limited education and the conse- 
 quent disadvantages under which he has labored, 
 Mr. Phipps has made a truly- praiseworthy record. 
 With great prudence and industry he has combined 
 unswerving honesty, and hence has always claimed 
 the highest respect of his fellow-citizens. A good 
 name is a glittering factor in his wealth. 
 
 SAMUEL H. WATSON, 
 
 VINTON. 
 
 VINTON, the seat of justice of Benton county, 
 was fortunate in the class of its earlier busi- 
 ness men. They were solid in character, and in the 
 end, by prudence and industry, have become solid 
 in means. The four banking institutions of the place, 
 some of whose managers are mentioned on other 
 pages of this work, are under the,direction of highly 
 honorable and enterprising men. They are town- 
 builders, men whose public spirit crops out promi- 
 nently in more than one direction. Among this class 
 is Samuel Humes Watson, who started the second 
 bank in Vinton, who is well known as a business man 
 throughout Iowa, and whose name is a synonym for 
 promptness, integrity, and every business virtue. We 
 know nothing about the pedigree of either branch of 
 Mr. Watson's family. He was the son of Joshua P. 
 Watson, a cooper at first, then a merchant, and finally 
 a banker, residing at the time of Samuel's birth, on 
 the 3d of July, 1828, in Ohio county, Virginia. His 
 
 mother's maiden name was Martha Humes. When he 
 was five years old the family moved to Harrisville, 
 Harrison county, Ohio, where at eighteen, with only 
 such education as a district school could furnish, he 
 entered his father's store, acting as clerk till twenty- 
 one. At that age his father gave him an interest in 
 the business; he was in the firm six years, and then 
 concluded to push farther west. On the ist of May, 
 1856, he crossed the Mississippi and reached Iowa 
 City. 
 
 After prospecting awhile, looking for the best open- 
 ing, he concluded to locate in Vinton, and reached 
 here with his family on the 14th of October follow- 
 ing. He immediately opened a bank in company 
 with Judge Samuel Douglass, they remaining in busi- 
 ness together until the judge moved to Chicago in 
 1861. Continuing the bank alone until 1865, in that 
 year Mr. Watson organized the First National Bank 
 of Vinton ; after managing it for four years, the char- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 713 
 
 ter was surrendered and he returned to private bank- 
 ing. For the last six years his two eldest sons, Will- 
 iam P. and Peter W., enterprising young men, have 
 been with their father, tlie firm name being S. H. 
 Watson and Sons. 
 
 During the earlier years of his residence in Vinton 
 Mr. Watson dealt largely in lands, mainly in Benton 
 county, and was very successful in his investments. 
 Latterly banking has been almost exclusively his bus- 
 iness. He has, however, built extensively nearly ev- 
 ery year. Watson's Hall, put up by him four years 
 ago, is one of the finest buildings of the kind in the 
 interior of the state. His own bank building, erect- 
 ed two years ago, is a solid and elegant structure. 
 Other buildings in the city are the work of his hands. 
 The house in which he lives, put up eighteen years 
 ago, is very comfortable, but he is improving a ten- 
 acre lot, adjoining the city, and preparing to build a 
 house of much larger dimensions and more modern 
 and much richer finish. 
 
 Since residing in Iowa Mr. Watson has lived a 
 rather quiet and retired life, so far as office-holding 
 
 is concerned. He has done some good work on the 
 local school board, having served in it, off and on, 
 many years, and has been a trustee and the treasurer 
 of the Iowa College for the Blind, located at Vinton, 
 for the last ten years, but has never sought political 
 preferment. He was at first a Douglas democrat ; 
 since i860 has been a republican. He has never been 
 very active in politics. 
 
 Mr. Watson ordinarily attends the Presbyterian 
 church, where his wife, who was Erameline Perrine, 
 of Harrisville, Ohio, belongs. They were married on 
 the 20th of November, 1849, and have seven chil- 
 dren. The two eldest, already mentioned, are mar- 
 ried ; the others are single. 
 
 Mr. Watson has always been a careful and method- 
 ical business man, close in his calculationsj untiring 
 in his application, and suffering no ends to get loose ; 
 hence his eminent success. He is public-spirited, 
 going for substantial improvements and for whatever 
 else will advance home interests. Vinton abounds 
 in useful citizens, of whom Mr. Watson stands in the 
 foremost rank. 
 
 TIMOTHY WHITING, 
 
 MOUNT PLEASANT. 
 
 AMONG the eminently successful merchants and 
 L\. bankers residing in Henry county, Iowa, is 
 Timothy Whiting, a son of John and Nancy Carter 
 Whiting, and born on the 7th of February, 1809, in 
 the town of Brewer, Hancock county, Maine. Both 
 the Whitings and Carters were early Massachusetts 
 families, spreading from thence, at an early day, into 
 Maine, New Hampshire, and other New England 
 States. 
 
 Colonel John Whiting removed with his family to 
 Bath, Steuben county, New York, when Timothy was 
 six years old, and where he was reared on a farm till 
 fifteen, finishing his education at that age in the 
 Prattsburg Academy. He then became a clerk in a 
 stoire at Bath ; two years later went to Painted Post, 
 in the same county; clerked there between two and 
 three years, and at the age of twenty went into busi- 
 ness for himself in company with another young man. 
 
 At the end of ten years Mr. Whiting moved from 
 Painted Post to Tyrone, in the same county, con- 
 tinuing in trade there four years, then returned~to 
 Bath, carrying on the mercantile business until 18571 
 when he made a permanent settlement in Mount 
 
 Pleasant, Iowa. Here, in company with other parties, 
 he started a branch of the State Bank in 1858, he 
 being its cashier, and representative of the bank on 
 the state board of directors during the time that it 
 was in operation. 
 
 In May, 1865, this institution was changed into 
 the National State Bank, one of the solid institutions 
 of Iowa, and he has held from the start the office of 
 president. 
 
 Mr. Whiting has held none but bank and church 
 offices since coming to the state, except one year's 
 service as director in the Asylum for the Insane, at 
 Mount Pleasant. He has never been a very 'strong 
 partisan, and has peremptorily refused to accept po- 
 litical offices. He was a democrat at an early day 
 a whig a little later, and of late years has usually 
 acted with the republicans. 
 
 Mr. Whiting has been a member of the Methodist 
 Episcopal church since 1831, and an official in the 
 Mount Pleasant body since first locating here. The 
 character of no man in the city stands better. He 
 is liberal-hearted, kind to the poor, and ready to 
 help the needy and distressed at all times. 
 
714 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 In December, 1833, Mr. Whiting and Miss Sarah 
 A. McCall, of Painted Post, New York, were joined 
 in wedlock, and they have had eleven children. 
 Seven of them are living, and all married but the 
 youngest child, Frank H., who is in the employ of 
 the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Com- 
 pany, at Burlington, in the civil engineer depart- 
 ment. 
 
 John H., the eldest son, is cashier of the National 
 State Bank, Mount Pleasant; Henry is master me- 
 chanic of the Saint Louis, Rock Island and Rock- 
 ford Railroad Company, living at Beardstown, Illi- 
 nois ; Charles H. is a music dealer in Burlington, 
 Iowa, and Samuel S. is the business agent in Mis- 
 souri of a Mount Pleasant firm. Ann E., the eld- 
 
 est daughter living, is the wife of Professor J. H. 
 Hopkins, vice-president of the Albion, Michigan, 
 College, with his home at Ypsilanti, and Sophia E. 
 is the wife of R. S. Gillis, assistant cashier of the 
 National State Bank. 
 
 Few men of his age have worked more hours 
 than Mr. Whiting. He has had remarkable health, 
 not having had forty sick days in forty years. Hav- 
 ing" always, been prudent and economical; having 
 attended assiduously to his own matters, and not 
 only minded his own business but put mind in his 
 business, he has made his life one of marked suc- 
 cess. His accumulations are the work of his own 
 hands, toil hardened by fifty years' industry, and 
 still ready for any honorable service. 
 
 WILLIAM B. MAYES, 
 
 JEFFERSON. 
 
 THE subject of this brief sketch, one of the 
 most successful business men of Jefferson, is 
 of Scotch descent, his ancestors on both sides being 
 from the old country. His parents were Joseph and 
 Rebecca (Work) Mayes, residing near Cadiz, Harri- 
 son county, Ohio, when the son was born, on the nth 
 of August, 1837. His father was in the war of 1812. 
 His paternal grandfather, on coming from Scotland, 
 settled in Pennsylvania. The Works settled in Wash- 
 ington county, in the same state, where many of them 
 still reside. 
 
 William B. lived in Harrison county until after he 
 became of age, farming, attending a common school 
 and teaching. 
 
 In April, i860, he came to De Witt, Clinton county, 
 Iowa, still farming in harvest time, teaching in the 
 winters, and studying the rest of the time, finishing 
 his school education with a full year in Lenox Col- 
 legiate Institute, Hopkinton, Delaware county, where 
 he had previously attended one or two terras. 
 
 On finishing his academic course of studies he read 
 law with Captain D. S. Lee, of Independence, Iowa; 
 was admitted to the bar at DeWitt, in September, 
 1867, and settled in Jefferson on the i6th of the same 
 month. Here, to legal practice he has added real 
 estate, making the latter a specialty, and managing 
 it with eminent success. 
 
 When Mr. Mayes located in Jefferson, he had spent 
 his funds in securing an education, and was not worth 
 a dollar; was, in fact, owing something less than one 
 
 hundred dollars of borrowed -money. Since going 
 into business here, he has been economical, has been 
 prudent and careful in his investments and specula- 
 tions, and, what is remarkable, has in no instance - 
 been a loser. He now owns the Revere House, in 
 Jefferson, a farm of one hundred and thirty-five 
 acres at the depot, four hundred acres of wild land 
 in various parts of Greene county, a cozy home in the 
 city, and perhaps other property of which the writer 
 has no knowledge. In company with Mr. G. G. 
 Lawrence, county auditor, he is in the abstract busi- 
 ness, and they have probably the most perfect thing 
 of the kind in the state. 
 
 In the month of August, 1862, Mr. Mayes enlisted 
 as a private in company K, nth Iowa Infantry, and 
 served nearly three years. He was with his regiment 
 in every battle except one, and was hit twice, but not 
 seriously wounded. During the latter part of this 
 period he was a clerk in the provost-marshal's office, 
 seventeenth army corps. 
 
 Mr. Mayes is a republican in politics, but has held 
 no office outside the municipality of his adopted 
 home. He has passed all the chairs in Odd-Fellow- 
 ship, and is a Master Mason. 
 
 He inherited from his parents a warm regard for 
 the Presbyterian tenets and order of church govern- 
 ment, and is an elder in the Jefferson body. For 
 probity and consistency of christian character, no 
 man in the city has a better standing. He is a zeal- 
 ous worker in the cause of divine truth. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 715 
 
 His wife, becoming such on the 14th of May, 1868, 
 \yas Miss Sarah J. Cowan, of Mount Vernon, Linn 
 county, Iowa, and was educated there in Cornell 
 College ; she is a very active and influential christian. 
 
 Circumstances rendered it a necessity that Mr. 
 Mayes should make a slow start in his academic 
 course, and consequently in his legal and independ- 
 ent career ; but he seems to have been determined 
 not to enter on a profession without a fair degree of 
 mental culture ; so far as we can learn, he struggled 
 on, full of hope, with an elastic spirit, and a safe 
 amount of energy and perseverance. While in the 
 array he studied the German language, and acquired 
 a knowledge of it sufficient to enable him to teach 
 
 it when reading law at Independence. At that place 
 he also taught a select school to aid in defraying his 
 expenses while pursuing his legal studies.- His plan 
 seems to have been to convert his money, early 
 earned, into mental resources, so that if successful 
 in later years he might have the means by which 
 he could the better enjoy his financial success. He 
 is now devoting one hundred dollars a year to the 
 enlargement of his private library. From the career 
 of such men, who can doubt that the aspirations for 
 knowledge, culture and refinement which led them 
 to struggle upward are to be infinitely preferred to 
 inherited wealth, which not infrequently proves itself 
 to be other than a blessing.? 
 
 MAJOR RACINE D. KELLOGG, 
 
 GARDEN GROVE. 
 
 THE most enterprising man and leading spirit in 
 Decatur county, Iowa, is Major Racine D. 
 Kellogg, one of the town builders of the common- 
 wealth. He is a native of Onondaga county. New 
 York, and was born at Fayetteville, on the 9th of 
 March, 1828. His parents were Pearl and Lucy M. 
 (Northrup) Kellogg. Both of his grandparents were 
 Kelloggs, and sprung, on the father's side, from the 
 branch of the family which early settled in Massa- 
 chusetts; on the mother's side, in Connecticut. His 
 grandfather moved to Oneida county, New York, 
 swimming the Mohawk river with his teams, when 
 there was but one dwelling house, a log hut, in Utica. 
 
 Pearl Kellogg was in the war of 1812-15, though 
 in what capacity we cannot learn. Hon. W. P. Kel- 
 logg, congressman from Illinois ; W. W. Kellogg, late 
 congressman from Massachusetts, and Senator Kel- 
 logg of Louisiana, are distantly related to the subject 
 of this sketch. 
 
 Racine received an academic education in his na- 
 tive village. At twenty-one years of age he started 
 for the west, spending four years in farming and 
 teaching in Erie county, Ohio. 
 
 In 1854 he crossed the Mississippi river; located 
 at Garden Grove ; merchandised a short time, and 
 has since been engaged in handling real estate, being 
 one of the most extensive operators in this part of 
 the state. He is improving many farms, and has wild 
 lands and coal lands in Wayne, Decatur, Clark, Mar- 
 ion, Polk and Greene counties; and in the first two 
 counties alone he has built no less than thirty-seven 
 75 
 
 miles of fencing. In connection with other parties 
 he laid out the towns of Dallas Center and Grand 
 Junction, and the impress of his enterprising hand 
 is seen in scores of places in different sections of the 
 state. 
 
 In 1859 Mr. Kellogg was elected to the general 
 assembly, and was in the regular sessions of i860, 
 and the extra session of 1861 ; was reelected and 
 served in the regular and extra sessions of 1862. In 
 that year he was selected by Governor Kirkwood as 
 one of his staff to accompany him to the battle-field 
 of Fort Donelson, where the battle flag of the gal- 
 lant 2d Iowa Infantry was put into his hands to be 
 brought back and placed in the archives of the state. 
 
 At the opening of the regular session of 1862 Mr. 
 Kellogg was elected speaker pro tem. 
 
 Prior to this time, in the extra session of 1861, Mr. 
 Kellogg offered the following resolution, which was 
 extensively copied and commented on at the time : 
 
 Whereas, The President of the United States has appealed 
 to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate and aid the effort to 
 maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of the 
 National Union, and suppress treason and rebellion against 
 the federal government; therefore be it 
 
 Resolved., By the House of Representatives, the senate con- 
 curring herein, that the faith, credit and resources of the 
 State of Iowa, both in men and money, are hereby irrevoc- 
 ably pledged to any amount and to every extent which the 
 federal government may demand, to suppress treason, sub- 
 due rebellion, enforce the laws, protect the lives and prop- 
 erty of loyal citizens, and maintain inviolate the constitution 
 and sovereignty of the nation. 
 
 In 1862 he went into the army as major of the 
 34th Iowa Infanty, and before he had served a year 
 
7i6 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 was compelled, on account of ill-health, to resign and 
 leave the service. He was at the battle and surren- 
 der of Arkansas Post, and the rebel general Church- 
 ill, together with his staff and other officers, to the 
 number of one hundred and fifty men and thirteen 
 hundred privates, was placed in charge of Major 
 Kellogg, and delivered by him to General Curtis at 
 Saint Louis. On his leaving the army the officers of 
 the 34th regiment held a meeting at Benton Barracks, 
 Saint Louis, on the 20th of April, 1863, and passed 
 the following complimentary and well-merited reso- 
 lutions : 
 
 Whereas, Our worthy Major, R. D.[Kellogg, has been 
 compelled to resign his position in thisregiment on account 
 of ill-health; therefore 
 
 Resolved, That we deplore the circumstances which render 
 the step necessary, and in parting with Major Kellogg bear 
 cheerful testimony to his merit as an officer, and his uniform 
 kindness and urbanity as a gentleman. 
 
 Resolved, That in his resignation the service loses a most 
 valuable officer, and the members of this regiment a genial 
 and most pleasant companion. 
 
 Resolved, That in view of a just appreciation of the gal- 
 lant military career as well as high social endowments of 
 Major Kellogg, we do without hesitancy say that he has left 
 the image of himself imprinted in the heart of every mem- 
 ber oft he 34th Iowa ; and although compelled to retire from 
 the service, our esteem, friendship and admiration for him 
 is growing, expansive and quenchless as time and human 
 memory. 
 
 Resolved, That the foregoing be published in the " Iowa 
 State Register," " Leon Pioneer," " Chariton Patriot," " In- 
 dianola Visitor," and " South Tier Democrat." 
 
 A gentleman who has long been intimately ac- 
 quainted with Major Kellogg states that "as a repre- 
 sentative, as a business man, as a good citizen, as a 
 brave soldier, and as one of the useful and tireless 
 members of our state assembly for several sessions, 
 he is without a blemish. He will never stoop to 
 
 shield himself from responsibility, and will never 
 shrink from duty. In social and political circles his 
 name is a synonym for power and honor.'' Every 
 position of public trust in which the major has been 
 placed he has filled with credit to himself and hon- 
 or to the people whom he represented. 
 
 Major Kellogg was known as a war democrat when 
 rebellion broke out at the south; during Mr. Lin- 
 coln's administration his affiliations were with the 
 republican party, and latterly he has been an inde- 
 pendent politician, voting as he thought the best 
 interests of his country required him to do. Of late 
 years his name has repeatedly been mentioned as a 
 suitable man to represent his district in congress, but 
 he has not allowed his name to be used in political 
 conventions. 
 
 Major Kellogg is a member of the Presbyterian 
 church, and a man of the highest christian integrity. 
 
 On the 2d of November, 1864, Miss Elizabeth A. 
 Burns, daughter of Hon. John D. Burns, a member 
 of the Michigan constitutional convention, became 
 the wife of Major Kellogg, and they have two chil- 
 dren living and have lost three. 
 
 At home the major is held in the highest esteem. 
 Here his public spirit and enterprise are most fully 
 felt and thoroughly appreciated. He was chairman 
 of the railroad committee when the Leon branch of 
 the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad came 
 through Garden Grove; was chairman of the build- 
 ing committee when the large and finely arranged 
 school-house was built, and in every movement for 
 the improvement of the place he is a foremost man. 
 He is benevolent and kind to the poor. 
 
 JOHN C. BUCHANAN, 
 
 LEMARS. 
 
 TOHN CALDER BUCHANAN, son of WilHam 
 J and Jane Calder Buchanan, was born near Glas- 
 gow, Scotland, on the 12th of September, 1831. He 
 is descended from a very old family which started 
 in Sterlingshire, his great-grandfather speaking the 
 pure Gaelic only. William Buchanan emigrated with 
 his family from Scotland to the province of Ontario, 
 Canada, in 1842, and settled in Dumfries, near Gait, 
 where he bought a farm, on which the son, John C, 
 worked until sixteen years of age, fitting himself, in 
 the meantime, in the common school and by private 
 study, for a teacher; that vocation he followed, with 
 
 occasional interruptions, for twenty years, teaching 
 sometimes in Canada, and at other times in different 
 parts of the United States. At one time during this 
 period he spent a few months in New York city, in 
 the old museum of P. T. Barnum, often taking a mi- 
 nor part on the stage. At another time we find him 
 in Texas, alternating between teaching school and 
 acting as a ranger, hunting mustangs and Indians. 
 In 1854 he became a pupil in the IlHnois Liberal In- 
 stitute, now Lombard University, Galesburg, Illinois. 
 Two years later, during the Presidential campaign, 
 he conducted a daily paper in Decatur, Illinois; a 
 
THB UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 717 
 
 year or two later he spent six months as a pupil in 
 the Provincial Normal School, Toronto, Canada, and 
 then taught steadily from 1859 to 1867, most of the 
 time in Preston, near Gait, he being principal of the 
 graded school. 
 
 Since 1867 Mr. Buchanan has been a journalist, 
 commencing, in company with his younger brother 
 Robert, on the Appleton, Wisconsin, "Post," conduct- 
 ing it two years, then purchasing the Marquette, 
 Michigan, " Plaindealer," the office of which paper 
 they lost by fire in about six months. 
 
 In July, 1870, Mr. Buchanan came to Lemars and 
 founded the " Sentinel," issuing the first number in 
 February, 1871. This large weekly paper he still 
 conducts, having built up a powerful republican 
 organ. Mr. Buchanan has a fine education, classical 
 withal, an immense fund of general as well as scien- 
 tific knowledge, and is a very strong, vigorous and 
 graceful writer. 
 
 He is an unwavering republican, well read in the 
 politics of the country, and during an exciting cam- 
 paign can and does do effective work on the stump, 
 being an eloquent as well as logical speaker. 
 
 During the year 187 1, while editing the " Sentinel," 
 he also printed the Rock Rapids, Lyon county, "Re- 
 view." Though a warm partisan, and ready to help 
 friends to office, Mr. Buchanan rarely asks for any- 
 thing of the kind for himself He was elected county 
 superintendent of schools a few years ago, but im- 
 mediately resigned. 
 
 The wife of Mr. Buchanan was Miss Catherine 
 Bergy, of Pennsylvania; married in February, 1861. 
 They have eight children and have lost two. 
 
 Mr. Buchanan has been quite successful during 
 his residence in Iowa. Besides the printing office, 
 he owns and lives in one of the best houses in Le- 
 mars, has other property in the city, and owns two 
 farms in Plymouth county. 
 
 HENRY H. MAYNARD, M. D., 
 
 TIPTON. 
 
 HENRY HOBART MAYNARD is a native of 
 Ohio, and was born near Columbus,„on the 
 6th of September, 1835. He is a son of Stephen 
 Maynard, a farmer, and Lurenda Humphrey. His 
 grandfather, Stephen Maynard, senior, was a musi- 
 cian in the continental army. Hon. Horace May- 
 nard, of Tennessee, belongs to a branch of the same 
 family. 
 
 When Henry Hobart was nine years of age his 
 father removed the family to Johnson county, Iowa, 
 settling on a farm near Iowa city. There the son 
 gave himself to hard work until of age, with educa- 
 tional privileges limited to the winter months, as is 
 usual with farmer boys. 
 
 After attending the normal department of the 
 State University, at Iowa city, one year, at the age of 
 twenty-two he commenced reading medicine, at first 
 with Dr. E. J. B. Statler, and subsequently with Dr. 
 Frederic Lloyd, both of Iowa city. He then attend- 
 ed lectures at Rush Medical College, Chicago; grad- 
 uated in March, i86i ; came directly to Tipton, and 
 has here been in steady practice, except when in the 
 service of his country. 
 
 On the 1 2th of August, 1862, Dr. Maynard went 
 into the army as assistant-surgeon of the i8th Iowa 
 Infantry ; was in the service three years, and during 
 
 the first half of that period was, most of the time, 
 surgeon in charge of the general hospital at Spring- 
 field, Missouri. He was then appointed surgeon of 
 the 2d Arkansas Cavalry, and remained nominally in 
 that position, serving, however, nearly all of the time 
 as medical director of the district of southwest Mis- 
 souri until near the close of the war. The value of 
 his services as medical director will be readily in- 
 ferred from the following letter from the medical in- 
 spector-general United States army : 
 
 Medical Inspector-General's Office, 
 
 Washington, D.C, February 8, 1865. 
 
 Dr. H. H. Maynard, Surgeon 2d Arkansas Cavalry: 
 
 Sir,— Your letter of 29th January has but this monnent 
 reached me. It affords me great pleasure to state that you 
 have served under me, and that important duties have been 
 devolved on you, all of which you have performed to my 
 entire satisfaction ; and I take this occasion to thank you for 
 your very efficient aid in the discharge of my duties as 
 medical director of the department of Missouri. As med- 
 ical director of southwest Missouri you rendered important 
 service to the country, and managed the affairs of that dis- 
 trict with great credit to yourself. 
 
 I feel confident that you will fill creditably any position 
 in the line of your profession 3'ou may be appointed to. 
 Very respectfully your obedient servant, 
 
 Madison Mills, 
 Medical Inspector-General United States Army. 
 
 Dr. Maynard was mustered out with his regiment 
 on the 20th of August, 1865, and resumed practice 
 at Tipton. He attended a full course of lectures at 
 
7i8 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 the Bellevue Hospital Medical College from Octo- 
 ber, 1874, to February, 1875, and took the degree of 
 ad eundem. 
 
 Dr. Maynard is a Royal Arch Mason, and belongs 
 to the subordinate lodge of Odd-Fellows. To pol- 
 itics he pays but little attention, usually voting with 
 the republicans. He studies medical and surgical 
 
 science rather than politics, and is constantly increas- 
 ing in skill as well as reputation. He is a rapidly 
 rising man in his profession. 
 
 On the 5th of September, 1865, Miss Susan H. 
 Edwards, daughter of Hon. John Edwards, of Chari- 
 ton, Iowa, became his wife, and they have three 
 children. 
 
 DR. JOHN P. GRUWELL, 
 
 OSKALOOSA. 
 
 JOHN P. GRUWELL was born in Stark county, 
 Ohio, on the 19th of May, 1810, and is the son of 
 Timothy Gruwell. Being unable to trace the gene- 
 alogy of his father's family, little is known definite- 
 ly of its history in America. It seems probable that 
 the grandfather of our subject, Peter Gronelle, (the 
 name was originally spelled Gronelle,) emigrated 
 from the eastern part of France. He died soon after 
 reaching the shores of Delaware Bay, leaving a wid- 
 ow and three little boys, John, Isaac and Timothy ; 
 and upon the death of the widow, which occurred 
 soon afterward, the three children were left without 
 means upon the charity of strangers. Timothy be- 
 came a man of good mind without high cultivation, 
 plain but substantial ; was of square build, with large 
 head, black hair, blue-gray eyes, and stood five feet 
 eight inches in height; erect in form and of quick, 
 firm step. He had a strong constitution, and died 
 in his seventy-eighth year, with unimpaired mental 
 faculties. When twenty-five years of age he became 
 a member of the Society of Friends. 
 
 The mother of our subject descended from an 
 ancient English family, by the name of Pennock or 
 Pinnock. Christopher Pennock, a Quaker, came to 
 America either as a member of William Penn's colony, 
 or about that time, in quest of religious liberty, and 
 settled near the present site of Philadelphia. His 
 descendants became numerous, and as a class were 
 distinguished for moral and religious worth, honest 
 integrity, enterprise and success. William Pennock, 
 being of the third generation from Christopher Pen- 
 nock, and Alice «/i? Mendenhall, were the great- 
 grandparents of our subject. His grandfather, also 
 named William, was the fifth of nine children, the 
 most of whom lived to be more than ninety years of 
 age. He married Mary Martin, by whom he had 
 eight children, of whom the mother of our subject 
 was the second. She reared a family of thirteen 
 
 children, of whom John is the fifth, and died at the 
 age of ninety-two years, of pneumonia, having up to 
 the time of her death enjoyed good health, and being 
 in the full possession of her mental powers. She was 
 a woman refined in manner, and kind and affection- 
 ate, and was in every sense a conscientious, christian 
 mother. 
 
 About the year 1800 the father of our subject en- 
 tered a quarter-section of land in, and moved his 
 family to. Stark county, Ohio. The country was then 
 an almost unbroken wilderness. Under his father's 
 instructions John learned to read and write, and when 
 ten years of age, attended a three months' term of 
 school, it being the first school in that section ; there- 
 after he attended school each winter, and employed 
 his evenings in study at home. At the age of sev- 
 enteen he went to live with a married sister, and for 
 two years had access to a good library, and was under 
 refined and cultivating influences. Upon returning 
 to his home he induced his young associates to meet 
 on Sabbath afternoons to receive instruction in the 
 common branches of study, and afterward taught a 
 winter school with success. He continued to teach 
 during several years, meantime studying the higher 
 branches of algebra, geometry, and other sciences, 
 under an aged Philadelphia teacher, who had settled 
 near his home. 
 
 Having decided to enter the medical profession, 
 he attended an academy for a time, and later was un- 
 der medical instruction for several years, meanwhile 
 defraying his expenses by teaching; and still later 
 attended lectures at the University of Pennsylva- 
 nia, graduating with the degree of M.D. Settling at 
 once at Columbus, Ohio, he began the practice of his 
 profession, and soon became known as a successful 
 and skillful physician and surgeon. 
 
 Dr. Gruwell early became identified with public 
 interests, and took an active part in many matters of 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 719 
 
 reform. Having gained a reputation as a speaker 
 while teaching, he was engaged by the County As- 
 sociation for the Promotion of Education to lecture 
 in every school-house in the county on diiferent sys- 
 tems of education. During early life he was an ear- 
 nest advocate of the temperance cause, often lectur- 
 ing on the subject, and became actively engaged in 
 the cause of abolition when Thompson visited this 
 country in the interests of that work, and addressed 
 the public on that subject in the face of raobocracy. 
 A man of close investigation, he has always been 
 alive to new truths, and made it his aim to keep pace 
 with the advance of progress. A close student, he 
 has, at the same time, practical benevolence, active 
 sympathy, positiveness,ambition and enterprise. Pos- 
 sessed of rare social qualities, he is fond of genial 
 society, and is the center of a large circle of warm 
 friends. As a physician, he is recognized as able and 
 cultured, and was at one time engaged as lecturer 
 on "Anatomy and Physiology of Man," in an insti- 
 tution of learning. He also gave a course of lectures 
 on physiology, hygiene, and kindred subjects, in 
 Penn College, at Oskaloosa, Iowa. 
 
 Dr. Gruwell is a man of ordinary physique, being 
 five feet ten inches in height, well-proportioned, and 
 
 weighing one hundred and sixty-five pounds. He 
 has bluish-gray, penetrating eyes, dark- brown hair 
 slightly streaked with gray, a sharp voice, and steps 
 with promptness and energy. His success in life is 
 attributable to his early domestic training in virtuous 
 and industrious habits, under the watchful care of a 
 firm but kind mother. During his twenty-first year, 
 in meditating on the ways of life, he covenanted 
 with himself that he would not do as he saw many 
 doing, wasting their substance in riotous living; that 
 he would never indulge in profanity, in the use of 
 tobacco in any form, or of intoxicating liquors — and 
 has never broken his vow. 
 
 On the 24th of May, 1834, he was married accord- 
 ing to the Friends' ceremony, to Miss Sarah Miller, 
 the fourth child of Levi Miller and Deborah ne'e 
 Morris, the latter being a descendant of the West 
 family ; Benjamin West, the distinguished artist, being 
 her great-grandmother's brother. Mrs. Gruwell was 
 born on the 15th of January, 181 1, and has always 
 been a woman of delicate health. They have three 
 daughters and one son : Alice P., born on the 9th of 
 June, 1838; Ann Eliza, born on the i8th of Decem- 
 ber, 1840; Charles B., born on the i6th of July, 
 1843, and Ella, born on the 30th of August, 1850. 
 
 WILLIAM N. MESERVEY, 
 
 FORT DODGE. 
 
 WILLIAM NELSON MESERVEY, a promi- 
 nent journalist of Fort Dodge, Iowa, first saw 
 the light of this world in Dearborn county, Indiana, 
 on the i6th of November, 1820. His father, William 
 Meservey, served five years in the war for independ- 
 ence. The maiden name of his mother was Cot- 
 tingham, she being the widow Beacham when she 
 married Mr. Meservey. 
 
 At ten years of age William went to Cincinnati 
 with an uncle, attended the graded schools of that 
 city a few years, then clerked in a wholesale dry- 
 goods store in the same city until twenty. He read 
 law with Amos Lane, of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, 
 with his son James, of Kansas notoriety, for a fel- 
 low student; was admitted to the bar in Cincinnati 
 in 1843; practiced five years in New Orleans; in 
 1848 removed to Clinton, Illinois, and merchandized 
 there until 1853, when he settled in Webster county, 
 Iowa. That was before Fort Dodge was surveyed 
 and laid out, and clients were " few and far between " 
 
 in Webster county, then embracing two or three 
 times its present territory. Nevertheless he had 
 some practice from the start, and his legal business 
 continued to increase until 1862, when he went into 
 the United States treasury department, with location 
 at Monroe, Louisiana, remaining in that position four 
 years. 
 
 In 1866 Mr. Meservey returned to Fort Dodge; 
 took charge of a newspaper which has had various 
 names, and is now known as the " Webster County 
 Gazette," a radical republican paper, whose edito- 
 rial columns indicate strong brain work. He is a 
 sharp and able writer. 
 
 Mr. Meservey was a democrat until the old flag 
 was insulted at Fort Sumter, and has since been 
 ultra republican. His convictions of duty are strong, 
 and he is frank and outspoken, taking no pains to 
 conceal his sentiments, political or any other. 
 
 At an early day Mr. Meservey served as judge of 
 Webster county two terms ; all the civil office of any 
 
720 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 consequence that he would accept since he became 
 a resident of Iowa. 
 
 He passed all the chairs in Odd-Fellowship many 
 years ago, and belongs to the encampment in the 
 Masonic order. In religious sentiment, he is a Uni- 
 versalist, but there is no church of that order in Fort 
 Dodge with which he can connect himself. 
 
 Mr. Meservey was first married in 1840, to Miss 
 Elizabeth Nelson, of Indiana. She died in 1844, 
 leaving one daughter, Jane, who is now the wife of 
 George Green, of Denver, Colorado. His present 
 
 wife was Miss Amanda C. Robbins, of Clinton, Illi- 
 nois. She has had six children, of whom only four 
 are living. Stillman T. is a druggist in Fort Dodge; 
 Adolphus F. is a lawyer in the same city ; Alice is 
 the wife of Oliver M. Welch, of Fort Dodge, and 
 William is at home attending the graded school. 
 
 Mr. Meservey is five feet six and a half inches tall, 
 rather stout built, and weighs two hundred pounds. 
 He is a well-read man, not only in law and politics, 
 but on general subjects, a good converser, and very 
 genial in the social circle. 
 
 HON. JOHN MEYER, 
 
 NE WTON. 
 
 JOHN MEYER, the present state senator from 
 Jasper county, is a native of Clinton county, 
 Pennsylvania, and was born on the 26th of February, 
 1824. His parents were Valentine and Elizabeth 
 Hoy Meyer, members of the agricultural class. The 
 Meyers were originally from Switzerland or Ger- 
 many, and settled in Berks county, Pennsylvania, two 
 hundred years ago. The subject of this notice was 
 educated at Mifflinburgh Academy, Union county, 
 Pennsylvania, and Oberlin College, Ohio, going to 
 Oberlin in 1847 and graduating in 1853. He com- 
 menced teaching school in his twenty-first year and 
 taught while fitting himself for and passing through 
 college, thus defraying most of his expenses at that 
 period. During the last two years at Oberlin he 
 taught under classes in the college. 
 
 On graduating, he married Miss Cornelia Beebee, 
 of Mount Vernon, Ohio, on the 25th of August, 1853, 
 and for two or three years was in partnership with 
 his father-in-law, Ward W. Beebee, a prominent and 
 successful horticulturist, who afterward settled in 
 Dubuque, Iowa, where he died in December, 1868. 
 
 In April, 1857, Mr. Meyer immigrated to Iowa, 
 and settled in Newton, which place has since been 
 his home. Twenty years ago an effort was made to 
 establish a college at Wittemburg, four miles north 
 of Newton, under the patronage of the Free Presby- 
 terians, and Mr. Meyer was engaged as teacher dur- 
 ing one season. 
 
 In 1859 Mr. Meyer commenced business on the 
 corner of McDonald and Spring streets, and has 
 never moved. 
 
 In August, 1862, Mr. Meyer went into the army 
 as captain of company K, 28th Iowa Infantry, and 
 
 served three years. He was promoted to major in 
 
 1863, after the battle of Champion Hills, holding that 
 commission, together with those of lieutenant-colonel 
 and colonel, at the close of the war. Besides Cham- 
 pion Hills he was in the siege of Vicksburg, the bat- 
 tles of Jackson, Mississippi, and Winchester, Fisher's 
 Hill and Cedar Creek under General Sheridan in 
 
 1864, and several other battles. At the battle of 
 Cedar Creek, out of eight field officers of his brigade 
 four were killed, two wounded, he having his sword 
 struck with a musket ball, and only one of the eight 
 was untouched. 
 
 Major Meyer was elected to the Iowa general 
 assembly in i86r, and served in the regular and ex- 
 tra sessions of 1862 ; was a member of the state sen- 
 ate in 1866 and 1868, and was elected to the same 
 body in October, 1877, for another term of four years. 
 He is very attentive to his duties and makes a judi- 
 cious legislator. 
 
 Colonel Meyer has been a member of the school 
 board of Newton city several years, and its president 
 most of the time, some of his best work for the pub- 
 lic having been done in that connection. In many 
 respects he is a very useful citizen. He has been con- 
 nected with the Congregational church for twenty- 
 five years, and most of the time has held some office 
 in that body, being deacon at this time. He has 
 lived a very pure life. 
 
 In politics. Colonel Meyer was originally a free-soil 
 whig, and has acted heartily with the republican 
 party since its formation. He cherishes his political 
 sentiments with the same sincerity that he does his 
 religious. While in Ohio in 1856 he took the stump 
 for Colonel Fremont for the Presidency; was district 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 721 
 
 elector in 1868, and spoke in every county in the 
 district, and usually does more or less canvassing 
 when an important election, like that of governor or 
 President, is to take place. 
 
 The history of his family is truly sad. Of eight 
 
 children, the fruit of the union formed in 1853, only 
 one child, Cornelia, is living. She is a teacher in 
 the public schools of Newton, aged twenty. Mrs. 
 Meyer, like her husband, is an active christian, and 
 one of the leaders in all benevolent enterprises. 
 
 HON. ROBERT SLOAN, 
 
 KEOSAU^UA. 
 
 ROBERT SLOAN, for the last ten years a cir- 
 cuit judge, is a son of Robert and Elizabeth 
 Steapleton Sloan, and was born in Wayne township, 
 Columbiana county, Ohio, on the 21st of October, 
 1835. The Sloans are of Scotch-Irish descent. The 
 great-grandfather of Robert Sloan was an officer with 
 General Braddock, and was a captain in the revolu- 
 tionary army. His son, the grandfather of our sub- 
 ject, was born in the old country ; he emigrated to 
 this country and settled near Philadelphia. Robert 
 Sloan, senior, was born in the county of Antrim, Ire- 
 land, and came to this country when seven years old. 
 
 The subject of this notice was employed in farm- 
 ing until about seventeen years of age, receiving a 
 common-school education during this time, with one 
 year's attendance at a high school in New Lisbon, 
 under Professor Reuben McMillen. 
 
 In the spring of 1853 Robert Sloan, senior, im- 
 migrated with his family from Ohio to Iowa, settling 
 near lowaville, Davis county; and for the next seven- 
 teen years teaching was the occupation of his son, 
 mainly in Davis county. 
 
 In i860 he entered the law office of Judge George 
 G. Wright, of Keosauqua; was admitted to the bar 
 at this place, the seat of justice of Van Buren coun- 
 ty, in March, 1861, and was in practice here from 
 
 that date until he went on the bench. In the autumn 
 of 1866 he was elected judge of the first circuit, 
 second judicial district ; went on the bench in Janu- 
 ary following ; four years later was elected circuit 
 judge of the second judicial district; was reelected 
 in 1876, and his term will not expire until the 31st 
 of December, 1880. As a lawyer, Judge Sloan is 
 thoroughly wedded to the profession, and is a studi- 
 ous, growing man. As a jurist, he is self-possessed 
 and dignified, full and clear in his charge to a jury. 
 His popularity on the bench is seen in his repeated 
 reflections. 
 
 Judge Sloan was made a Freemason a short time 
 after he became of age ; has been master of the 
 Keosauqua Lodge, and is a Knight Templar. He 
 has paid, however, of late years, but little atten- 
 tion to the order, letting nothing interfere with his 
 studies pertaining to the office of a jurist. 
 
 He has acted with the republican party since 1856 ; 
 has very decided views as to his duty in politics, but 
 is not an office seeker. In all respects he is high- 
 minded and a man of many fine qualities. He is a 
 communicant in the Congregational church. 
 
 On the isth of July, 1863, Miss Mary Brown, of 
 Keosauqua, became the wife of Judge Sloan, and 
 they have six children, five girls and one boy. 
 
 ENOCH D. WOODBRIDGE, 
 
 NASHUA. 
 
 ENOCH DAY WOODBRIDGE, the first settler 
 in Nashua, and a son of Timothy Woodbridge, 
 a farmer of Vermont, was born in that state at Mid- 
 dlebury on the 3d of March, 1806. His mother was 
 Lydia Chipman, daughter of Judge Chipman, of the 
 same place. Enoch farmed in his native town until 
 eleven years old, when the family moved to Ohio 
 and settled on land twenty miles west of Cleveland. 
 
 In 1835 Enoch removed to Southport, now Keno- 
 sha, Wisconsin, and bought and sold land there for 
 several years ; spent some time on a farm in Rock 
 county, Wisconsin, and in 1854 pushed westward in- 
 to Iowa, dealing in merchandise a year or two at Mc- 
 Gregor, and in July, 1855, settling where Nashua now 
 stands. At that time Bradford, then the seat of justice 
 of Chickasaw county, had quite a cluster of dwelling 
 
72 2 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 houses, stores and hotels, but not a cellar had been 
 dug or a sod turned on the site of Nashua, at first 
 called Woodbridge. In company with Mr. Andrew 
 Sample he purchased the water-power; soon after- 
 ward built a saw-mill and grist-mill, and sold out 
 the next year to E. P. Greeley. He then became a 
 speculator in land, following the business for many 
 years, most of the time with fair success. In business 
 transactions he was an honest dealer. Mr. Wood- 
 bridge was one of the supervisors of the county for 
 a long time, and mayor of the city one year, when, 
 his health declining, he refused to serve any longer. 
 
 He was a hater of oppression, and a true friend of 
 his race ; a strong abolitionist in political sentiment, 
 acting heartily with the republican party during the 
 last fifteen years of his life, he dying on the 8th of 
 April, 1874. The cause of his demise was some dis- 
 ease of the brain. 
 
 He had been a member of a Baptist church nearly 
 forty years, and lived a steadfast christian life. He 
 was remarkably conscientious, and cherished his re- 
 ligion and his politics with equal sincerity and un- 
 
 selfishness. A kinder-hearted man never lived in 
 Nashua. If anybody was ever "generous to a fault,"' 
 it was Mr. Woodbridge. In him the poor had a true 
 and liberal friend. 
 
 His widow was Miss Abijail Nichols, of Kenosha, 
 Wisconsin. They were joined in wedlock on the 20th 
 of October, 1836, and have no children. Pecuniarily, 
 Mrs. Woodbridge is left in very comfortable circum- 
 stances. She holds her church connection with the 
 Baptist society at Charles City, eighteen miles away, 
 there being no Baptist church in Nashua. Her late 
 husband was connected with the same body. Mrs. 
 Woodbridge is the oldest living settler in Nashua, 
 a woman of rare christian virtues, who is held in 
 the warmest esteem by her neighbors. Many years 
 ago a brother of Deacon Woodbridge died, leaving 
 four children, and he kindly took charge of the whole 
 of them, rearing and educating them ; three of them 
 teaching, more or less, in their younger years. One 
 of them died in 1861, aged eighteen years, a chris- 
 tian young man. The other three had a good start 
 in life, and are doing well. 
 
 HON. EDWARD H. STILES, 
 
 OTTUMWA. 
 
 EDWARD H. STILES was born at Granby, 
 Hartford county, Connecticut, on the 8th of 
 October, 1836. He received an academic educa- 
 tion, and in 1856 began the study of law. In De- 
 cember of the latter year he came to Wapello coun- 
 ty, Iowa, where, during the ensuing winter, he taught 
 school. 
 
 In the spring of 1857 he resumed the study of 
 law in the office of Colonel S. W. Summers, then a 
 leading attorney of Ottumwa, with whom he formed 
 a copartnership on his admission to the bar in De- 
 cember following. 
 
 In 1858 Mr. Stiles was elected a member of the 
 city council of Ottumwa. In 1859 he was elected 
 city solicitor. During the memorable Presidential 
 campaign of i860 he heartily espoused the cause of 
 the Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, and advocated his 
 claims to the Presidency in many forcible speeches. 
 At the Presidential election, in the same year, Mr. 
 Stiles voted for the last time with the democratic 
 party, he allying himself, on the breaking out of the 
 great rebellion, with the republican party, and has 
 ever since been an avowed and earnest republican. 
 
 In January, 1861, at the first session of the first 
 board of supervisors of the county, Mr. Stiles was 
 elected attorney of the board ; a year later he was 
 reelected. In January, 1864, he took his seat in the 
 lower house of the state legislature as a republican 
 representative from Wapello county, serving during 
 the session on the important standing committees 
 on judiciary and finance, and on a notable special 
 committee on a prohibitory liquor law. 
 
 In 1865 Mr. Stiles was elected over his former law 
 partner, Colonel Summers, who was his democratic 
 opponent on this occasion, to the state senate. Here, 
 likewise, he was prominent as a member of the judi- 
 ciary and finance committees, and of a joint com- 
 mittee of the legislature appointed to investigate the 
 facts respecting a certain large deficit in the swamp- 
 land fund of the state. As chairman, on the part of 
 the state senate, of the latter committee, Mr. Stiles 
 formally conducted the examination of all the wit- 
 nesses, took all the testimony and wrote the report, 
 the investigation consuming the greater part of the 
 session. At the same session, in 1866, the office of 
 reporter of the decisions of the supreme court, the 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 723 
 
 incumbents of which were previously appointed by 
 the judges of the court, was made elective. This 
 unwise innovation was stenuously opposed by Mr, 
 Stiles, who was, rather remarkably, considering this 
 fact, nominated by the republican state convention, 
 held during the succeeding summer, as a candidate 
 for the office, and elected at the ensuing fall election. . 
 Thereupon he resigned his position of state senator, 
 three years of the term of which were unexpired. 
 
 In October, 1870, Mr. Stiles was reelected to the 
 office of reporter. Four years later, upon the ex- 
 piration of his second term, he positively declined 
 to be further a candidate, and accordingly retired. 
 
 As reporter of the decisions of the supreme court, 
 Mr. Stiles prepared the head-notes and published 
 sixteen volumes (numbers 22 to 37 inclusive) of the 
 Iowa reports, which rank high among the law re- 
 ports of the country. During 1873-4 he likewise 
 
 prepared and published a new Iowa digest in two 
 volumes. 
 
 This work was projected by T. F. Withrow, Esq., 
 last predecessor of Mr. Stiles in the office of reporter, 
 who was early compelled to relinquish its prepara- 
 tion in consequence of an important professional 
 engagement in another state. Indubitable evidence 
 of great care and excessive labor expended upon 
 the work appear on every page. 
 
 Mr. Stiles is associated in professional practice 
 with E, L. Burton, Esq., a gentleman of high personal 
 character and eminent legal attainments. Messrs. 
 Stiles and Burton number among their very respect- 
 able clients the corporations of all the four railroads 
 centering at Ottumwa. 
 
 On the 19th of September, 1861, in the city of Phil- 
 adelphia, Mr. Stiles was united in marriage with Miss 
 Emma Vernon, of Chester county, Pennsylvania. 
 
 E. H. WILSON, M. D., 
 
 OSCEOLA. 
 
 EH. WILSON was born on the 13th of Febru- 
 . ary, 1834, in the State of Massachusetts, in a 
 town then called North Wrentham, now known as 
 Norfolk. His father was born in the same place in 
 the year 1788. He owned a large tract of land 
 which he was engaged in selling, making this his 
 chief business, together with the purchase and sale 
 of live stock. His mother, whose maiden name was 
 Abigal Richardson, was born in Portland, Maine. 
 She seems to have been a remarkable person, both 
 physically and mentally. She is now seventy-eight 
 years of age, and during the last year undertook 
 what would be a long and tiresome journey for a 
 younger person, going to Massachusetts with one of 
 her sons and returning home to Osceola alone, arriv- 
 ing there in excellent health and spirits. 
 
 Like the majority of boys of that time, young 
 Wilson attended a district school until fourteen years 
 of age; then entered Day's famous academy at Wren- 
 tham, continuing to study there until he was twenty. 
 During this period he taught school, and after leav- 
 ing the academy was similarly employed. At the 
 same time he commenced the study of medicine in 
 the office of Dr. Ambrose Eames, of Wrentham. For 
 about two years he continued to study with Dr. 
 Eames, and at the end of this time was united in 
 marriage with Miss Eliza J. Townsend, of Walpole, 
 76 
 
 Massachusetts. After marriage he employed his 
 time and energy in teaching school and studying 
 medicine, practicing at times after the spring of 1866. 
 He afterward attended the Hahnemann College, in 
 Chicago, where he graduated in February, 1871. He 
 then came to Osceola and commenced the practice 
 of medicine, which he still continues, having built 
 up a large and profitable business throughout the 
 city and the adjoining towns. 
 
 Dr. Wilson possesses to a large extent the elements 
 of success as a physician. Added to a well stored 
 mind in his profession he has an exceedingly pleas- 
 ant and winsome manner, and yet is firm in his con- 
 victions and rapid and skillful in his treatment of 
 patients. 
 
 Dr. Wilson is, in religious belief, a Baptist, being 
 very prominent in Sunday-school work, in which he 
 takes a great and untiring interest. He is president 
 of the county Sunday-school organization, and per- 
 sonally superintends the school whenever his profes- 
 sional duties will permit. 
 
 In politics, he is an ardent republican. 
 
 His father had married twice. By his first mar- 
 riage he had five boys born to him ; of those, two 
 are still living. By his second marriage he had nine 
 children born to him, five boys and four girls; two of 
 the latter are dead. Judge C. C. Wilson, late chief 
 
724 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 justice of Utah, was the eldest of these boys by the 
 second marriage. Of the other boys, one is a lawyer 
 and two are physicians. 
 
 For seven years the doctor has practiced in his 
 
 present home, and in that time has gained hosts of 
 friends and a reputation for honesty, uprightness 
 and skill in his profession, marking him as one of 
 the leading physicians of the place. 
 
 ANDREW J. WILLEY, M.D., 
 
 MOUNT AYR. 
 
 A NDREW JACKSON WILLEY, a native of Som- 
 L\. erfield, Somerset county, Pennsylvania, and a 
 son of William S. and Elizabeth Tidy Willey, was 
 born on the isth of May, 1830. The Willeys were of 
 French descent, and originally spelled the name 
 Wille; the Tidys were from England. The grand- 
 father of Andrew J. was a Baptist preacher and a 
 manufacturer of brass musical instruments, and his 
 father was' a shoe and leather dealer. 
 
 At fifteen Andrew was sent to Winchester, Vir- 
 ginia, where he received an academic education and 
 read medicine, graduating from a medical college in 
 that place in 1853. 
 
 After practicing two years at Albany, Illinois, in 
 1856, Dr. Willey removed to Iowa and practiced at 
 Peoria, Mahaska county, and Nevada, Story county, 
 until the civil war broke out. 
 
 In 1 86 1 he went into the army as assistant-surgeon 
 loth Iowa Infantry; in 1863 was promoted to sur- 
 geon of the 7th Iowa Cavalry, and when mustered 
 out, eighteen months after the rebellion had closed, 
 he was breveted lieutenant-colonel " for gallant and 
 meritorious services." During tjie service the 7th 
 Cavalry was operating against the Indians on the 
 plains and in the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 Soon after returning from the western frontier 
 Dr. Willey attended a course of lectures at Keokuk, 
 and graduated there in 1869 ; practiced at Osceola 
 until 1873, and then removed to Mount Ayr, where 
 
 he has built up a very lucrative business. His gen- 
 eral practice is quite extensive, and he is employed 
 in the surgical cases in Ringgold county, and not 
 unfrequently in adjoining counties. His reputation, 
 both as a physician and surgeon, is excellent, and he 
 attends to his business with the greatest promptness. 
 
 In politics, Dr. Willey has always affiHated with 
 the democracy, being known, while in the army, as 
 a " war democrat." 
 
 He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic fraternity. 
 
 He is liberal in his religious belief, with a partial- 
 ity for the Methodist church. 
 
 The doctor has a second wife. His first was Miss 
 Mary Coe, of Virginia ; married on the gth of No- 
 vember, 1849. She had three children, and died in 
 November, 1855. Only one of her children, James 
 J., a physician, is now living. The present wife of 
 Dr. Willey was Mrs. Sarah Jane Finarty, daughter 
 of Dr. James L. Warren, of Mahaska county, Iowa; 
 married on the ist of July, 1857. She has had three 
 children by her present husband, only two of them, 
 Marie Juniatta and Orpha Loyola, now living. 
 
 Dr. Willey has gray eyes, a ruddy complexion, a 
 sanguine temperament ; is five feet and ten inches 
 tall, and weighs two hundred pounds. He is polished 
 in manners as well as conversation, very social and 
 companionable. He is a member of the Society of 
 Physicians and Surgeons of Southwestern Iowa, and 
 stands high, professionally, in his section of the state. 
 
 DANIEL M. HARRIS, 
 
 MISSOURI VALLET. 
 
 DANIEL MATTHIAS HARRIS, a Buckeye by 
 birtli, was born at Dayton on the 21st of July, 
 182 1, his parents being John Harris, a cabinet-maker, 
 and Rebecca Booher. His father was a native of 
 Massachusetts, his mother of Pennsylvania. Both 
 died in the same month when he was in his ninth 
 
 year, leaving him thus early to take care of himself. 
 He lived in different families in Dayton until fifteen 
 years of age ; then went to Williamsport, Murray 
 county, Tennessee, and sold goods until 1851, when 
 he commenced the study of law and read for three 
 years, and was admitted to the bar at Exira, Audu- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 725 
 
 bon county, Iowa, in 1854. He practiced first in 
 Panola, Guthrie county, where he commenced in 
 1862 the publication of the Guthrie county " Led- 
 ger," a democratic paper, conducting it in connection 
 with his law practice until June, 1868, when he dis- 
 posed of the paper and removed to Missouri Valley. 
 Here he started the " Harrisonian" ; in 187 1 sold out, 
 went to Independence, Kansas, and published the 
 Kansas " Democrat "; disposed of it the next year and 
 returned to Iowa; located at Exira, the town which 
 he had founded sixteen years before, and started the 
 "Audubon County Defender"; disposed of his in- 
 terest in this journal in 1873, and established the 
 "Cap-Sheaf" at Atlantic, Cass county; published it 
 until 1874, when he returned to Missouri Valley, took 
 charge of the " Times," the democratic organ of Har- 
 rison county, and is still conducting it successfully. 
 Since 1870 journalism has been his main business. 
 He is an able writer, and very influential in his party. 
 He is a self-taught man, very intelligent, very com- 
 municative, and a good converser. 
 
 While in Audubon county Mr. Harris served as 
 county judge three terms. He represented the twenty- 
 
 sixth district, composed of Guthrie, Audubon, Shelby 
 and Harrison counties, one term in the general assem- 
 bly, and served in the regular session of i860, and also 
 in the extra session of 1861. He was a candidate for 
 lieutenant-governor on the democratic ticket with 
 Judge Mason in 1866, and a Presidential elector on 
 the same ticket in 1868, receiving the full strength 
 of the party vote in both cases, but having no chance 
 for success in this strongly republican state. 
 
 Mr. Harris is a Master Mason, an Odd-Fellow, and 
 very active in the order of Good I'emplars. His 
 heart is in every good cause, tending to the social 
 and moral improvement of society, and he is most 
 esteemed where best known. 
 
 His wife was Miss Minerva M. White, of Tennes- 
 see ; married on the 26th of July, 1841. She has had 
 ten children, six boys and four girls, all living and all 
 now residing in Iowa. Three sons, William J.. John 
 W. and Robert H. are married. Mary Isabella is 
 the wife of John Crane, of Audubon county, and 
 Clarinda C. is the wife of John P. Lahman, of Mis- 
 souri Valley. Daniel W., Edwin T., Ellis M., Vir- 
 ginia T. and Emma E. are single. 
 
 WILLIS F. WILLIAMS, 
 
 VINTON. 
 
 WILLIS F. AVILLIAMS, son of a woolen man- 
 ufacturer, William E. Williams and Mary 
 Lumb, was born in the town of Thornville, Perry 
 county, Ohio, on the 22d of May, 1830. His father 
 was a native of Maryland, and is now living in Vin- 
 ton in his seventy-fourth year. His mother was 
 born in England, and came to this country when 
 three years old. She is also living, and is in her 
 seventieth year. While Willis was in his infancy the 
 family moved to Lancaster, in the same state, and 
 he was educated in Greenfield Academy, near Lan- 
 caster. At seventeen he went into a drug store, re- 
 maining in that business until 1849, when he went 
 to California with one of the first companies of gold 
 seekers. He spent seventeen years there. He worked 
 in the mines the first year, the remainder of the time 
 was merchandising. 
 
 In 1856, while on a prospecting tour in the cen- 
 tral western states, he purchased a farm of five hun- 
 dred acres, ten miles northwest of Vinton, built a 
 three-story stone house and made other improve- 
 ments. 
 
 Mr. Williams started for California with simply 
 funds enough to reach that opening El Dorado ; he 
 went there expressly to make money, carefully hus- 
 banded his accumulations, and in 1867, when he per- 
 manently located in Vinton, he had enough funds to 
 make a good start in business. He immediately went 
 into the banking firm of Traer and Co., which, in a 
 short time, changed its name to Traer and Williams. 
 He sold out in 1871, and in January, 1872, started 
 a bank of his own, which he is still managing, aided 
 by C. S. Bennett, cashier. 
 
 Since settling in Vinton Mr. Williams has been a 
 heavy dealer in real estate, no person in town, prob- 
 ably, doing more in this line. He has bought and 
 sold more than fifteen thousand acres of farming 
 and unimproved lands in the last ten years. Suc- 
 cess here, as in every other branch of business which 
 has occupied his attention, has attended his efforts. 
 Several years ago, in company with J. C. Traer, he 
 laid out ninety acres as an addition to the town, 
 containing seven hundred and twenty residence lots, 
 and they have all been sold. Mr. Williams has been 
 
226 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 one of the foremost men in Vinton in adding to its 
 accommodations, he having erected no less than 
 twenty buildings. He has built sixteen residences in 
 Vinton, costing from twenty-five hundred to twenty 
 thousand dollars ; has remodeled and enlarged half 
 a dozen dwellings; has built and remodeled four 
 business houses, and bought and sold more than 
 forty residences not mentioned above. 
 
 Mr. Williams is a member of the Presbyterian 
 church, and very liberal in religious and benevolent 
 enterprises. 
 
 In politics, he was originally a whig, but in latter 
 years has been a republican. He has frequently been 
 
 solicited to accept office, but he has sedulously re- 
 fused to do so. 
 
 On the 26th of January, i860. Miss Frances Ellen 
 Fielding, of Lancaster, Ohio, became his wife, and 
 has borne him four daughters, all yet living. 
 
 He has had from boyhood, what the writer once 
 heard him call " a weakness for fine horses." He now, 
 and usually we believe, drives the best trotter in Ben- 
 ton county, yet he never patronizes races. He has a 
 competency, and sense enough to know how to en- 
 joy a portion of its annual income. He has done a 
 great deal for Vinton, and the citizens are not insen- 
 sible of the worth to the city of such a man. 
 
 HON. DAVID EDMUNDSON, 
 
 NEWTON. 
 
 DAVID EDMUNDSON was born on the 9th 
 of June, i8ri,the son of William Edmundson 
 and Mary nee Cook, both of whom were natives of 
 Virginia and of Scotch-Irish descent. His paternal 
 grandfather, Mathew Edmundson, was a native of 
 Ireland, while his grandmother, Margaret Patterson, 
 was a native of Virginia. His father, born on the 
 19th of October, 1750, was a farmer by occupation, 
 and died in 1828 in Putnam county, Indiana. His 
 mother, born on the 5th of October, 1768, died in 
 Oskaloosa, Iowa, on the loth of November, 1862. Of 
 their family of five children, Mathew, a carpenter by 
 trade, now resides in Des Moines county, Iowa; Mar- 
 garet died in i85z, in her sixtieth year; William 
 married Miss Priscilla De Pew and raised two sons, 
 James and William. He died in September, 1862, at 
 the age of fifty-seven ; Mary was married to George 
 J. Sharp, a farmer. She died in 1838, leaving three 
 children, Margaret, William and George. 
 
 David's maternal grandparents were John Cook 
 and Margaret nie Blair. The former, born«!tri729, 
 was a native of Pennsylvania, but was raised in Vir- 
 ginia ; the latter was born in Virginia in the year 
 
 I73S- 
 
 When our subject was about seventeen years of 
 age his father died. He received but meagre school 
 privileges and continued on the farm with his mother 
 until 1833. 
 
 Removing, then, to Rockville, Indiana, he there, in 
 company with his two brothers, engaged in mercan- 
 tile business under the firm name of M. Edmundson 
 and Co., and continued the same for three years. At 
 
 the expiration of that time he removed with his 
 brother Mathew to Burlington, Iowa. In 1845 he 
 removed to Oskaloosa, Iowa, and spent one year in 
 farming, and then settled in Jasper county, Iowa, 
 where he was engaged in farming until the fall of 
 1849, when he settled in the immediate vicinity of 
 Newton. In the spring of the following year he 
 went to California by the overland route, but not 
 meeting with the success which he had anticipated 
 he returned to his home in August, 1853. 
 
 Mr. Edmundson has always taken an active part 
 in public affairs, and in 1846 was elected the first 
 sheriff of Jasper county. In 1856 he was elected to 
 represent Jasper and Poweshiek counties in the state 
 legislature, it being the last session held in Iowa 
 City. 
 
 In August, 1857, he was elected judge of Jasper 
 county, a position which he held until the 1st of 
 January, 1862. During that month he was sergeant- 
 at-arms in the state senate. In the following summer 
 he entered the army as first lieutenant of company 
 D, 4otli regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and dur- 
 ing one year of his service was judge advocate of a 
 military commission, having his office at Columbus, 
 Kentucky. Returning to his home in August, 1864, 
 he has since that time been engaged in various oc- 
 cupations, and since 1876 been justice of the peace. 
 
 In political sentiment, he was formerly a whig of 
 decided anti-slavery principles, and since the organ- 
 ization of the republican party has been identified 
 with that body. 
 
 Throughout his life he has maintained a high 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 727 
 
 standing as a man of" high moral tone, and in his 
 habits has been strictly temperate and moderate, 
 having never used either tobacco or intoxicating 
 liquors. 
 
 Mr. Edmundson was married on the i8th of March, 
 1841, to Miss Temperance Gordon, daughter of Alex- 
 ander Gordon, of York, Pennsylvania. They have 
 had eight children : Arabella, born on the 25th of 
 
 June, 1842, was married in 1856 to Mr. S. W. Macy, 
 and now resides in Jasper county ; Lizzie was born on 
 the 22d of April, 1845 ; William A. was born on the 
 4th of October, 1847; David G. was born on the ist 
 of August, 1850; Ella was born on the 5th of July, 
 1854; Frida was born on the 31st of October, 1856; 
 Mary was born on the 5th of Jime, 1859; Charles 
 was born on the 2d of August, 1862. 
 
 REV. ROBERT A. McAYEAL, D. D., 
 
 OSKALOOSA. 
 
 THE subject of this biography, a native of Wash- 
 ington county, Pennsylvania, was born on the 
 9th of January, 1825, the son of James McAyeal and 
 Margaret nie Miller. His father, a native of Ireland, 
 became a merchant after coming to this country. 
 His grandfather, Alexander McAyeal, was of Scotch 
 ancestry ; he followed farming in Ireland, and emi- 
 grated to America in 1810, settling first at Wilming- 
 ton, Delaware, whence he removed to Pittsburgh, 
 Pennsylvania, and there engaged in farming. 
 
 His maternal grandparents, Henry and Margaret 
 Miller, were natives of Ireland, of Scotch descent. 
 They emigrated to this country about 1810, and set- 
 tled at Wilmington, Delaware, where his grandfather 
 became an operator in Du Pont's woolen mills, on 
 the Brandywine. 
 
 Robert lived at home until he attained his twen- 
 tieth year, working on the farm, attending school, and 
 clerking in his father's store. He spent one year 
 at a Friends institution, at Wilmington, Delaware, 
 and later studied four years at West Geneva College, 
 in Logan county, Ohio, where he graduated in June, 
 1853, with the degree of A.M. 
 
 He next pursued a three years' course of study in 
 the Theological Seminary, at Alleghany, Pennsylva- 
 nia, uuder the auspices of the Associated Reformed 
 Presbyterian Church. He was licensed to preach 
 in the summer of 1855, and in the spring of the fol- 
 lowing year took the pastoral charge of the Associate 
 Reformed (subsequently the United Presbyterian) 
 Church. The organization was at that time very 
 small, constituting only a missionary field, but grad- 
 ually grew until it became self-sustaining, and in 
 1869 sent off a branch that is now known as the 
 United Presbyterian Church of Unity. 
 
 His church from the first maintained pronounced 
 anti-slavery principles, and from a membership of 
 
 one hundred and fifty sent forty-two into the army 
 during the war of the rebellion. 
 
 In August, 1862, Mr. McAyeal entered the service 
 as chaplain of the 33d Iowa Volunteer Infantry, but 
 at the end of one year, by reason of ill health, re- 
 signed and returned to his pastorate. 
 
 In political sentiment, he was a thorough aboli- 
 tionist. He attended the convention at Pittsburgh, 
 in the winter of 1854, upon the formation of the re- 
 publican party, and has since been identified with 
 that party. 
 
 After settling in Oskaloosa, Mr. McAyeal opened 
 a select school in connection with his church ; the 
 school was academic in its character, and very suc- 
 cessful. Five of his students have become minis- 
 ters of the gospel, and one of them is a missionary 
 in India. 
 
 During the past six or eight years he has been a 
 member of the school board of Oskaloosa, and dur- 
 ing that time the graded system has been introduced 
 into the schools, and an elegant school building 
 erected. He has been a constant and thorough stu- 
 dent, and has always taken an active interest in 
 educational matters. He was among the first to aid 
 in establishing the Monmouth College, and is at the 
 present time one of the directors of the same. In 
 June, 1875, that institution conferred upon him tlie 
 honorary degree of D.D. 
 
 Dr. McAyeal was married on the 2d of June, 1856, 
 to Miss Mary Ellen Sharpe, daughter of George W. 
 and Caroline R. Sharpe — the name of her mother, 
 originally Schneider, was changed to Snider. Mr. 
 Sharpe was editor of the Olentangg (afterward Dela- 
 ware) "Gazette," of Delaware, Ohio. He died in 1853, 
 and his widow now resides in Kansas. 
 
 Mrs. McAyeal's paternal grandparents, George and 
 Ann Sharpe, emigrated from England, and settled 
 
728 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 at Cumberland, Maryland. Her maternal grandpar- 
 ents. Colonel Nicholas and Margaret Schneider, were 
 natives of Prussia ; they settled at Baltimore, where 
 he died in 1856, and she in 1857. He served as 
 colonel in the war of 18 12, and was for seventeen 
 years marshal of Maryland. 
 
 They have four children : Carrie Margaret, born 
 on the 9th of May, 1857, is now engaged in teach- 
 ing; Howard Shriver was born on the 8th of No- 
 vember, i860; Mary Louie was born on the i8th of 
 July, 1864, and Katie Cullier, on the i8th of Sep- 
 tember, 187 1. 
 
 Throughout his career Dr. McAyeal has been a 
 man of wide influence. He has fearlessly advocated 
 and maintained his principles, however unpopular, 
 and been true to his convictions of duty and right 
 regardless' of public opinion. A man of independ- 
 ent thought, he has by his pure and upright life 
 attracted many warm friends, and gained the confi- 
 dence and esteem of all with whom he has had to 
 do. He has been a man of the people, and to this, 
 together with the fact that he has been true to the 
 highest principles of honor and morality, may be 
 attributed his success in his life work. 
 
 HON. FRANK T. CAMPBELL, 
 
 NEWTON. 
 
 FRANK TAYLOR CAMPBELL, lieutenant- 
 governor of Iowa, is a self-made man, and fur- 
 nishes another good illustration of the educating 
 power of the printing-office. He went to the case 
 when he was so young and small that he had to 
 stand in a chair to reach the type, and from that 
 date till of age he made a hand at the case, or was 
 alternately a pupil in the public schools, from which 
 source he drew his education. His father was a 
 publisher and editor; had five sons, who all became 
 typos and editors, and Frank seemed to take to the 
 printing-office as a duck takes to water. He has 
 served in all capacities from the carrier boy and 
 "printer's devil" to editor-in-chief, and while can- 
 vassing the state, in the fall of 1877, he met Ohio 
 people who reminded him of the time when, a very 
 small boy, he used to deliver the "Ripley Bee " once 
 a week at their door. 
 
 He is a native of Ripley, Ohio, and was born on 
 the 8th of May, 1836. His father, Charles F. Camp- 
 bell, was an attorney-at-law, probate judge, for many 
 years editor and proprietor of the " Ripley Bee," and 
 a very influential whig politician, dying at George- 
 town, Ohio, in 1864. 
 
 The Campbells were originally from Scotland. 
 The mother of Charles F. Campbell was an Alexan- 
 der, a sister of the late Archibald Alexander, of 
 Princeton College. The maternal grandmother of 
 Frank T. died in her ninetieth year from a fall down 
 the cellar stairs. She was left with eleven small 
 children on her hands, and maintained and reared 
 them by keeping a hotel. The Alexanders were 
 from the north of Ireland. 
 
 Having thoroughly learned the printer's trade, the 
 subject of this biography came to Newton, in April, 
 1858, a poor boy with no capital, and bought, on time, 
 a one-half interest in the Jasper county "Express," 
 a republican newspaper, changing its name to "Free 
 Press," his brother, Angus K., soon after purchasing 
 the other half. Leaving this paper in charge of his 
 brother, in November, i860, Frank went to Monte- 
 zuma, bought the "Republican,'' was appointed post- 
 master, and managed the two offices until August, 
 1862, when he resigned the postoffice, sold out the 
 paper, enlisted as a private in the 28th regiment of 
 infantry, but in November following was commis- 
 sioned captain company C, 40th regiment, going to 
 the front in December, 1862. He was in the Vicks- 
 burg campaign, and in the expedition led by General 
 Steele against Little Rock, in 1863; in the Camden 
 expedition, a year later, distinguishing himself for 
 coolness and courage on more than one occasion, 
 and resigning in 1865. 
 
 In the spring of that year he became sole propri- 
 etor of the " Free Press," at Newton, and has since 
 made this place his steady home. . He conducted 
 the paper just mentioned until 1867, when he dis- 
 posed of it and went into the mercantile trade. In 
 1874 he started the Jasper county "Head Light,'- 
 conducting it for two years, still continuing his mer- 
 cantile business; sold out the paper in September, 
 1876, which had become one of the leading county 
 papers in Iowa, and now attends to mercantile traf- 
 fic only. While in journalism he was never satisfied 
 with making any but a first-class newspaper. 
 
 For eight years, ending December 31, 1877, Mr. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 729 
 
 Campbell was a member of the state senate, where 
 he was chairman of the committee on railroads, and 
 drew the original bill of the present Iowa railroad 
 tariff law, in 1874. He was on the committees of 
 ways and means, military, county and toAvnship or- 
 ganization, and one or two others. While in the 
 senate he did so much excellent work, and became 
 so popular, that in the summer of 1877 he was nomi- 
 nated by the republicans for the office of lieutenant- 
 governor, and was elected by a flattering majority. 
 His eight years' experience in the senate, together 
 with his careful study of parliamentary rules and his 
 native candor and urbanity of disposition, make him 
 a good presiding officer. 
 
 On the 10th of September, 1861, Miss Minerva 
 Dixon, of Newton, became the wife of Lieutenant- 
 
 Governor Campbell, and they have three children, 
 all boys. Both parents are members of the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal church, and earnest workers in many 
 a good cause. 
 
 Mr. Campbell is rather short and thick set, being 
 hardly five feet and seven inches tall, and weighing 
 one hundred and seventy-five pounds. He is open- 
 faced, frank, in a double sense, very cordial, yet 
 modest and unassuming, and a perfect gentleman. 
 
 Angus K. Campbell, the brother mentioned in this 
 sketch, is still a resident of Newton. He is an at- 
 torney-at-law, with a large practice; is one of the 
 regents of the State University, and a man of a good 
 deal of influence and usefulness. He has a wife 
 and eight children, and a delightful home in the 
 outskirts of the city. 
 
 HON. JOHN G. PATTERSON, 
 
 CHARLES CITT. 
 
 JOHN G. PATTERSON, one of the leading at- 
 J torneys in the Upper Cedar Valley, is a native 
 of Clinton county, Pennsylvania, and dates his birth 
 on the 3d of September, 1831. His parents were 
 Robert Patterson and Eleanor Bowere, both reared 
 on the frontier, and accustomed to hardships, not to 
 say perils. Some of the Bowerses were in the Indian 
 wars, and in girlhood Eleanor saw an uncle of hers 
 cut down and hacked to pieces with a tomahawk. 
 The Pattersons were originally from the north of 
 Ireland, and settled in Pennsylvania at an early day. 
 When John was two years old his father removed to 
 Seneca county, Ohio, where he, the third of a family 
 of sixteen children, grew up on a farm, with a grave 
 experience at solid work. His business, after be- 
 coming old enough to use an ax and farm tools, was 
 to aid in clearing and working leased lands — -the 
 best his father could do at that time. Late in life, 
 after a prolonged and serious struggle, by the aid of 
 his industrious sons, Robert Patterson became the 
 owner of a farm. 
 
 In youth John had few holidays or half-holidays; 
 had no experience in going to town, and indulging 
 in even an hour's social intercourse or innocent rec- 
 reation ; it was work, work, but he did not murmur 
 or complain. Up to eighteen he had had nothing 
 more than the education picked up in a log school- 
 house during the winter months. At that age he 
 started out, attending the Republic, Seneca county, 
 
 Academy, in the spring and autumn terms, teaching 
 in the winters and farming in the harvest time. This 
 he did until twenty-two, when, his father being sick, 
 he cheerfully gave a whole season to work at home. 
 
 In the autumn of 1854 Mr. Patterson, with ten 
 dollars in his pocket, commenced the study of law, 
 reading with Pennington and Lee, of Tiffin, Ohio ; 
 was admitted to the bar at that place in September, 
 1856, and on the 21st of the next June settled in 
 Charles City, where he is still engaged in legal pur- 
 suits. 
 
 In 1 861 he formed a partnership with S. B. Starr, 
 the firm of Starr and Patterson continuing till 1873, 
 when Mr. A. M. Harrison joined the firm, and is still 
 in it. It does an extensive legal and collecting bus- 
 iness, and is, in fact, the leading law firm in the 
 county. 
 
 Mr. Patterson has bought and sold lands at times, 
 and owes his accumulations in a large measure to 
 his shrewdness and good luck in this line. He has 
 a farm of two hundred and twenty acres near town, 
 which is under excellent improvement, and which he 
 rents; has other lands in Floyd county; owns one- 
 half of the old homestead in Ohio, and one-fifth of 
 the stock of the Charles City Water Power Company, 
 of which he is secretary, and which has a capital of 
 one hundred thousand dollars. He is alive to every 
 interest of this city, and one of the foremost men in 
 devising means for its advancement. 
 
730 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Mr. Patterson was elected state senator in the 
 autumn of 1863; was reelected in 1867 and served 
 eight years, or in four sessions. He was chairman 
 of the committee on township and county organiza- 
 tions three sessions; was on the judiciary committee 
 three sessions, and chairman of the railroad commit- 
 tee the last session. He was sent to the general 
 assembly especially to aid in securing a land grant 
 for a road on the forty-third degree of latitude; 
 worked with others unceasingly for that purpose, and 
 succeeded. Probably a more industrious man never 
 went to the legislature from Floyd county, and he 
 did himself great credit while in that body. As a 
 lawyer, he is equally industrious, and rarely relin- 
 quishes a case until it is won. 
 
 Mr. Patterson has always been a republican ; is a 
 
 member of the blue lodge, of Freemasons, and is 
 rather liberal in his religious views. 
 
 He was first married in 1856, to Miss Hester E. 
 A. Quiggle, of Pennsylvania. She had eight chil- 
 dren, and died in 1872, six of her children outliving 
 her. His present wife was Mrs. Sarah Smith McCann, 
 their union taking place in April, 1875. Two of the 
 older children have spent two or three years at the 
 State University, and all are being carefully ed- 
 ucated. 
 
 Mr. Patterson has a solid build and a robust con- 
 stitution, or he might not have seen his forty-sixth 
 year. Through early hardships, and a serious strug- 
 gle with fortune in early married life, he has pushed 
 on, arriving at independence with a body, mind and 
 heart capable of enjoying it. 
 
 HON. JULIUS H. POWERS, 
 
 NEW HAMPTON. 
 
 THE branch of the Powers family to which the 
 subject of this sketch belongs is old Vermont 
 stock. Hiram Powers, the sculptor, belongs to it, 
 and a genuis for this art seems to run in it, for Miss 
 Hosmer is related to it. Julius was born in Roches- 
 ter, Windsor county, Vermont, on the 22A. of May, 
 1830. His father, Alanson Powers, was a mason by 
 trade. His mother was Sarepta Martin, whose fam- 
 ily aided in gaining American independence. When 
 Julius was about six years old the family moved to 
 Portage county, Ohio, where the son attended a 
 district school until thirteen and then commenced 
 learning his father's trade. He followed it until 
 nineteen, working during the summers and attending 
 school in the winters, finishing his education at the 
 Kingsville Academy, Ashtabula county. At the age 
 of twenty he commenced teaching in Berlin (Erie 
 county) Academy, studying law at the same time 
 with Judge Taylor, of Milan, Huron county. At the 
 end of one year he went to Dayton and read two 
 years with M. B. Walker and Louis Gunkle, Walker 
 now being a judge in Texas, and Gunkle was a mem- 
 ber of the forty-third congress. During this period 
 he taught during part of the time to defray expenses, 
 as he had to depend entirely on his own resources 
 for funds. 
 
 Mr. Powers spent a year in Texas, working at his 
 trade, laying the brick of the court-house and jail of 
 Bastrop county. Returning to Ohio, he attended the 
 
 law school at Cincinnati, where he was admitted to 
 the bar on' the 7th of April, 1855. During that year 
 he visited Allamakee county, Iowa, and, after pros- 
 pecting a short time, received intelligence of his 
 father's death and returned to Ohio. In May, 1857, 
 he again visited Iowa; opened an office at Forest 
 City, Chickesaw county, and removed to New Hamp- 
 ton in 1858, on the day that the county seat was 
 moved hither from Bradford. Mr. Powers was ap- 
 pointed deputy clerk that year, practicing law at the 
 same time and , still continuing the practice. He is 
 of the firm of Powers and Kenyon, the leading law 
 firm in the county. 
 
 He was chosen state senator in the autumn of 
 1859,- and was in the regular session of i860 and the 
 war session of 1861, resigning his office to go into 
 the military service. He enlisted as a private in the 
 7th Iowa Infantry, but was soon afterward appointed 
 captain of company I, of the 9th, and served until 
 April, 1862, when he was compelled by disability to 
 be mustered out. He has never fully recovered his 
 health. He has a large practice, however, attends 
 very carefully to his business, and as a lawyer has no 
 superior in the county. 
 
 Mr. Powers is an Odd-Fellow, and has passed all 
 the chairs in subordinate lodges. He is a republican, 
 and one of the leaders of the party in the county. 
 
 He is a Congregationalist, and one of the constitu- 
 I ent members of the New Hampton Church. He has 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 n'i- 
 
 been superintendent of the Sunday school for several 
 years. 
 
 On the 31st of May, 1859, Miss Eugenia F. Steb- 
 bins, of Long Meadow, Massachusetts, became his 
 wife, and they have three children and have lost one 
 child. 
 
 Mr. Powers is a stockholder and director of the 
 Bank of New Hampton ; was a leading man in get- 
 ting the McGregor and Sioux City railroad to this 
 town ; was attorney for the road in Chickesaw county 
 for some time, and is an influential and very useful 
 man. 
 
 LEVI J. ALLEMAN, M. D., 
 
 BOONE. 
 
 A MONG the younger class of physicians in Boone 
 Ix. county, Iowa, is Levi J. AUeman, who grad- 
 uated from a medical college before he was of age, 
 and whose entire time has since been given to his 
 profession. He is a native of Seneca county, New 
 York, the time and place of his birth being Fayette, 
 on the 12th of December, 1841. His father was 
 Jacob D. AUeman, a merchant tailor, and his moth- 
 er, Caroline Niess, both of German pedigree. His 
 paternal grandfather, who was born in this country, 
 was a soldier in the second strife with England. 
 
 Dr. AUeman worked on a farm in boyhood ; was 
 educated at the high school or academy in Water- 
 loo ; began to read medicine at seventeen years old 
 with Dr. O. S. Patterson, of Waterloo, in his native 
 county ; attended lectures in the medical depart- 
 ment of the University of New York city ; was ex- 
 amined and ready to graduate in 1862, but not 
 being of age did not receive his diploma until the 
 early part of the next year. 
 
 After practicing a few months with his preceptor 
 at Waterloo, Dr. AUeman went into the army in the 
 autumn of 1863 as assistant surgeon of the ist New 
 
 York Veteran Cavalry, and served in that capacity 
 until the regiment was mustered out in September, 
 1865. His two years' practice in surgery in the 
 tented field was a valuable experience to him, and 
 being a close student and thoroughly devoted to. his 
 calling, it is not surprising that he has a high stand- 
 ing in the profession. 
 
 At the close of the rebellion, on leaving the ser- 
 vice, Dr. AUeman came directly to Boone, then a new 
 town on a new railroad. The road has since pushed 
 on to California, and the nucleus of a village has 
 grown to a city of thirty-five hundred inhabitants. 
 The doctor is the oldest physician in years of prac- 
 tice here, and second to no one in the county in skill. 
 He is United States examining surgeon for pensions. 
 
 Dr. AUeman is a member of no church, but in- 
 clines to the Episcopal form of worship and tenets. 
 
 He has had two wives : the first was Miss Marga- 
 ret O'Neil, of Waterloo, New York ; married in 1866, 
 and dying in 1868, leaving one child, Harriet M., 
 still living; his present wife was Miss Florence L. 
 Cohnan, of Boone ; married in 1870. They have had 
 three children, of whom two are still living. 
 
 PATRICK M. GUTHRIE, 
 
 CARROLL. 
 
 PATRICK M. GUTHRIE, the treasurer of Car- 
 roll county, and for twenty-four years a resi- 
 dent of Iowa, is a native of Ireland, and was born in 
 the county of Clare on the i6th of October, 1830. 
 His parents were Matthew Guthrie, farmer, and Sa- 
 bina Stuart, both of Scotch descent, though natives 
 of Ireland. Patrick spent his early youth on the 
 farm ; from sixteen to eighteen was employed by the 
 British government on public works, keeping the 
 time of two thousand men, measuring their work and 
 77 
 
 paying them weekly; in 1848 came to the United 
 States, landing in New York city on the 4th of July ; 
 proceeded as far west as Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and, 
 after clerking there for a short time, was employed 
 as a foreman on the Michigan Southern and North- 
 ern Indiana railroad while it was being constructed. 
 Subsequently he took contracts on different railroads 
 in Illinois, so doing until the loth of October, 1854, 
 when he settled in Dubuque, Iowa. There he was a 
 contractor and builder for seven or eight years, put- 
 
732 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 ting up some of the important public buildings, in- 
 cluding the city hall, erected in 1857. In 1859 and 
 i860 he was connected with Colonel H. H. Heath in 
 the publication of " The Northwest," a democratic 
 newspaper. 
 
 In 1862 Mr. Guthrie was elected city treasurer, 
 and held the ofifice by reflections five years. The 
 writer of this sketch was a citizen of Dubuque dur- 
 ing the period here referred to, and has no hesitation 
 in saying that a more faithful officer never disbursed 
 the funds of that city. At the close of his last term as 
 treasurer Mr. Guthrie made an abstract of the titles 
 in Dubuque county, managed that business for three 
 years, and in 1871 moved to Carroll, the seat of jus- 
 tice of Carroll county, where he engaged in the real- 
 estate business with Mr. T. L. Bowman, the firm 
 name being Guthrie and Bowman. In this enter- 
 prise they have been very successful, having sold 
 upward of half a. million acres of land in the coun- 
 ties of Carroll, Sac and Calhoun, being the agents 
 of the Iowa Railroad Loan Company. They have 
 opened an office at Lemars, in order to settle up 
 
 Plymouth county, and Mr. Bowman superintends that 
 office. As a dealer in lands, as in all other business 
 transactions, Mr. Guthrie is candid, straightforward 
 and reliable. His coming to Carroll county marked 
 an epoch in its history. He brought others with him 
 from Dubuque county, and by his fair dealings and 
 easy terms of payments has induced many industri- 
 ous men to settle on wild lands in western Iowa. He 
 is an eminently useful citizen of Carroll county, and 
 his popularity is well merited. 
 
 Mr. Guthrie was elected treasurer of Carroll coun- 
 ty in 1875, and now holds that office. 
 
 In politics, he was reared a democrat, and has 
 never voted any other ticket. 
 
 In religion, he was born in the Catholic church, 
 and firmly adheres to the faith of his ancestors. In 
 moral and christian character his standing is highly 
 commendatory. 
 
 Mr. Guthrie has been a married man since the 9th 
 of June, 1862, his wife being Miss Emma Mahar, of 
 Galena, Illinois. They have four boys living and 
 have lost five children. 
 
 HON. W. M. WILSON, 
 
 OSCEOLA. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch was born at Greens- 
 boro, North Carolina, on the 23d of April, 
 1838. His father's name was R. D. Wilson. He 
 was born on the 15th of May, 1805, at the same 
 place ; was a graduate of a scholastic institution. 
 His mother was born at the same place on the 12th 
 of April, 1811. His father was a farmer. He re- 
 moved from Greensboro in 185 1 to Henry county, 
 Indiana, where he resided for about two years, and 
 then removed to Mahaska county, Iowa. 
 
 W. M. Wilson commenced going to a high school 
 at Oskaloosa, Iowa, and continued there from 1857 
 to i860. He had belonged to a militia company 
 while at the high school, and had been elected a 
 first lieutenant and subsequently a captain in this 
 organization. On the government's second call for 
 three hundred thousand men, the quota of the State 
 of Iowa -had been filled when he made his requisi- 
 tion for authority to raise a company, and he there- 
 upon, without waiting to graduate from the high 
 school, volunteered as a private, and was mustered 
 into company D, ist Iowa Cavalry, in which he 
 served as a private for nearly two years, and was 
 
 then promoted to a corporal. He continued in the 
 service for two years and eleven months, when, from 
 sickness, he was relieved from active duty and de- 
 tailed to act as drill-sergeant of raw recruits. He 
 had the captaincy of two commands offered him at 
 this time, but his health failing him he was ulti- 
 mately mustered out of the service at Davenport, 
 Iowa, on the 13th of September, 1864. 
 
 In the spring of 1865 he married Miss Martha 
 Fleming, of Warren county, Iowa, where he bought 
 a small farm and commenced its cultivation. Dur- 
 ing that summer he bought a half interest in a saw- 
 mill located on a part of his farm, and in the suc- 
 ceeding fall bought the remaining half interest in 
 this mill, which he continued to run until 1866. In 
 the fall of that year he commenced to read law in 
 the office of P. Likes, of Warren county, Iowa. Mr. 
 Likes at this time had formed a copartnership with 
 a Mr. Cheney at Osceola, but continued his resi- 
 dence in Warren county and practiced in both 
 places. Mr. Wilson therefore continued to read 
 law in this office, and was admitted to the bar at 
 Indianola, Warren county, Iowa, in January, 1869. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 733 
 
 In March, 1869, he came to Osceola. Cheney 
 and Likes having dissolved, Mr. Wilson made a co- 
 partnership with Mr. Likes, which continued until 
 August, 187 1, when he dissolved with Mr. Likes and 
 made a copartnership with Mr. Cheney, which con- 
 tinued until November, 1872. He was admitted to 
 the bar of the supreme court of Iowa in June, 1872. 
 He then commenced business on his own account, 
 which has grown into a highly successful practice. 
 
 Mr. Wilson has held the office of assessor of Clark 
 county, mayor of the city of Osceola, and justice of 
 the peace. He has always taken a lively interest in 
 all educational matters ; has been secretary of the 
 school board, and is now its treasurer. In 1873 he 
 was placed in nomination as a candidate for the 
 state legislature by the republican party of Clark 
 county. He failed, however, of his election by a 
 very small majority against him. 
 
 On the 25th of February, 1876, he was appointed 
 receiver of the First National Bank of Osceola, 
 
 which position he still holds, the bank not yet being 
 closed. 
 
 Mr. Wilson has always been a strong temperance 
 advocate. He was elected mayor of the city on that 
 issue, receiving two hundred and seventy-five ma- 
 jority over two competing candidates. 
 
 He has been a Mason since 187 1, and has been 
 connected with the Methodist church since 1867. 
 
 He is a radical republican in politics. Himself 
 and his father, being born southerners, were never- 
 theless anti-slavery men, and his adhesion to such 
 principles forms a marked distinction to the south- 
 ern race. W. M. Wilson verified his principles by 
 entering the Union army at the earliest practicable 
 moment, and served it gallantly for nearly three 
 years, when his health failed him and disenabled 
 him for active service in the field. 
 
 He has had born to him eight children, two of 
 whom (girls) are dead. He has now three girls and 
 three boys living. 
 
 WILLIAM McK. FINDLEY, M.D., 
 
 BLOOMFIELD. 
 
 WILLIAM McKENDREE FINDLEY, for 
 forty years a medical practitioner in Iowa, 
 was born in Dayton, Ohio, on the 30th of July, 1816. 
 His father. Rev. John P. Findley, was for years pres- 
 ident of Augusta College, Kentucky, and his grand- 
 father, Robert W. Findley, was a Methodist minister 
 for sixty years, dying at Eaton, Ohio, in his ninety- 
 sixth year. An uncle of William was a missionary 
 among the Wyandots in northern Ohio. The Find- 
 leys are of Scotch-Irish descent, pioneers in North 
 Carolina, and a large number of them have been 
 clergymen. The mother of William was Sarah 
 Strain, and his grandfathers on both sides fought in 
 the revolution, his mother's father being with Gen- 
 eral Washington at the memorable crossing of the 
 Delaware. 
 
 John P. Findley moved with his family to Piqua, 
 Miami county, Ohio, when the subject of this sketch 
 was quite young, and died in 1825, when William 
 was nine years old, the Rev. Dr. Henry Bascom, of 
 Augusta, becoming his guardian. After spending 
 two or three years in the preparatory department of 
 the college, young Findley was obliged to strike out 
 for himself. He spent two years with his uncle at 
 the Wyandot mission, studying with the Indian boys 
 
 and becoming an interpreter. He read medicine 
 with Dr. Sabin, of Troy, Ohio; attended lectures at 
 Pennsylvania University, Philadelphia, and gradu- 
 ated in 1837. 
 
 After practicing one year in Shelbyville, Indiana, 
 Dr. Findley pushed farther westward ; crossed the 
 Mississippi river; located at the four corners called 
 New London, Henry county, Iowa; practiced there 
 until 1843, and then settled permanently at Bloom- 
 field, Davis county. There was neither city nor 
 village here then, hardly the embryo of a village. 
 Dr. Findley was therefore a pioneer in Bloomfield, 
 and soon became an extensive circuit rider, having 
 a range of thirty miles, sometimes fording streams 
 on his horse in order to reach his patients. On one 
 occasion he lost his saddle, but was thankful that his 
 life did not go with it. Several times he was lost on 
 the prairies, and was compelled to remain out over 
 night. Once or twice, when bewildered, he heard a 
 cowbell, started up the animals, and followed them 
 until they led him to a shelter and farm-house hos- 
 pitality. In those early days, while in the prime of 
 life, he spared no pains to respond to calls. 
 
 In 1863 Dr. Findley became surgeon of the 4th 
 Iowa Cavalry ; was in the Vicksburg campaign ; 
 
734 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 with General Sherman as far as Atlanta, on his way 
 to the sea, and with General Thomas when he 
 whipped Hood at Nashville. After that he returned 
 to Chattanooga, and was in the surgeons' garrison 
 until the close of the war, at all times attending very 
 assiduously to his duties. 
 
 Dr. Findley has entered a great deal of land in 
 Iowa for himself and other parties ; has been an ex- 
 tensive dealer in improved real estate, and owns 
 both improved and unimproved land in Davis 
 county, and in several counties in the western part 
 of the state. He has five or six business houses 
 and other property in this city, besides his pleasant 
 homestead. He was president of the First National 
 Bank of Bloomfield, which closed in 1876. 
 
 Dr. Findley was always anti-slavery in his polit- 
 ical sentiments, and joined the republican party at 
 its formation, but does not, we believe, regard him- 
 self as a politician. 
 
 Dr. Findley is a member of the Methodist Epis- 
 copal church. 
 
 The wife of Dr. Findley was Miss Mary Bangs, 
 daughter of Captain John Bangs, of Cape Cod, Mas- 
 sachusetts, and was married in New London, Iowa, 
 on the 3d of October, 1839. Of seven children, the 
 fruit of this union, only three are now living: Anna 
 M. is the wife of John Duffield, a merchant in Bloom- 
 field ; John Bangs is a druggist, and Samuel Parker 
 is a jeweler, both of them married and living in 
 Bloomfield. 
 
 JOHN A. PITZER, 
 
 WINTERSET. 
 
 ONE of the most solid men that ever made his 
 home in Winterset was the late John Allen 
 Pitzer, many years a merchant and county officer 
 here. He was a man who, in form and character, 
 always stood erect ; who was kind to the poor, per- 
 fectly reliable and trustworthy, and whose whole life 
 impressed his neighbors with the correctness of the 
 poet's saying: "An honest man's the noblest work 
 of God." He was a native of Virginia; a son of 
 Frederick and Nancy Kimberland Pitzer, and was 
 born on the 22A of February, 1813. When he was 
 about a year old the family removed to Christian 
 county, Kentucky, where his father was an extensive 
 manufacturer, running a hemp factory and grist and 
 saw mills. 
 
 John A. Pitzer was educated in the common 
 schools, and began to teach when about nineteen or 
 twenty, continuing to instruct for two or three win- 
 ters. When he was about twenty-two he moved to 
 Morgan county, Illinois, farming a season or two, 
 and in 1840 removing to Fairfield, Jefferson county,' 
 Iowa, there serving as county clerk for four years. 
 In 1849 he settled in Winterset, trading in general 
 merchandise for thirty years, being the first merchant 
 here, and successful most of the time in his business. 
 A more straight-forward, fair-dealing man has never 
 stood behind a counter in Winterset. 
 
 When he first located in Madison county he did 
 considerable government surveying, sectioning, it is 
 said, one-half of the county. Though largely self- 
 
 taught, he was quick and accurate in figures, and his 
 mathematical work in the county was very satisfac- 
 tory. A little later he took the office of county 
 judge and held it six years, and still later was treas- 
 urer of the county, leaving a clean balance-sheet on 
 retiring from each office, and possessing the un- 
 limited confidence of the citizens of the county. 
 
 Early in 1863 Mr. Pitzer went into the army as 
 paymaster, with rank of major, and served until the 
 autumn of 1865. 
 
 In early life Judge Pitzer joined the Disciple or 
 Christian church, but a few years before he died 
 changed his connection to the Baptist church, in 
 which he died, the sad event occurring suddenly 
 on the i8th of May, 1876. He was passing along 
 a business street in Winterset, when he suddenly 
 stopped and complained of being tired ; he sat down 
 on a box by a store door, dropped his head, and fell 
 asleep, " like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
 about him and lies down to pleasant dreams." 
 
 The services at his funeral were conducted under 
 the auspices of the Masons and Odd-Fellows, and 
 an immense concourse of people followed his re- 
 mains to " that bourne whence no traveler returns." 
 
 His life was a record of noble deeds. It is said 
 that during the financial panic of 1857-8 his store 
 was a "commissary of subsistence." He gave over 
 five hundred sacks of flour to poor families, without 
 the least expectation of any pecuniary reward. 
 
 Judge Pitzer left a wife and several children to 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPH/CAL DICTIONART. 
 
 735 
 
 mourn their great loss. His wife was Miss Elizabeth 
 Jane Rogers, residing near Jacksonville, Illinois, at 
 the time of their marriage, which took place on the 
 3d of December, 1835. 
 
 Of ten children which Mrs. Pitzer has had, only 
 five survive the father. Of the deceased, the second 
 child in the family, Mary E., was the wife of Leander 
 
 M. Sprague, and died at Denver City, Colorado, in 
 November, 1871. Of the five living, all are married 
 but Clara May. William F. is a trader in McPher- 
 son, Kansas ; John M. and James L. are merchants 
 and partners, doing business in Winterset, and Meckie 
 is the wife of John McChaughan, a lawyer of the 
 same place. 
 
 HON. HENRY O. PRATT, 
 
 CHARLES CITY. 
 
 HENRY OTIS PRATT is a son of Seth C. 
 Pratt and Mary nee Herring, and was born in 
 Foxcroft, Piscataquis county, Maine, on the nth of 
 February, 1838. He lived at home, farming and at- 
 tending school, until i860, receiving his literary edu- 
 cation at Foxcroft Academy, and his legal at the Cam- 
 bridge (Massachusetts) Law School, spending two 
 years in the latter institution. He was admitted to 
 the bar in Mason City, Cerro Gordo county, Iowa, 
 in June, 1862. Soon afterward a call was made for 
 six hundred thousand volunteers, to which he re- 
 sponded, enlisting as private in company B, 32d Iowa 
 Infantry. He became completely broken down in 
 health in less than a year, and was discharged in the 
 spring of 1863. The following summer, while re- 
 gaining his health, he taught a small school in Worth 
 county, Iowa, and the next winter settled in Charles 
 City, and there taught during one term. 
 
 His health being restored, Mr. Pratt commenced 
 the practice of law at Charles City in 1864, and has 
 continued to practice since that time. As a lawyer, 
 he is very candid in the trial of a case ; never tries 
 to defeat the ends of justice ; never resorts to clap- 
 trap, and never forgets the dignity of his calling. 
 He is a fluent speaker, and excels as a jury advo- 
 cate. 
 
 In the autumn of 1867 he was elected county su- 
 perintendent of schools, and served two years ; was 
 elected to the lower house of the general assembly 
 
 in the autumn of 1869; reelected in 1871, and re- 
 signed in February, 1873, in order to take a seat in 
 congress, where he represented the fourth district. 
 He served in that body from the 4th of March, 1873, 
 until the 4th of March, 1877 ; in the forty-third con- 
 gress he was on the committee on private land claims 
 and the committee on expenditures for public build- 
 ings and grounds; in the forty-fourth congress he 
 was on the committees on claims, on expenditures 
 on public buildings and grounds, and on a select com- 
 mittee called the real-estate pool committee, raised 
 to investigate the operations of the so-called real- 
 estate pool of the District of Columbia, and of Jay 
 Cooke and Co's indebtedness to the United States. 
 This committee was afterward empowered to inves- 
 tigate any official misconduct not under investiga- 
 tion by any other committee. He made a highly 
 creditable record while in congress. 
 
 Mr. Pratt has always cooperated with the repub- 
 lican, party, and has usually been very active as a 
 public speaker. During the campaign of 1876 he 
 spent several weeks in the field, speaking mainly in 
 New Hampshire, Maine and Indiana. 
 
 Mr. Pratt is a Methodist in religious sentiment; 
 was converted in April, 1877, and for the last few 
 months has given his time mostly to lay preaching. 
 
 On the 2ist of October, 1865, Miss Mahala Wood- 
 ward, of Charles City, became his wife, and they 
 have five children. 
 
 HERMON C. PIATT, 
 
 TIPTON. 
 
 HERMON C. PIATT, nearly twenty-five years 
 a resident of Tipton, is a native of Lycoming 
 county, Pennsylvania, and was born on the 24th of 
 March, 1824. His father, William Piatt, a tanner 
 
 and farmer, was a representative to the legislature 
 from the Lycoming district, and associate judge of 
 Lycoming county for several years. His ancestors 
 were early settlers in New Jersey. The mother of 
 
736 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 Hermon was Hannah Brady Piatt, a sister of General 
 Hugh Brady and of Hon. Jasper E. Brady, once a 
 member of congress from Pennsylvania. Young 
 Piatt was employed for some time on a farm ; wrote 
 awhile in the county clerk's office ; prepared for col- 
 lege at Mifflinsburg, Union county ; entered the sopho- 
 more class of Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Wash- 
 ington county, in 1847, and graduated in 1850 ; taught 
 one year in an academy at La Porte, Indiana ; read 
 law in the office of Joseph L. Jernegan, of South 
 Bend, in the same state ; was there admitted to the 
 bar in November, 1852, and in the spring of the next 
 year located permanently at Tipton. He has been 
 in the steady practice of the law for twenty-four 
 years, is now of the firm of Piatt and Carr, and one 
 of the leading lawyers in Cedar county. 
 
 Like most young professional men settling in a 
 new country, Mr. Piatt came to Iowa with more en- 
 ergy and ambition than pecuniary means, not hav- 
 ing even one dollar in his pocket ; and that he has 
 made his profession a success will be seen from the 
 fact that, besides his home in the city of Tipton, and 
 other property here, he has four farms under good 
 improvement, in Cedar county, and three thousand 
 acres of wild land in Sac, Sioux and Lyon counties. 
 
 Mr. Piatt has a taste for stock-raising, and indulges 
 it not only in blooded horses, cattle and hogs, but 
 
 also in fine poultry. At county and other fairs he 
 can make a good show, and delights in getting up a 
 spirit of emulation among farmers and stock raisers. 
 He understands the nice points in a horse as well as 
 in the law. He is president of the Cedar County 
 Fair Association, and has held that position at sundry 
 times, in all, at least ten years. 
 
 Mr. Piatt was elected treasurer of Cedar county 
 in 1854, and was kept in the office between five and 
 six years, leaving it with an unblotted record. He 
 was on the local school board a long time, and for 
 some years at its head. He is one of the trustees 
 of the Iowa College for the Blind, at Vinton. 
 
 lyir. Piatt has always acted with the democratic 
 party, and has long been one of its most influential 
 members in Cedar county. 
 
 In religious sentiment he is a Presbyterian. 
 
 He is a member of the blue lodge in Freemasonry. 
 
 On the 3d of November, 1852, Miss Margaret 
 Eason, a native of Pennsylvania, then residing at 
 La Porte, Indiana, became the wife of Mr. Piatt, and 
 she has been the mother of five children, only three 
 of them, two daughters and one son, now living. 
 
 Mr. Piatt has been identified with all railroad and 
 other enterprises tending to advance the interests of 
 Cedar county and the city of Tipton, of which he 
 may be justly regarded as one of the live men. 
 
 DANIEL FINDLEY, M. D., 
 
 .ATLANTIC. 
 
 DANIEL FINDI,EY is of Scotch-Irish descent, 
 his ancestors on both sides of the family be- 
 ing of that blood. His grandfather, Samuel Find- 
 ley, senior, was an associate judge of Butler county, 
 Pennsylvania, and a member of congress from that 
 state at an early period after the adoption of the 
 federal constitution. His father, Samuel Findley, 
 junior, D.D., was an Associate Reform Presbyterian 
 clergyman for about forty years, thirty of them pastor 
 at Antrim, Ohio. He died at Newark, New Jersey, 
 on the 22d of February, 1870. 
 
 The mother of David, before her marriage, was 
 Margaret Ross, an exemplary christian woman. She 
 died at Antrim, on the 22d of September, 1846, in 
 her fifty-fourth year. 
 
 The subject of this sketch, born in Washington, 
 Guernsey county, Ohio, on the 21st of August, 1830, 
 was educated at Madison College, Ohio; graduating 
 
 in 1853. He read medicine with Dr. William Ander- 
 son, of his native town, but before attending lectures 
 made a trip to California, starting in 1854 and re- 
 turning in 1856. He then finished his medical 
 course by attending lectures in the medical depart- 
 ment of Western Reserve College, Cleveland, being 
 admitted to practice in February, 1858. 
 
 Dr. Findley spent a year in his native town ; in 
 1859 came to Indianola, Iowa; in the autumn of 
 1 86 1 removed to Grove City, Cass county, and the 
 next year to Lewis, in the same county, then the seat 
 of justice, where he practiced ten or eleven years. 
 During the progress of the civil war, physicians in 
 this part of the state were scarce ; Dr. Findley's skill 
 became well known, and it was no uncommon oc- 
 currence for him to have calls thirty miles away in 
 every direction. His rides extended not only all 
 over Cass county, but into Pottawattamie, Shelby, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY-. 
 
 72,7 
 
 Audubon, Adair, Adams and Montgomery counties, 
 occasionally forty miles from Lewis. 
 
 In September, 1873, Dr. Findley removed to At- 
 lantic, the new county seat, where he was already 
 well known, and where he has had from the outset 
 all the practice he could desire. His rides he now 
 limits to the county, except in difficult cases, and his 
 main practice is in the city of Atlantic. He has a 
 large drug store here, and two farms in the county 
 which he cultivates by renters. Pecuniarily, as well 
 as professionally, he has been quite successful. 
 
 Dr. Findley is a republican, strong in his convic- 
 tions of right and wrong, fearless and outspoken, yet 
 no wire-puller and not active in politics. He is a 
 past grand in Qdd-Fellowship. 
 
 Dr. Findley is a man of very pure character; a 
 
 warm-hearted, active christian ; an elder in the Pres- 
 byterian church, and belongs to a family of eminent 
 preachers in that denomination. His brother, W. F. 
 Findley, D.D., is pastor of the Central Church, New- 
 ark, New Jersey; his brother, Samuel Findley, ju- 
 nior, D.D., is pastor at Carlisle, Ohio, and his brother, 
 J. R. Findley, is pastor of the First Presbyterian 
 Church in Rock Island, Illinois. He is also a broth- 
 er of Colonel R. D. Findley, editor and publisher of 
 the Xenia (Ohio) "Gazette." 
 
 The wife of Dr. Findley, married on the 19th of 
 August, 1856, was Miss Martha Jane Barr, of Mo- 
 nongahela City, Pennsylvania, and daughter of Col- 
 onel James Barr, who lost his life in the Florida war 
 while she was in her early infancy. She has had 
 seven children, all now living but one. 
 
 COLONEL WILLIAM H. MERRITT, 
 
 DBS MOINES. 
 
 WILLIAM HILTON MERRITT is a native 
 of New York city, and was born on the 12th 
 of September, 1820. His parents were Jesse Merritt, 
 a physician, and Harriet Hilton. His maternal great- 
 grandfather was from England. The Merritts were 
 early settlers in Connecticut. Jesse Merritt moved 
 to Ithaca, New York, when William H. was between 
 two and three years old, there merchandising and 
 studying and practicing medicine. The subject of 
 this brief memoir was educated at the Genesee Wes- 
 leyan Seminary, Lima, New York; went thence to 
 Rock Island, Illinois, and clerked a few months for 
 Naylor and Myers, who sent him to Ivanhoe, Linn 
 county, Iowa, about the year 1839, to manage a 
 branch store. He operated it for two years, with 
 Sac and Fox Indians for his principal customers, a 
 few white men coming forty and fifty miles to trade 
 with him. He was one of the first men who ever 
 sold goods in the interior of Iowa, except the licensed 
 traders. 
 
 In those early days, in the Territory of Iowa, horse 
 thieves and other marauders were abundant and bold, 
 there being no local laws for their punishment. White 
 men took the matter in hand, and on one occasion 
 Mr. Merritt was in his saddle almost constantly for 
 several weeks, driving horse thieves out of the terri- 
 tory. His recollections of those days are very vivid. 
 He remembers, also, of being in New York city in 
 hisboyhood, in 1835 and 1836; of seeing Aaron Burr; 
 
 the great fire on the i6th of December, 1835 ; and the 
 bread riots. 
 
 On leaving Ivanhoe Mr. Merritt was purposing to 
 engage as clerk on a Mississippi river steamboat, and 
 was on the steamer John Shaw when she was sunk 
 in the rapids between Montrose and Keokuk late in 
 the autumn of 1840. The winter following he re- 
 ceived the appointment of enrolling clerk in the ter- 
 ritorial council, whose session was held in the old 
 Methodist church at Burlington. Meanwhile his 
 father had removed to Buffalo, New York, and at 
 the close of the session the son joined him there, 
 and went into the mercantile trade alone. 
 
 In 1847 Mr. Merritt returned to Iowa; took charge 
 of the "Miners' Express," Dubuque, and ran it nearly 
 two years; sold out and went on a government sur- 
 vey in the northern part of the state. On the istof 
 January, 1849, when the first news of gold discoveries 
 in the new El Dorado rea,ched Iowa, he started for 
 California by the Isthmus; returned in March, 1851, 
 having had fair success ; the same year, in connection 
 with William Ashley Jones, became once more pro- 
 prietor of the " Miners' Express," and at the end of 
 two years united it with the " Herald." While con- 
 ducting the newspaper, about 1852, he was appointed 
 surveyor of the port of Dubuque, the first officer of 
 the kind there. 
 
 In 1855 Mr. Merritt was appointed register of the 
 newly created district land office at Fort Dodge ; held 
 
738 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 that ofiSce two years, selling about two million acres 
 of land, and in 1857 resigned in order to go into the 
 banking business, at Cedar Rapids, with George and 
 William Greene. That business he followed until 
 the President's first call for troops to suppress the 
 rebellion, when he went into the field as lieutenant- 
 colonel ist Iowa Infantry. Owing to the illness of 
 Colonel Bates, Colonel Merritt led that gallant regi- 
 ment at the hotly contested battle of Wilson's creek, 
 Missouri, showing much coolness and bravery on that 
 occasion, and standing within a few feet of General 
 Lyon when that heroic officer fell mortally wounded. 
 When the regiment was mustered out, at the end of 
 nearly four months. Colonel Merritt was appointed 
 on the staff of General McClellan, with the rank of 
 colonel of cavalry ; was stationed awhile at Fort 
 Leavenworth, and late in the year 1863 left the ser- 
 vice and returned to Iowa. Locating at Des Moines, 
 the colonel purchased the "Statesman," and con- 
 ducted it until 1867, when he sold out. The next 
 year he joined William Irving and Co. in building 
 the Rockford, Rock Island and Saint Louis railroad, 
 and since that date has been a railroad contractor, 
 part of the time in Illinois and part in Ohio, and is 
 still pursuing that business. 
 
 In politics. Colonel Merritt has always been a 
 democrat. In 1862 his party nominated him for 
 lieutenant-governor, but he did not agree with its 
 anti-war policy, and refused to run. Subsequently, 
 in the same year, Judge Mason, whom the democrats 
 
 had placed at the head of the state ticket, withdrew, 
 and Colonel Merritt finally consented to run on a 
 union ticket for governor. The republican party 
 had a strong majority in the state, and the colonel 
 was defeated, though not by the usual majority. 
 
 In 1 866, he was appointed by President Johnson 
 collector of internal revenue in the Des Moines dis- 
 trict ; but party spirit ran high in those days ; the 
 President's appointments were not acceptable to the 
 republican congress, and the senate refused to con- 
 firm Colonel Merritt, hence he held the office but a 
 few months. 
 
 On the 6th of January, 1846, Miss Marcia Maria 
 Sutherland, of Buffalo, New York, a distant relative 
 of Judge Sutherland, of the supreme bench, became 
 the colonel's wife, and seven children were the fruit 
 of this union, only three of them now living. The 
 other four died in Dubuque. Edward Sutherland 
 is in Colorado, William Hilton is a clerk in Des 
 Moines, and Douglas Dodge is about to graduate 
 from the high school in Des Moines. 
 
 Colonel Merritt has a fine physique. He stands 
 firmly on his feet ; has a slightly military step and 
 bearing; is five feet and eight and a half inches tall, 
 and weighs two hundred and ten pounds. His eyes 
 are blue, his complexion is light, and his face has 
 the smoothness of the hither side of fifty. He is a 
 man of pure habits; has taken superb care of him- 
 self, and no stranger would imagine he was nearing 
 his threescore years. 
 
 HON. JEREMIAH PERKINS, 
 
 ADEL. 
 
 T UDGE PERKINS, the title by which he is best 
 J known in Dallas county, is a native of North 
 Carolina, and was born in Wayne county, near 
 Goldsboro, on the 7th of January, 1816. His father, 
 who had the same name, was a millwright by trade 
 and a mill owner, whose father came from England. 
 The maiden name of Judge Perkins' mother was 
 Susannah Tyson, but at the time of her marriage 
 with Mr. Perkins she was the widow Loving. She 
 became a widow the second time on the 20th of 
 March, 1823. About 1830 she moved northward 
 into Wayne county, Indiana, where the subject of 
 this notice, after obtaining what knowledge he could 
 in a country school, learned the carpenter and cab- 
 inet-maker's trade, and worked at it much of the 
 
 time for ten or eleven years, leaving Wayne for La 
 Porte county in 1833. He early imbibed a taste for 
 legal studies, and for some time gave his leisure 
 moments in the busy season and his entire winters 
 to such mental pursuits, and was admitted to prac- 
 tice at La Porte about 1850. 
 
 In 1854 Mr. Perkins came to Iowa, and after tar- 
 rying a while at Newton, Jasper county, located at 
 Adel in June, 1855, '""^re continuing his profession 
 until the present time. In 1863 he was admitted at 
 Des Moines to practice in the United States circuit 
 court. As an attorney, he has done well. Latterly 
 he has given a good deal of attention to the abstract 
 business, making it, in fact, a specialty. He has an 
 abstract of all lands and town lots in the county. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 739 
 
 In 185s he was appointed prosecuting attorney, 
 and the next year was elected by the people ; was 
 county judge for nine consecutive years, commenc- 
 ing on the I St of January, 1861; during the same 
 period was county recorder four years, and after 
 going out of the latter office was county auditor 
 three years. Few men in Dallas county have held 
 more offices than Judge Perkins, and none have dis- 
 charged their duties better or to the more complete 
 satisfaction of their constituents. 
 
 The judge was originally a whig, imbibing anti- 
 slavery sentiments from his father, who was a Quaker. 
 Naturally, on the demise of the whig party, he joined 
 the republican. He has been the recipient of all his 
 official honors at the hands of the latter party, but 
 the vote he received was not always limited to his 
 party. He is very much respected in the county. 
 
 The religious views of the judge are liberal. He 
 is a Royal Arch Mason. 
 
 His wife, who was Miss Eliza Kennedy, a native 
 of Richmond, Indiana, became such on the 4th of 
 February, 1841. She died on the 6th of April, 1876, 
 leaving seven children, and five had preceded her 
 into the other world. Mary Lorette is the wife of 
 Dr. Lee Kenworthy, a dentist, of Saint Helena, Cali- 
 fornia; Jeremiah A. has a family, and lives in Fre- 
 mont, Nebraska. The others are single. 
 
 Judge Perkins has a commanding appearance. 
 He stands six feet in his stockings, and weighs two 
 hundred and forty pounds. He has brow^ hazel 
 eyes, a florid complexion, easy and graceful man- 
 ners, a cordial address, a cheerful disposition, and 
 good social qualities. He has, in every respect, the 
 polish of a gentleman. 
 
 HON. NAPOLEON B. MOORE, 
 
 CLARINDA. 
 
 WE claim for this biography the careful perusal 
 of every young man into whose hands this 
 volume may fall. In the career of Mr. Moore may 
 be learned as great a lesson in energy, tact and dis- 
 crimination as has, perhaps, fallen to the lot of any 
 of the many self-made men whose biographies we 
 have published. He was born on the 7th of Sep- 
 tember, 1832, at London, Madison county, Ohio. 
 His father's name was Stephen Moore, who was born 
 in Virginia and settled in London in 1808 with his 
 brother John, and Stephen built and opened the first 
 storehouse in Madison county, so that he was, indeed, 
 an original settler in that part of Ohio. 
 
 He married Miss Hester Dungan, who was born 
 in Pennsylvania, but moved with her parents to Ohio 
 at a very early day. 
 
 Mr. Stephen Moore continued in commercial busf- 
 ness most of the time he resided in Ohio, during 
 which time he filled the office of sheriff and county 
 treasurer. 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte Moore, from the age of eight 
 years, was brought up in his father's dry-goods store 
 until he was fourteen years of age, when he went to 
 school at the Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, 
 where he remained till he was eighteen, when his 
 health began to fail him, and he went upon a farm 
 near London, where he became interested in stock 
 raising, and remained till about twenty-one. 
 78 
 
 When nineteen years old he married Miss B. W. 
 Webster, daughter of a prominent Methodist minis- 
 ter of the Cincinnati conference. 
 
 Partially restored to health, he left the farm and 
 went into mercantile pursuits at Charleston, Ohio, 
 where he remained in business until the fall of 1855. 
 Here he had prospered in business, but through 
 financial aid extended to others he became greatly 
 involved, to an extent of at least ten thousand dol- 
 lars; so again failing in health and ruined in finances 
 he came to Iowa and settled at Eddyville, on the 
 Des Moines river, where he and his wife taught the 
 district school, and he began the study of law, and in 
 two years was admitted to the bar, when he left Ed- 
 dyville and settled at Bedford, Taylor county, Iowa. 
 
 Teaching school at Eddyville simply produced 
 enough of an income to supply a most frugal subsist- 
 ence for himself and family, so that when he had 
 determined to remove to Bedford he prospected the 
 place before removal of his family. He owned no 
 horse, could get no conveyance and had to walk the 
 three hundred miles there and back. Having deter- 
 mined upon the removal, a wagon was obtained, into 
 which he put all his worldly effects, including his 
 wife and one child, and commending himself to the 
 care of an all-wise Providence, he commenced the 
 journey of one hundred and fifty miles. The little 
 girl of four years was ailing when they started, and 
 
740 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 died when they were seven days out, but the mother 
 kept it until they reached Bedford, where Mr. Moore 
 and his father dug a grave and gave it burial. 
 
 He remained in Bedford, practicing law, until Sep- 
 tember, i860, with great success, commencing life 
 as it were anew. He had two dollars and a half in 
 money and owed ten thousand dollars. 
 
 Our subject removed to Clarinda in i860, continu- 
 ing the practice of law. In the fall of 1861 he was 
 elected county judge, which office he filled for four 
 years. In the fall of 1865 he established the first 
 banking house in southwestern Iowa. In 1866 he 
 was elected state. senator, and while serving on the 
 judiciary committee framed the bill relative to the 
 present circuit court system, and was among the 
 most earnest supporters of the plan for the erection 
 of the present state capitol building at Des Moines, 
 which justly ranks among the grandest architectural 
 piles on this continent. In 1871 he established the 
 First National Bank of Clarinda. In 1867 he com- 
 pleted the payment of the ten thousand dollars in- 
 debtedness imposed upon him in Ohio. In 1872 he 
 established the banking house of Moore and Web- 
 ster, at Shenandoah, which is now known as the First 
 National Bank of that place, and also established 
 the banking house of Crum, Moore and Van Fleet, 
 at Bedford, in January, 1873, now succeeded by the 
 Bedford Bank. 
 
 In 1867, his health again failing him, the result of 
 too close confinement to sedentary labor, he sought 
 relaxation in a diversion of body and mind, and con- 
 ceived the idea of a stock farm in lieu of stock banks, 
 and he bought a farm of one thousand acres situated 
 ten miles south of Clarinda. This farm seems to 
 have been a favorite matter of concern to him, for 
 
 he has continuously developed it, feeding from one 
 to three hundred cattle annually thereon. From 
 1865 to 1870 he bought cheap lands in southern 
 Iowa, and owns now about nine thousand acres, two 
 thousand of which are improved. 
 
 Amid all this busy business life Mr. Moore has 
 ever been a strong devotee to his church. Since 
 1862 he has had charge of the Sabbath school, ex- 
 cepting only two years of absence. He has to-day 
 one hundred and twenty-eight young men and women 
 in his class. He was a member of the general con- 
 ference of the Methodist church which met at Balti- 
 more in May, 1876. 
 
 He has been an active Mason ; has taken thirty- 
 two degrees since 1859, and is now prelate to the 
 commandery here. 
 
 Since the age of nineteen he has had the aid and 
 solace of an intelligent and devoted wife, self-sacrific- 
 ing in the extreme in their hours of deepest trouble, 
 and worthily wearing the mantle of her husband's 
 ultimate financial prosperity. A devoted christian 
 woman, she has lived a life of benevolence, of service 
 to her church and to humanity. Mrs. Moore, too, 
 has taken deep interest in the cause of temperance, 
 and is at present president of the Woman's Church 
 Temperance Association of Iowa. The lady, at her 
 personal expense, employed the famous temperance 
 orator, Francis Murphy, for a three months' cam- 
 paign in Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Moore have had born 
 to them two boys and four girls. The two boys and 
 two of the girls have been taken away. 
 
 Mr. N. B. Moore may be summed up in all truth- 
 fulness as a thorovigh business man, governed in his 
 every action toward his fellow-men by all the graces 
 of a practical christian gentleman. 
 
 HARVEY POTTER, 
 
 JEFFERSON. 
 
 HARVEY POTTER, a native of Lewis county, 
 New York, was born at Turin on the 17th of 
 July, 1834. His father, Chester Potter, was a stone- 
 mason in early life, and a farmer in his later years. 
 His mother was Dinah Miller, of English and Irish 
 pedigree. The Potters were wholly English. The 
 paternal grandfather of Harvey was in the first war 
 with the mother country ; his father in the second. 
 
 Chester Potter moved with his family to Illinois 
 when Harvey was four years old, settling on a farm 
 
 near Somonauk, De Kalb county, where the son as- 
 sisted his father until twenty years of age. He then 
 repaired to Wheaton, twenty-five miles west of Chi- 
 cago ; spent six years in preparing for and going 
 through the college at that place, graduating on the 
 4th of July, i860. He attended the law department 
 of the University of Chicago, and graduated in 1862 
 with the degree of LL.B. In 1864 he received the 
 degree of A.M. from his Alma Mater. 
 
 When Mr. Potter graduated from the law school 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 741 
 
 the civil war was at its height, and the year 1862 
 was a critical period in the history of the country. 
 He felt that he owed his first duty to her, and be- 
 fore entering bn legal practice, in August of the year 
 just mentioned, he enlisted as a private in company 
 H, 105th Illinois Volunteer Infantry; was promoted 
 from time to time, finally to first lieutenant in 1863 ; 
 commanded company F in the same regiment, part 
 of the time in the Atlanta campaign, that being the 
 company which captured the colors of the 12th Lou- 
 isiana in the battle of Peach Tree creek; was struck 
 with a piece of shell at Resaca, the only time hit in 
 two years' service, and left the army in August, 1864, 
 on account of the dangerous illness of his wife. 
 
 Returning from the south. Lieutenant Potter taught 
 select schools the following autumn and winter, and 
 in May, 1865, settled in Jefferson. Here he entered 
 on the duties of his profession, and the law has since 
 been his main work. He practices in the United 
 States courts of Iowa, as well as in the district and 
 
 circuit courts of the state. He served as United 
 States assistant assessor of Greene, Calhoun and Sac 
 counties in 1866 and 1867, and was county judge in 
 1868 and 1869, being also ex-ofiicio auditor the lat- 
 ter year. 
 
 He has always acted with the republican party. 
 He belongs to the Blue Lodge in the Masonic order. 
 
 The religious connection of Judge Potter is with 
 the Methodists, and has been an official member of 
 the Jefferson church since taking up his abode here. 
 He is president of the Greene county Sunday School 
 Association. 
 
 His wife, who was Miss Mary L. Price, of Sand- 
 wich, Illinois, married on the ■22A of August, 1862, 
 is a well-educated woman, with an excellent mind 
 and a warm christian heart, and, like her husband, 
 thoroughly devoted to Sunday-school and other re- 
 ligious work. Both graduated from the so-called 
 Chautauqua Sunday School Assembly, held at Clear 
 Lake, Iowa, in the summer of 1877. 
 
 GEORGE H. PARKER, 
 
 DA VENPORT. 
 
 GEORGE HENRY PARKER, attorney-at-law, 
 was born at Paris, Oneida county. New York, 
 on the 14th of May, 1830, and is the son of Calvin 
 Parker and Rhoda n^e Curtis. His father, when but 
 a youth, served in the war of 1812, where he acquired 
 a great fondness for military tactics, and afterward 
 rose to the rank of colonel in a militia regiment re- 
 cruited mainly by himself He was also a promi- 
 nent Freemason in his neighborhood, and throughout 
 his whole life was a man of high standing and con- 
 siderable influence. In 1834 he moved to Syracuse, 
 New York, where he remained two years. In 1836 he 
 immigrated to Huron county, Ohio, and resided in 
 Fitchville during the remainder of his life. He died 
 in 1839. His widow survived until 1872, when she 
 died at Genese'o, Illinois, in the eightieth year of 
 her age. The Parker family is of Puritan origin, 
 and for several generations sojourned in the New 
 England states. 
 
 The father of George H. Parker was what is termed 
 a good liver, social in his manners and somewhat 
 extravagant in his habits, so that his death left his 
 family but poorly provided for. Our subject was 
 therefore early thrown upon his own resources, and 
 his youth was passed under difficulties. Up to the 
 
 age of sixteen he attended the proverbial log school- 
 house during three months of winter, while the bal- 
 ance of the year was passed as a farm hand and at 
 such other work as could be procured. Having 
 attained a fair knowledge of the common English 
 branches and of mathematics, he entered, in the 
 summer of 1846, a printing office at Lower Sandusky, 
 now Fremont, Ohio, where he remained but a short 
 time ; moved thence to Tiffin, Ohio, and entered the 
 office of the " Seneca Advertiser," where he remained 
 till the age of twenty, reading law meantime under 
 the direction of the Hon. Cooper K. Watson, now 
 judge of one of the courts of Sandusky, Ohio. 
 
 At the age of twenty-one years he married Miss 
 Margaret Doran, of Ashland, Ohio, and settled at 
 that place, where he was admitted to the bar in 1852. 
 Here he continued the practice of his profession with 
 moderate success for two years; but in 1854 he was 
 induced to remove to Davenport, Iowa, which has 
 since been his home, and where he has long since 
 taken a high social and professional rank. During 
 the first years of his practice in Davenport he was 
 associated with John Johns, Esq., son of the late 
 Bishop Johns, of Virginia, and afterward with Alfred 
 Edwards, Esq., now a resident of New York city. 
 
742 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 From an early period in his history he took a deep 
 interest in political affairs, acting with the democratic 
 party, his political creed having descended to him in 
 a direct line from his ancestors, who were always 
 strenuously opposed to the doctrines of federalism. 
 His ability as an orator and his skill as an organizer 
 and leader soon gained recognition from his party, 
 and he was advanced to the first rank in the organiza- 
 tion, and received the highest compliments which his 
 political friends could confer. In 1857 he received 
 the democratic nomination for the state legislature, 
 but was not elected. In i860 he was one of the 
 Breckenridge Presidential electors for the State of 
 Iowa, and made a very earnest effort to bring about 
 a fusion of the Breckenridge and Douglas wings of 
 the party, failing in which he made an able campaign 
 against Douglas. In 1864 he was the candidate of 
 his party for congress in the second district of Iowa, 
 against Hon. Hiram Price, but was defeated. In 1866 
 he was a delegate to the national union (or peace) 
 convention, at Philadelphia, and was the Iowa mem- 
 ber of the executive committee of the same. In 1867 
 he was tendered the nomination of his party in con- 
 vention for the position of governor of his state, but 
 declined the compliment. In the same year he was 
 one of the organizers of the people's party, the prin- 
 ciples of which were, opposition to protective tariffs 
 and prohibitory liquor laws, and favoring free trade 
 and espousing the cause of labor as against capital, 
 which for two years succeeded in carrying Davenport 
 and Scott counties. 
 
 From an early period in the administration of 
 President Johnson, Mr. Parker was a most cordial 
 supporter of his policy, and was on the most inti- 
 mate terms with the administration. In 1867 he was 
 appointed by the President to the position of revenue 
 agent for the northwest, and in less than two weeks 
 after assuming the duties the internal revenue from 
 taxation was quadrupled in his district. ' He was also 
 instrumental in securing the appointment of General 
 John M. Corse as collecter of Chicago. After an 
 incumbency of four months he resigned, for reasons 
 satisfactory to the administration and honorable to 
 himself. 
 
 In 1868 he was a delegate-at-large to the national 
 democratic convention held at New York, which 
 nominated Seymour and Blair for president and 
 vice-president. In this convention Mr. Parker was 
 a zealous advocate of the claims of President John- 
 son to the nomination, and supported his candidacy 
 with great earnestness and persistency. Pending the 
 
 nomination he received the following telegram from 
 Mr. Johnson, which, on account of its historic im- 
 portance, we submit entire : 
 To Geo. H. Parker, Esq. Washington, July 8, 1868. 
 
 Dear Sir: The will of the people, if truly reflected, would 
 not be doubtful. I have experienced ingratitude so often 
 that any result will not surprise me now. I thank you 
 most sincerely for the voluntary part you have taken in my 
 behalf. It is appreciated the higher because unsolicited. 
 
 You have no doubt read in this morning's newspapers 
 Stephens's articles of impeachment, together with his speech 
 thereon, in which he states that the "block" must be brought 
 out and the axe sharpened, and that the only resource from 
 intolerable tyranny is Brutus's dagger — which, however, he 
 hopes may not be used. 
 
 How is it possible for me to maintain my position against 
 a vindictive and powerful majority, if abandoned by those 
 who profess to agree in principles with, and to be support- 
 ers of, the policy of the administration.' Such an abandon- 
 ment at this moment, when the heaviest assaults are being 
 made, would seem an admission that the administration was 
 wrong in its opposition to the series of despotic measures 
 which have been, and are proposed to be, forced upon the 
 country. Yours, etc., Andrew Johnson. 
 
 During the winter of 1868-9 Mr. Parker was nom- 
 inated for the position of United States Minister to 
 Ecuador, and was recommended for confirmation by 
 the senate committee on foreign affairs, of which 
 Messrs. Sumner and Harlan were members; but the 
 session coming to an abrupt termination, the case 
 was not acted upon, hence he did not proceed to his 
 post of duty. 
 
 In 187 1 Mr. Parker was one of the originators, if 
 not the prime mover, in organizing the so-called 
 liberal party, which nominated Horace Greeley for 
 the Presidency in 1872. The movement referred to 
 was inaugurated by the following letter from Mr. 
 Parker, addressed to the public in general, the object 
 being to draw upon the moderate element of both 
 parties and form a new organization on the basis of 
 conciliation and mutual concession : 
 
 Editors of Democrat: 
 
 Having faithfully served as a member of the democratic 
 organization for over twenty years, and still having the full- 
 est confidence in the cardinal principles of that party, I am 
 impelled to declare my conviction that the organization has 
 outlived its usefulness, and that it is the duty of democrats 
 to openly acknowledge that the democratic party is dead. 
 All eftbrts at departure., or to galvanize it into life, have 
 proved a failure. The prestige of its general policy, or, 
 rather, the lack of policy during the late war will cling to 
 it, and prevent success, no matter how much we may be- 
 come purified by change of heart. The results of the recent 
 elections are sufficient proof of this fact. We can reorgan- 
 ize by forming some integral part of a new party, and prob- 
 ably resurrect our principles, but the body must be buried 
 and the stench of its putrid remains removed from the pub- 
 lic nostrils. The present is the proper emergency to test 
 the patriotism of members of the democratic party. 
 
 If we love our country better than we do our party, 
 abandon the organization and unite with patriots, disregard- 
 ing political antecedents, and we may reasonably hope for a 
 change of administration, in 1S72, that will protect and 
 guarantee equal rights to all sections of our common coun- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 743 
 
 try. Centralized power will vanish, the war will soon be 
 forgotten, and our country again be peaceful, prosperous 
 and happy. Geo. H. Parker. 
 
 Davenport, Iowa, November 27, 1871. 
 
 The sensation which this letter produced tlirough- 
 out the nation was of the most intense character; 
 and while it received the indorsement and counte- 
 nance of such papers as the New York " Herald," 
 the Chicago "Times," and a number of other lead- 
 ing journals, it was denounced as traitorous and dis- 
 loyal by all the extreme publicists of the democratic 
 party. For many weeks it constituted the chief topic 
 of discussion in the newspapers and of conversation 
 in political circles generally, until George H. Parker 
 became one of the most familiar names in the nation. 
 The movement, for a time, seemed popular, and con- 
 tinued to gain strength until it was adopted and swal- 
 lowed up by the democratic national convention at 
 Baltimore, when the republicans who had formerly 
 favored it withdrew and adhered to their own organ- 
 ization. It is still the opinion of many that if the 
 democratic party, as an organization, had declined 
 to take action on that occasion, and tacitly united 
 with the " liberal movement," it would have been 
 successful in 1872. But, as Mr. Parker truly pre- 
 dicted, the odium of its war policy clung to it and 
 swamped the ship in which it took refuge, which 
 might otherwise have weathered the storm and got 
 safely into port. 
 
 Mr. Parker was an earnest and active supporter 
 of Mr. Tilden's candidacy for the Presidency, but is 
 at the present time in accord with the policy of the 
 Hayes administration on questions of reconciliation 
 and civil service reform. 
 
 In 1854 he was one of the projectors of what is 
 now the prosperous city of Clinton, of which he was 
 also one of the original proprietors. He was one of 
 the original directors of the Iowa Central railroad. 
 
 In 1866 he procured the charter of the Citizens' Na- 
 tional Bank of Davenport, of which he continued a 
 director until 1875. In 1870 he was one of the or- 
 ganizers of the Davenport Central (city) Railroad 
 Company, of which he is still a member. He was 
 also for several years a director of the Davenport 
 and Saint Paul Railroad Company. 
 
 In 1877 he formed a copartnership for the prac- 
 tice of law with Wm. H. Gabbert, Esq., which still 
 continues. 
 
 Mr. Parker is a firm believer in the christian re- 
 ligion according to the Protestant forms of it, but is 
 not in union with any congregation. 
 
 He is a distinguished member of the Masonic fra- 
 ternity, and a Knight Templar of St. Cyrene Com- 
 mandery, of Davenport. 
 
 In 1873 he made a six months' trip through Europe 
 with his family, visiting the principal cities and coun- 
 tries of that most distinguished quarter of the globe, 
 and returned with recruited health and a vastly in- 
 creased store of knowledge. 
 
 Mr. Parker is eminently a self-made man; his 
 large accumulation of knowledge and superior men- 
 tal culture are the result of his incessant study of 
 books, men and things. As a lawyer, he is one of 
 the ablest members of the bar in the state; zealous, 
 honest and indefatigable. As a politician, he is de- 
 scribed as a live man, a positive character, of great 
 brain power and nerve force — the man for an emer- 
 gency. He is a gentleman of acknowledged ability 
 and integrity, of generous and lofty impulses, decided 
 in his opinions, strong in his likes and dislikes. He 
 is a good citizen, enjoying the confidence of all who 
 know him. 
 
 The fruit of his marriage with Miss Doran was one 
 child, Katie E., now the wife of Henry R. Tyner, 
 Esq., of Davenport. 
 
 HON., WILLIAM B. FAIRFIELD, 
 
 CHARLES CITT. 
 
 WILLIAM BONNAIRE FAIRFIELD, twen- 
 ty-one years a resident of Floyd county, Iowa, 
 is a native of New York, and was born at Hudson 
 on the 24th of August, 1835. He is the son of Jo- 
 siah W. Fairfield, a lawyer, railroad man and banker, 
 and Laura Britton. The Fairfields were from France, 
 the Brittons from England. Asa Britton, the father 
 of Laura, was a resident of Cheshire county. New 
 
 Hampshire, and was a sergeant belonging to General 
 Washington's body-guard during the revolution. Will- 
 iam B. received his early education at Hudson and 
 College Hill, Poughkeepsie ; entered the freshman 
 class of Williams College in 185 1, the class which 
 included General J. A, Garfield, of Ohio, and Gov- 
 ernor G. C. Walker, of Virginia; went to Hamilton 
 College the next year, and there graduated in 1855. 
 
744 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 He read law at Clinton with Hon. Theodore W. 
 Dwight ; was admitted to the bar at that place in 
 1856, and that year settled in Charles City, then a 
 village hardly two years old, and containing less than 
 thirty families. He was pleased with its location, 
 saw its promise, and was willing to let his business 
 grow with the place. Charles Cityjs now a railroad 
 town, with three thousand inhabitants, and for many 
 years Mr. Fairfield has been one of the leading at- 
 torneys of the city. He was one of the founders of 
 the first bank started in Charles City, a private in- 
 stitution, still in operation. In the autumn of 1864 
 he was elected judge of the twelfth judicial district, 
 taking his seat on the bench on the ist of January, 
 1865; was reelected in 1868, and resigned in 1870. 
 He has high legal attainments, and made a candid, 
 impartial jurist. 
 
 Of late years Judge Fairfield has given some at- 
 tention to railroad building and farming. He and 
 Judge E. H. Williams built, in Clinton county, the 
 first narrow-gauge railroad in the State of Iowa. He 
 enjoys a beautiful residence three-fourths of a mile 
 southeast of the city, and a well improved farm one 
 
 and a half miles east of town, the farm being well 
 stocked with blooded animals. He has Shorthorn 
 and Jersey cattle, Berkshire hogs and Clydesdale 
 horses, and takes great pleasure in encouraging the 
 stock-raisers in the upper Cedar valley to improve 
 their breeds. 
 
 In politics, the judge has always been a republi- 
 can. He is a member of the blue lodge in the Ma- 
 sonic fraternity, and was master of the Charles City 
 Lodge several years. In religious belief, he inclines 
 to Unitarianism. 
 
 On the 25th of December, 1857, Miss Estelle M. 
 Balch, daughter of Rev. W. S. Balch, then of New 
 York city, became the wife of Judge Fairfield. They 
 have had three children, all daughters, two of whom 
 are now alive. The elder one is a student in Vassar 
 College. 
 
 Judge Fairfield is five feet and eight and a half 
 inches tall, and weighs two hundred and fifty pounds. 
 He is of a sanguine-bilious temperament ; has blue 
 eyes, a light complexion, a full face, a pleasant ex- 
 pression of the countenance, and the manners of a 
 gentleman. 
 
 EDWARD K. PITMAN, 
 
 LEON. 
 
 EDWARD KINKAID PITMAN, a native of 
 Estill county, Kentucky, and a son of Thomas 
 and Margaret Kinkaid Pitman, was born on the 15 th 
 of March, 1835. The Pitmans came from England, 
 and early settled in Virginia. The Kinkaids are of 
 Irish descent. The father of Margaret Kinkaid was 
 captain of rangers in the second war with the mother 
 country. When Edward was three years old the fam- 
 ily moved to Canton, Illinois, where our subject was 
 reared on a farm, his opportunities for education, 
 after he was old enough to work, being limited to 
 the winter term of a district school. In 1852 the 
 family removed to Iowa and settled on a farm seven 
 miles south of Leon, in Decatur county, where Ed- 
 ward labored until after the civil war broke out. 
 
 In the spring of 1862 he enlisted as a private in 
 company G, 3d Missouri Cavalry, in which he served 
 until the next December, when the regiment was 
 broken up by hard service and divided, his company 
 being assigned to the 7 th Missouri Cavalry. From 
 that time until the close of the war he was connected 
 with the quartermaster's department, his main busi- 
 
 ness being the procuring of forage. While return- 
 ing to his home he was seized with a species of ery- 
 sipelas known as phlegmonedes ; was laid up, and 
 at times delirious, for five or six weeks, and unable 
 to do any business for nearly a year. 
 
 In the winter of 1865-6 he commenced teaching 
 a district school near Pleasanton ; afterward taught 
 in Pleasanton, continuing that occupation until the 
 next autumn, when he was elected clerk of the county 
 courts, and by reelection served four years, making 
 an efficient and popular county officer. 
 
 On leaving this position he purchased the Leon 
 "Pioneer," editing and publishing it for two years. 
 Since going out of journalism he has been a general 
 trafficker and speculator. 
 
 He is a shrewd, straightforward, upright dealer, 
 full of energy, and doing with his might whatever 
 engages his hands and fully secures his attention. 
 
 In poHtics, Mr. Pitman has steadily affiliated with 
 the democratic party, being known in the period 
 from 1862 to 1865 as a war democrat of the most 
 earnest and the bravest kind. In 1872 he was ap- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 745 
 
 pointed a delegate to the national convention which 
 nominated Horace Greeley, but was unable to attend. 
 
 He is a Freemason ; has been twice master of the 
 Leon Lodge, and was its secretary for three consec- 
 utive years. 
 
 Mr. Pitman is a member of the Christian church, 
 and very active in religious and philanthropic enter- 
 prises. The cause of temperance receives his hearty, 
 untiring and aggressive support. He is a true friend 
 of his race. 
 
 Mr. Pitman has a second wife, his first being Miss 
 Louisa Osborn, of Decatur county ; married on the 
 
 6th of September, 1854. She died on the 31st of 
 January, 1874, leaving four children. Marietta, the 
 eldest child, is the wife of H. A. Lindsey, of Leon ; 
 Adelia is the wife of Dell Hilliker, of Leon; the 
 others, Ollie and Edward Kinkaid, are at home, at- 
 tending the graded school. The present wife of Mr. 
 Pitman was Mrs. Sarah I. Carter, daughter of James 
 Parsons, of Decatur county; married on the 31st of 
 January, 1875. She has two boys by her first hus- 
 band : John M., twenty years old, who is operating 
 with his step-father, and Joseph A., sixteen, pursuing 
 his studies in Leon. 
 
 MI LO GILBERT, 
 
 CHARLES CITT. 
 
 ONE of the most energetic men in the Cedar 
 valley, and the father of one of its most beau- 
 tiful young cities, is Milo Gilbert, a Yankee in pedi- 
 gree and a Vermonter by birth. He is a son of 
 Hinsdale Gilbert, a farmer, and Polly Tyrrill, and first 
 saw the light of this world at Manchester, Benning- 
 ton county, on the 5th of September, 1823. His 
 paternal grandfather commanded a company at the 
 battle of Bennington, one hundred years ago. Hins- 
 dale Gilbert moved his family to Wyoming county. 
 New York, when Milo was about eight years old, 
 settling on a farm near the village of Castile. There 
 this son, with the rest of the children, seven in all, 
 was early taught to work. 
 
 At seventeen Milo entered a hardware store at 
 Castile, acting as clerk, and attending a select school 
 three winters. In 1844 he came as far west as Rock- 
 ford, Illinois. There he was in a hardware store a 
 short time in company with his brother Seymour, 
 and also taught mathematics in an evening school 
 two winters; farmed three or four years; then solic- 
 ited stock for the Galena and Chicago Union (now 
 Northwestern) Railroad Company in connection with 
 W. B. Ogden ; came to Iowa early in 1854, and after 
 halting a few months in Bremer county, and entering 
 some lands, pushed up the Cedar to Charles City in 
 the autumn of that year. Here he found half-a-dozen 
 log dwelling houses, a log store and a log tavern. He 
 saw the water-power of the Cedar river at this point; 
 looked over the surrounding country ; concluded 
 that here must be a town and he would help make 
 it; he bought of Joseph Kelley half of the town site, 
 the whole consisting of four hundred and forty acres, 
 
 and for many years acted as agent of the Charles 
 City Land Company, the village at that time, how- 
 ever, having the name of Saint Charles, given to it 
 by Mr, Kelley. 
 
 Mr. Gilbert built, in 1855, 'he first frame house, 
 and in 1857 the first stone structure, ever put up in 
 this place. In 1855 he opened a hardware store, 
 and, with the exception of two seasons, ran it stead- 
 ily about fifteen years, having, during all this time, 
 various outside enterprises on hand, and, strange to 
 say, letting none of them suffer for want of attention. 
 Years ago he built and ran two saw-mills, at different 
 times, and manufactured large quantities of lumber; 
 also built a large sash and blind factory, and recently 
 he had the superintendency of the works for the Char- 
 les City Water Power Company, putting in a new dam, 
 a new race and a new flouring mill with six run of 
 stone, one of the best mills of the kind in this valley. 
 He had the entire supervision of everything con- 
 nected with this last great enterprise, second in im- 
 portance to none in the city. This water-power Mr. 
 Gilbert bought of Mrs. Kelley for the company in 
 the spring of 1876. 
 
 During the darkest period of our history in the 
 last twenty years, in 1861 and 1862, he kept right on 
 building, at that time putting up the stone block 
 known as the Union House Block, giving it the 
 name of " Union" to indicate his political sentiment. 
 He is a radical republican, outspoken, frank and 
 fearless. At this very time, the summer of 1877, he 
 is nearly doubling the size of the Union Hotel, en- 
 larging other premises and adding new buildings. 
 This has been his practice nearly every year since 
 
746 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 he settled here, constantly adding something to the 
 accommodations, mercantile or family, of the place. 
 He has built several business houses and at least 
 twenty dwelling houses. 
 
 Mr. Gilbert was town clerk a long time at an early 
 day ; was a supervisor some years ; was the first 
 mayor of Charles City, being elected without oppo- 
 sition and serving two terms, and has been in office 
 almost constantly since he became a citizen of Floyd 
 county. His official, like his other work, has been 
 thoroughly and faithfully performed. 
 
 Mr. Gilbert is a baptist in religious belief, and 
 supplied more than half the funds when the Charles 
 City church was built, in 1856, the first building of 
 the kind in the place. He has since contributed 
 liberally toward other houses of worship there, and 
 shows his public spirit and liberality in many ways. 
 
 On the 25th of September, 1847, Miss Margaret 
 Palmer, of Lockport, Illinois, became his wife, and 
 she has been the mother of eight children, only four 
 of them now living. Edwin, the eldest child, is mar- 
 ried, has been a railroad man and is now deputy 
 treasurer of the county; Emily is the wife of Eugene 
 B. Dyke, editor and proprietor of the Charles City 
 " Intelligencer," and the two youngest, Azro B. F. 
 and Carrie E., are living at home. Mrs. Gilbert is a 
 well educated woman. At an early day she was the 
 light of more than her own house, and has " bated 
 not a jot " of her kindly and cheerful nature. The 
 sick and the needy early found a friend in her. 
 
 Mr. Gilbert is one of the few men who at an early 
 period began to work for the interests of northern 
 Iowa as well as his adopted home. As soon as 1855 
 
 he began to operate for the so-called Mississippi and 
 Missouri River railroad, to run westward from Mc- 
 Gregor, on the Mississippi, through Charles City, 
 He was one of the originators of this enterprise, 
 aided in securing the right of way, solicited stock, 
 holding two or three offices at one time, and but for 
 the financial cyclone of 1857 the road would have 
 been built long before it was. When finally, in 1869, 
 the road now known as the Iowa branch of the Mil- 
 waukee and Saint Paul road came through, he was 
 one of the men who did the hard work in getting it 
 to Charles City. The same is true of the other rail- 
 road, the Cedar Valley branch of the Illinois Central 
 road, the first to reach Charles City. There is no 
 public enterprise, perfected in or near his home, 
 which does not bear the impress of his willing and 
 toil-hardened hand. A more industrious man it 
 would be difficult to find. 
 
 Mr. Gilbert possesses a very independent, self- 
 reliant spirit, as a single fact in his early life will 
 show. When about leaving New York state, in 1844, 
 to come west, his father offered to let him have 
 some money, but he had four and a half dollars in 
 currency, and a shot gun, and started off. Reaching 
 Buffalo, he bought a fifteen-cent market basket, put 
 seventy-five cents' worth of provisions in it, took a 
 deck passage on a steamer to Chicago, and there 
 arrived with less than half a dollar. He immediately 
 started on foot for Downer's Grove, about twenty 
 miles distant, where he had a brother; halted at the 
 Eau Plaines river over night ; paid for lodging and 
 reached his brother's in the forenoon with an empty 
 pocket. 
 
 ROBERT F. PARSONS, M.D., 
 
 ALLERTON. 
 
 ROBERT FERNALE PARSONS, twenty-four 
 years a medical practitioner in Iowa, is a na- 
 tive of the Granite State, being born in Effingham, 
 Strafford county, on the 13th of April, 1821. His 
 parents were Charles Moody and Martha Female 
 Parsons, both of English descent. The Parsons 
 family were early settlers in Maine. The maternal 
 grandfather of Robert was in the continental army, 
 and his paternal grandfather was a sailor, and com- 
 manded a privateer in the second struggle with the 
 mother country. 
 
 Charles M. Parsons immigrated from New Hamp- 
 
 shire to Maine about 1828, and was a cabinet-maker 
 at Waterville; went from there to Richmond, in the 
 same state; followed the sea four years, and then 
 removed to Bangor, the son, during this period, at- 
 tending district schools. 
 
 In 1836 the family came as far west as Paines- 
 ville, Ohio, where the subject of this notice attended 
 an academy for about two years. In 1841 Robert 
 moved to Coshocton county, and the next year com- 
 menced the study of medicine with Dr. E. Mast, of 
 Rochester, in that county, subsequently attending 
 lectures in the medical department of Western Re- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARV. 
 
 747 
 
 serve College in Cleveland ; commenced practice in 
 1848 at Rochester, Coshocton county; followed the 
 profession there and in Independence, Richland 
 county, until 1854, when he removed to Iowa and 
 located at Brighton, Washington county. There he 
 was in practice for twenty-two years. Washington 
 county was sparsely settled at the time Dr. Parsons 
 located there, and his rides extended over a radius 
 of fifteen or twenty miles.' During this long period 
 at Brighton his labors were very trying to his phys- 
 ical system, and in 1876, with health partially im- 
 paired, he removed to Allerton and started the drug 
 business, intending to go out of the country prac- 
 tice. This he has done, but has a fair practice, all 
 that he could desire, in the city of Allerton. He 
 has a pleasant homestead of six acres, selected two 
 years ago, on the western line of the city, and is 
 
 preparing to raise all kinds of small fruits. He is 
 making it an Eden of beauty. 
 
 Dr. Parsons was originally a whig; gave enthusi- 
 astic support to Mr. Lincoln, both by vote and voice, 
 during the civil war, but latterly has affiliated with 
 the democratic party. 
 
 He is very liberal in his religious views. He is a 
 member of the blue lodge in the Masonic fraternity. 
 
 In March, 1849, he was united in marriage with 
 Miss Lucinda Draper, of Rochester, Ohio, and they 
 have had eight children, only five of them living. 
 All are single except Alice, the eldest daughter, who 
 is the wife of O. H. Wood, of Albia, Iowa. Albert 
 E., the eldest son, is a graduate of the literary and 
 law department of the Iowa State University, and 
 an attorney in Allerton. The other three, Ellen T., 
 Fred and Ernest are being educated at home. 
 
 WILLIAM B. WATERS, M. D., 
 
 MARSHALL TO WN. 
 
 THE subject of this brief monograph was an 
 early settler in Marshall county, Iowa, and 
 witnessed the great yet bloodless county-seat fight 
 between Marietta and Marshalltown. He comes of 
 a long-lived race. His paternal grandfather lived 
 to be ninety-seven years old, and his maternal 
 grandmother one hundred and four, both dying in 
 Connecticut, in which state his ancestors on both 
 sides were early settlers. 
 
 Dr. Waters, like four-fifths of the men whose 
 names appear in this book, sprung from the agri- 
 cultural class, his father, Charles Waters, living in 
 Delaware county, Ohio, where the son was born on 
 the 19th of March, 1819. His mother was Harriett 
 Bennett, and both sides of his family are of Scotch 
 pedigree. William B. gave his youth to farm work 
 and mental discipline, finishing his literary educa- 
 tion at the Worthington Academy, Franklin county. 
 He taught school three years in Ross and Highland 
 counties; read medicine simultaneously most of this 
 time with Dr. William McCollum. of Petersburg, 
 Highland county ; attended one course of lectures 
 in the medical department of the Ohio University, 
 Cincinnati ; practiced a year with his preceptor at 
 Petersburg ; attended a second course of lectures, 
 this time at Starling Medical College, Columbus, 
 and there graduated in March, 1848. 
 
 After practicing six years at Oceola, Crawford 
 79 
 
 county, he left his native state, settling in Marietta, 
 Iowa, in the summer of 1854, being the first edu- 
 cated and regular physician in that place. Seven 
 years later he followed the county seat to Marshall- 
 town, where he is still one of the leading practitioners. 
 
 In the autumn of 1862 he went into the service 
 as surgeon of the 32d regiment Iowa Infantry; be- 
 came enfeebled by disease in about a year and a 
 half, and early in the spring of 1864 resigned and 
 returned to his home in Marshalltown. Dr. Waters 
 regained most of his strength in a short time, re- 
 sumed practice, and has seemingly been growing in 
 popularity ever since. His labors in the army were 
 at times very severe, and proved too much for him, 
 but as a school in surgery they were of incalculable 
 benefit to him. His reputation in this direction 
 stands very high, and it is not an uncommon thing 
 for him to ride fifty and a hundred miles to attend 
 difficult surgical cases. 
 
 Dr. Waters was coroner of Marshall county six 
 years, and physician and surgeon to the county in- 
 firmary a similar period of time. 
 
 He is a Royal Arch Mason, and a charter member 
 of the fraternity in this county. He was in early 
 life a free-soil whig, and easily glided into the re- 
 publican ranks. On politics and every other sub- 
 ject, he is frank, outspoken and fearless. 
 
 Miss Eleanor Barrows, of Delaware county, Ohio, 
 
748 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY'. 
 
 became his wife on the ist of December, 1842, and 
 has borne him four children, two sons and two 
 daughters. His eldest son, William A., died in the 
 army. The other son, Dwight Emmett, has a wife and 
 is in business in Marshalltown. The two daughters, 
 Imogen and Celia, are unmarried. 
 
 Dr. Waters is a permanent member of the Iowa 
 State Medical Society, and also a member of the 
 Am.erican Medical Association, and in 1874 was a 
 delegate to the meeting of the latter body. His 
 
 standing in the medical fraternity of the state is of 
 the highest order. His social and moral habits are 
 also excellent. 
 
 Dr. Waters is generous hearted almost to a fault ; 
 is very kind to the poor; never presses a debt; has 
 raised his family well, and is a success as a physician 
 and surgeon. He is in comfortable circumstances 
 pecuniarily, but owing to his liberality his accumu- 
 lations do not equal those of some other medical 
 men whose rides are fewer and shorter. 
 
 HENRY M. DEAN, M. D., 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 HENRY MUNSON DEAN, the eldest son of 
 Henry and Almira (Munson) Dean, was born 
 at Canaan, Litchfield county, Connecticut, on the 8th 
 of November, 1836, and is descended on both sides 
 from English ancestors. His great-grandfather Dean 
 emigrated from England and settled in Canaan soon 
 after the revolution, where a large colony of his de- 
 scendants still reside. His maternal ancestors emi- 
 grated at an earlier period, and some of them fought 
 under Washington in the revolutionary war. 
 
 Henry Munson, our subject, received his primary 
 education in the public schools of his native village, 
 and at thirteen he was sent to a private academy in 
 the vicinity, where he studied the usual branches of 
 learning, including the Latin language and the higher 
 mathematics. At the age of eighteen years he taught 
 a district school during the winter and spent the 
 summer upon the farm. 
 
 He commenced the study of medicine in 1857 un- 
 der the direction of Dr. L. H. Aiken, at Falls Village. 
 He subsequently attended two courses of medical lec- 
 tures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, med- 
 ical department of Columbia College, New York city, 
 from which institution he graduated with honors on 
 the 14th of March, i86i. He soon after commenced 
 the practice of his profession at Canaan Center, some 
 two miles from the residence of his father, where he 
 remained until 1862, when he offered his services to 
 the government as a volunteer medical officer. On 
 being examined by a board of medical men, of which 
 Dr. Valentine Mott was chairman, he was ordered 
 to Fortress Monroe, and from thence was sent to 
 General McClellan, at Harrison's Landing, where he 
 was assigned to the ist regiment Massachusetts Vol- 
 unteer Infantry, where he remained, except a short 
 
 period after the battle of Malvern Hill with the 2d 
 New York Infantry, until after the second battle of 
 Bull Run, when, the 3d corps hospital being organ- 
 ized at Fort Lyons, near Alexandria, Virginia, he 
 was assigned to duty at that institution. Here he 
 remained until the spring of 1863, when the hospital 
 was removed, and he was ordered to report to the 
 medical director at Washington, District of Colum- 
 bia, by whom he was placed on duty in the " Lincoln 
 United States General Hospital," of that city, on the 
 Sth of February, 1863, where he remained over two 
 years, having charge of the barrack branch of that 
 institution during the last six months of this period. 
 On the 20th of February, 1865, he was, by order of 
 the war department, appointed assistant' surgeon of 
 U. S. Veteran Volunteers, and was assigned to duty 
 with the ist regiment, ist brigade, and ist (Han- 
 cock's) Army Corps, and was with them in the field 
 until after the close of the war, and subsequently 
 had charge of the several military hospitals con- 
 nected with the defenses of Baltimore, then under 
 command of General Hancock, until he was mus- 
 tered out of service, on the loth of January, i866, 
 having served, in all, some three years and six 
 months. 
 
 As a military surgeon, the record of Dr. Dean is 
 second to that of no other man in the service. His 
 fame as a successful operator was spread far and 
 wide, and wherever a critical and peculiarly delicate 
 operation in surgery was to be performed. Dr. Dean's 
 services were brought into requisition, if at all avail- 
 able. He was transferred from ward to ward in the 
 Lincoln Hospital as the exigencies of the service 
 seemed to require, and his skill and success became 
 so noted that he was ultimately placed over the 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 749 
 
 wards appropriated to disabled officers. He served 
 as medical inspector of Lincoln Hospital, as superin- 
 tendent of the dead-house and pathological depart- 
 ment of the hospital, as president of the board of 
 officers for the examination of men recommended 
 for furlough, veteran reserve corps, for duty or for 
 discharge from the service, and as a leading member 
 of the council of the board of administration of the 
 hospital. He was the most prominent and distin- 
 guished surgeon of his years and experience in the 
 institution. In addition to his official duties in the 
 hospital, which were of the most onerous and exact- 
 ing nature, he prepared and furnished to the United 
 States Army Medical Museum as large a number of 
 rare and valuable specimens as any other contributor. 
 Among the many items bearing his name in the great 
 catalogue of the museum are the smallest and the 
 largest hearts, respectively, in the museum, the small- 
 est weighing only five and a half ounces, and the 
 largest seventeen and a quarter ounces. The body 
 from which the smallest was taken weighed one 
 hundred and sixty pounds, and that from which the 
 largest was taken, one hundred and fifty-five pounds. 
 Both men had been perfectly healthy and died of 
 injuries received in the army. He is also credited 
 with having contributed to the museum the only speci- 
 men of hernia of the stomach through the diaphragm 
 into the left thoracic cavity. He has performed 
 successfully nearly every operation hitherto known 
 to surgery. The testimonials as to his efficiency, 
 skill and professional qualifications contained in 
 
 " general orders " and in private letters from those 
 in the highest ranks are both numerous and flatter- 
 ing, and may well be a source of just pride and grati- 
 fication to himself. 
 
 On retiring from the army he located at Sand- 
 wich, Illinois, where he remained in practice for 
 nine months, and on the 30th of February, 1867, he 
 moved to the city of Muscatine, which has since 
 been his home, and where he has built up a large 
 and lucrative practice. Soon after locating in Mus- 
 catine he was appointed surgeon to the encampment 
 of the Grand Army of the Republic located there, 
 which position he retained as long as the organiza- 
 tion lasted. 
 
 He has been a member of the Congregational 
 church since 1858. He is secretary and treasurer of 
 the County Medical Society, of the Eastern Iowa 
 District Medical Society, and a member of the State 
 Medical Society, also of the United States Medical 
 Association. 
 
 He was married on the 20th of June, 1866, to Miss 
 Emma Johnson, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They 
 have three boys, Harry Johnson, Lee Wallace and 
 Ray Elbert. 
 
 To the most thorough qualifications as a physician 
 Dr. Dean adds promptness and energy in profes- 
 sional duty, ever ready, regardless of distance or of 
 weather, to render immediate attention to calls. 
 
 As a citizen, he enjoys the confidence of the com- 
 munity as an honest, upright man, fearless of censure 
 and strong in the right. .As a friend, true. 
 
 HON. LE ROY G. PALMER, 
 
 MOUNT PLEASANT. 
 
 LE ROY GRIFFIN PALMER, a son of Louis 
 J D. and Ann H. (Tutt) Palmer, is a native of 
 Christian county, Kentucky, and dates his birth on 
 the 3d of November, 182 1. The Palmers are Eng- 
 lish, four brothers coming over, three of them set- 
 tling in the eastern states, and one of them near 
 Jamestown, Virginia. From this one sprung the 
 branch of the family of which Le Roy and his 
 brother, General John M. Palmer, late governor of 
 Illinois, are members. Louis D. Palmer was born 
 in Spottsylvania county, Virginia, in 1781, near the 
 close of the revolutionary war, in which his father, 
 Isaac Palmer, participated for a short time. Le Roy 
 had six brothers, one sister, two half-brothers and 
 
 one half-sister, all yet living but three own brothers, 
 Frank, Charles and George. The family moved from 
 Kentucky to Madison county, Illinois, ten miles from 
 Alton, in 1831, and there the subject of this sketch 
 worked on a farm until after he became of age, with 
 quite limited means for education. 
 
 He read law with his brother, John M., at Carlin- 
 ville ; received his certificate at Hillsboro, Mont- 
 gomery county, early in 1846, and had just com- 
 menced practice at Carlinville when the Mexican 
 war broke out. In May of that year he enlisted as 
 a private in company B, Captain Elkin, 4th Illinois 
 Infantry Volunteers ; was in the service one year ; 
 returned to Carlinville, and in the autumn of 1847 
 
750 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 Started for Iowa, intending to locate in Monroe City, 
 Jasper county, where it was then supposed the cap- 
 ital of the state would be. Reaching Mount Pleas- 
 ant in November, then a village of perhaps four 
 hundred inhabitants, and being pleased with the 
 place, he halted for the winter. The location of the 
 capital was changed to Iowa City, and Mr. Palmer 
 concluded to remain at Mount Pleasant. Here he 
 has been in the exclusive practice of law for thirty 
 years, serving his constituents at times in different 
 capacities. 
 
 In 1861 he was elected state senator to fill a va- 
 cancy occasioned by the resignation of Alvin Saun- 
 ders, now a United States senator from Nebraska. 
 He was placed on the judiciary committee. He de- 
 clined a renomination. In 1862 he was elected 
 judge of Henry county, serving one term. Other 
 offices which he has held are of minor importance, 
 but their duties have been well performed. In 1874 
 he was the democratic candidate for congress, and 
 carried Henry, usually a strongly republican county. 
 
 With the exception of 1856, when Judge Palmer 
 voted for John C. Fremont for President, and i860 
 
 and 1864, when he voted for Mr. Lincoln, he has 
 acted with the democratic party, returning to it be- 
 cause slavery was abolished and the question taken 
 out of politics. He wants to have the past forgotten 
 and the nation consolidated. 
 
 On the 7th of August, 1850, Judge Palmer and 
 Miss Orphia L. Bowen, of Mount Pleasant, were 
 joined in marriage, and of seven children, the fruit 
 of this union, five are living. The eldest son, Le Roy 
 A. Palmer, is in practice with his father in the firm 
 of Palmer, Jeffries and Palmer, a young man whose 
 capacities indicate strength and fondness in the di- 
 rection of art, and a disposition to follow socially, 
 and in religion and politics, the extreme rational 
 school. 
 
 During the long period in which the judge has 
 been practicing in Iowa, he has had a large number 
 of students, some of whom have become quite prom- 
 inent. Among them are General T. M. Bowen, who 
 was one of the supreme judges of Arkansas, then 
 governor of Idaho, and now judge of one of the 
 courts in Colorado, and the Hon. Geo. H. Green, 
 who died while in the Missouri senate. 
 
 WILLIAM D. LUCAS, 
 
 AMES. 
 
 WILLIAM DENNIS LUCAS, banker, and one 
 of the leading business men of Ames, is a 
 native of Wyoming county, New York, dating his 
 birth at Gainesville on the 5th of June, 1838, being, 
 therefore, now in his fortieth year. His parents were 
 Almon D. Lucas, farmer, and Cornelia Broughton. 
 His maternal grandfather, William Broughton, was a 
 colonel in the New York state militia, and his great- 
 grandfather on the same side went into the revolu- 
 tionary army when a mere lad, and became of age 
 only a short time before the close of that seven years' 
 struggle for independence. The business of William 
 D. until of age, and past, was farming, clerking and 
 practicing dentistry, learning the profession at Rush- 
 ford, Allegheny county, and there following it two 
 years. In addition to the district school he acquired 
 his education by attending the academies at Rush- 
 ford and Weathersfield Springs. 
 
 When the civil war burst upon the nation, in the 
 spring of 1861, he was prompt to respond to the 
 President's call for seventy-five thousand men. He 
 enlisted as a private in April, in company F, Captain 
 
 Clinton, 2ist regiment New York Infantry, Colonel 
 Rogers, commander. He was soon taken sick, and 
 was discharged from the hospital at Washington, 
 District of Columbia, in the month of July following. 
 Two months later, having recovered, he assisted Cap- 
 tain M'^. W. Wheeler in recruiting a company for the 
 5th New York Cavalry known as the "Ira Harris 
 Guards "; was made second lieutenant of company 
 F in the summer of 1862, and was promoted to first 
 lieutenant, and in January, 1863, to captain, of the 
 company. 
 
 On the 6th of July, 1863, Captain Lucas was cap- 
 tured between Hagerstown and Williamsport, Mary- 
 land; spent ten months in Libby prison and three at 
 Danville, Virginia, and Macon, Georgia. He escaped 
 on the 4th of August, 1864, en route from Macon to 
 Charleston, South Carolina ; he was recaptured with 
 dogs, taken to Augusta, Georgia, and confined ten 
 days in jail; thence returned to Macon and was sub- 
 sequently taken to Charleston and Columbia, South 
 Carolina, and Charlotte, Goldsborough and Raleigh, 
 North Carolina, and came into our lines by exchange 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 751 
 
 at Wilmington, Northi Carolina, on the ist of March, 
 1865, having spent, in all, about twenty months in 
 southern prisons. 
 
 While a prisoner at Richmond, Captain Lucas 
 was selected, with Lieutenant-Colonel Sanderson, of 
 North Carolina, and Major Henry, of Ohio, to dis- 
 tribute the supplies furnished by the United States 
 government to our prisoners on Belle Island. 
 
 On coming into our lines Captain Lucas returned 
 to his regiment, then at Stanton, Virginia, and was 
 mustered out with the regiment in July, 1865. Of 
 the one hundred and nine men who went out with 
 him in the first enlistment, company F, 5th New 
 York Cavalry, only seven returned with him. 
 
 Captain Lucas was in business one year at East 
 Gainesville, and in September, 1866, made his first 
 push westward, spending a few months in mercan- 
 
 tile trade at Bristol, Kendall county, Illinois, then 
 crossing the Mississippi river and settling at Ames, 
 in April, 1867. Here he engaged in the general mer- 
 cantile business one year, then opened an exchange 
 bank, which he still manages, and which has been a 
 marked success. He is the only banker in Ames. 
 
 Captain Lucas served here as justice of the peace ; 
 has been active and serviceable in the local school 
 board ; was the first mayor of the city, holding the 
 office tvvo or three terms, and has been treasurer of 
 the Agricultural College since 1873. As a business 
 man, he is very efficient and eminently trustworthy. 
 He is a Knight Templar among the Masonic brother- 
 hood, and a republican among politicians. 
 
 Captain Lucas has a wife and three children. The 
 former was Miss Flora C. Barber, of Warsaw, New 
 York; married in November, 1866. 
 
 LEWIS A. RILEY, 
 
 WAPELLO. 
 
 ^'^HE marked success which attends the career 
 of a young man should be an incentive to 
 others to employ unceasingly the qualities of mind 
 which are vouchsafed to the average of mankind. 
 The point is to know what peculiar faculty of mind 
 for business one is possessed of, and to seize upon 
 the operation of this faculty to its utmost tension, 
 and then if one's actions are governed by a high 
 sense of honor the way to practical usefulness and 
 often to personal gain is an assured fact to almost 
 every man in the United States. 
 
 The readers of this volume will do well to ponder 
 over the biography of the subject of this sketch, and 
 to note the persistent efforts he has always made to 
 succeed in life. After gaining all the instruction his 
 limited means would permit, he becomes a school- 
 teacher as a means of self-support, but he has higher 
 aspirations and believes he can master the intricacies 
 of the law, and during his other advanced studies he 
 includes that of law, which he prosecutes until he is 
 admitted to the bar, and then labors at his profes- 
 sion with continued assiduity until he acquires, in 
 his thirty-third year, an enviable reputation and a 
 wide practice. 
 
 Mr. Lewis A. Riley was born in Holmes county, 
 Ohio, on the ist of March, 1845. His father, James 
 Riley, was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, on 
 the 26th of March, 1805. He came to Ohio in 1839, 
 
 was married on the 24th of January, 1827, and had 
 born to him ten children, four sons and six daugh- 
 ters, of which one son and two daughters have de- 
 raised. 
 
 Lewis A. Riley commenced his schooling when 
 he was but seven years of age. He remained at the 
 district school until he was twelve years of age, at 
 which time he entered the high school at Columbus 
 City, Iowa, his father having removed to Iowa in 
 1853, settling in Louisa county, where he died on 
 the 2d of April, 1855. His mother also died in the 
 same county in 1868. Lewis remained at this high 
 school for four years, when he returned to his father's 
 farm and remained there for two years, working and 
 superintending its business, at the end of which time 
 he went to the public school at Mount Pleasant, 
 Iowa, for a short time, and from here he proceeded 
 to Poughkeepsie, New York, where he attended a 
 commercial college. From here he came to Gales- 
 burg, Illinois, and entered Knox College, and then 
 returned to Iowa and commenced teaching school, 
 which he continued to do until January, 1870, giv- 
 ing also much of his time to the private study of law. 
 
 About this time he was elected superintendent of 
 the public schools of Louisa county, which position 
 he held for two years. He concluded the study of 
 law in the office of D. N. Sprague, of Wapello, and 
 was admitted to the bar in April, 187T. He formed 
 
752 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 a copartnership with his tutor under the firm name 
 Sprague and Riley, which connection is still main- 
 tained. The firm of Sprague and Riley is one of 
 the best known in Louisa county, and enjoys a large 
 practice in all the courts of the state and in the fed- 
 eral courts. Both gentlemen are able lawyers. Mr. 
 Riley, being much the younger, is capable of great 
 mental and physical endurance, and in the absence 
 
 of his partner, who, as district attorney of the state, 
 resides at Keokuk, discharges all the business of 
 the Wapello office. 
 
 On the 24th of April, 1872, Mr. Riley was married 
 to Miss Carrie Newill, of Fredonia, Louisa county. 
 They have one son, Robert Le Roy, aged five years. 
 
 Mr. Riley is a staunch republican in politics, and 
 an equally staunch Universalist in religion. 
 
 COLONEL GEORGE W. KINCAID, 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON KINCAID was 
 born at West Union, Adams county, Ohio, 
 on the 24th of April, 1812, and was the son of 
 Thomas Kincaid and Margaret nie Hanna, natives 
 of Pennsylvania and Martinsburg, Virginia, and de- 
 scended of revolutionary stock. Both of the grand- 
 fathers of our subject fought throughout the war of 
 independence. His paternal grandfather was at the 
 battle of Lexington, while both grandfathers fought 
 side by side at the battle of Bunker Hill, and were 
 again together at the surrender of Cornwallis at 
 Yorktown, Virginia, where they held the rank of 
 captain and major. The father ■ of our subject, 
 Thomas Kincaid, was an aide-de-camp to General 
 Ludwick in the war of 181 2-15, and took part in 
 the battle of the Thames about the date of the birth 
 of his son. 
 
 George W. spent most of his boyhood in West 
 Union, his father having been sheriff of the county 
 for twelve years, where he enjoyed the benefit of 
 such public schools as the western country in that 
 early day afforded, and at the age of fourteen was 
 apprenticed to learn the tanning business at Pike- 
 ton, Ohio, where, after serving his time, he was en- 
 gaged in business for some years. 
 
 On the j6th of January, 1838, he married Miss 
 Lavisa Steenbergen, daughter of Charles Steenber- 
 gen, and moved to Lafayette, Indiana, in October of 
 the same year, where he was engaged as a contractor 
 on the public works for about a year, and in 1839 
 removed to Iowa and settled in Muscatine county, 
 which was his home during the balance of his life. 
 Here he engaged in farming. 
 
 Notwithstanding the educational disadvantages 
 under which he labored, he was a man of great in- 
 telligence and sound judgment, and soon took a 
 leading position in the community in which he re- 
 
 sided. He was a member of the first constitutional 
 convention of Iowa, and was also the first commis- 
 sioner of the state school fund, and was one of the 
 trustees having charge of the erection of the Iowa 
 Insane Asylum at Mount Pleasant during 1860-62, 
 and held many other offices of trust and responsi- 
 bility during his long and eventful career. He was 
 not only a pioneer citizen of Muscatine, to whose 
 interest and prosperity he was always devoted, but 
 he was emphatically a patriot and loved his whole 
 country. He felt in every muscle and fiber of his 
 frame the sentiment of Sir Walter Scott, as expressed 
 in those beautiful lines : 
 
 " Breathes there a man with soul so dead 
 Who never to himself hath said 
 
 This is my own, my native land ! 
 * * " * * * % 
 
 If such there breathe, go, mark him well ; 
 For him no minstrel raptures swell; 
 High though his titles, proud his name. 
 Boundless his wealth as wish can claim, 
 Despite those titles, power and pelf, 
 The wretch, concentrated all in self, 
 Living, shall forfeit fair renown, 
 And, doubly dying, shall go down 
 To the vile dust from whence he sprung, 
 Unwept, unhonored, and unsung." 
 
 At the outbreak of the slavery rebellion he es- 
 poused the Union cause with all his heart, and on 
 every suitable occasion spoke out with the fervor of a 
 deep devotion to the cause of his country. An inci- 
 dent published in the local papers at the time shows 
 how he seized every opportunity to inspire enthusi- 
 asm and good humor in his patriotic work. A pub- 
 lic meeting was held at which a number of speeches 
 were made expressing the strongest allegiance to the 
 "old flag." One polished orator, with glowing and 
 rounded periods, said he " was born under the ' Stars 
 and Stripes,' and expected to die under them." 
 Colonel Kincaid followed this speaker, and said : 
 " I, too, was born under stars and stripes : I was 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 753 
 
 born in a little log-cabin in Ohio ; the stars shone 
 on me through the chinks between the logs, and 
 there was a striped quilt over me." This speech 
 "brought down the house" in uproarious applause, 
 and tended to add to his popularity and influence. 
 But he was not satisfied with speaking; he wanted 
 to do as well as say, and he conceived the idea of 
 raising a regiment of " graybeards,'' to be composed 
 of men who, like himself, were past the legal age for 
 military duty. Accordingly, in 1862, he recruited 
 what was afterward known as the 37th Iowa or 
 " graybeard " regiment, the recruits for which were 
 mainly drawn from the Hawkeye State, but many 
 of them were citizens of Illinois and other adjacent 
 states, which he commanded till the close of the 
 war in 1865. The regiment was mainly engaged on 
 garrison or guard duty, and in this capacity ren- 
 dered important service in taking the place of able- 
 bodied troops, who were thereby placed at the front. 
 The regiment was first ordered to Saint Louis, and 
 thence on the line of the Pacific railroad, where it 
 did guard duty for several months. From thence 
 it was transferred to Alton, Illinois, and placed on 
 guard over the rebel prisoners incarcerated at that 
 place, where it remained for about a year. From 
 thence the command was transferred to Rock Isl- 
 and, where, for several months, it did garrison duty. 
 In the spring of 1864 the colonel, with his "gray- 
 beards," was transferred to Memphis, Tennessee, 
 where, in command of the second brigade, district 
 of West Tennessee, he took part in the battle on the 
 23d of August, 1864. From Memphis the regiment 
 was transferred to Indianapolis, and thence to Cin- 
 cinnati, where the colonel and Jiis brave " gray- 
 beards " were mustered out on the 22d of May, 1865. 
 As a soldier. Colonel Kincaid was a stranger to 
 
 fear: no braver man ever wore the uniform of his 
 country. As a commander, he was kind and in- 
 dulgent to men whom he saw willing to do their 
 duty, but stern and severe to refractory subordi- 
 nates. It is remarkable that he was able to do so 
 much good for the cause of freedom with a regiment 
 composed of men supposed to be past the time of 
 life for effective military duty. 
 
 In politics, he had been originally a whig, and 
 was a radical republican from the organization of 
 that party. He was, through life, a total abstainer, 
 and an indefatigable advocate of the cause of tem- 
 perance. 
 
 He was a man of rather striking appearance, being 
 over six feet high and of remarkabje physical strength 
 and endurance; was one of the pioneers of Iowa, 
 and, like most men of that period, he began life low 
 down, and by his own energy and industry accumu- 
 lated a competence. 
 
 His wife was a niece of Hon. Robert Lucas, ex- 
 governor of Ohio, subsequently governor of Iowa, 
 and a brigadier-general in the war of 18 12. Both 
 of her grandfathers also fought through the revolu- 
 tionary war. They have a family of five children, 
 three sons and two daughters, all living: Joanna, 
 Margaret Levisa, Charles S., William Miller and 
 Warren Ellsworth. Joanna is the wife of Mr. George 
 Magoon, of Muscatine. 
 
 Colonel Kincaid was for many years a member of 
 the Methodist church, and attested the sincerity of 
 his profession and his love for his Divine Redeemer 
 by his consistent and exemplary walk in life. 
 
 As a husband and father, he was affectionate and 
 indulgent, and was beloved and revered by his fam- 
 ily. He died at Muscatine on the 19th of October, 
 1876, in his sixty-fifth year. 
 
 JOHN MEHLHOP, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 JOHN MEHLHOP, one of the successful whole- 
 sale merchants in Dubuque, is a native of Ger- 
 many, and was born near Bremen on the 26th of 
 January, 181 7. His parents were Albert Henry 
 Mehlhop, farmer, and Mary S. Behrns. The fam- 
 ily is a hardy, long-lived race. The grandfather of 
 John lived to be nearly ninety years of age, and his 
 grandmother ninety-seven. In his boyhood the 
 subject of this sketch read much about the United 
 
 States, and particularly the young and growing west, 
 and made up his mind to cross the ocean. He left 
 his home, alone, on the 26th of September, 1832, and 
 reached New Orleans on New- Year's Day following. 
 He proceeded northward as far as Saint Louis, went 
 into the country a few miles and engaged to work 
 for a farmer at thirty-six dollars a year and board. 
 He remained two years, receiving seventy-two dol- 
 lars the second year. He then went into Saint Louis 
 
754 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 and worked in a coffee house four years, saving 
 money enough to be able to enter a piece of land in 
 Saint-Louis county, twenty-eight miles from the city. 
 This land he improved, by putting up a house and a 
 store, in which he kept a small assortment of goods, 
 serving, meantime, as deputy postmaster. By signing 
 for other parties he was unfortunate, disposed of his 
 farm, and in 1843 returned to Saint I^ouis. There he 
 clerked for Leach and Gorin until 1850, when he 
 removed to Dubuque; farmed two years in Dubuque 
 county, and in the autumn of 1853 went into the 
 mercantile business in the city, in the firm of Kline, 
 Meyer and Co., continuing in the wholesale and re- 
 tail traffic until early in 1857, when the firm dissolved 
 and he visited his native country. Returning the 
 same year, he built a store on Iowa street, north of 
 Twelfth, and there the new firm of Mehlhop and 
 Meyer was in trade until i860, when, dissolving, Mr. 
 Mehlhop continued the business alone at the old 
 stand until 1865. On the ist of January of that year 
 he opened a store on the corner of Main and Fourth 
 streets, where he has been in the wholesale grocery 
 business exclusively, working his trade up steadily 
 from a little more than two hundred thousand dol- 
 lars, a dozen years ago, to an average of more than 
 four hundred thousand dollars annually during the 
 
 last few years. He has always operated on straight- 
 forward, correct business principles ; has gained 
 friends and customers from year to year, and retained 
 them, hence the growth of his trade and his marked 
 success. 
 
 With the exception of one year in the city council 
 Mr. Mehlhop has managed to keep out of office, he 
 making his business his study and giving it his un- 
 divided, closest attention. 
 
 Mr. Mehlhop was a democrat until the formation 
 of the republican party, and has since acted with the 
 latter. 
 
 In religious belief and membership he is a Uni- 
 versalist. 
 
 He has passed all the chairs in Odd-Fellowship, 
 and has taken the thirty-second degree in the con- 
 sistory. 
 
 He has a second wife. He was first married in 
 1840, to Miss Benson, of Saint Louis county. She 
 had three children, and mother and children all died 
 of the cholera in 1849. The next year he married 
 Miss Bruening, who was born near Bremen. She 
 has had eight children, and seven are living. 
 
 Mr. Mehlhop is a man of excellent character, a 
 valuable citizen, and one of the merchants who have 
 given Dubuque its high commercial standing. 
 
 PROF. RICHARD A. HARKNESS, A. M.^ 
 
 GARDEN GROVE. 
 
 RICHARD A. HARKNESS, one of the best 
 educators of Iowa, is a native of Delaware 
 county. New York, where he was born on the 25th 
 of November, 1839. His parents were Robert and 
 Lydia Leal Harkness, his father being of Irish and 
 his mother of Scotch descent, though both were 
 born in this country. Robert Harkness was a 
 farmer, and reared his son until sixteen years of age 
 in agricultural pursuits ; the son then prepared for 
 college at Delhi, Delaware county ; entered the 
 junior class of Union College, Schenectady, in 1861, 
 and graduated in 1863. After teaching one year at 
 Cherry Valley in his native state, Mr. Harkness 
 came to Iowa, locating at Garden Grove, Decatur 
 county, in the spring of 1864, and has been a teacher 
 here since that date, building up one of the best 
 graded schools in the state. A high-school depart- 
 ment was added at the start, and Professor Hark- 
 ness pays especial attention to the fitting of students 
 
 for the State University and other higher institutions 
 of learning. One of his students is now in Yale 
 College; and go where they will his students find 
 no trouble in entering. He has the happy faculty 
 of drawing out students, making them self-reliant 
 and inspiring them with enthusiasm in their studies. 
 He is a man of indomitable energy and perseverance, 
 as well as mental force, and his students seem to im- 
 bibe his spirit. 
 
 While Professor Harkness has made teaching his 
 main work, he has done something at farming, and 
 especially horticulture. He is cultivating eight or 
 ten acres/of land, five or six of it being devoted to 
 fruit-raising. He has grapes and the smaller fruits, 
 and his orchard is in a fine state of improvement, 
 like everything else to which he puts his hand. 
 
 He is very successful as a conductor of teachers' 
 institutes, and often has more applications for such 
 work to be done during vacations than he can fill. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 755 
 
 Professor Harkness is a republican in politics, and 
 is a member of the county central committee. His 
 name has been before the republican state conven- 
 tions as a candidate for state superintendent of pub- 
 lic instruction, a position for which people who best 
 know him think he has peculiar fitness. He is, 
 however, no office-seeker, and would be the last 
 man to ask for any position other than the one he 
 now holds. He is active in educational matters, 
 and some of the ablest and best papers read at state 
 teachers' institutes were prepared by him. 
 
 The professor is an elder in the Presbyterian 
 church, and a trustee of Parsons College, which is 
 
 located at Fairfield, Jefferson county, and is the 
 leading Presbyterian school in Iowa. 
 
 He is an Odd-Fellow, but there is no lodge at 
 Garden Grove, and latterly he has paid but little at- 
 tention to the meetings of the order. 
 
 His wife was Miss Susie Humeston, formerly of 
 Portage county, Ohio. They were married on the 
 9th of August, 1865, and have two daughters: Mary 
 L., aged eleven, and Susie A., aged four years. Mrs. 
 Harkness' father is the Hon. A. Humeston, late 
 member of the general assembly from Wayne coun- 
 ty, Iowa. Humeston Station, near Garden Grove, 
 was named for him. 
 
 HON. WARREN S. DUNGAN, 
 
 CHARITON. 
 
 WARREN S. DUNGAN is the leading lawyer 
 of Lucas county, and is a gentleman univer- 
 sally esteemed for his probity and good nature, for 
 his solid acquirements and spotless integrity. He is 
 one whom the bar delights to honor, and to whom 
 his fellow-citizens point with pride and admiration ; 
 a man whose wisdom is courted and whose reputa- 
 tion is unsullied. His is an exemplary character 
 throughout ; a patriot who, holding the position of 
 state senator, elected for four years, responds to the 
 call of his state for volunteers during the first year 
 of his official duties, sets himself to work to raise 
 a company, and in one month presents the same to 
 his governor at the state capital at Des Moines; and 
 as lieutenant-colonel, and subsequently breveted col- 
 onel, follows the fortunes of war almost from the 
 incipiency of the rebellion to its close, and returns 
 to the practice of his profession in the city of his 
 adoption. 
 
 Colonel Dungan was born at Frankfort Springs, 
 Beaver county, Pennsylvania, on the 12th of Sep- 
 tember, 1822. His father's name was David Davis 
 Dungan, who was born in the same place on the i6th 
 of April, 1787, where he still resides, at the ripe old 
 age of ninety. His mother's maiden name was Isabel 
 McFerran, who was born at Northampton county, 
 Pennsylvania, and who died in 1831, when the sub- 
 ject of this sketch was but eight years of age. 
 
 His grandfather had settled in Beaver county, 
 Pennsylvania, as early as 1773. 
 
 Warren S. attended a school near home until 1840, 
 when he entered the Frankfort Springs Academy. 
 80 
 
 He worked upon the farm in the summer months, 
 and walked three miles a day in the winter months 
 to and from this academy. He had a great desire 
 to study law, and after finishing the course at the 
 academy he taught school in the winters until he 
 was twenty-eight. 
 
 In order to obtain the means to enable him to 
 continuously study law, he taught school at Baton 
 Rouge, Louisiana, and at Panolla, Mississippi, for 
 three years, reading law in the office of Colonel Cal- 
 vin Miller, of Panolla. 
 
 In the course of time he returned to Pennsylvania 
 and renewed his study of law in the office of Rob- 
 erts and Quay, at Beaver, and was admitted to the 
 bar at that place on the 8th of March, 1856. He 
 then determined to seek his fortune in the young 
 and growing state of Iowa, and came to Chariton 
 and immediately commenced the practice of law. 
 
 In the year 186 1 he was elected on the republican 
 ticket as state senator for a term of four years. In 
 the fall of the same year Colonel Dungan assisted 
 in raising the first company of volunteers from Chari- 
 ton. This company elected Daniel D. Iseminger its 
 captain, and became company B, of the 6th Iowa 
 regiment. 
 
 In May, 1862, a second company was raised at 
 Chariton, and elected James Baker its captain, be- 
 coming company C, of the 13th Iowa regiment. This 
 company left Chariton on the 4th of July, on which 
 occasion Colonel Dungan, in a farewell speech to the 
 boys, assured them that he would take immediate steps 
 to raise a third company, which promise he put into 
 
756 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 immediate effect, and was elected captain by accla- 
 mation, but was never mustered in as such. Colonel 
 Dungan took his company to Des Moines on the en- 
 suing 9th of August. While here with his company 
 an extra session of the legislature was called, which 
 he attended. 
 
 Two more companies were subsequently recruit- 
 ed at Chariton, which joined those at Des Moines, 
 and then the line officers of commands in Warren, 
 Lucas, Decatur and Wayne counties came in with 
 their forces and joined the Chariton force, complet- 
 ing the regiment. They then proceeded to elect 
 officers, with the following results : G. W. Clark, of 
 Warren county, colonel ; Warren S. Dungan, of Lu- 
 cas county, heutenant-colonel, aYid Hon. Racine D. 
 Kellogg, of Decatur, major, together with a full 
 complement of field and staff officers. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Dungan was then appointed 
 to wait upon the governor with a request that he 
 confirm the organization, which was done, and the 
 regiment was styled the 34th regiment of Iowa. Pro- 
 ceeding to Burlington, and pitching their tents at 
 Camp Langman, they were regularly mustered into 
 the service by Lieutenant Ball, of the regular army, 
 on the isth of October, 1862. 
 
 In December the regiment was ordered to Vicks- 
 burg, resting for a week or so at Helena, Arkansas, 
 from whence they marched to join General Sher- 
 
 man's command, in the investment of that place; 
 after which the regiment was ordered to Arkansas 
 Post, which post was invested and carried, leaving in 
 our hands some five thousand rebel prisoners. 
 
 At the close of the war they were mustered out of 
 the service at Houston, Texas, from whence they 
 proceeded to Davenport, Iowa, where they were paid 
 off" and disbanded in 1865. 
 
 Colonel Dungan then returned to Chariton and 
 resumed the practice of law. He has always taken 
 an active interest in educational matters ; was for a 
 long time a member of the school board, and has 
 been city solicitor of Chariton. In 1872 he was a 
 delegate to the republican national convention which 
 renominated General Grant, and the same year was 
 made Presidential electorof his district, the seventh 
 of Iowa. 
 
 Colonel Dungan married on the 3d of April, 1859, 
 Miss Abby K. Procter, of Massachusetts. He has 
 had born to him one son and six daughters, all of 
 whom, save the eldest daughter, are now living. 
 
 He has always been a strong temperance man, and 
 belongs to the Temple of Honor. He is also a mem- 
 ber of the Grand Array of the Republic, and was 
 Iowa's delegate to the national council at Philadel- 
 phia in 1872. He united with the Presbyterian 
 church in Pennsylvania in 1855, and is at present a 
 ruling elder in the church at Chariton. 
 
 EBER L. MANSFIELD, M. D., 
 
 CEDAR RAPIDS. 
 
 THE first physician to locate in Cedar Rapids, 
 Iowa, was Dr. Eber Lewis Mansfield, a man 
 still in active life. He was born on the 26th of Jan- 
 uary, 182 1, in the town of Canaan, Athens county, 
 Ohio, and is the son of Martin and Margaret Durham 
 Mansfield. His father settled in Athens county, 
 when Ohio was a territory; built the second brick 
 house in the county, and was justice of the peace in 
 Canaan twenty-one years. The father of Martin 
 Mansfield served seven full years in the revolution- 
 ary army, receiving a wound in the leg at the battle 
 of Brandywine, which wound produced a fever sore, 
 and finally caused his death. Margaret Durham 
 was a native of Delaware. 
 
 Eber aided his father on a farm until of age ; then 
 packed up and left without money or education, but 
 not too late to secure both. He spent three years 
 
 at the Ohio University at Athens, paying his way 
 largely by working moonlight nights and during va- 
 cations. He read' medicine with Dr. William Black- 
 stone, of Athens ; attended lectures at the Cleveland 
 Medical College ; practiced a short time at Harri- 
 sonville, Meigs county, and in the spring of 1847 
 bade adieu to his native state, crossed the great 
 " Father of Waters," and stuck down his stakes for 
 life in the embryo town of Cedar Rapids. Here, 
 for a round thirty years, he has been one of the most 
 stirring, wide-awake men in the place. 
 
 During the first few years of his practice here 
 physicians were scarce, and his rides were very ex- 
 tensive, often thirty or forty and sometimes a hun- 
 dred miles from home. He once went to Cerro 
 Gordo county, near where Clear Lake now stands, 
 to amputate a limb, going with a span of horses and 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 757 
 
 a buggy, and making a six days' trip through a 
 country much of the way without roads' and across 
 bridgeless streams. For years nearly all the sur- 
 gical cases in this part of the state tested his skill. 
 
 On locating in Cedar Rapids Dr. Mansfield en- 
 tered lands, and has always dealt more or less in 
 real estate. He has been successful in every enter- 
 prise in which he has engaged, whatever he touched 
 seeming to turn to gold. In 1850 he crossed the 
 plains, went to the state whose golden gates open to 
 the Pacific, and returned the next year with marked 
 increase of wealth. His motto seems to be: "Be 
 satisfied with small but sure profits, and never en- 
 gage in dishonest speculations." He has been a 
 liberal donor to church, school and other enter- 
 prises; is full of public spirit, working for the inter- 
 ests of the city as well as for himself. Both have 
 prospered. 
 
 He has been in the council and school board re- 
 peatedly; has been a director of the City National 
 Bank since its organization, and was at the head of 
 the Farmers' Insurance Company for a long time. 
 He was surgeon for the Burlington, Cedar Rapids 
 
 and Northern Railroad Company for five or six 
 years, resigning in the spring of 1876. 
 
 Dr. Mansfield was a democrat until the passage 
 of the Kansas-Nebraska bill ; acted with the repub- 
 lican party from 1856 to 1872, and then returned to 
 his original political faith. He is not an active pol- 
 itician, and eschews office if he can consistently with 
 his duties as a citizen. 
 
 In religious sentiment, he is a Universalist. 
 
 He was first married on the 6th of April, 1852, to 
 Miss Lucy A. Warriner, of Greensburg, Indiana. 
 She had five children, and died in 1868, leaving 
 three of them in this world. Her eldest surviving 
 child is the wife of Charles J. Deacon, an attorney, 
 and one of the firm of Hubbard, Clark and Deacon, 
 Cedar Rapids; the other two, a son and daughter, 
 are single, living at home. The doctor's present 
 wife was Mary E. Warriner, of Jefferson county. 
 New York, a very distant relative of his first wife. 
 
 Dr. Mansfield has never used tobacco or intoxi- 
 cating liquors ; is as active as ordinary men in middle 
 life, and by persons not knowing him would be mis- 
 taken for a person under fifty years of age. 
 
 JAMES DAWSON, 
 
 WASHINGTON. 
 
 JAMES DAWSON was born near Newcastle, 
 Lawrence county, Pefinsylvania, on the 24th of 
 October, 1808, his parents being Joseph Dawson 
 and Barbara n^e Galey. His grandfather, Robert 
 Dawson, was a native of the north of Ireland, and 
 emigrated to America in the year 1774, bringing 
 with him a wife and two children, both older than 
 Joseph, who was subsequently born in Cumberland 
 county, Pennsylvania, where the family first located. 
 They soon after moved to Washington county, Penn- 
 sylvania, where Robert died in 1792. Joseph, the 
 father of our subject, married in the last-named 
 county Miss Galey, a lady of Scotch lineage. She 
 died, at the age of forty years, in 1824, and is buried 
 in Richland county, Ohio. Soon after his marriage 
 Joseph Dawson removed to Lawrence county, Penn- 
 sylvania, where he remained about eight years, when 
 he emigrated to Richland county, then an unbroken 
 wilderness. He built a cabin in the woods, cleared 
 a large farm of land, and remained there until 1844, 
 when he removed to Washington county, Iowa, where 
 he died in 1852. He had a family of six sons and 
 
 three daughters, of whom our subject was the fourth 
 child. All of the brothers and one sister are buried 
 in the Washington (Iowa) cemetery. 
 
 James Dawson was raised in his native state and 
 on his father's farm till the age of twenty-one, his 
 schooling being bounded by the log-cabin subscrip- 
 tion schools of his day, which he attended some four 
 winters. After he attained his majority he attended 
 a common school for three months in Ligonier val- 
 ley, Pennsylvania. This completed his education. 
 
 In the year 1829 he made a tour through eastern 
 Pennsylvania, and was employed as a day-laborer 
 upon the Pennsylvania canal, then being constructed 
 from Pittsburg to Johnstown. In this capacity he 
 learned the stonemason trade, at which he soon be- 
 came quite an expert, and was employed as foreman 
 at a salary of one dollar and fifty cents a day, while 
 other mechanics were receiving but one dollar. He 
 was subsequently engaged in constructing the first 
 railroad built across the Alleghanies, connecting 
 transportation between the eastern and western di- 
 visions of the canal. The Pennsylvania Central, 
 
758 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 which now owns the track, runs over a bridge, the 
 abutments of which our subject helped to construct 
 over the Little Conemaugh river. He remained on 
 the public works about seven years, after which he 
 joined his father and family in Ohio, where he re- 
 mained till 1839, when he removed to Washington 
 county, Iowa. Here he bought a " claim," on which 
 a squatter had built a cabin sixteen by sixteen feet, 
 some four miles southeast of where the city of Wash- 
 ington now stands, on which he remained some four 
 years, when he sold out and moved to another farm 
 nearer town, on which he remained some four years. 
 In the winter of 1847-8 he concluded to try his 
 fortune as a trader, and accordingly commenced his 
 career in this line, in partnership with Mr. Alexander 
 Lee, by purchasing some five hundred head of hogs 
 at an average price of one dollar and seventy-five 
 cents per hundredweight, net weight. After driv- 
 ing their purchase to Burlington, a distance of fifty 
 miles, they were able to dispose of it, with some dif- 
 ficulty, at two dollars per hundredweight, net weight, 
 receiving in payment one third cash, one third in 
 notes to mature at six months, and one third in dry 
 goods at wholesale prices. On returning to Wash- 
 ington they found their stock of dry goods an ele- 
 phant on their hands. There were but two small 
 stores of this description in the city, neither of which 
 would purchase their goods, but one of the mer- 
 chants, John Dougherty, proposed to sell out to 
 them at cost and ten per cent added. They found 
 themselves obliged to accept the terms, and in this 
 way they drifted into " store-keeping." The stock 
 of Mr. Dougherty, all told, amounted to six hundred 
 dollars, and the new firm of James Dawson and Co. 
 commenced business in the spring of 1848. They 
 took in a new partner with some capital, a Mr. Bick- 
 ford ; recruited their stock, paying cash for all new 
 purchases, and soon established a good credit in 
 Saint Louis, where they were able to buy goods on 
 very advantageous terms. They began to prosper 
 at once, and soon were the leading merchants of the 
 city. In about a year and a half Messrs. Lee and 
 Bickford both retired from the firm, leaving Mr. 
 Dawson in sole possession. For the next ten years 
 he devoted himself exclusively to business, with very 
 satisfactory results. During this period he erected 
 a number of business houses around the square, sev- 
 eral of which are still standing. In the spring of 
 1858 he sold out his establishment to his brother, 
 Mr. John Dawson, and in the autumn of the same 
 year became the local agent of the Mississippi. and 
 
 Missouri Railroad Company, which had just com- 
 pleted its line to Washington. He held this position 
 for over two years, and in i860 he built the large 
 grain elevator known as the Blair Mills and Eleva- 
 tor Company of Washington, at a cost of eight thou- 
 sand dollars, operated by a steam engine, the first 
 elevator of any kind completed in the State of Iowa. 
 After this he embarked largely in the wheat and 
 grain business generally. In the winter of 186 1-2 
 he bought forty thousand bushels of wheat at an av- 
 erage price of forty-seven cents per bushel, which 
 proved to be a most profitable speculation. During 
 the continuance of the war his transactions in grain 
 were large and satisfactory. 
 
 In 1864 he became connected with the extensjve 
 commission and forwarding house of George M. 
 Howe and Co., of Chicago, and spent most of his 
 time in that city until 1869. In the last-named 
 year Mr. Dawson retired from' the Chicago firm and 
 resumed business in Washington. 
 
 In 1859 he was one of the originators of the State 
 Bank branch at Washington, which, in 1863, became 
 the First National Bank of Washington, of which he 
 continued a director until the 31st of~December, 
 1876, and during the preceding two years was vice- 
 president and acting president of the institution. 
 Early in 1877 he sold out his bank stock, together 
 with all his other interests, and is now retired from 
 business altogether. 
 
 In the year 1832 he became an uncompromising 
 abolitionist, and afterward was identified with the 
 free-soilers. During the late war he was the staunch 
 friend of the government, and gave liberally of his 
 means toward encouraging enlistments and for the 
 support of the families of those who entered the 
 military service. 
 
 In 1870 he was one of the commissioners ap- 
 pointed by the legislature to adopt plans for a new 
 state capitol, and served on the commission for two 
 years. In 1877 he was a delegate to the state repub- 
 lican convention which nominated state officers, and 
 represented the temperance element of the party. 
 
 He has never been a member of any secret society. 
 
 He was brought up in the Associate Presbyterian 
 church, since merged into the United Presbyterian 
 church, of which he has been a member since the 
 junction of the bodies. He was one of the original 
 organizers of the first congregation of the United 
 Presbyterian church in Washington in 1841. He 
 has been a ruling elder of the congregation since 
 the commencement, and has frequently represented 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 759 
 
 his congregation in the presbytery, in the synod and 
 the general assembly of the church. He is, more- 
 over, one of the most liberal contributors to the ex- 
 penses of the congregation and the missionary enter- 
 prises of the denomination in the west. 
 
 He is radical in all his views, and on all questions 
 in which he takes an interest, whether political or 
 religious. He is necessarily a leader in whatever 
 sphere of activity he may operate, not because he 
 desires to lead, but because that in his presence 
 men are conscious of something in him that should 
 be deferred to, and that determines his position by 
 a destiny that cannot be disregarded. He is a man 
 of large intelligence, always keeping abreast of the 
 times. He is naturally, and by culture and disci- 
 pline, a gentleman, a patriot and a christian. 
 
 He was married on the 5th of May, 1831, to Miss 
 Elizabeth Shannon, a native of Westmoreland coun- 
 ty, Pennsylvania, of Scotch and German parentage. 
 She died on the gth of November, 1848, leaving two 
 
 sons and three daughters surviving her : Josiah, 
 George, Sarah Jane, Mary, and Martha Shannon. 
 Josiah is connected with the large boot and shoe 
 house of M. D. Wells and Co., of Chicago ; George 
 was murdered by Indians on his way to Texas in 
 1869, and is buried in an unknown grave; Sarah 
 was married to George C. Anderson, of Washington, 
 and died in 1863; Mary was the wife of James L. 
 Anderson, Esq., and died in 1853 ; Martha Shannon 
 is the wife of Dr. W. R. Adair, of Washington. On 
 the 26th of June, 1849, Mr. Dawson's second mar- 
 riage occurred, to Miss Jennett French, who died 
 on the 27th of April, 1859, leaving three children, 
 the youngest of whom, James Willard, died in 1872, 
 aged sixteen ; Hellen F. and Maryette survive. On 
 the 15th of February, r86o, he married Mrs. N. A. 
 Clarke, widow of the late Rev. John B. Clarke, of 
 Le Claire, Iowa, by whom he has had three children, 
 two of whom survive, Harlan H. and Llewellyn ; 
 the second, Robert L., died in 1876. 
 
 JOSEPH LYMAN, 
 
 COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 AMONG the leading attorneys of Council Bluffs 
 is Joseph Lyman, twenty years a resident of 
 Pottawattamie county. His native place is Lyons, 
 Oakland county, Michigan, where he was born on 
 the 13th of September, 1840. The Lymans from 
 whom he sprung are of Scotch descent, and settled 
 on the Connecticut river in Massachusetts, his grand- 
 father being a captain in the revolutionary army. 
 His father, William Lyman, a farmer, was born in 
 Lebanon, Connecticut. His mother's maiden name 
 was Sarah Pierce. When Joseph was but eighteen 
 months old the family removed from Michigan to 
 Defiance, Ohio, and lived there until 1857, when 
 they pushed westward, and settled in the eastern 
 part of Pottawattamie county, Iowa. There, for 
 three or four years, as in Ohio, Joseph aided his 
 father in opening a farm, attending, and afterward 
 teaching, a district school. He was the pioneer 
 schoolmaster in two or three districts. In 1857 
 there were one or two schools in Council Bluffs, but 
 no regular school-house in the county; now they 
 are reckoned by the hundred. 
 
 In 1861 Mr. Lyman enlisted as a private in com- 
 pany E, 4th Iowa Cavalry, A. B. Porter, colonel ; in 
 1862 was promoted to adjutant 29th Infantry, Thom- 
 
 as H. Benton, commander, and in 1864 to major of 
 the same. He was in many engagements, and had 
 two horses shot under him, but received no wound 
 himself. For some time he was on the staff of Gen- 
 eral S. A. Rice, and when mustered out on the loth 
 of September, 1865, was on the staff of Getieral 
 Fred. Steele, acting as adjutant-general of the army 
 of the Rio Grande, with headquarters at Brownsville, 
 Texas. When he was promoted to the rank of ma- 
 jor it was by especial request of every captain in the 
 regiment. He was a cool and brave officer, and 
 aided by gallantry in burnishing the military record 
 of Iowa during the civil war. 
 
 On leaving the service Major Lyman returned to 
 Iowa ; commenced reading law with Judges Wright 
 and Cole, of Des Moines, in November, 1865 ; was 
 admitted to the bar at that place at the December 
 term of the supreme court, 1866; commenced prac- 
 tice at Council Bluffs in the January following, and 
 has since made the law his entire business. He is a 
 partner of Hon. W. F. Sapp, member of congress 
 from the eighth district. 
 
 Mr. Lyman is a first-class lawyer. He is untiring 
 in his labors; prepares his cases v/ith the utmost 
 care, and tries them most admirably. He has a 
 
76o 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 logical cast of mind, is clear in his reasoning, candid, 
 sincere, earnest, and makes a good impression on a 
 jury. 
 
 Major Lyman has always been a republican ; is a 
 firm and earnest member of the party, but seems to 
 have no political aspirations. As far as we can learn, 
 he is contented with success in his profession. 
 
 He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic order; 
 has been master of Excelsior Lodge, Council Bluffs, 
 
 for several years; high priest of the Star Chapter; 
 commander of Ivanhoe Commandery ; grand warden 
 of the grand lodge of the state, and captain-general 
 of the grand commandery. 
 
 On the 2ist of July, 1875, he was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Rachel Shaw, of Olney, Richland 
 county, Illinois. Her father, Hon. Aaron Shaw, is 
 an ex-congressman, and ex-member of the bench of 
 that state. 
 
 DAVID D. APPLEGATE, 
 
 TOLEDO. 
 
 DAVID DAILY APPLEGATE, a resident of 
 Iowa for nearly thirty years, is a native of 
 Jackson county, Indiana, and the date of his birth 
 is the 31st of October, 1829. His father, Hezekiah 
 Applegate, was a farmer, who died when David D. 
 was sixteen years old. His great-grandfather fought 
 with Washington under General Braddock. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was the youngest child 
 in a family of nine children, seven of whom grew up 
 and six are still living. At seventeen years of age 
 he came to Cedar county, Iowa ; worked for differ- 
 ent farmers two or three years, and at twenty re- 
 turned to his native county and taught school two 
 terms. In 1851 he returned to Iowa and took up a 
 " claim " in Tama county, twelve miles northwest of 
 Toledo; worked his lands till the fall of 1854, when 
 he moved to a place near where Toledo now stands, 
 he having been chosen county clerk. This office he 
 held by reelections from May, 1853, to the ist of Jan- 
 uary, 1869, making a faithful and efiScient officer. 
 
 While discharging the duties of county clerk Mr. 
 Applegate read law at his leisure ; was admitted to 
 
 the bar in the autumn of 1868, and law practice has 
 since been his business. After being alone one year 
 he became the partner of L. G. Kinne, this firm 
 (Applegate and Kinne) continuing from November, 
 1869, to December, 1876. Since the latter date 
 he has practiced alone. His collecting business, as 
 well as court practice, is excellent, and in all re- 
 spects he is a safe, true and reliable man. He has 
 been faithful to every trust confided in him. 
 
 Mr. Applegate was a member of the county board 
 of supervisors in 1869 and 1870; has been mayor 
 one term, and member of the school board at sun- 
 dry times, being quite active in educational matters 
 and in whatever tends to the mental or moral good 
 of the community. He isa communicant in the Con- 
 gregational church, and a man of unsullied character. 
 
 In politics, he was formerly a whig ; latterly has 
 been a republican. He is a Knight Templar among 
 the Freemasons. 
 
 He was married on the sth of June, 1856, to Miss 
 Margaret McLaury, of Benton county, Iowa. They 
 have had six children, three of whom are still living. 
 
 OLIVER MILLS, 
 
 LEWIS. 
 
 PROBABLY the best representative of the stock 
 raisers and stock dealers of Iowa is Oliver Mills, 
 of Cass county. He is a native of Trumbull county, 
 Ohio, and was born in the town of Gustavus, on the 
 2d of February, 1819. His father, Harlow Mills, 
 was an extensive farmer and stock dealer, educating 
 his son in all the minutiae of the dairy and every 
 branch of farm work. The great-grandfather of 
 
 Oliver, Gardner Mills, was in the revolutionary army. 
 The Millses were originally from England. The 
 maiden name of Oliver's mother was Faith Ann 
 Spencer, of German pedigree. 
 
 The subject of this notice was educated at the 
 Farmington Academy, in his native county, where 
 he spent two years, giving his attention mainly to 
 such studies as would be of most uSe to him. The 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 761 
 
 practical and best part of his education has since 
 been obtained on the farm, in the dairy, and in other 
 departments of agriculture. He spent the first thirty 
 years or more of his life in Trumbull county, carry- 
 ing on a large dairy for fifteen years, and raising and 
 buying stock for the eastern market. 
 
 In 1850 Mr. Mills settled in Denmark, Lee county, 
 Iowa, there establishing the first large dairy in the 
 state, and managing it for seven years, buying and 
 selling hogs and cattle at the same time. 
 
 In 1857 he removed to Lewis, Cass county, where 
 he is still found. Here, for six or seven years, he 
 was the largest cattle and swine feeder in the state, 
 buying all the stock raised in the Nishnabotna val- 
 ley for twenty or thirty miles in either direction, and 
 all the corn in ten or fifteen miles, his business in 
 some years amounting to two hundred thousand dol- 
 lars. He was the only stock and grain dealer to any 
 extent in this county until the Chicago, Rock Island 
 and Pacific railroad passed through nine years ago. 
 His name, for twenty years, has been known, through- 
 out the state and in Chicago, as a synonyme for en- 
 terprise, public spirit and fair dealing. 
 
 In 1875 Mr. Mills retired from business. He was 
 long and largely identified with the agricultural in- 
 terests of Iowa, and no man is more serviceable at 
 
 state fairs than he. He has been a director of the 
 State Agricultural for twenty consecutive years; was 
 its efficient president in 1874, 1875 and 1876, and has 
 attended every fair since the society was organized. 
 
 Mr. Mills was a member of the fourteenth general 
 assembly of Iowa, and did good service to the state 
 in that body. He was a trustee and the treasurer of 
 the Agricultural College two terms. 
 
 He was originally a whig, and has been a republi- 
 can since there existed such a party, he contributing 
 his assistance in organizing the same. 
 
 Mr. Mills has been a member of either a Presbyte- 
 rian or Congregational church since he was fourteen 
 years old, and as far as we can ascertain he has lived 
 strictly in accordance with the gospel of peace. 
 
 Mr. Mills has a second wife. His first was Miss 
 Sophia Arnold, of Ashtabula county, Ohio ; married 
 on the 17th of April, 1839. She died in December, 
 1876, leaving five children. One son, John A. Mills, 
 a soldier four years in the Union army, had preceded 
 her to the world of spirits. His present wife was 
 Miss Julia Forgy, of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, formerly 
 of Dayton, Ohio. 
 
 Nature, in her distribution of noblemen, has been 
 generous toward Iowa, and in the front rank is Oli- 
 ver Mills. 
 
 HON. ALBERT H. LAWRENCE, 
 
 LEMARS. 
 
 ALBERT HENRY LAWRENCE, state senator 
 L\. from the fiftieth district, and a citizen of north- 
 western Iowa of much promise, is a native of Oswego 
 county. New York, dating his birth on the 29th of 
 July, 1839. He is a son of Thomas and Mary M. 
 (Ellis) Lawrence, both of early Massachusetts fami- 
 lies. His mother was a relative of General Ellis, 
 and his great-grandsires on both sides participated in 
 the seven years' struggle for independence. His ma- 
 ternal grandfather was in the second war with the 
 mother country. 
 
 Thomas Lawrence moved with his family to Onon- 
 daga county when Albert was four years old. Here 
 he spent his youth, receiving an academic education 
 at Homer, Cortland county. He there prepared for 
 college, but never entered, on account of the weak- 
 ness of his eyes, a disease with which he is still 
 troubled. In youth he lost his right arm. 
 
 He commenced reading law in i860 with Smith 
 
 and Markham, of Syracuse ; finished with Hon. N. 
 C. Ruger, of the same city, and was admitted to the 
 bar in 1864, at a term of the supreme court held in 
 Syracuse. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence practiced one year at Pit Hole City, 
 in the oil region of Pennsylvania, and in 1866 came 
 to Toledo, Tama county, Iowa, where he was in 
 practice until October, 1872, when he settled in Le- 
 mars, Plymouth county, his present home. Here he 
 added real estate to his professional business, and 
 has been very successful in both branches, most of 
 the time operating alone. Pecuniarily, few lawyers 
 in his part of the state have had equal prosperity. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence is a close student, giving all the 
 time that his eyes will permit to his books. During 
 the four years which he originally gave to legal studies 
 he laid a good foundation on which to build, and the 
 superstructure since reared has already commanding 
 proportions. Possibly the condition of his eyes may 
 
762 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 eventually compel him to abandon his profession. 
 Should this happen, the bar of Plymouth county will 
 lose a member of the highest standing. 
 
 While a resident of Toledo Mr. Lawrence served 
 two years as county attorney, and since locating in 
 Plymouth county he has been a member of the school 
 board of the independent district of Lemars, he do- 
 ing especially commendatory labor in the latter posi- 
 tion. His literary taste, and his zeal for the cause of 
 education, made him eminently useful, during three 
 or four years in the infancy of the city, while he was 
 on that board. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence was elected to the senate in Oc- 
 tober, 1877, and represents Plymouth, Woodbury, 
 Cherokee, Bucna Vista, Sioux and Lyons counties. 
 While we write he is serving in the seventeenth gen- 
 
 eral assembly; is chairman of the committee on elec- 
 tions, and a member of the committee of ways and 
 means, normal schools, representative districts, and 
 fish and game. He is always in his place, attending 
 to his duties with the greatest assiduity. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence is an unswerving republican, and 
 somewhat active in local politics. It is not, however, 
 at his own suggestion that he is in the state senate ; 
 he is modest, retiring, and the last man to push him- 
 self forward or to ask others to do it. 
 
 On the 20th of December, 1870, Miss Clara M., 
 daughter of S. W. Cole, then of Tama City, now of 
 Cedar Rapids, Iowa, became the wife of Senator 
 Lawrence, and they have two children. Mrs. Law- 
 rence is a member of the Congregational church, 
 where the family worship. 
 
 LEOPOLD H. GORDON, 
 
 NEWELL. 
 
 LEOPOLD H. GORDON, member of the lower 
 ^ house of the general assembly from the sev- 
 enty-second district, belongs to the younger class of 
 legislators. He was early trained in business habits; 
 has an eminently practical turn of mind, and is one 
 of the hard-working and very valuable members of 
 the seventeenth general assembly. He is a native 
 of New Hampton, Belknap county, New Hampshire, 
 and is a son of Lewis and Sarah E. (Merrill) Gordon, 
 and was born on the 2d of December, 1844. This 
 branch of the Gordon family descended from Alex- 
 ander Gordon, a soldier in the days of Charles I. 
 
 This eminent ancestor of the branch of the Gor- 
 don family, here under consideration, was a young 
 soldier, captured about 1650, by Cromwell, with other 
 Scotchmen fighting for the Stuarts and against the 
 Puritan commonwealth. He was taken to Tuttle- 
 field, a prison camp near London, but was released 
 by Daniel Stone, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Mr. 
 Stone paying for him and sending him to Massa- 
 chusetts. Mr. Gordon found a home with John 
 Cloise, a mariner, who held a position in the vessel 
 which brought Gordon over. Cloise lived at Water- 
 town, Massachusetts, and there Gordon worked more 
 than a year for him to pay for the transportation to 
 this country. 
 
 The family spread through New England and into 
 Ohio and other western states, and also into some of 
 the southern states. 
 
 When the subject of this sketch was fourteen years 
 old, Lewis Gordon removed with his family to Con- 
 cord, New Hampshire, the son subsequently return- 
 ing to his native town and spending three terms in 
 the old academy, started there more than fifty years 
 ago, and which he had attended four years before 
 leaving for Concord. He took the classical course. 
 While in Concord he spent some time as a clerk in 
 a dry-goods store, and subsequently was in the mer- 
 cantile business in partnership with his father. 
 
 In 1865 he came with his parents to Dubuque, 
 Iowa, and was there engaged for five years, with his 
 father, in running a planing mill and manufacturing 
 sash, doors and blinds. 
 
 In 1870 Mr. Gordon removed to the new town of 
 Newell, Buena Vista county, on the Iowa division of 
 the Illinois Central railroad, engaging in the lumber, 
 coal and milling business, in the firm of L. H. Gor- 
 don and Co., his partner being George B. Burch, 
 mayor of Dubuque. Mr. Gordon has first-class bus- 
 iness capacities, and success has crowned his ener- 
 getic and well directed efforts. 
 
 He was the first mayor of Newell, and by reelec- 
 tion has served two terms. He has been a member 
 and treasurer of the school board, and in many ways 
 makes himself eminently useful to the community in 
 which he lives. 
 
 Mr. Gordon has always coincided heartily with 
 the republican party, and his nomination for the 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 763 
 
 general assembly in 1877 was made by acclamation. 
 He represented Buena Vista, Cherokeej Pocahontas 
 and Sac counties, and carried every one of them, 
 except Cherokee county, at the October election of 
 that year. The committees on which he is serving 
 are : railroads, banks and banking, normal schools, 
 printing, congressional districts, and asylum for the 
 deaf and dumb. He is a Royal Arch Mason. 
 
 On the ist of October, 1866, Mr. Gordon was 
 united in marriage with Miss Annie M. Robbins, of 
 Dubuque, and they have had two children, only one 
 of them, Alice, nine years of age, now living. The 
 family attend the Congregational church, and Mr. 
 Gordon is treasurer of the society. In every rela- 
 tion in life he has shown himself to be largely en- 
 dowed with the elements of true manhood. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM E. MILLER, 
 
 DES MOINES. 
 
 WILLIAM EDWARD MILLER, lately on 
 the supreme bench of Iowa, is a son of 
 Samuel and Mary Eicher Miller, and was born near 
 Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland county, Pennsylva- 
 nia, on the 1 8th of October, 1823. His father was a 
 native of Somerset county, in the same state ; re- 
 moved to Johnson county, Iowa, in 1854. The sub- 
 ject of this sketch was the second son in a family of 
 ten children, eight of whom are yet living. He spent 
 his early youth on his father's farm, and in his fif- 
 teenth year engaged with his father in a foundry 
 and machine shop at Mount Pleasant, receiving, at 
 the same period, a fair English education in the 
 select schools of those days. 
 
 On the ist of August, 1844, Miss Mary Robinson, 
 daughter of James Robinson, Esq., of Fayette coun- 
 ty, Pennsylvania, became his wife, and two years 
 later he commenced the study of law. 
 
 In the autumn of 1852 he moved to Iowa, settling 
 at Iowa City. The following winter he reported the 
 proceedings of the senate during the fourth general 
 assembly for the Iowa City " Republican " and the 
 "Iowa Capitol Reporter." The following May, 1853, 
 he was admitted to the bar of Johnson county, which 
 was strongly democratic, yet in 1854 Judge Miller 
 was elected prosecuting attorney for that county on 
 the opposition ticket. In October, 1858, he was 
 elected judge of the eighth judicial district, compris- 
 ing Johnson, Benton, Cedar, Iowa, Jones, Linn and 
 Tama counties, and although the courts at that time 
 had a vast amount of business, he cleared the docket 
 in two years, and established an enviable reputation 
 as an energetic, prompt, efficient and able jurist. 
 
 His four years on the bench had not quite expired 
 when, in 1862, he became colonel of the 28th Iowa 
 Infantry. In March, 1863, on account of ill health, 
 he resigned. 
 81 
 
 In 1864, soon after resuming law practice at Iowa 
 City, he began to prepare "A Treatise on Pleading 
 and Practice in Actions, and Special Proceedings at 
 Law and in Equity in the Courts of Iowa, Under the 
 Revision of i860." The first edition of this work 
 was published in 1868, and, though a large one, was 
 soon exhausted, and a new one, revised to meet the 
 changes resulting from subsequent legislation, has 
 been published ; the best evidence of the intrinsic 
 merits of the work. 
 
 In 1869 Judge Miller was again placed on the 
 bench, this time in the circuit court of the eighth 
 judicial district. Before his term of circuit judge 
 had expired, a vacancy occurred in the supreme 
 court by the transfer of Judge Dillon to the circuit 
 court of the United States, and in casting about for 
 some one to fill that vacancy, the governor appointed 
 Judge Miller. This selection was deemed very wise 
 on account of the experience that Judge Miller had 
 had as a district and circuit judge, and his marked 
 qualifications in every respect for that exalted posi- 
 tion. He had been on the supreme bench but a few 
 months, when, in October, 1870, the republican party 
 elected him to the same office. His term expired on 
 the ist of January, 1876. The constitution of Iowa 
 requires the judge having the shortest term to act as 
 chief justice, and Judge Miller held that high posi- 
 tion from the ist of January, 1874, to the expiration 
 of his term. 
 
 In the spring of 1871 Judge Miller succeeded 
 Judge Wright in the law department of the State 
 University as professor of constitutional and criminal 
 law. This connection he held until June, 1875. Two 
 years prior to this date, in the spring of 1873, in 
 order to have access to the archives of the supreme 
 court and to the state library, he moved to Des 
 Moines, where he continues to reside. 
 
764 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Judge Miller is a member of the Methodist Epis- 
 copal church. 
 
 The judge is a prominent member of the Masonic 
 order. In 1866 he was elected junior warden, and 
 represented his lodge in that capacity at the annual 
 
 communication of the grand lodge of that year. The 
 next year he was its representative as senior warden. 
 He has written more or less Masonic literature of a 
 legal character, and has a high standing among the 
 fraternity in the commonwealth. 
 
 HAMILTON L. KARR, 
 
 OSCEOLA. 
 
 THE grandfather of the subject of this sketch 
 was Captain Hamilton Karr, a noted pioneer 
 and Indian hunter of Ohio. He was of Scotch de- 
 scent, and was a man of extraordinary muscular 
 power. Captain Karr was the father of four sons 
 and five daughters. 
 
 William Karr, the eldest son, and father of the 
 party whose name heads this sketch, and two sisters, 
 still survive. He was born at Marietta, Ohio, on the 
 5th of April, 1796, and in the following winter re- 
 moved with his parents to the mouth of Leading 
 creek, in Gallia county (now Meigs), Ohio. He was 
 the first white child ever brought into the territory 
 which is now Meigs county. Educated to the busi- 
 ness of farming, he has pursued it with fair success. 
 
 On the 20th of March, 1820, he was married to 
 Miss Jane Murray, a native of Clarksburg, Virginia, 
 with whom he settled on a tract of woodland, out of 
 which he made a farm, within two miles of the place 
 where he first landed in early childhood. He, with 
 his wife, is living there still, enjoying unusual good 
 health. He has raised a large family of children, 
 consisting of six sons and three daughters, who sur- 
 vived to manhood and womanhood. Four of the 
 sons and two of the daughters are living, and the 
 youngest of the former is the subject of this sketch. 
 
 Hamilton L. Karr was born in Meigs county, in 
 the State of Ohio, on the 13th of August, 1836. His 
 schooling was commenced in the common schools of 
 the neighborhood of his birthplace when he was five 
 or six years of age. He attended school winters and 
 spent his summers on the farm until he was seven- 
 teen or eighteen years of age, at which time his 
 father granted him his time, and permitted him to 
 operate for himself. From this time until the winter 
 of 1857-8 he employed himself mostly in teaching 
 and going to school. 
 
 In January, 1858, he entered the Lombard Uni- 
 versity at Galesburg, Illinois, from which he grad- 
 uated in June, 1862. 
 
 The war of the rebellion still raging, he returned 
 to his home, and in August, 1862, he entered the 
 Union army, enlisting as a private in the ii6th Ohio 
 Infantry. His qualifications and deportment soon 
 singled him out for positions of greater usefulness, 
 and before his regiment had left the state he was 
 advanced to the grade of first-lieutenant. Detached 
 service and ill health of his captain left Lieutenant 
 Karr in command of his company. 
 
 In January, 1863, the captain resigned and Lieu- 
 tenant Karr was promoted to the captaincy of his 
 company. At that time there was an order in force 
 from the governor of the State of Ohio, that all pro- 
 motions among officers of Ohio troops should be by 
 seniority, but notwithstanding thece were senior lieu- 
 tenants in the regiment claiming promotion by virtue 
 of said order, Lieutenant Karr's meritorious conduct 
 and soldierly bearing during his command of the 
 company had so won the confidence and respect of 
 Colonel Washburn, his regimental commander, that 
 he refused to recommend any other person than 
 Lieutenant Karr for the promotion, and so deter- 
 mined was the colonel that no officer but Lieutenant 
 Karr should take command of his company, that he 
 proceeded at once to the capital of Ohio to prevail 
 on the governor to deviate in this instance from his 
 published order. All arguments with the governor 
 prevailed only by the firm declaration that "no of- 
 ficer will command that company over Lieutenant 
 Karr while I command the regiment, if Lieutenant 
 Karr has to command as lieutenant during his entire 
 term of service." 
 
 He served under Generals Siegel, Hunter, Crooks 
 and Sheridan, in all the campaigns of those generals 
 in the Shenandoah valley, and in December, 1864, 
 he joined the army of the Potomac in front of Rich- 
 mond, serving most of the time as a staff officer, 
 first on the staff of. the gallant Colonel George D. 
 Wells, of the 34th Massachusetts Infantry, who fell 
 at the head of his division at the second battle of 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 765 
 
 Cedar Creek, Virginia ; then on that of General T. 
 N. Harris, and then on that of Major-General Tur- 
 ner, with whom he took part in all the closing cam- 
 paigns of Virginia, including the battle at Appomat- 
 tox Court House, and the surrender of General Lee 
 and his army. 
 
 On the 29th of March, 1865, he was commissioned 
 major of his regiment by the governor of Ohio, and 
 at the close of the Richmond campaign, on the 
 recommendation of General Turner, he was breveted 
 major by the war department for gallant services. 
 
 After the last battle was fought, and the rebel 
 armies had surrendered, and orders came for the 
 gradual muster out of the troops, Major-General Tur- 
 ner, upon whose staff Major Karr had been serving, 
 tendered him an assurance of a major's commission 
 in the regular army for staff duty with him as long 
 as he should remain in the service ; but Major Karr 
 had enlisted solely in the war for the suppression of 
 the rebellion and the perpetuity of the Union, and 
 he gratefully declined his commander's offer, pre- 
 ferring to be mustered out with his regiment, and to 
 return to his home and engage in some civil pursuit. 
 In time of war he preferred to be a soldier; in time 
 of peace, a civilian. 
 
 During his military career Major Karr participated 
 in numerous battles, among the most noted of which 
 were those of Moorefield, Winchester, Halltown, 
 Opequan, Fisher's Hill, the two battles of Cedar 
 Creek, Hatcher's Run, Fort Gregs and Appomattox 
 Court House. 
 
 Major Karr was a prompt, brave and efficient of- 
 ficer, whose gentlemanly appearance and soldierly 
 bearing ever gained for him the respect and favor of 
 his superiors in rank and the esteem of his inferiors. 
 
 In June, 1865, he was mustered out of the military 
 service, and returned to his home and immediately 
 entered upon the study of law. During the winter 
 of 1865-6 he attended the law department of the 
 Michigan University. 
 
 In April, 1866, at Pomeroy, Ohio, he was admitted 
 to practice in the courts of Ohio, and, in the same 
 month, in the classical language associated with the 
 beginner of the profession, he " hung out his shin- 
 gle " in Meigs county, Ohio, and there, and in the 
 adjoining county of Jackson, West Virginia, contin- 
 ued the practice for one or two years with the starv- 
 ing success that usually attends the initiates of his 
 profession. Taking the advice of Horace Greeley 
 he '"went west," and in June, 1868, he located at 
 Osceola, Clark county, Iowa, where he resumed the 
 practice of his profession, in which he still continues, 
 having established a paying business. 
 
 He has had but a few years of active professional 
 life, but is universally respected wherever known; 
 and although his contact with the world from the 
 time he left the university to the close of the war was 
 circumscribed by the din and bustle of the battle- 
 field, he is a complete cosmopolite, and is as agree- 
 able and sociable a person as he who has spent all 
 his days amid the quiet surroundings of a life of 
 peace, ease and luxury. 
 
 In June, 1871, Major Karr married Miss Anna F. 
 Wonner, eldest daughter of Frederick Wonner, of 
 Osceola. They have had bom to them two sons, 
 Frederick William and Hamilton L., junior. 
 
 Major Karr is a Universalis! in his ^ligious belief 
 and education, and a radical republican in politics. 
 He is not an active partisan politician, except in the 
 time of a national campaign. 
 
 GEORGE H. McGAVREN, M.D., 
 
 MISSOURI VALLEY. 
 
 AMONG the older practitioners on the Iowa side 
 £\. of the Missouri slope is Dr. George Henry 
 McGavren, nearly thirty years a resident of Potta- 
 wattamie and Harrison counties. He was a son of 
 George McGavren, a farmer, who came from Scot- 
 land in 1800, and settled in York county, Pennsyl- 
 vania. He fought against England in our second 
 contest with her. George Henry was born in In- 
 diana, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, on the i8th of 
 March, 1818. His mother, Nancy J. Ewart, was of 
 
 Irish descent. The son grew to manhood on a farm 
 in his native town; at eighteen moved to Columbi- 
 ana county, Ohio, near Salem, farming and attend- 
 ing common and select schools until of age. Sub- 
 sequently he taught five winters, and spent the 
 remainder of the time each year in miscellaneous 
 studies at Oberlin College. 
 
 He read medicine at Petersburg, Columbiana 
 county, with Dr. John Wise ; attended lectures in 
 the medical department of Western Reserve College, 
 
766 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 Cleveland, and graduated in the spring of 1847. 
 After practicing between two and three years in 
 Allen county, Ohio, Dr. McGavren moved to west- 
 ern Iowa, locating in Pottawattamie county, three 
 miles south of his present residence, removing to 
 this place eleven or twelve years ago. His early 
 practice here, when this part of the slope was very 
 thinly settled, extended over three or four counties. 
 A single ride of a hundred miles, including the re- 
 turn trip, was no uncommon thing, and occasionally 
 he was called sixty and seventy miles from home, at 
 a time, too, when roads of any kind were scarce and 
 there were no bridges. 
 
 Latterly Dr. McGavren's rides have been limited 
 to certain portions of Harrison and Pottawattamie 
 counties, except in cases of consultation. His repu- 
 tation for skill is excellent, and his kindly nature 
 and sympathetic disposition make him a welcome 
 visitor in the sick room. 
 
 He was a member of the lower house of the gen- 
 eral assembly in 1870, being elected on the repub- 
 lican ticket the autumn before, and was on the com- 
 mittees on schools, county organizations and two or 
 three other committees. The doctor was a demo- 
 crat until the civil war broke out. He was coroner 
 
 of Harrison county three or four years, but has us- 
 ually kept out of office, his professional business 
 being sufficient for any one man. 
 
 Dr. McGavren is a member of the Iowa State 
 Medical Society, and of the National Eclectic Med- 
 ical Association. 
 
 He is a Master Mason' and an Odd-Fellow, but 
 has very little time to give to such organizations. 
 
 His religious sympathies are with the Methodists, 
 with whom he has been connected ia church rela- 
 tionship since about 1865. 
 
 Dr. McGavren has a second wife : his first was 
 Miss Lucinda Fausnaught, of Ohio ; married in 
 1850, and dying in 1862, leaving five children, all 
 yet living. His present wife was Miss Rosella Ter- 
 williger, of Clarion county, Pennsylvania ; married 
 in 1863. She has two children, a boy and girl. He 
 has four daughters by his first wife, all married. 
 Maria is the wife of A. T. Boies, of Magnolia, Iowa ; 
 Lenora is the wife of James Roland, of Palmer, Har- 
 rison county; Viola is the wife of Reuben Palmer, 
 real-estate dealer, of Missouri Valley, and Jennie is 
 the wife of Francis Manchester, jeweler, also of Mis- 
 souri Valley. The only son by the first wife, Charles 
 W., is a student in Rush Medical College, Chicago. 
 
 DANIEL W. LORING, 
 
 OSKALOOSA. 
 
 ONE of the oldest and most successful merchants 
 in Oskaloosa is Daniel Warren Loring, who 
 has been a trader here twenty-seven years, and, 
 financially speaking, has never wavered an iota. He 
 settled here when Oskaloosa had less than seven 
 hundred inhabitants ; has seen it grow to a city of 
 seven thousand ; has been identified with its im- 
 provements, and has aided his full share in making 
 the city what it is, an important railroad center and 
 great trading point. He was a son of Hon. Oliver 
 R. Loring, a farmer, who resided at Belpre, Ohio, at 
 the' time of the son's birth, on the ist of December, 
 182 1. The progenitor of the Loring family was from 
 Wales, and settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts, about 
 two hundred and thirty years ago. The grandfather 
 of Daniel W. was a participant in the successful 
 struggle for freedom from the British yoke. The 
 maiden name of the mother of our subject was Fanny 
 Warren, a descendant of another old Massachusetts 
 family, numbering many persons of eminence. 
 
 Daniel W. followed his father's calling in his 
 younger years, receiving, meanwhile, a strictly busi- 
 ness education, taking a scientific course at a Mari- 
 etta institution. Soon after arriving at age he com- 
 menced, in his native town, a mercantile life, which 
 he has never abandoned. In 1851 he settled in 
 Oskaloosa, beginning on a small scale, in a small 
 frame building, having as a partner his brother, Jesse 
 D. Loring, until his death in 187 1. He seems to have 
 started in business with the conviction that " honesty 
 is the best policy " ; that to make friends and retain 
 them ihey must be fairly dealt with. He has always 
 pursued an upright, straightforward course, dealing 
 patiently and leniently with customers where the ex- 
 ercise of such virtues was called for; acting also with 
 proper caution and prudence in granting credit, and 
 has thus protected himself, secured the confidence of 
 the people, and built up as good a business, probably, 
 as any man in Mahaska county. On nearly the same 
 spot on the public square he has traded for more than 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 767 
 
 a quarter of a century ; has gone on expanding his 
 business, and is now found on the northwest corner 
 of the square, in a brick store eighty feet deep, and 
 holding something like thirty thousand dollars' worth 
 of stock. So carefully has he managed, so closely 
 supervised his business, that he has never had a re- 
 verse in fortune ; which is almost marvelous, consid- 
 ering the panics to which merchants have been sub- 
 jected in the last twenty-one years. 
 
 Mr. Loring has been in the city council and on 
 the school board, and has given all the time which 
 he could spare to advance local interests, but has 
 never sought office. He seems to be thoroughly 
 contented to be a first-class business man, a kind 
 and benevolent citizen. The poor have always found 
 a warm friend in Mr. Loring. 
 
 In politics, he was an old-line whig; is now a re- 
 publican. He is a blue lodge Mason, and is liberal 
 in christian sentiment. 
 
 His wife was Miss Mary K. Soule, of Marietta, 
 Ohio, their union taking place in March, 1853. They 
 have had four children, two of whom are now living. 
 Mary L., the older of the two living children, is a 
 student in the State University, and Frank W. is a 
 student in Penn College, located in Oskaloosa. 
 
 Mr. Loring has a beautiful homestead in the city 
 of Oskaloosa, and is surrounded with every comfort 
 which a life of marked industry and judicious hus- 
 bandry could secure. He is a director of the Ma- 
 haska County Savings Bank, and the indices of his 
 success in business are eminently conspicuous in 
 the city of his adoption. 
 
 WILLIAM S. ROBERTSON, M. D., 
 
 MUSCATINE. 
 
 WILLIAM STEPHENSON ROBERTSON, 
 professor of theory and practice of medicine 
 and clinical medicine in Iowa State University, was 
 born at Georgetown, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, 
 on the sth of June, 1831, and is the son of James M. 
 Robertson and Maria n^e Armstrong, the former of 
 Scotch and the latter of English ancestry. His juve- 
 nile education was obtained in the common schools 
 of the country, and his more advanced studies were 
 pursued in the preparatory department and freshman 
 class of Knox College, Illinois. Being an ardent 
 student, he applied himself to his studies with such 
 diligence as seriously to affect his health, so that in 
 the third term of his freshman year he was obliged 
 to discontinue his studies and spend a year at home 
 in recuperation, after which he returned to college ; 
 but six months' incessant mental application brought 
 him down again, and he was compelled to return to 
 his home a second time. This terminated his col- 
 legiate course. 
 
 In 1852, having recovered his health, he entered 
 the office of his father as a medical student. In the 
 autumn of 1854 he attended his first course of lec- 
 tures in Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. 
 The ensuing summer was spent in his father's office 
 in assisting him in his practice. In September, 1855, 
 he returned to Jefferson College, and graduated from 
 that institution on the Sth of March, 1856. In the 
 same year he located at Columbus City, Iowa, his 
 
 old home, where he entered upon his career as a 
 physician. His studies had led him to cultivate a 
 fondness for surgery, and while attending to the 
 duties of a general business with fidelity, he was 
 especially careful to treat all the surgical cases that 
 came legitimately within the scope of his practice. 
 His senior professional friends, seeing his inclination 
 in this direction, sent him many interesting and im- 
 portant cases. He remained at Columbus city for 
 a period of twelve years, enjoying a large general 
 and surgical practice. He spent the winter of 1868-9 
 in the hospitals of New York city, under the special 
 direction of Professor Frank H. Hamilton, M.D. In 
 the spring of 1869 he sold his property at Columbus 
 city and moved to Muscatine, Iowa. At the opening 
 of the medical department of the Iowa State Uni- 
 versity he was offered the chair of theory and prac- 
 tice of medicine, and clinical medicine, which he 
 accepted, and was commissioned accordingly on the 
 22d of December, 1869. 
 
 At the outbreak of the rebellion in 1861 he raised 
 the first company of volunteers that was recruited 
 in the state, and tendered them to the governor, but 
 for some reason which has never been made public 
 they were not accepted. On the 13th of June, 1861, 
 he was mustered into the, army as major of the sth 
 Iowa Volunteers, being present at and participating 
 in every march, siege, skirmish and battle of that gal- 
 lant regiment, till the 23d of July, 1862. In a night 
 
768 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 attack in front of New Madrid, on the 4th of March, 
 1862, and in an afternoon skirmish on the 6th of 
 March, he was made the special target of the ene- 
 my's sharpshooters, and had five minie-balls through 
 his coat, his horse shot down, and the hair shaved 
 off both sides of his head at once by bullets. Near 
 Rienzi, Mississippi, on the loth of March, in the 
 same year, in company with his servant and six cav- 
 alrymen, he was cut off from camp while out on a 
 tour of inspection as a picket officer, and hewed his 
 way with his sabre through two lines of rebel infantry, 
 reaching his camp in safety, with the loss of two men. 
 He had also the honor of commanding the left skir- 
 mish line of the army of the Mississippi in front of 
 Corinth, at the time that stronghold was evacuated 
 by Beauregard. 
 
 On the 22d of May, 1862, the gallant commander 
 of the regiment. Colonel W. H. Worthington, was 
 killed, and at a meeting of the officers of the regi- 
 ment, called to nominate his successor, an informal 
 ballot gave Major Robertson every vote for the va- 
 cancy, and he was accordingly nominated by acclama- 
 tion. Duly appreciating this expression of confidence 
 from his fellow-officers, he resolved to accept the po- 
 sition to which he had been so flatteringly nominated, 
 and desiring to arrange his affairs at home, he applied 
 for a thirty days' leave of absence, which, however, 
 he was refused in consequence of orders issued from 
 department headquarters, detaining all officers able 
 for duty in the field. Having some important busi- 
 ness imperatively demanding his presence at home, 
 by the advice of General Halleck, and with the dis- 
 tinct understanding that he would rejoin his com- 
 mand on receipt of his commission as colonel, his 
 resignation as major was tendered and accepted on 
 the 23d of July, 1862. Notwithstanding the fact 
 that the officers of the regiment, when asked by the 
 governor why they did not recommend promotion in 
 their regiment according to seniority of rank, reiter- 
 ated their demand for his appointment by a unani- 
 mous vote, giving good and sufficient reasons there- 
 for, and without making any charge against the gallant 
 lieutenant-colonel of the regiment except his lack of 
 familiarity with our language and the system of tactics 
 and regulation of our service, for some reason still 
 unexplained, his commission as colonel was withheld, 
 and he did not again enter the military service, though 
 he was repeatedly importuned to do so. 
 
 In relation to one of the incidents above alluded 
 to, the following is the indorsement of General G. 
 Granger on Major Robertson's report : 
 
 Camp in front of New Madrid, March 6, 1862. 
 As commander of the column mentioned within, which 
 moved upon New Madrid yesterday, it affords me much 
 satisfaction to more than corroborate every statement of the 
 modest but gallant Major Robertson. His officers and men, 
 under a terrific fire of round shot and shell for some two 
 hours, behaved like veterans, and quite surprised me by 
 their coolness and indifference to the danger by which they 
 were surrounded. Major Robertson was especially con- 
 spicuous, never dismounting from his horse, although the 
 enemy's sharpshooters tried their best to pick him off. 
 
 G. Granger, 
 Colonel 2d Michigan Cavalry, Commanding. 
 Head Quarters zd Div. Army of Mississippi, 
 
 Nor is the following testimonial from the officers 
 and men of Company A of his regiment less com- 
 plimentary or less deserving of record : 
 
 K 
 
 In Camp, Clear Creek, Miss., July 24, 1862. 
 Major W. S. Robertson. — Sir: The officers and mem- 
 bers of Company A, 5th Iowa Infantry, having heard with 
 deep regret of your resignation of the position of major of 
 this regiment, deem it but their duty to express their sorrow 
 at the loss of one who, for over twelve months of arduous 
 service in the field, has ever been the cheering light of the 
 regiment. When the bullets of the foe were whistling 
 around us, your presence inspired us; when on the weary 
 march, your encouragement enlivened us; when wearied 
 of the monotony of the camp, your smiles have cheered us. 
 In all the vicissitudes and changes of our soldiers' life we 
 have found you exercising the same watchful care over us 
 which has lightened our sorrows and troubles and endeared 
 you to us as the father of the regiment. With sorrow we 
 bid you " good-bye," with our earnest wishes for your health, 
 happiness and prosperity. 
 
 Signed, William Dean, Captain. 
 
 John W. Ca.sad, First Lieutenant. 
 
 Lafayette Shaw, Second Lieutenant. 
 
 And sixty members of the rank and file. 
 
 In politics, the doctor has always been recognized 
 as of the radical republican type. 
 
 He was one of the original stockholders and a 
 member of the first board of directors of the Mus- 
 catine Water Works Company. 
 
 In 1873, while acting as city and county physician 
 of Muscatine county, his attention was specially at- 
 tracted by the sad condition of the feeble-minded 
 children then in the county poor-house, and for the 
 first time realized the fact that the state had made 
 no provision for the care, education or maintenance 
 of this unfortunate class. In visiting other parts of 
 the state he found the same condition of affairs ex- 
 isting. When contrasting this state of things with 
 the munificent arrangements which the state had 
 made for the education of other classes of unfor- 
 nates less helpless and forlorn than these, it occurred 
 to him that it was time the subject was forced upon 
 the attention of the people and their legislators, and 
 that it was the bounden duty of the slate to make 
 some provision for them. Deeply impressed with 
 this idea, he brought the subject to the notice of the 
 State Medical Society, in his annual address as its 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 769 
 
 president, in January, 1874, and asked the coopera- 
 tion of that body to that end. The society " re- 
 solved," but took no further action at that time. 
 The subject was again brought forward at the next 
 meeting, and Dr. Robertson appointed a special com- 
 mittee of one to present the subject to the legislature. 
 He accordingly drafted a bill as a guide in the forma- 
 tion of a law, and prepared a " Plea for the Feeble- 
 Minded Children of the State of Iowa," which he had 
 printed at his own expense, and a copy placed upon 
 the desk of each member of the legislature. The 
 subject was subsequently presented to the respective 
 houses by Hon. C. C. Horton, of Muscatine, and 
 Hon. J. Y. Stone, of Glenwood. To the action of 
 our subject, seconded by the gentlemen named, is 
 due the fact that Iowa has now a magnificent insti- 
 tution in successful operation, located at Glenwood, 
 Mills county, for the education and maintenance of 
 this lowest class of unfortunates, Dr. Robertson be- 
 
 ing very properly the president of the board of trus- 
 tees of the institution. He is also a member of the 
 Muscatine County Medical Society, late president 
 Iowa State Medical Society, late president of the 
 Eastern Iowa District Medical Society, member of 
 the American Medical Association, also a member 
 of the judicial council of that body. He has also 
 been for many years a distinguished member of the 
 Masonic fraternity. 
 
 He is a member of the Presbyterian church. 
 
 On the loth of June, 1856, he married Miss Annie 
 E. Charlton, a native of Cattaraugus county, New 
 York, but of English parentage, a lady of high cul- 
 ture and refinement. 
 
 Dr. Robertson has had five children born to him, 
 three sons and two daughters, only two of whom 
 survive, named Charles and Nellie. 
 
 As a physician, Dr. Robertson is prompt to respond 
 to the calls of duty, and is a skillful surgeon. 
 
 COLONEL JOEL N. CORNISH, 
 
 HAMBURG. 
 
 TOEL NORTHRUP CORNISH, banker, is a 
 J native of Oneida county, New York, and was 
 born in Lee township on the 28th of May, 1828, his 
 parents being Allen and Clarissa Cornish. His an- 
 cestors were from England, and settled in Massa- 
 chusetts at an early day. His father was a soldier 
 in the second war with the mother country. Joel 
 received his literary education at the Whitestown 
 Academy and at the State Normal School, Albany, 
 New York ; commenced teaching winter schools at 
 seventeen. After three or four years he abandoned 
 that vocation, and entered the law office of Mattison 
 and Doolittle, in Utica, New York, and finally clos- 
 ing his legal education in the office of Foster and 
 Bennett, of Rome, where he commenced practice. 
 
 In 1854 Mr. Cornish came to Iowa city, Iowa, 
 where he was proprietor of the Tremont hotel about 
 two years, and where he made additions to his law 
 library and prepared for practice. 
 
 In the autumn of 1859 he removed to Sidney, 
 Fremont county, continuing the practice of his pro- 
 fession until 1874. 
 
 Soon after the commencement of the civil war he 
 was appointed deputy commissioner for Fremont 
 county, which position he held but a few months 
 when the law creating the office was abrogated, and 
 
 he accepted the appointment of commissioner of the 
 board of enrollment and draft for the fifth congres- 
 sional district, with headquarters at Des Moines. 
 He resigned at the end of one year to become gov- 
 ernor's aid-de-camp and provost-marshal, in which 
 capacity he served two years. Previous to leaving 
 this position he had been appointed by the President 
 brigade quartermaster, with the rank of colonel ; but 
 he declined to accept this office on the ground that 
 his services were needed in his own state, and es- 
 pecially in Fremont county, where raiders from Mis- 
 souri were constantly committing depredations upon 
 the property and persons of citizens of Iowa. 
 
 In 1874 Colonel Cornish removed from Sidney to 
 Hamburg, in the same county, and organized, with 
 J. M. Metcalf, Moses Samuels, T. E. Metcalf, M. R. 
 Taylor and others, the First National Bank of Ham- 
 burg, of which he has since been president. He 
 has been a very enterprising and successful man, the 
 progress of Hamburg during the last three or four 
 years owing largely to his efforts. He is full of pub- 
 lic spirit, and lakes especial delight in pushing for- 
 ward local enterprises. In all such matters his hands 
 and money are free. 
 
 The colonel is a republican, with whig antecedents; 
 -a firm adherent to his party, but not an office seeker. 
 
770 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 The civil positions which he has held have been con- 
 fined to local matters. While at Sidney he was presi- 
 dent of the school board for many years, and did a 
 noble work for the cause of education. 
 
 In religious sentiment, Colonel Cornish is liberal. 
 
 He was married in August, 1850, to Miss Virginia 
 Raymond, of Cuba, New York. They have had four 
 children : Ada, the wife of J. H. Hertsche, cashier 
 
 of the First National Bank of Hamburg; Anna, the 
 wife of Joseph M'. Metcalf, of Hamburg ; Albert J., 
 a student at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; 
 and Edward J., a student in Tabor College, Iowa. 
 
 The colonel is a cautious, skillful and prudent man, 
 and one of the best financiers in Fremont county. 
 He keeps thoroughly posted in regard to values and 
 the responsibility of citizeris in his locality. 
 
 HON. MADISON M. WALDEN, 
 
 CENTERVILLE. 
 
 MADISON M. WALDEN, lieutenant-governor 
 of Iowa in 1870-1871, and member of the 
 forty second congress, is a native of Adams county, 
 Ohio, and was born on the 6th of October, 1836. 
 The Waldens were an early Ohio family, both of his 
 parents, Joseph Minor and Malinda Prather Walden, 
 being born there, his mother in the same house in 
 which he was born. She is yet living, being in her 
 seventy-eighth year. The family moved to Lee 
 county, Iowa, in 1852, and there the father died 
 the same year. 
 
 The subject of this brief memoir received his 
 academic education at Denmark, Lee county ; at- 
 tended the Wesleyan University at Mount Pleasant, 
 Iowa, one year, and graduated at the University of 
 the same name at Delaware, Ohio, in 1859, receiving 
 the degree of A.M. He located in Centerville in 
 1859, and was principal of the graded school. A few 
 years later he was county superintendent of schools 
 one year. 
 
 Mr. Walden entered the Union army in May, 1861, 
 
 and served throughout the war. At the close of 
 the war Captain Walden purchased " The Citizen " 
 newspaper, at Centerville, and built it up, making it a 
 first-class paper, and selling out in November, 1874. 
 On the 2istof June, 1877, he started " The Tribune," 
 having in three or four months a voluntary subscrip- 
 tion of fourteen hundred names. Meantime, while 
 a journalist. Captain Walden has served the state in 
 various positions of trust and honor. He was a 
 member of the lower house of the general assembly 
 in the session of 1866 ; was a member of the senate 
 in the session of 1868; was the presiding officer of 
 that body in 1870 ; and was a member of the forty- 
 second congress from the old fourth district, serving 
 on the committees on patents and Mississippi levees. 
 
 Captain Walden is a trustee of the Wesleyan Uni- 
 versity at Mount Pleasant, and delivered the annual 
 lecture before the students of that institution in 
 June, 1877. 
 
 He was married in October, 1861, to Miss Fran- 
 ces A. Holt, of Centerville. 
 
 WILLIAM S. LAMBERT, M. D., 
 
 ALBIA. 
 
 WILLIAM SPERRY LAMBERT, son of Isaac 
 and Nancy Sperry Lambert, and the leading 
 surgeon in Monroe county, Iowa, dates his birth in 
 Lawrence county, Ohio, on the 4th of January, 1836. 
 His father is yet living, his residence being Davis 
 county, Iowa, and his age eighty-seven. The Lam- 
 berts and Sperrys are both Virginia families. The 
 paternal great-grandfather of William was a soldier 
 in 1775-82; his father in 1812-15. 
 
 Isaac Lambert moved from Ohio to Van Buren 
 
 county, Iowa, in 1844, and there the son was en- 
 gaged in farming until sixteen years of age, when he 
 commenced attending school, continuing for three 
 years, most of the time at a select school in Troy, 
 Davis county, to which county his father removed 
 in 1852. 
 
 Young Lambert read medicine at first with Dr. 
 D. A. Hurst, of Bloorafield, Davis county, then with 
 Dr. D. L. McGugin, of Keokuk. He graduated from 
 the medical college at Keokuk in February, 1859; 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 771 
 
 practiced for a time at Iconium, Appanoose county, 
 and in February, 1862, moved to Monroe county. 
 
 On the 22d of October, 1862. Dr. Lambert was 
 commissioned assistant surgeon of the 6th Iowa In- 
 fantry ; served in -that position until November, 1864, 
 when he was appointed surgeon of the same regi- 
 ment, and thus remained until the war closed, being 
 the last man of the regiment mustered out. 
 
 On leaving the service Dr. Lambert located at 
 Lancaster, Missouri ; remained there until October, 
 1867, when he returned to Albia, which has since 
 been his home and the scene of his eminent success 
 in business. He makes a specialty of surgery, prof- 
 iting by his discipline in the army, and he has an 
 extensive practice. He is surgeon for the Chicago, 
 
 Burlington and Quincy Railway Company, and is 
 well known far up and down this road. He has the 
 confidence of the people wherever known ; is blessed 
 with a vigorous mind and a disposition to feed it. 
 
 Dr. Lambert always votes the republican ticket, 
 and is as active in politics as his extensive practice 
 will permit him to be. He is a Royal Arch Mason. 
 
 In June, 1857, Miss Olive J. Benge, of Bloomfield, 
 Iowa, was joined in wedlock with Dr, Lambert, and 
 the fruit of their union has been seven children, all 
 living but two. 
 
 Dr. Lambert is a member of the Monroe County 
 Medical Society, of the Des Moines Valley Medical 
 Association, and of the State Medical Society, and 
 has an excellent standing in the fraternity. 
 
 HON. GEORGE G. WRIGHT, 
 
 DES MOINES. 
 
 GEORGE GROVER WRIGHT, late United 
 States senator, was the son of John Wright, a 
 mechanic, and Rachel Seaman, and was born in 
 Bloomington, Indiana, on the 24th of March, 1820. 
 The progenitor of the family in this country was a 
 native of Wales, and among the early settlers in 
 Pennsylvania. The Seamens were from England. 
 
 George G. was educated at the State University, 
 located in his native town, graduating in 1839. He 
 read law with an elder brother, the late Hon. Joseph 
 A. Wright, once governor of Indiana, and subse- 
 quently minister to Berlin, where he died in 1867. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was admitted to the bar 
 in 1840, and in November of the same year located 
 at Keosauqua, Van Buren county, Iowa, where he 
 commenced legal practice and continued it until his 
 removal to Des Moines, on the 20th of October, 
 1865. While law has been the profession of Sen- 
 ator Wright, and while he is now of the firm of 
 JWright, Gatch and Wright, he has had but little 
 time for practice for the last twenty years or more, 
 for he has been almost constantly in the service of 
 the state in some capacity, in the legislature, on the 
 bench or in the upper house of congress. In 1847 
 he was prosecuting attorney for Van Buren county ; 
 the next year he was elected to the state senate, and 
 served two terms, becoming the leader of that body 
 on the whig side. In 1853, when General George 
 W. Jones was elected United States senator, the 
 democrats of the state and the legislature being in 
 82 
 
 the majority, Mr. Wright received the vote of his 
 party for that office. In the winter of 1854-5 he 
 was elected chief-justice of Iowa. In 1859, when 
 the supreme judges were elected under the new con- 
 stitution, he refused to run for the office. In the 
 summer of the next year, however, on the death of 
 Judge Stockton, Governor Kirkwood appointed 
 Judge Wright to fill the vacancy, and at the next 
 general election the people sanctioned the gover- 
 nor's choice, Judge Wright filling out the unexpired 
 term of Judge Stockton, which ended on the 31st of 
 December, 1865. In the autumn previous the peo- 
 ple had reelected Judge Wright for a term of six 
 years ending on the 31st of December, 1871. He 
 left the bench on the ist of September, 1870, to oc- 
 cupy the office of United States senator, to which 
 he was elected by the general assembly on the i8th 
 of January, 1870. During the six years that he was 
 in congress he was on the committees on finance, 
 judiciary, claims, revision of the laws, and on civil 
 service and retrenchment. Part of this time he was 
 chairman of the committee on claims. While in 
 the senate he was an indefatigable worker, looking 
 at all times to the best interests of the state and of 
 his country. 
 
 Senator Wright declined to be a candidate for re- 
 election to the United States senate, much to the 
 regret of many thousand personal friends. 
 
 As may be inferred from what we have already 
 written. Senator Wright was originally a whig. 
 
772 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 Against his protest his party ran him for the lower 
 house of congress in 1850, in a strong democratic 
 district, where the best he could do, and what he 
 did do, was to reduce the usual majority. He aided 
 in forming the republican party in Iowa, and it is to 
 his influence and that of a few other candid, con- 
 scientious and eloquent .speakers, that the party 
 owes, in a great measure, its strength in the state. 
 
 But while Senator Wright has been largely identi- 
 fied with the politics of Iowa for the last thirty years, 
 he has done much good service to the state in other 
 respects. From i860 to 1865 he was president of 
 the State Agricultural Society, and worked zealously 
 for the widening and strengthening of its influence. 
 His annual addresses delivered during those years 
 showed that he had given no inconsiderable atten- 
 tion to other subjects besides law and politics. 
 
 In the autumn of 1865 he and Judge C. C. Cole 
 organized, at Des Moines, the Iowa Law School, 
 which, three years later, was removed to Iowa City 
 and made a branch of the State University. In 
 educational matters generally he has taken a lively 
 interest; has done valuable work at sundry times on 
 the local school board, and is president of the board 
 of trustees of Simpson Centenary College, a Meth- 
 odist institution located at Indianola, Warren county. 
 
 He has long been connected with the Methodist 
 Episcopal church, and is one of its leading laymen 
 in Iowa. No man in the state, of any denomina- 
 
 tion, has a higher moral and religious standing. He 
 is a christian statesman of the noblest type. 
 
 Superior natural abilities, extensive l,egal learning 
 and a broad and liberal cu-lture, combined with rare 
 practical sagacity, have concurred to make him 
 prominent among the foremost lawyers and jurists 
 of the country. A ready and comprehensive grasp 
 of cases, with the quick discrimination and rapid 
 analysis with which he at once separates and seizes 
 upon the vital and material points, enable him as a 
 lawyer almost intuitively to comprehend the merits 
 and demerits of every cause or question presented 
 to him. As a judge, with unswerving integrity and 
 unyielding firmness, he invariably cut his way to 
 what seemed the very right of a case, regardless 
 alike of specious technicalities on the one hand and 
 false sentimentalism on the other, detecting at a 
 glance all chicanery and artifice, and quietly brush- 
 ing away all sophistries and fallacious reasonings. 
 
 The wife of Senator Wright he found in Iowa : 
 Miss Mary H. Dibble, of Van Buren county, daugh- 
 ter of Judge Thomas Dibble, formerly of New York. 
 They were married on the 19th of October, 1843, 
 and have had seven children, six of them yet living. 
 Thomas is married, and is one of his father's law 
 partners ; Craig also has a wife, and is an attorney 
 in Sioux City, Iowa; Mary is the wife of Frank H. 
 Peavy, of Sioux City ; the other three, Carroll, Lucia 
 H. and George G., are single. 
 
 HON. JAMES H. ROTHROCK, 
 
 TIPTON. 
 
 TAMES HARVEY ROTHROCK, now on the 
 J supreme bench of Iowa, is a native of Millroy, 
 Pennsylvania, and was born on the ist of June, 1829. 
 He is a son of Joseph Rothrock, a tanner and farmer, 
 and Sarah McKinney. The Rothrocks were Hugue- 
 nots, driven to Holland and came thence to the 
 United States in the early part of the colonial period. 
 The maternal great-grandfather of James H. was a 
 captain during the revolutionary war. Joseph Roth- 
 rock moved to Adams county, Ohio, when his son 
 was about nine years old, and there the latter was 
 reared on a farm and in a tan-yard. He fitted for 
 college at Felicity, Ohio ; entered Franklin College, 
 New Athens, and left at the commencement of the 
 junior year; read law with E. P. Evans, of West 
 Union, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar at Colum- 
 
 bus in February, 1853. He practiced six years in 
 Greenfield, Highland county, and one year at Hills- 
 boro, in the same county, and in July, i860, settled 
 in Tipton, Iowa. Here, after twb years' practice, he 
 enlisted in his country's service, going into the army 
 in August, 1862, as lieutenant-colonel of the 35th 
 Iowa Infantry. At the end of one year, owing to 
 disability, he was obliged to resign. Returning to 
 Tipton, he resumed practice and continued it until 
 January, 1867, when he went on the bench in the 
 eighth judicial district. He was reelected twice, and 
 during his third term, in February, 1876, he was ap- 
 pointed to the supreme bench in pursuance of an act 
 of the legislature increasing the number of judges of 
 the supreme court. He was elected by the people in 
 the autumn of the same year. As a jurist he is re- 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 m 
 
 markable for his strong common sense and practical 
 ideas. Probably no man has a nicer discrimination 
 between right and wrong. His experience for ten 
 years as nisi prius judge was an excellent preparatory 
 school for the supreme bench. His decisions made 
 while a district judge were the result of a clear head 
 and a cool judgment, and were rarely reversed. 
 
 While a resident of Ohio, in 1855, Judge Roth- 
 rock was elected prosecuting attorney for Highland 
 county, and served one term. He was a member of 
 the lower house of the general assembly of Iowa in 
 the regular session of 1862 and the war session of the 
 same year, enlisting at the close of the latter session. 
 Although a new man in the state in 1861, when he 
 was nominated for member of the legislature, that 
 nomination was made by acclamation. He had 
 stumped the county in the autumn before, the farm- 
 ers had become acquainted with him and he was 
 their first choice. He proved to be a wise and effi- 
 cient legislator. 
 
 The father of Judge Rothrock, a Presbyterian 
 
 elder for many years, and a man of strong religious 
 and humane feelings, was an abolitionist and a Bir- 
 ney man in 1844. Living in southern Ohio, he had 
 many opportunities to aid bondmen to escape, and 
 was always prompt to lend them a helping hand. 
 The son imbibed his father's political sentiments, 
 and in more than a hundred instances aided fugi- 
 tives in their flight from the cruel taskmaster. Judge 
 Rothrock voted the abolition ticket till the great 
 party of freedom arose and finally, with Abraham 
 Lincoln for a banner bearer, overthrew the slave 
 power. 
 
 On the i8th of October, 1855, Miss A. L. Foote, 
 of Granville, Ohio, was married to Judge Rothrock, 
 and has borne him three children, all yet living. 
 
 Judge Rothrock has long had a passion for agri- 
 cultural pursuits, and regards it as a noble occupa- 
 tion to improve land. He has a small farm adjoining 
 the city of Tipton, and two large farms farther west, 
 in Sac county. Financially, he has been moderately 
 successful. 
 
 HON. JOHN F. DILLON, 
 
 DAVENPORT. 
 
 JOHN F. DU^LON, judge of the United States 
 J circuit courts for the eighth judicial circuit, was 
 born in Washington county, New York, on the 25th 
 of December, 1831. His father was Thomas Dillon. 
 His paternal and maternal grandfathers were each 
 born in Ireland, and emigrated to this country at an 
 early age and settled in the State of New York, from 
 whence his father immigrated to Iowa. 
 
 In 1838, when he was little over seven years old, 
 his parents removed from Herkimer county, New 
 York, to Davenport, in the then territory of Iowa, in 
 which city he has resided constantly ever since. He 
 commenced the study of medicine at seventeen years 
 of age, under the direction of Egbert S. Barrows, 
 M. D., then the leading physician of Davenport. He 
 attended two courses of medical lectures at the 
 Keokuk Medical College, and graduated at the age 
 of twenty-one years. He entered upon the practice 
 of his profession, but finding, after a trial of a few 
 months, that it did not accord with his tastes, he 
 commenced reading law in the office where his sign 
 as a physician was displayed. He was licensed as an 
 attorney in Scott county, Iowa, in 1852, and at once 
 commenced the practice of his new profession. This 
 
 year he was elected prosecuting attorney for Scott 
 county. \ 
 
 In 1858, when twenty-seven years of age, he was 
 elected by a majority greatly exceeding the majority 
 of his party as the republican candidate for judge of 
 the seventh judicial district of Iowa, a district then 
 composed of the four populous counties of Scott, 
 Muscatine, Jackson and Clinton. The first work he 
 did after his election was the giving of a close, crit- 
 ical study to all the then reported decisions of the 
 supreme court of the state. This resulted in the 
 preparation of his first legal work, "A Digest of the 
 Decisions of the Supreme Court of Iowa." In 1862 
 he was reelected without any opposition, the bar of 
 the district, without distinction of party, uniting in a 
 request to him to continue in the office. During the 
 year following his second election he was nominated 
 by the republican party of his state for one of the 
 judges of the supreme court, and was elected for a 
 term of six years, taking his seat on the ist of Janu- 
 ary, 1863. In 1869 he was unanimously renominated 
 and reelected for another term of six years without 
 any considerable opposition, but before he qualified 
 under his second election, and while still holding the 
 
774 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 office of chief justice of the supreme court, he was 
 nominated by the President and confirmed by the 
 senate as circuit judge of the United States for the 
 eighth judicial circuit, embracing the states of Min- 
 nesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas and Ar- 
 kansas, and recently, also, the newly admitted State 
 of Colorado. 
 
 During the time he was on the supreme bench of 
 the state he commenced collecting data for a work 
 on " Municipal Corporations," and having become 
 bound to the publishers to prepare the treatise, he 
 was compelled to write it out after his accession to 
 the federal bench. The work had an extraordinary 
 sale. The first edition of twenty-five hundred copies, 
 published in the year 1872, was exhausted in a few 
 months, and the second edition, expanded into two 
 volumes, is already nearly gone. The royalty to 
 Judge Dillon on the two editions was the sum of ten 
 thousand dollars. A third edition is already called 
 for, which is an abundant proof of its undiminished 
 popularity. 
 
 In 1872, seeing the necessity for the publication 
 of a first-class law journal in the valley of the Mis- 
 sissippi, he was instrumental in setting on foot the 
 publication of the " Central Law Journal," himself 
 sketching out the plan and for a time contributing 
 much of the material. Having given it a fair start, 
 and being unable longer to give it supervision, he 
 
 committed the management of it to its present ed- 
 itor, Seymour D. Thompson, Esq., of Saint Louis. 
 
 He has held thirteen terms of court every year for 
 the last six years in seven judicial districts and six 
 states. In addition to his other labors he has edited 
 and published three volumes of " Circuit Court Re- 
 ports," mostly his own opinions. 
 
 Judge Dillon's opinions on the supreme bench of 
 the state may be found in the twelve volumes of 
 " Iowa Reports," from the fifteenth to the twenty- 
 eighth volumes. During this period the judges 
 adopted and rigidly maintained the habit of consult- 
 ing thoroughly upon every case before the opinion 
 was written. These consultations extended to an 
 agreement upon the facts of the case, upon the judg- 
 ment to be rendered, and upon the grounds on which 
 the judgment should be placed. This system of vol- 
 untarily enforced discipline could not fail to be pro- 
 ductive of important results, and the decisions of the 
 supreme court of Iowa naturally acquired a high 
 standing throughout the Union and carried with 
 them at home the additional weight which attaches 
 to the understanding that an opinion of the court 
 was not merely the opinion of a single judge. 
 
 On the loth of November, 1853, Judge Dillon 
 married Miss Anna, daughter of the Hon. Hiram 
 Price, for many years member of congress for the 
 second district of Iowa. 
 
 JAMES HAWLEY, 
 
 OTTUMWA. 
 
 JAMES HAWLEY, the subject of this sketch, was 
 born on the 4th of June, 1803, at Albany, New 
 York, where he spent his early years and received a 
 good common-school education. 
 
 When thirty years old he engaged in the mercan- 
 tile business at Red Creek, Wayne county. New 
 York, where for five years he successfully carried on 
 the trade, and then removed to Lyons, in the same 
 county. In 1839 he was elected by the wliigs to the 
 office of county clerk. This oiifice he held for three 
 years, when failing health demanded a change of 
 climate, and he removed to Chillicothe, Ohio, where 
 he again entered the dry-goods business. After a 
 highly successful business career in the latter city 
 he was induced by some friends to locate in Wash- 
 ington county, Kentucky, where he again commenced 
 business, but, not meeting with the success antici- 
 
 pated, he, in 1848, started west on an exploring tour 
 to look up a point for a business location. He 
 decided on Ottumwa, Iowa, as the most favorable 
 place he visited, and thither he removed and com- 
 menced business in a small frame building. His 
 success was such that the second year of his stay 
 there he erected the first two-story brick building in 
 the Des Moines valley. On the arrival of his family 
 in Ottumwa, Mr. Hawley, not having a home ready, 
 was induced to move into and take charge of the 
 first hotel in the city. In the latter enterprise, as well 
 as in his mercantile pursuits, he was favored of for- 
 tune, conducting both hotel and store for several 
 years with marked success. 
 
 Mr. Hawley was, through life, a republican ; was 
 twice elected mayor of Ottumwa, and was president 
 of the First National Bank for about eighteen months. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 775 
 
 On the 2oth of September, 1831, Mr. Hawley was 
 united in wedlock to Miss Juliet Jones, of New York, 
 by whom he had three children, two sons and a 
 daughter. The eldest son is now dead. 
 
 The following extract from a paper published at 
 his old home in Lyons, New York, gives an account 
 of his death, and also the estimation in which he was 
 held by his fellow-men: 
 
 Council Chamber, Ottumwa, Iowa. October 26, 1872. 
 
 At a special meeting of council, held on Saturday evening, the ■. 6th_of 
 October the following re.solutions were introduced by the special commit- 
 tee. Messrs. Ballingall, Blake and Inskeep, appointed at the last meeting 
 of council to furnish resolutions on occasion of the death of James Haw- 
 ley. Mr. Ballingall took occasion to make some appropriate remarks con- 
 cerning the life and character of the deceased, after which the resolutions 
 were adopted by the unanimous vote of the council ; 
 
 Whereas, Intelligence has reached our city that our fellow-townsman, 
 James Hawley. died at Sal: Lake City on the 21st, therefore, 
 
 Resolved^ By the council of the city of Ottumwa, that in the sudden 
 deatii of our esteemed fellow-citizen and former mayor, James Hawlty, 
 the city has lost one of its most enterprising and honored citizens, who 
 for twenty-five years past has been prominently identified with its history 
 and best interests ; that while mayor of the city he discharged his duty 
 faithfully and well, and, whether noting in official ox private capacity, was 
 ever actuated by the highest considerations of justice, honor and truth. 
 
 Resolved, That for ourselves, and in behalf of the people of the city, 
 we tender to the family and friends of t^-e deceased our sympathy in their 
 severe and sudden bereavement, and mingle our sorrow with theirs. 
 
 Resolved, That these resolutions be spread upon the records of the 
 city, and that a copy be furnished the family of the deceased and also to 
 the several city papers. W. Ll. Orr, Mayor. 
 
 Attest ; G. F. Foster, City Clerk. 
 
 The subject of the foregoing resolutions was for some 
 tinrie a popular merchant at Red Creek, in this county. 
 
 Thirty-three years ago he was elected h\ the whigs of this 
 county to the office of clerk of the county, the duties of 
 which he discharged with ability for the term of three years. 
 He was a candidate for reelection, but failed for the reason 
 that the democratic party was in the majority in the county. 
 He ran considerably ahead of his ticket, and was defeated 
 \>y less than a hundred majority. After closing his business 
 here, and about the year 1844, he moved to the State of 
 Ohio, afterward to Kentucky, and finally, in the year 1S48, 
 he took up his residence at Ottumwa, in the State of Iowa, 
 where he spent the remainder of his life. Ottumwa, now a 
 city of some seven thousand inhabitants, was then a mere 
 hamlet. Here he at first pursued the business of a hotel- 
 keeper and a merchant, and later that of a merchant only, in 
 all which he was quite successful. He was for some time 
 president of the First National Bank of Ottumwa, and re- 
 
 j tired from business a few years since. 
 
 ! Mr. Hawley was not a man of ponderous intellect, but 
 possessed what was more valuable, a well balanced mind. 
 He was a persevering, attentive, well judging, honest busi- 
 ness man, and of course was successful. He was an intelli- 
 gent, high-minded, liberal, patriotic citizen. In his deport- 
 ment he was dignified, modest, pleasant and kind. In his 
 domestic relations he was all that a husband and father 
 should be, and enjoyed the affections of wife and children as 
 such husbands and fathers are entitled to. He leaves a 
 widow, two sons, a daughter and several grandchildren to 
 mourn his departure. He died on the 21st of October last, 
 at Salt Lake City, while on his way with his wife and eld- 
 est son to California to spend the winter. His funeral was 
 attended at Ottumwa, on the 30th of October, by a large 
 concourse of people. Few have died leaving a purer name 
 or a larger circle of friends. 
 
 THOMAS C. McCALL, 
 
 NE VADA. 
 
 THOMAS CLIFTON McCALL, for more than 
 thirty years a resident of Iowa, is of revolu- 
 tionary stock, both grandsires participating in that 
 war. His father was wounded in the second war 
 with England, in the battle of McQuaggy, about the 
 time of Hall's surrender. Thomas C. was a son of 
 Samuel W. McCall and Ann Clifton, residing in Twin 
 township, Ross county, Ohio, at the time of the son's 
 birth, on the 4th of September, 1827. His father 
 was a farmer, in rather delicate health, and was in 
 office much of the time, being sheriff of Ross county 
 some time and a justice of the peace many years. 
 About 1836 the family moved to Canton, Fulton 
 county, Illinois, where the subject of this notice had 
 solid experience in agriculture, being obliged to work 
 very hard. 
 
 He attended a school taught by his father two 
 winters, and under that parent's instruction at home 
 received knowledge sufficient to enable him to teach. 
 
 In the spring of 1846, in his nineteenth year, Mr. 
 McCall came to Iowa, with an older brother, and 
 taught the first school ever kept east of Des Moines, 
 in Polk county. Teaching and farming were his 
 
 occupations until twenty-three years of age, when 
 he started in trade, being the pioneer merchant at 
 Rising Sun, and subsequently following the same 
 business at Des Moines in company with Mr. W. W. 
 Moore. At twenty-seven he went into the real-estate 
 business in the same city, removing to Nevada in 
 1858, still following the same occupation. 
 
 In 1861 Mr. McCall was elected to the lower 
 house of the general assembly, and served in the 
 regular and extra sessions of 1862. In the interim 
 he enlisted in the service of his country, going to 
 the front in the autumn of 1862 as quartermaster of 
 the 32d Iowa Infantry, with the commission of lieu- 
 tenant. The regiment was in the sixteenth army 
 corps, General A. J. Smith, commander, and he was 
 with it in the famous Meridian and Red river expe- 
 ditions. 
 
 At the end of about eighteen months, on the 22d 
 of March, 1864, he received from President Lincoln 
 the appointment of assistant quartermaster of volun- 
 teers, with the rank of captain, and in that capacity 
 served until the 27th of November, 1865. He had 
 millions of property pass through his hands, and 
 
776 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARr. 
 
 settled with a full discharge, without the loss of a 
 dollar to the government or himself He went into 
 the service not to enrich himself, but to aid in saving 
 the country, and left a record as clean as his motives 
 were pure. 
 
 Politically, Captain McCall is a republican, with 
 free-soil, whig antecedents, and has usually been 
 quite active. He has attended nearly all the con- 
 gressional and state conventions of his party since 
 settling in Nevada; has once been on the state cen- 
 tral committee, and chairman of the county commit- 
 tee twice. He is a man of much influence in politics 
 in the central part of the state. 
 
 In Odd-Fellowship he is also prominent, and has 
 twice been a representative to the Grand Lodge of 
 the state. 
 
 He has been a member of the Presbyterian church 
 for twenty-four years, and an elder of the Nevada 
 body the last half of that period. He is a man 
 whose purity of motives and of life secure him great 
 respect. 
 
 Captain McCall has had three wives, the first being 
 Miss Sarah Garrett, of Polk county; married on the 
 1st of March, 1849. She had four children, and died 
 on the 19th of January, 1855. Only one of her chil- 
 dren, John A. McCall, attorney, of Des Moines, is 
 
 now living. His second wife was Miss Mary A. 
 Boynton, of Marion, Linn county; married on the 
 28th of October, 1858, and dying on the 4th of 
 August, 1875, leaving three children, four preceding 
 her to the land of spirits. His present wife was Miss 
 Clara Kennedy, of Carrollton, Ohio; married on the 
 19th of October, 1876. She has one child. 
 
 Captain McCall came into Iowa driving an ox 
 team, with no capital but a resolute will and a small 
 fund of learning acquired in the home circle, and 
 by his own application, energies and business taleij^ts 
 has become one of the wealthiest men in the county. 
 Two years after he came to Iowa, his father, who was 
 not in good health, joined his sons, who had provided 
 him a home in Polk county, where he died, and where 
 the step-mother of Captain McCall still resides. 
 
 The subject of this sketch gave his entire earnings 
 to the family until after he became of age, all of his 
 accumulations having been made since he was twen- 
 ty-three years old. He has a great deal of village 
 property, and at least twenty-four hundred acres 
 of land in Story county, fourteen hundred acres of 
 it under good improvement. He has always been 
 a fair, straightforward dealer, patient and obliging, 
 and for integrity, no man's character in the county 
 stands better. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM H. SEEVERS, 
 
 OSKALOOSA. 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY SEEVERS, the junior 
 member of the supreme bench of Iowa, is a 
 native of Shenandoah county, Virginia, and dates 
 his birth on the 8th of April, 1822. His grand- 
 father, Henry Seevers, settled in the State of Penn- 
 sylvania. James Seevers, the father of William H., 
 was born in Virginia, and was a private in the war 
 of 1812-15. He was a general business man, and 
 is now, at the age of eighty-five years, living with 
 his son. The Seevers family have some Huguenot 
 blood in their veins. The wife of James Seevers 
 was Rebecca Wilkins, who died in 1875. 
 
 The subject of this sketch spent his boyhood near 
 Winchester, Virginia, farming, attending a common 
 and select school, and clerking in a country store. 
 He commenced reading law in his native state in 
 1843 ; removed to Oskaloosa, Iowa, the next year, 
 where he finished reading; was admitted to the bar 
 in 1846, and has since attended steadily to his pro- 
 
 fession, except when serving his constituents in some 
 other capacity. 
 
 He was elected district attorney in 1848 and served 
 one term ; was elected judge of the third judicial dis- 
 trict in 1852 ; served nearly five years in all, and then 
 resigned ; was a member of the lower house of the 
 general assembly at the session in 1858, the first ses- 
 sion held at Des Moines, and again in the session of 
 1876, and resigned in February of the latter year to 
 accept an appointment to the supreme bench, serv- 
 ing as chief justice the rest of that year. In the 
 autumn of the same year he was elected by the peo- 
 ple, and hence is now the junior member of the su- 
 preme bench. Before he went on the bench he was 
 regarded as one of the most adroit and best read 
 practitioners in the state. His knowledge of the 
 practice of the law is immense. He was the editor 
 of the code in 1873. His opinions are very high 
 authority with the bar of Iowa. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 777 
 
 Politically, Judge Seevers is a republican, strong 
 and unwavering. He was formerly a whig. He was 
 a delegate to the national convention which renom- 
 inated President Grant in 1872. 
 
 His wife was Miss Caroline M. Lee, a native of 
 Ohio, who was married in Oskaloosa on the 20th of 
 February, 1849. They have lost one daughter, and 
 have six children living. Virginia, the eldest daugh- 
 ter, is the wife of Henry L. Briggs, druggist, of Os- 
 
 kaloosa; Carrie is the wife of James C. Fletcher, 
 merchant at Wall Lake, Wright county, Iowa ; Harry 
 W. is a student at Cornell College, Mount Vernon : . 
 Grace is at school in Davenport ; and Nellie and 
 William H. are at home. 
 
 Mrs. Seevers is a christian mother, a member of 
 the Methodist Episcopal church, where the family 
 worship, and a woman of strong mental faculties, 
 and active and benevolent in all good causes. 
 
 GEORGE H. MAISH, 
 
 DBS MOINES. 
 
 GEORGE H. MAISH, a native of York county, 
 Pennsylvania, was born on the 30th of Sep- 
 tember, 1835, and is the son of David Maish and 
 Sarah nde Neiman. His paternal ancestors settled 
 in Chester county, Pennsylvania, about one hundred 
 and fifty years ago, having emigrated thither from 
 Bavaria, while his maternal ancestors came from 
 Germany more than a hundred years ago. His 
 grandparents were David and Mary Maish, and 
 George and Mary ntfe Rupert. 
 
 Our subject is the eldest of three sons. His 
 brother, Levi Maish, born on the 22d of November, 
 1837, received a common-school education, and af- 
 terward served an apprenticeship of two years un- 
 der a machinist. During the war of the rebellion 
 he was lieutenant-colonel, and also colonel of the 
 130th regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and 
 was wounded at the battle of Antietam, and also at 
 Chancellorsville. 
 
 After the close of his military service he pursued 
 a course of study in the law department of the Uni- 
 versity of Pennsylvania, and in 1864 was admitted 
 to the bar. 
 
 In 1867 he was elected to the general assembly of 
 Pennsylvania for a term of two years, and in 1872 
 was appointed by the legislature as one of a com- 
 mittee to reexamine and reaudit the accounts of cer- 
 tain public officers of York county, Pennsylvania, 
 and elected to the forty-fourth congress on the dem- 
 ocratic ticket in the fall of 1874. 
 
 His youngest brother, Lewis Maish, was born on 
 the 2d of July, 1840. He also served as an appren- 
 tice and worked as a machinist for several years. At 
 the opening of the rebellion he enlisted in the 87th 
 regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, com- 
 manded by Colonel George Hay, of York, Pennsyl- 
 
 vania. He became second lieutenant, and for three 
 years served as captain of company D. Being taken 
 prisoner, he was confined in rebel prisons about six 
 months. He resumed his trade, after the close of 
 the war, and in 1867 removed to his present home 
 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 
 
 George had the advantage of a common-school 
 education, and after closing his studies was for sev- 
 eral years engaged with his father. At the age of 
 seventeen he placed himself in the employ of Messrs. 
 P. A. and S. Small, machinists, of York, Pennsylva- 
 nia, and after remaining with them a period of nine 
 years formed a partnership with Mr. John M. Brown, 
 and during the next four years was engaged in the 
 coal business with good success. 
 
 During that time he became well known as a 
 thorough and competent business man, and at the 
 earnest solicitation of the board of directors of the 
 old York Bank, accepted the position of teller in 
 that institution. After four and a half years of most 
 satisfactory service he relinquished his position, and, 
 removing to Iowa, settled at Des Moines, where, 
 with his brother-in-law, Charles A. Weaver, under 
 the firm name of Weaver and Maish, he engaged in 
 the drug business. 
 
 To this business he gave his close attention until 
 the fall of 1875, when, with other gentlemen, he or- 
 ganized the Iowa National Bank of Des Moines, and 
 was elected to his present position of cashier of the 
 same. 
 
 As a business man, Mr. Maish has from the first 
 been eminently successful. Beginning without cap- 
 ital, other than his own native abilities, and prompt- 
 ed by the ambition to become known as an upright, 
 honorable and influential man, he has by his own 
 effort gradually risen to his present commanding po- 
 
778 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 sition ; and his life -history furnishes a worthy exam- 
 ple to young men who aspire to dignity and noble- 
 ness of character. 
 
 In political sentiment, Mr. Maish has been identi- 
 fied with the republican party since the organization 
 of that body. 
 
 In his religious communion, he is associated as a 
 member of the Evangelical English Lutheran church. 
 
 He was married on the ist of October, 1857, to 
 Charlotte E. Weaver, daughter of Jeremiah Weaver 
 
 and Charlotte M. n^e Haugham, both of whom were 
 of German descent. 
 
 Of the seven children who have been born to 
 them, six are now living. Charles Edward died when 
 two and a half years old. William Weaver was born 
 on the 27th of April, 1861; Harriet Jane was born 
 on the 14th of June, 1866; Albert George was born 
 on the 13th of October, 1867 ; Mary Martha was born 
 on the 4th of October, 1870, and Georgia Elizabeth 
 was born on the 3d of July, 1873. 
 
 LEWIS TODHUNTER, 
 
 INDIANOLA. 
 
 ONE of the most prominent citizens of Warren 
 county is Lewis Todhunter, twenty-eight years 
 a resident of Iowa. He was a son of Jurey and Je- 
 rusha (Johnson) Todhunter, and was born in Fay- 
 ette county, Ohio, on the 6th of April, 1817. The 
 Todhunters were Quakers from Wales, and settled 
 in Tennessee. This branch of the Johnson family 
 settled in Campbell county, Virginia, and spread 
 thence into Ohio and other states. 
 
 Lewis had very limited means for school educa- 
 tion, and was, in fact, mainly self-taught. In early 
 life he learned the carpenter's trade, worked at it a 
 few years; subsequently sold goods four or five 
 years ; then read law, and was admitted to the bar 
 in Highland county in 1848. 
 
 In 1850 Mr. Todhunter came to Iowa, settled on 
 the Des Moines river, in Polk county, started with 
 others a village named Lafayette, and there engaged 
 in farming and sold goods. 
 
 In the spring of 1854 Mr. Todhunter moved into 
 the then small village of Indianola. The river, mean- 
 time, gradually took possession of the village of La- 
 fayette, eating into its own banks, carrying off from 
 • eighty to one hundred rods of "bottom," and not a 
 house stands there to-day ! 
 
 Since settling in Indianola Mr. Todhunter has de- 
 voted himself assiduously to the legal practice and 
 real estate, success attending him in both branches. 
 He is president of the Indianola Hotel Company, 
 which has recently erected the Central House. He 
 is also vice-president and director of the Warren 
 County Bank, which company has erected a large 
 brick block on one corner of the public square. 
 
 Mr. Todhunter was elected prosecuting attorney 
 soon after locating in Indianola, and served two 
 
 years. He was county recorder and treasurer one 
 term, and a member of the constitutional convention 
 which met at Iowa City in January, 1857, he repre- 
 senting Warren, Madison, Adair and Cass counties 
 in that body, and has the honor of assisting in mak- 
 ing the laws under which the people of Iowa live. 
 
 In 1863 he volunteered as a private, but was im- 
 mediately appointed assistant quartermaster, with 
 rank of captain. After Lee's surrender he was post- 
 quartermaster at Richmond, Virginia, serving in that 
 capacity until September, 1865. 
 
 He has seen Indianola expand from its beginning 
 as a village to a city of three thousand inhabitants, 
 and for two terms was at the head of its municipal- 
 ity. He has served the corporation in other capac- 
 ities, and is one of its most useful as well as most 
 respected citizens. 
 
 He is a member of the Methodist church, and 
 high in degrees in the Independent Order of Odd- 
 Fellows. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Todhunter was originally a whig, 
 and when that body disbanded he joined the repub- 
 licans. He is widest known, however, as a temper- 
 ance man and earnest worker. He joined the great 
 army of teetotalers in 1840, or about the time of 
 the Washingtonian movement, and has been active 
 in the cause since that epoch in the temperance 
 reformation. He has been a delegate to two or 
 three national conventions held in the interests of 
 this cause ; is now president of the State Temper- 
 ance Association, and is very active in the State 
 Temperance Alliance. 
 
 On the loth of May, 1842, Miss Elizabeth Hull, 
 of Highland county, Ohio, became the wife of Mr. 
 Todhunter, and they have six children, and have lost " 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 779 
 
 two. Three of them are married : Ann is the wife of 
 David Johnson, and Amy J. is the wife of Sylvester 
 Barnes, both living in Indianola ; John Jurey has a 
 family, and is deputy auditor of Warren county, liv- 
 ing here at the county seat. 
 
 Mr. Todhunter has some few enemies among the 
 
 liquor venders and topers, and possibly a few others 
 who would sacrifice principle for policy, but he fights 
 right on with the same zeal which he exhibited nearly 
 forty years ago, spending his well-husbanded strength 
 in trying to suppress the greatest curse of the nation 
 since slavery was destroyed. 
 
 HON. STEPHEN HEMPSTEAD, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 AMONG those who have been prominently iden- 
 . tified in the history of Iowa none deserve more 
 honorable mention than Stephen Hempstead. He 
 was born at New London, Connecticut, on the ist 
 of October, 1812, and lived in that state until the 
 spring of 1828, when his father's family came west 
 and settled on a farm a few miles from Saint Louis, 
 Missouri. Here he remained until 1830, when he 
 entered as clerk in a commission house in Galena, 
 Illinois, and during the Black Hawk war he was an 
 officer in an artillery company organized for the 
 protection of that place. 
 
 At the close of the war he entered as a student of 
 the Illinois College at Jacksonville, remaining about 
 two years, leaving to commence the study of law, 
 which he finished under Charles S. Hempstead, Esq., 
 then a prominent lawyer at Galena. In 1836 he 
 was admitted to practice his profession in the courts 
 of the Territory of Wisconsin, then embracing Iowa, 
 and in the same year located in Dubuque, being the 
 first lawyer who practiced in the place. At the or- 
 ganization of the territorial legislature in 1838 he 
 
 was elected to represent the northern portion of the 
 territory in the legislative council, of which he was 
 chairman of the committee on judiciary, one of the 
 important committees of the council. At the second 
 session of that body he was elected president there- 
 of; was again elected a member of the council in 
 1845, which was held in Iowa City, and was again 
 president of the same. In 1844 he was elected one 
 of the delegates to the first constitutional conven- 
 tion of the State of Iowa, and was chairman of the 
 committee of incorporations. In 1848, in connec- 
 tion with Hon. Charles Mason and W. G. Woodward, 
 he was appointed commissioner by the legislature 
 to levise the laws of the State of Iowa, and which 
 revision, with a few amendments, was adopted as the 
 code of Iowa in 185 1. In 1850 he was elected gov- 
 ernor of the State of Iowa, and served four years in 
 that office, being second governor of the state. In 
 1855 was elected county judge of Dubuque county, 
 and held that office for twelve years ending in 1867, 
 since which time, on account of impaired health, he 
 has retired from public life. 
 
 JAMES DAVIS, 
 
 EXIRA. 
 
 JAMES DAVIS, for twelve years sheriff of Clay- 
 ton county, Iowa, and now a member of the 
 board of supervisors of Audubon county, is a good 
 representative of the energetic, enterprising farmers 
 of the state. He dates his birth in Knox county, 
 Ohio, on the 6th of October, 1819, his parents being 
 Nathaniel and Martha Doty Davis. His maternal 
 grandfather, Peter Doty, was in the battle of Mon- 
 mouth and other revolutionary contests with the 
 mother country, serving four years. He died in 
 Knox county, aged one hundred and two years 
 83 
 
 Nathaniel Davis, a native of Hardin county, Vir- 
 ginia, was at the battle of Fort Meigs and with Gen- 
 eral Hull when he surrendered. 
 
 James received only a common-school education ; 
 after reaching the age of twenty-two he spent three 
 years as assistant keeper of the Ohio Penitentiary, 
 Columbus; went to Jefferson City, Missouri, and 
 ran a lumber yard for Saint Louis parties about two 
 years; spent the autumn and winter of 1846 in Du- 
 buque City and Clayton county, Iowa; in the spring 
 of 1847 went to Moline, Illinois, and run a saw-mill 
 
78o 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 one season, and in 1848 returned to Clayton county. 
 There he took up land and improved it, his home 
 being at Garnavillo, and he also dealt in cattle until 
 1855, when he became sheriff, holding the office by 
 reelections four years. After an interim of six years, 
 during which period he was engaged in various 
 speculations, he found himself again in the office of 
 sheriff, holding it four more terms consecutively. 
 The writer of this sketch knew Mr. Davis in those 
 days, and has no hesitation in saying that Clayton 
 county never had a more efficient officer of any 
 kind during the period when he was acting. As a 
 detective, he had marked success. He held other 
 offices while in that county, and was among its most 
 useful and influential citizens. 
 
 In the spring of 1874 Mr. Davis removed to Au- 
 dubon county, buying and settling on a farm of three 
 
 hundred and twenty acres. One third of it is tim- 
 ber ; the other two thirds are under superb culti- 
 vation, and well stocked. Being merciful to beast 
 as well as man, he has one of the best barns in the 
 county. He is a hard-working, thrifty agriculturist, 
 and especially useful in the county board of super- 
 visors. 
 
 Mr. Davis was a whig in his younger years ; at- 
 tended the first republican convention ever held in 
 Clayton county, and has trained in that party since 
 that date. He is a sincere, conscientious man, be- 
 lieving he serves his county best while proving true 
 to his political instincts. He is a third-degree Mason. 
 
 On the roth of March, 1853, Mr. Davis married 
 Miss Elizabeth, McLelland, of Garnavillo, and they 
 have five children, all living at home, learning the 
 art of being industrious and useful. 
 
 HON. JAMES F. WILSON, 
 
 FAIRFIELD. 
 
 JAMES FALCONER WILSON is a native of 
 Newark, Ohio, and was born on the 19th of Oc- 
 tober, 1828; son of David Scott Wilson and Kitty 
 Ann Bramble ; was educated in the common schools 
 of Newark, with some additional instruction by a pri- 
 vate teacher. He learned the trade of a harness- 
 maker; read law with King and Woods, of Newark; 
 practiced one year in his native town, and in 1853 
 moved to Fairfield, which has since been his home, 
 the law being his profession until recently, although 
 for a while after locating here he paid some atten- 
 tion to journalism, editing, with marked ability, the 
 local republican newspaper. 
 
 He was chosen a member of the convention which, 
 in the winter of 1856-7, drafted the present consti- 
 tution of Iowa, being one of the youngest members 
 of that body, and proving a wise and judicious leg- 
 islator. In 1857 he was appointed assistant commis- 
 sioner of the Des Moines river improvement. 
 
 He was a member of the lower house of the gen- 
 eral assembly in 1858, and of the senate in i860 and 
 1861, being president of the senate in the extra ses- 
 sion of 1861. That year he was elected to fill a 
 vacancy in the thirty-seventh congress, and was re- 
 elected three times, serving in the thirty-seventh, 
 thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth and fortieth congresses. It 
 was the most important period in the history of the 
 country since Iowa became a state. 
 
 Mr. Wilson was in the house during the period of 
 the civil war, and while the reconstruction measures 
 were being matured and becoming a law, and the 
 amendments to the constitution were under consid- 
 eration and being passed ; and no member of the 
 lower house from iQwa took a more prominent part 
 or held a more honorable position than Mr. Wilson. 
 He was chairman of the judiciary committee during 
 the last six years that he was in that body. He in- 
 troduced the joint resolution for an amendment of 
 the constitution, abolishing slavery, and on the 19th 
 of March, 1864, on that subject, made one of his 
 very ablest and most effective speeches. He also 
 introduced the joint resolution proposing an amend- 
 ment to prohibit the payment of any portion of the 
 rebel debt. 
 
 It was he who, in the thirty-ninth congress, re- 
 ported the bill extending the right of suffrage in the 
 District of Columbia. In the same congress he was 
 an earnest advocate of the civil rights bill, and his 
 speeches made before the veto of that bill were 
 among the best made in the house. The debate on 
 this bill, before it went to the President, was closed 
 by Mr. Wilson, chairman of the judiciary committee. 
 He took the ground that the federal government, 
 rather than the United States, is bound to protect 
 the citizens of the United States in certain rights. 
 
 He figured very prominently in the impeachment 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONART. 
 
 781 
 
 trial of President Johnson, a trial under contempla- 
 tion in the thirty-ninth congress, and referred to the 
 judiciary committee. At first Mr. Wilson made a 
 minority report against impeachment, comprising in 
 his report a succinct review of all important cases of 
 impeachment in the British parliament, and of every 
 case brought before the United States senate, with 
 an elucidation of the law and practice under both 
 governments. His report forms an exceedingly val- 
 uable treatise, alike for the historian and the jurist. 
 Subsequently, when new charges, based upon al- 
 leged criminal acts of the President, were made 
 against him, and the subject came again before the 
 house, Mr. Wilson supported the impeachment of 
 the President, and was made one of the managers, 
 appointed by the house, to carry on the trial. 
 
 During the last term or two that Mr. Wilson was 
 in congress he was chairman of the committee on 
 unfinished business, and he also did important work 
 on some other committees. He aided, essentially, 
 in shaping the measures for the reorganization of the 
 rebel states. 
 
 Mr. Wilson was originally an anti-slavery whig ; 
 has been a republican since the party was formed ; 
 aided in organizing it, and has wielded great influ- 
 ence in the politics of the state and the nation. He 
 was a delegate to the national convention which 
 nominated Mr. Lincoln in i860, and to the conven- 
 tion which nominated Mr. Hayes in 1876. 
 
 The wife of Mr. Wilson was Miss Mary A. K. 
 Jewett, of Newark, Ohio; married on the 2Sth of 
 November, 1852. They have three children. 
 
 HON. CYRUS C. CARPENTER, 
 
 FORT DODGE. 
 
 CYRUS C. CARPENTER is a native of Sus- 
 quehanna county, Pennsylvania, and was born 
 on the 24th of November, 1829. His parents were 
 Asahel and Amanda M. (Thayer) Carpenter, both 
 of whom died before he was twelve years old. His 
 grandfather, John Carpenter, was one of nine young 
 men who, in 1789, left Attleborough, Massachusetts, 
 for the purpose of finding a home in the " new coun- 
 try,'' where they hoped to be able to purchase cheap 
 lands. After various vicissitudes they located upon 
 the spot which they called Harford, in northeastern 
 Pennsylvania, the township in which Cyrus was born. 
 This location a hundred years ago was far from any 
 other settlement, Wilkesbarre, in Wyoming valley, 
 near the scene of the celebrated Indian massacre, 
 being among the nearest, though fifty miles away. 
 The place where these young Bay State men bought 
 lands and settled was known for years as the " Nine 
 Partners' Settlement.'' Here these hardy pioneers 
 maintained their families and hewed themselves farms 
 out of the wilderness, established schools, churches 
 and homes, with all the indices of civilized and chris- 
 tian life. Aaron Thayer, the maternal grandfather 
 of our subject, moved to this settlement some years 
 later from Medway, Massachusetts. 
 
 Governor Carpenter attended a common school 
 three or four months in a year until 1846, then taught 
 winters and worked on a farm summers for three or 
 four years, and with the money thus raised paid his 
 
 expenses for several months at the academy which 
 had been established in his native town. After leav- 
 ing this institution, in 1852, he started westward; 
 halted at Johnstown, Licking county, Ohio; taught 
 there a year and a half, and with his funds thus re- 
 plenished he came to Iowa, loitering some on the 
 way, and reaching Des Moines in June, 1854. The 
 city then had twelve hundred inhabitants. A few 
 days later he started on foot up the Des Moines val- 
 ley, then just beginning to be regarded as one of the 
 El Doradoes of the Hawkeye State. He found his 
 way to Fort Dodge, eighty miles northwest of Des 
 Moines, from which place the soldiers had moved 
 the previous spring to Fort Ridgely, in Minnesota. 
 Here he settled and soon found employment with a 
 government surveyor, and for two years was em- 
 ployed much of the time by persons having contracts 
 for surveying government lands. He was thus natu- 
 rally led into the land business, and from the autumn 
 of 1855. when the land office was established at Fort 
 Dodge, much of his time was devoted to surveying, 
 selecting lands for buyers, tax-paying for foreign 
 owners, and in short a general land agency. During 
 this period he devoted such time as he could spare 
 to reading law, with the view of eventually entering 
 the profession. 
 
 Soon after the civil war commenced he entered 
 the army, and before going into the field was com- 
 missioned as captain in the staff department, and 
 
782 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 served over three years, attaining the rank of lieu- 
 tenant-colonel and being mustered out as brevet 
 colonel. 
 
 Governor Carpenter was elected surveyor of Web- 
 ster county in the spring of 1856, and the next year 
 was elected a representative to the general assembly, 
 and served in the first session of that body held at 
 Des Moines. He was elected register of the state 
 land office in 1866, reelected in 1868, and held the 
 office four years, declining to be a candidate for re- 
 nomination. 
 
 He was elected governor of the state in 1871, and 
 reelected two years later, making an able and popu- 
 lar executive. In his first inaugural address, deliv- 
 ered on the nth of January, 1872, he made a strong 
 plea for the State University, and especially its nor- 
 mal department, for the Agricultural College, and for 
 whatever would advance the material progress and 
 prosperity of the people, urging in particular the in- 
 troduction of more manufactories. On this point he 
 said: 
 
 To bring the manufactured articles required by our people 
 and the products of their industry nearer together, in my 
 judgment, is of paramount importance. That the producer 
 would be materially benefited if the wagon, reaper, plow and 
 cultivator with which he plies his industrial enterprises, and 
 the cloth he wears, were manufactured at his market town, 
 whither he could carry his surplus products and exchange 
 them for these necessities, saving cost of transportation long 
 distances both ways, is a proposition so self-evident that it 
 needs no support by argument. But while the general gov- 
 ernment may, as an incident of its power to collect revenue 
 and the necessities of its treasury, be able to discriminate so 
 as to encourage such industries as are compatible with our 
 habits, climate and resources, and wisely exercise such dis- 
 crimination, ii state having no such authority, it may be 
 asked. How can legislation aid us in this particular.' It is 
 answered, If we can do nothing more, it is possible, through 
 our board of immigration, to call attention to our manufac- 
 turing resources. The fact that Iowa is supplied with coal 
 mines developing veins from six to eleven feet in thickness, 
 which invite new industries to their vicinity, with lead 
 mines, in which new lodes are daily discovered, with black 
 walnut and other woods for manufacturing purposes, with 
 inexhaustible gypsum beds, with limestone quarries of every 
 variety, with clays for the production of all kinds of brick 
 and pottery, and with other resources inviting skill and cap- 
 ital so numerous as to forbid, now and here, the mention, 
 might all be set forth in a pamphlet, which, distributed by 
 the board of immigration, could not fail to attract attention 
 and produce results. 
 
 Other questions were discussed with marked abil- 
 ity in this inaugural address, and in his second, de- 
 livered two years later, he thus speaks of the duty of 
 the wise legislator : 
 
 He will not only heed the voice of the farm-producer, 
 whose chief concern is to increase returns upon his surplus 
 products, but, with a statesmanship looking beyond to-day 
 and to the greater questions of to-morrow, taking knowledge 
 of the past in other and older states, he will, while building 
 wisely for labor that owns farms, build with equal wisdom 
 for labor that owns only hands — the men who do not look 
 
 for greater profits, but for bread ; who care less to keep the 
 tax-collector than the wolf from their doors. Unless we 
 build wisely for these as well as others, in less than two dec- 
 ades from now there will be formidable conventions of this 
 great and incl^easlng class demanding, by resolution and 
 political action, such legislation as will fix their hours of 
 daily work and the price per day for husking corn. I say 
 these things with the more directness and with the greater 
 boldness because, for myself, I own no dollar of property 
 but what is in a farm, and my heart never throbs but in 
 sympathy with the toiling millions of my countrymen. 
 
 And here is the gist of my argument: What we need and 
 must have for the producer, for the laborer, for the middle- 
 man and for the state is a greater diversification of industry. 
 We need this not only to employ surplus labor and to fur- 
 nish a market for home products, but we need it also to 
 build up here local marts of trade and manufactures, instead 
 of pouring all our accumulations into the lap of great cen- 
 tral cities, a folly which has proved the ruin of more than 
 one nation now gone to decay. An eminent English agri- 
 culturist wrote but a short time since : " It is precisely be- 
 cause British farmers have their customers, the British 
 manufacturers, almost at their doors, and that other corn- 
 producing countries have not such manufacturers, that Brit- 
 ish agriculture is rich and thriving." It is said by historians 
 that the act for which the first Napoleon will be best known 
 one hundred years from now is the fact that he encouraged 
 the introduction and naturalization of beet-sugar culture as 
 a new industry of the French people. 
 
 In June, 1873, Governor Carpenter delivered a 
 long and masterly address before the Patrons of 
 Husbandry of Iowa. It was full of happy sugges- 
 tions like the following : 
 
 In order to increase in knowledge as we ought we must 
 m^ke the most of time, and to this end we must improve 
 our machinery, improve our stock and cheapen our processes 
 of transportation. One important feature in this transporta- 
 tion problem I have passed over, and that is a wise con- 
 densation of marketable commodities. To-day our canned 
 fruits, tomatoes and sweet corn, bottled pickles, dried beef, 
 amd many of our sugar-cured hams are brought from an 
 eastern market. We go from our rich soils to states where 
 it is necessary to use from one hundred to one hundred and 
 fifty dollars' worth of fertilizers to an acre of ground to buy 
 the luxuries which grow here on natural soil. The grange 
 must teach a wisdom which will doom such nonsense. The 
 grange must teach, also, that the prodigality of the rich does 
 not conduce to the benefit of the poor. It is often said if the 
 rich squander money, somebody gets it; it is distributed and 
 does somebody good. This is not true. Suppose a rich man 
 should hire labor to raise corn and then gratify his caprice 
 by burning the corn ; somebody would probably go hungry 
 for this profligacy, notwithstanding money may have been 
 distributed to pay the labor required to raise the corn. This 
 principle holds good in respect to all capital squandered in 
 gratification of vanity or passion. 
 
 At the expiration of his second term as governor 
 Mr. Carpenter was appointed, without his knowledge 
 of the design to do so, second comptroller of the Unit- 
 ed States, treasury, and resigned after holding that 
 office about fifteen months. He was influenced to 
 take this step at that time because another bureau 
 officer was to be dismissed, as the head of the depart- 
 ment held that Iowa had more heads of bureaus than 
 she was entitled to, and his resigning an office of a 
 higher grade saved a man who deserved to remain 
 in government employ. He had, however, we believe. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 783 
 
 determined not to remain much longer in the public 
 service under any circumstances. 
 
 Governor Carpenter has done a little toward im- 
 proving a farm, and has been connected with other 
 enterprises, but it is doubtful if he regards himself 
 as a brilliant success in accumulating money, and 
 having devoted his whole time to the duties of such 
 offices as he has held from time to time, he has had 
 but little opportunity to either originate or manage 
 private material enterprises. 
 
 He has been a republican since the party was 
 organized; is orthodox in his religious views, but 
 regards himself as liberal in such views. He is a 
 member of the Library Associations of Fort Dodge 
 and Des Moines. 
 
 He was married in March, 1864, to Miss Susan C. 
 Burkholder, of Fort Dodge. They have no children 
 of their own, but a niece of Mrs. Carpenter, Miss 
 Fannie Burkholder, has lived with them from child- 
 hood. 
 
 Governor Carpenter has led a pure, true and up- 
 right life. Of the many men who served as he did 
 in the commissary department, some managed to 
 save tens of thousands of dollars out of a salary of 
 two thousand or three thousand dollars per annum. 
 Men who " made something out of the army " are 
 known to every reader of mature years. Governor 
 Carpenter came out about as poor as he entered the 
 army. While in it he was associated with men like 
 Generals Dodge, Logan, Noyes and Thomas, and 
 enjoyed their fullest confidence, and he retains the 
 warm friendship of all of them who are yet living. 
 
 He has always been a diligent and careful reader 
 and student. It is doubtful if he ever sat down to 
 
 seriously consider the subject of money making, but, 
 on the contrary, has always been ready to divide his 
 last dollar with the destitute. 
 
 In concluding this sketch it may not be improper 
 to state that when Governor Carpenter first reached 
 Fort Dodge he had but a single half-dollar in his 
 pocket. He frankly told the landlord of his straight- 
 ened circumstances, offering to do any kind of labor 
 until something should " turn up." On the evening 
 of his arrival he heard a government contractor state 
 that his chief surveyor had left him and that he was 
 going out to find another. Young Carpenter's cir- 
 cumstances were so desperate that he at once offered 
 his services to the gentleman. To the inquiry whether 
 he was a surveyor, he answered that he understood 
 the theory of surveying but had had no experience 
 in the field. His services were promptly accepted, 
 with a promise of steady employment if he were 
 found competent. The next morning he met the 
 party and took command. When the first week's 
 work was done he went to Fort Dodge to replenish 
 his wardrobe. As he left, some of the men remarked 
 that that was the last that would be seen of him. He 
 was then of a slight build, jaded and torn by hard 
 work, and, when he left the camp, so utterly tired out 
 it is not surprising that the men who were inured to 
 out-door life thought him completely used up. But 
 they did not know their man. With the few dollars 
 which he had earned he supplied himself with com- 
 fortable clothing, went back to his work on Monday 
 morning and continued it until the contract was 
 completed. The next winter he taught the first 
 school opened in Fort Dodge, and from that date 
 liis general success was assured. 
 
 HON. DENNIS A. MAHONY, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 DENNIS AUSTIN MAHONY is a native of 
 Ireland, and was born at Ross Carberry, coun- 
 ty of Cork, on the 21st of January, 182 1, and emi- 
 grated to this country with the family in 1831. His 
 parents were Cornelius and Margaret CroUy Ma- 
 hony. 
 
 Dennis commenced going to school before he was 
 five years old, and soon after reaching this country, 
 at the age of nine years, he attended a grammar 
 school in Philadelphia, remaining in it about six 
 years. Whatever additional studying he did, was 
 
 done at home until he entered the law office of Hon. 
 Charles J. Ingersoll. He read law three years, and 
 then came to Dubuque, Iowa, in June, 1843, con- 
 tinuing his law studies with Davis and Crawford. 
 Not designing to remain in the legal profession, he 
 did not then ask to be admitted to the bar. 
 
 Mr. Mahony spent the spring and summer of 1844 
 in Butler township, Jackson county, returning to Du- 
 buque late in the autumn to teach a winter school. 
 In 184s he established an academy in Jackson coun- 
 ty, in what is now called Garry Owen. While in 
 
784 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 that county he was part of the time postmaster, and 
 much of the time justice of the peace. In 1847, 
 having concluded to make Iowa his permanent home, 
 he applied to the supreme court at Iowa City and 
 was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice 
 in the United States district court. 
 
 In 1848 he represented the district of Jackson and 
 Jones counties in the general assembly; was chair- 
 man of the house committee on schools, and of the 
 joint committee on schools of both houses, and 
 drafted the bill which became the public school law 
 of Iowa during that session. 
 
 In the autumn of 1849 he became the editor of 
 the "Miners' Express." Three years later, in con- 
 nection with Messrs. H. Holt, A. A. White and W. 
 A. Adams, he established the Dubuque " Herald," 
 weekly and tri-weekly. It became a daily on the 
 
 4th of July of the same year (1852), the first daily 
 paper in Iowa. In 1854 Mr. Mahony was appointed 
 state printer to fill a vacancy. During the following 
 year, owing to ill health, he sold his interest in the 
 "Herald." 
 
 He was elected to the general assembly from Du- 
 buque county in 1858. The next year he was elected 
 treasurer of Dubuque county to fill a vacancy. In 
 i860 he resumed his journalistic labors, purchasing 
 the " Herald " and conducting it, with associates, for 
 four years. In 1863 he was elected sheriff of Du- 
 buque county, and reelected in 1865. In 1866 he 
 aided in establishing the Saint Louis " Times," and 
 was its chief editor about one year ; he then returned 
 to Dubuque, and is now editing the " Daily Tele- 
 graph." 
 
 In politics, Mr. Mahony is a democrat. 
 
 MAJOR WILLIAM WILLIAMS, 
 
 FORT DODGE. 
 
 A MONG the pioneer settlers in western Iowa was 
 Jr\. Major Williams, who gave Fort Dodge its 
 name, laid its foundation, and worked twenty-four 
 years on its superstructure. To him the present 
 city owes not only its start, but very much of its 
 growth and prosperity, and his memory is held in 
 most grateful remembrance. 
 
 William Williams was born at Huntingdon, Penn- 
 sylvania, on the 6th of December, 1796. His early 
 education was such as could be had in a common 
 school, he entering into business when quite young. 
 His tastes were decidedly military, and he early as- 
 sociated and became largely identified with the sol- 
 diery of his native state. 
 
 Major Williams was the eldest child of a large 
 family, and his father dying in middle life, his ener- 
 gies in early manhood were mainly devoted to the 
 support and education of the younger children. He 
 made noble sacrifices for their benefit. He was 
 always generous, sympathetic and kindly in disposi- 
 tion, always simple in his habits and refined in his 
 tastes and manners, and was regarded, later in life, 
 as a gentleman of the old school. 
 
 At different periods of his earlier life, Major Will- 
 iams was a merchant in his native state, and was 
 among the first persons to manufacture salt on the 
 Kiskiminitas river. Later in life he was connected 
 with the Exchange Bank of Pittsburgh, and was a 
 
 cashier of one of its branches when, in March, 1849, 
 he moved to Iowa. He halted a short time at Mus- 
 catine, but finding no opening that pleased him, he 
 was induced by his friends in the regular army, then 
 on their way westward to establish frontier posts, to 
 accompany them as sutler. This was early in 1850. 
 He set out with the United States troops to establish 
 the post of Fort Clark, now Fort Dodge, which point 
 was reached in February of that year. His son, James 
 B. Williams, then but a mere lad, accompanied him. 
 The Fort was named in honor of General Dodge, of 
 Wisconsin. After the troops were removed. Major 
 Williams remained, purchased the site of the town, 
 and with the aid of his son laid out the village and 
 gave it the name it still retains. Through his cor- 
 respondence with newspapers and his great influence 
 -exerted in other ways, many persons were induced 
 to settle in Webster county. By his exertions the 
 United States land office was established here, and 
 this movement naturally aided in developing the 
 whole northwestern part of the state. 
 
 When the Indian massacre occurred at Spirit Lake, 
 Dickinson county, early in the year 1857, Major Will- 
 iams commanded the three companies which went 
 from Fort Dodge and Webster City, and was subse- 
 quently appointed by Governor Kirkwood to pro- 
 tect the frontier of the state. 
 
 Having lived to see the rewards of his industry, 
 
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 785 
 
 Major Williams died of general debility on the 26th 
 of February, 1874, in his seventy-eighth year. 
 
 He was twice married, his first wife being Judith 
 Lloyd McConnell, to whom he was united on the 
 19th of August, 1830, and who died in 1843. She 
 had five children, only two of whom are living. One 
 of them, whose name has already been mentioned, 
 and who accompanied his father into these prairie 
 wilds twenty-seven years ago, is engaged in the ab- 
 stract title and loan business at Fort Dodge, and is 
 a successful operator in that line. The other sur- 
 viving child is the wife of Hon. J. F. Buncombe, 
 the leading attorney of Webster county. She is a 
 very accomplished lady. The second wife was 
 Jeanette J. Quinian, to whom he was united on the 
 i2th of February, 1844. She has had three chil- 
 dren, only one of whom, William H. Williams, sur- 
 
 vives. The widow Williams resides in Foit Dodge. 
 Major Williams was a Mason and Odd-Fellow. 
 
 Early in life he joined the Presbyterian church, 
 and held his connection there until his demise. 
 
 In politics, he was a life-long democrat. 
 
 He was of slender build, dark complexion, nerv- 
 ous temperament, and five feet and six inches in 
 height. Of body and mind he had an unusual de- 
 gree of elasticity ; was very social and companion- 
 able ; fluent and racy in conversation, and always 
 ready with a repartee. In the early days in Iowa, 
 his lively chat and jeu d' esprit aided very much in 
 breaking up the monotony of frontier life. He lived 
 to see the home of his planting and nurturing grow 
 into a beautiful city of four thousand inhabitants, 
 and to participate for years in all its enlarged social 
 refinements. 
 
 GENERAL GEORGE W. JONES, 
 
 DUBUQUE. 
 
 MANY years before the Black Hawk war of 
 1832 the successful lead miners and Indian 
 traders looked with anxiety to the time when they 
 might take possession of the lead mines which had 
 been opened and worked by Julien Dubuque over 
 forty years before. Among such men was George 
 Wallace Jones. He was born at Vincennes, Indiana, 
 on the i2th of April, 1804, and was a son of Hon. 
 John Rice Jones, a native of Merionethshire, Wales. 
 Mr. Jones was educated at the Transylvania Uni- 
 versity, in Lexington, Kentuck)', and on graduating 
 chose the legal profession, which he studied with a 
 relative, Hon. John Scott, at Saint Genevieve, Mis- 
 souri. He was soon appointed clerk of Judge Peck's 
 court, in which he discharged his duties with com- 
 mendation. At this time failing health required a 
 more active life, and being of a very enterprising 
 spirit, he determined to seek his fortune in the upper 
 Mississippi lead region. He accordingly removed to 
 the new territory of Michigan, and made a home at 
 Sinsinawa Mound, only six miles from Dubuque. 
 This was in the early part of 1827. 
 
 At the close of the Black Hawk war he was elected 
 judge of the court of the western district of Michi- 
 gan, now the State of Wisconsin. It may be said to 
 his credit in the administration of justice that no 
 appeal was taken from any of his decisions. 
 
 Upon the organization of Wisconsin territory, then 
 
 including Iowa, Minnesota, and even the whole re- 
 gion west to the Pacific, in 1836, he was triumph- 
 antly elected over two formidable competitors as a 
 delegate to congress. He then commenced that 
 brilliant political career of civil service and national 
 legislation which continued for more than thirty 
 years, and when a government land office was re- 
 quired for Wisconsin and Iowa he was appointed 
 surveyor-general. This measure had been earnestly 
 advocated by delegate Jones while in congress, and 
 it was mainly through his personal influence that the 
 office was located at Dubuque. He accordingly re- 
 moved to the city and territory of his adoption, and 
 has remained one of its most distinguished citizens 
 ever since. In the next two years political partisan- 
 ship became so strong, under a change of Presidential 
 administration, that he was removed from office, but 
 was reappointed under the new political policy of 
 President Polk in 1845. He then discharged the 
 duties of surveyor-general until 1848, when he was 
 selected by the general assembly as one of the two 
 United States senators. Upon the expiration of his 
 first term as senator he was reelected for another 
 term of six years, terminating in 1859. 
 
 Under the administration of President Buchanan 
 General Jones was appointed minister to New Gren- 
 ada. He made bis official residence in Bogota for 
 three years, and returned during the first year of the 
 
786 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
 
 war of the rebellion. Under some misapprehension 
 of facts, involving, also, partisan malice, incident to 
 that lamentable period of our history, he was arrested 
 and imprisoned several months in Fort La Fayette, 
 and discharged without specific charges having been 
 made against him. On reaching Dubuque, he was 
 given the honor of a public reception. 
 
 For the last fifteen years General Jones has lived 
 a partially retired life. His present family consists 
 of his wife, whose maiden name was Miss Josephine 
 Gregoire, whom he married at Saint Genevieve, Mis- 
 souri, in 1829. She was a member of a highly re- 
 spected French family, a lady of high attainments 
 
 and distinguished for a marked excellence of wo- 
 manly and christian virtues. Of his children, there 
 are surviving three sons and two daughters. 
 
 In every position which, in his eventful life, he has 
 been called to fill. General Jones has been success- 
 ful in the highest degree. Few men have more de- 
 voted friends. None excel him in unselfish devotion 
 and unswerving fidelity to the worthy recipients of 
 his confidence and friendship. In public enterprises 
 and benevolent societies, and in all the social and 
 business relations of life, few men of Dubuque or 
 Iowa will leave a brighter record of public service 
 or private character than General George W. Jones. 
 
 HON. JOHN LEONARD, 
 
 WINTERSET. 
 
 JOHN LEONARD, judge of the fifth judicial dis- 
 trict, is a native of Knox county, Ohio, and was 
 born on the 20th of August, 1825, his parents being 
 Byram and Abigail Lewis Leonard. He was reared 
 as a farmer, with a common-school education, sup- 
 plemented with a few terms at Granville College, 
 now Dennison University. At twenty-three years of 
 age he was elected surveyor of Morrow county, then 
 recently formed from parts of Knox, Richland, Ma- 
 rion and Delaware counties. While holding this 
 office he had access to a law library, and having 
 considerable spare time he devoted it entirely to 
 legal studies, and in the spring of 1852 was admitted 
 to the bar at Wooster, Wayne county. 
 
 After practicing one short year at Mount Gilead 
 he finally left his native state, settling in Winterset 
 in the summer of 1853. Here he opened an office 
 and gradually built up a remunerative practice. He 
 is an inveterate reader, having, perhaps, the largest 
 library of any lawyer in the southwestern quarter of 
 the state. 
 
 Mr. Leonard was elected district attorney in 1862, 
 and resigned in 1864. In January, 1874, he was 
 placed on the bench, and there he is still found. As 
 a jurist, he comprehends the theory underlying a 
 
 case very readily, is prompt in his rulings, and full 
 and very clear in his instructions to a jury. His dis- 
 trict embraces the city of Des Moines, where he 
 spends nearly one-half of his time, and where the 
 most important civil and criminal cases are tried. 
 He is equal to any emergency. 
 
 In his earlier years. Judge Leonard was a dem- 
 .ocrat. For more than twenty years he has been a 
 staunch republican, and among the leading and most 
 influential members of the party in this part of the 
 state. 
 
 Judge Leonard is a member of the Baptist church 
 of long and high standing, and a man whose con- 
 sistent christian character has greatly heightened 
 the esteem held for him in his judicial district. 
 
 The wife of Judge Leonard was Mrs. Minerva Den- 
 man Best, daughter of Joseph Denman, a pioneer 
 farmer in Morrow county, Ohio. They were married 
 in October, 1848, and have two children. Byram is 
 an attorney of much promise in Winterset, and John 
 Frederick is a student in the Cedar Valley Seminary, 
 Osage, Iowa. Mrs. Leonard had one child by her 
 first husband. That child, Mary J. Best, is the wife 
 of Hon. Frederick Mott, whose sketch appears in 
 this volume. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Adams, Hon. Abraham G Burlington i6o 
 
 Adams, Hon. Austin Dubuque 42 
 
 Adams, Shubael P Dubuque 133 
 
 Ains worth, Hon. Lucian L West Union 139 
 
 Aldrich, Charles Webster City iS 
 
 AUeman, Levi J., M.D Boone 731 
 
 Allen, John H., M.D Maquoketa 154 
 
 Allen, William W., M.D Mason City 148 
 
 Allison, Hon. William B Dubuque 49 
 
 Anient, Hon. Joseph P Muscatine 506 
 
 Anderson, J. Si., M.D Montrose 166 
 
 Anderson, Thomas J Knoxville 523 
 
 Anthony, Horace Camanche 163 
 
 Applegate, David D Toledo 760 
 
 Argo, George W Lemars 519 
 
 Armstrong, Rev. John Fairfield 526 
 
 Arnold, Hon. Delos Marshalltown .... 149 
 
 Atkins, Hon. Jeremiah T Decorah 138 
 
 Atlee, John C Fort Madison 176 
 
 Ayres, Orlando B Knoxville 518 
 
 Babbitt, Hon. Lysander W Council Bluifs. . . . 169 
 
 Bagg, Hon. Sylvester Waterloo 54 
 
 Baker, Gen. Andrew J .Centerville 409 
 
 Baker, John W. H., M.D Davenport 187 
 
 Baldwin, Hon. Caleb Council Bluffs 175 
 
 Baldwin, John T Council Bluffs. . . . 173 
 
 Baldy, Henry T., M.D Toledo 438 
 
 Ball, James M., M.D Waterloo 163 
 
 Ballingall, Peter G Ottumwa 614 
 
 Barhydt, Theodore W Burlington 89 
 
 Barr, James, M.D Algona 424 
 
 Baxter, William H., M.D ...Wilton 473 
 
 Beach, Col. Benjamin A Muscatine 520 
 
 Beaman, David C Keosauqua 484 
 
 Beaman, Rev. Gamaliel C Keosauqua 483 
 
 Becker, Frederick Burlington 245 
 
 Beebe, Joseph T., M.D Afton 698 
 
 Beed, George Hampton 243 
 
 Bemis, Hon. George W Independence .... 64 
 
 Bennett, Joseph Muscatine 516 
 
 Bever, Sampson C Cedar Rapids .... 106 
 
 Bingham, Rev. Joel S., D.D Dubuque 300 
 
 Black, Alexander Keokuk 119 
 
 Blackett, William Clermont 207 
 
 Blackinan, William W., M.D West Mitchell 435 
 
 Bloom, Hon. Moses Iowa City 198 
 
 Bloomer, Dexter C Council Bluffs. . . . 159 
 
 Blythe, Smith G., M.D Nora Springs 270 
 
 Boardman, Hon. Norman Lyons 12S 
 
 Boies, Horace Waterloo 144 
 
 Bonnifield, West B Ottumwa 570 
 
 Boomer, Albert, M.D Delhi 254 
 
 Booth, Gen. C. H Dubuque 253 
 
 Borchers, Augustus Hamburg 680 
 
 Bosbyshell, Hon. E. C Glenwood 531 
 
 Bowdoin, Hon. Elbridge G Rockford 426 
 
 Boyd, William S., M.D Vinton 413 
 
 Bracewell, Hartley Corydon 541 
 
 Bradley, Rev. George S., A.M Wilton 633 
 
 Bradley, William Centerville 457 
 
 Bray ton, Hon. John M Delhi 62 
 
 Brooks, James Harper Tama City 417 
 
 Broomhall, Allen, LL.B Muscatine 548 
 
 Brown, I Ion. Alfred F Cedar Falls 137 
 
 Brown, Rev. Charles E Lime Springs 544 
 
 Brown, Timothy Marshalltown .... 158 
 
 Bruner, Francis M Oakaloosa 146 
 
 Brush, Jacob H Osage 416 
 
 Buchanan, John C Lemars 716 
 
 Buell, Elijah Lyons 180 
 
 Bulls, Henry C, M.D Decorah 214 
 
 Burch, Hon. George B Dubuque 62 
 
 Burdick, Hon. Theodore W Decorah 205 
 
 Burns, Alexander, D.D Indianola 525 
 
 Burrows, John McD Davenport 45 
 
 Burton, Hon. Edward L Ottumwa 489 
 
 Butler, Lindlev S Northwood 120 
 
 Butterfield, Thomas F DeWitt 209 
 
 Buttolph, Jonathan T Iowa Falls 527 
 
 Button, Henry P., M.D Iowa City 248 
 
 Cable, George W Davenport 316 
 
 Call, Ambrose A Algona 654 
 
 Call, Asa C Algona 654 
 
 Campbell, Hon. Frank T Newton 728 
 
 Card, Hon. Irving W Mason City 365 
 
 Carmichael, Lewis Tama City 592 
 
 Carpenter, Prof. A. M Keokuk 354 
 
 Carpenter, Hon. Anthony W Burlington 369 
 
 Carpenter, Hon. Cyrus C Fort Dodge 781 
 
 Carpenter, Judson E Clinton 339 
 
 Carr, Major John W Montezuma 596 
 
 Carter, James D Winterset 446 
 
 Carton, John A Ackley 395 
 
 Casady, Jefferson P Council Bluffs . . . 179 
 
 Casey, Hon. Joseph M Fort Madison 168 
 
 Chamberlain, William C Dubuque 305 
 
 Chambers, Charles L., M.D Tipton 597 
 
 Chambers, Wra., and Sons Muscatine 273 
 
 Chaney, Lieutenant John Osceola 577 
 
 Chapin, Elias C Davenport 53 
 
 Chapman, Hon. Joseph Colesburgh 534 
 
 Chapman, John W Council Bluffs . .. 165 
 
 Chase, Daniel D Webster City 90 
 
 Chase, Dwight W., M.D Elkader 318 
 
 Chase, Jacob L Osage 666 
 
 Chase, Sumner B., M.D Osage 460 
 
 Child, John S Rockford 554 
 
 Christy, George B., M.D Dunlap 584 
 
 Clark, Alexander Muscatine 536 
 
 Clark, Col. Leander Toledo 569 
 
 Clark, Hon. Rush Iowa City 47 
 
 Claussen, Hon. Hans R Davenport 174 
 
 Clement, Jesse Chicago 625 
 
 Cloud, Hon. David C Muscatine 582 
 
 Coffman, A. W Avoca 594 
 
 Coldwell, Timothy J., M.D Adel 5^9 
 
 Cole, Hon. Chester C Des Moines 10 
 
 Cole, Samuel W Fort Dodge 264 
 
 Collins, Adgate W Knoxville 598 
 
 Conaway, John, M.D Brookl^'n 637 
 
 Cook, Hon. Lyman Burlington 188 
 
 Cooley, Hon. Dennis N Dubuque 34 
 
 Cooley, Hon. Ezekiel E Decorah 63 
 
 Corbett, Carlton Cherokee 532 
 
 Cornell, Norman R., M.D Knoxville 596 
 
 Cornish, Col. Joel N Hamburg 769 
 
 Corns, William, M.D Tama City 578 
 
 Coverdale, Capt. Robert T Muscatine 609 
 
 Cowles, Eugene Cherokee 533 
 
 Craig, Seth H., M.D Fort Madison 177 
 
 Crooks, George W Boone 6S3 
 
 Culbertson, John Tipton 509 
 
 Culbertson, William L Carroll 653 
 
 Cummings, Hon. Henry J. B Winterset 2 
 
 Curr, Rev. Allan Dubuque 97 
 
 Cushing, Hon. James Dubuque 150 
 
 Cutler, Hon. Ezekiel Decorah 255 
 
 Dana, John L Nevada 659 
 
 Davenport, George L Davenport 32 
 
 David, Col. John S Burlington 178 
 
 Davies, Hon. John L Davenport 299 
 
 Davis, Charles W., A.M., M.D Indianola 673 
 
 Davis, James Exira 779 
 
 Davis, John S Davenport 335 
 
788 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Davis, Mahlon J., M.D Lewis 646 
 
 Davis, Samuel T Sioux City 121 
 
 Dawson, James Washington 757 
 
 Day, Hon. James G ■ Sidney 691 
 
 Dean, Henry M., M.D Muscatine 748 
 
 Decker, William H Davenport 179 
 
 Deering, Hon. N. C Osage 220 
 
 Denison, Rev. Jesse W Denison 663 
 
 Dillon, Hon. John F Davenport 773 
 
 Donnan, Hon. William G Independence .... 378 
 
 Douglass, Thomas J., M.D Ottumwa 587 
 
 Dow, Col. Tristram T Davenport 349 
 
 Dows, Hon. Stephen L Cedar Rapids .... 665 
 
 Drake, Gen. Francis M Centerville 690 
 
 Drake, John A Centerville 632 
 
 Drake, John H Albia > . . . . 705 
 
 Drayer, Hon. John B Mount Pleasant . . 701 
 
 Duffield, Col. George Bloomfield 679 
 
 Duncan, R. Wallace Albia 604 
 
 Duncombe, Hon. John F Fort Dodge 74 
 
 Dungan, Hon. Warren S Chariton 755 
 
 Dunham, Hon. Lewis B Maquoketa 268 
 
 Dvvelle, Hon. Lemuel Northwood 56 
 
 Eastman, Hon. Enoch W Eldora 66 
 
 Edgington Brothers Eldora 419 
 
 Edmundson, Hon. David Newton 726 
 
 Eiboeck, Joseph Des Moines 709 
 
 Eldridge, Jacob M Davenport 308 
 
 Ellsworth, Daniel F Eldora 319 
 
 Ely, John F., M.D Cedar Rapids 267 
 
 Emonds, Rev. William Iowa City 250 
 
 Evans, James F Council Bluflfs, . . . 167 
 
 Evans, John V Logan 607 
 
 Everett, Francis M., M.D Corydon 670 
 
 Fairfield, Hon. William B Charles City 743 
 
 Farwell, Cyrus A Waterloo 127 
 
 Fellows, Liberty E Lansing 125 
 
 Fellows, Rev. Stephen M., D.D Iowa City 3i;6 
 
 Felt, Andrew J Nashua 317 
 
 Finch, Daniel O Des Moines 4S5 
 
 Findley, Daniel, M.D Atlantic 736 
 
 Findley, William McK., M.D Bloomfield 733 
 
 Fisher, Zelotes T Red Oak 602 
 
 Foley, John New Hampton . . . 258 
 
 Forrest, John Davenport §2 
 
 Foster, Suel Muscatine 286 
 
 Foster, William A Davenport 394 
 
 French, George H Davenport 155 
 
 French, Lucius, M.D Davenport 289 
 
 Fuller, Levi, M.D West Union 118 
 
 Fulton, Hon. A. C Davenport 190 
 
 Gabbert, Henry Blue Grass 366 
 
 Gabbert, William H Davenport 170 
 
 Gage, James P Lyons 244 
 
 Gallup, Hon. William H Nevada 656 
 
 Gardner, Gideon New Hampton . . . 226 
 
 Garrett, William Burlington 233 
 
 Garrison, Oscar W Iowa Falls 667 
 
 Gear, Gov. John H Burlington 9 
 
 Gibbon, W. H., M.D Chariton 644 
 
 Gilbert, Milo Charles City 745 
 
 Gillett, John W Atlantic 641 
 
 Gilman, ChaiMes C Eldora 217 
 
 Goodenow, John E Maquoketa 72 
 
 Gordon, Leopold H Newell 762 
 
 Gordon, William Muscatine 68l 
 
 Gorrell, Joseph R., M.D Newton 636 
 
 Granger, Hon. Charles T Waukon 57 
 
 Granger, Henry S Elkader 185 
 
 Grant, Hon. James Davenport 38 
 
 Graves, Hon. J. K Dubuque 61 
 
 Graves, Rufus E Dubuque 141; 
 
 Greeley, Edward P Nashua 256 
 
 Green, John W Davenport 189 
 
 Greene, Benjamin Adel 678 
 
 Greene, Hon. George Cedar Rapids . , . . 98 
 
 Greenleaf, Daniel C, M.D Bloomfield 648 
 
 Griggs, Francis H Davenport 226 
 
 Grimes, Hon. James W Burlington i 
 
 Grimes, William S., M.D Des Moines 637 
 
 Grimmell, George H., M.D Jefferson 647 
 
 Groves, L. S., M.D Afton 568 
 
 Gruwell, Dr. John P Oskaloosa 71S 
 
 Gue, Benjamin F Des Moines 700 
 
 Guilbert, Edward A., M.D Dubuque 114 
 
 Gurley, Harrison New Hampton . . . 684 
 
 Guthrie, Patrick M Carroll 731 
 
 Hagerman, James Keokuk 238 
 
 Hale, Col. Oscar C Keokuk 206 
 
 Hall, Lieut. George F Davenport ...... 197 
 
 Hall, Israel Davenport 196 
 
 Hall, Hon. John Eldora 234 
 
 Hall, Hon. Jonathan C Burlington 228 
 
 Hammond, William G Iowa City 40 
 
 Hancock, Frederick H Davenport 199 
 
 Hane3',John Lansing 225 
 
 Harkness, Prof. Richard A., A.M. .Garden Grove 754 
 
 Harlan, Hon. James Mount Pleasant . . 29 
 
 Harlow, S. C Avoca 594 
 
 Harris,_Daniel M Missouri Valley. . 724 
 
 Hart, Henry W., M.D Council Bluffs 515 
 
 Harvey, Addison L Logan 514 
 
 Hatch, Leander O McGregor 157 
 
 Hawley, Cyrus Muscatine 283 
 
 Hawley, James Ottumwa 774 
 
 Hayes, Walter I Clinton 184 
 
 Hazen, Edward H., M.D Davenport 240 
 
 Head, Hon. Albert Jefferson 508 
 
 Healy, Rev. Jos. W., M.D., D.D. . .Iowa City 164 
 
 Hedge, Thomas Burlmgton 1 86 
 
 Hedges, Charles E Sioux City 697 
 
 Hempstead, Hon. Stephen Dubuque 779 
 
 Hendrie, Charles Council Bluffs. . . . 235 
 
 Herron, John Lemars 515 
 
 Hershey, Benjamin Muscatine 464 
 
 Hewett, Hon. Sumner B Eagle Grove 470 
 
 Hewett, Seamun R., M.D NoraSprings 524 
 
 Hildreth, Hon. Azro B. F. . .'. Charles City 85 
 
 Hildreth, Isaac F., M.D Leon 519 
 
 Hillis, Gen. David B., M.D Keokuk 65 
 
 Hilsinger, Hon. John Sabula 227 
 
 Hobbs, Hon. Wesley C Fort Madison .... 219 
 
 Hobson, Hon. Joseph .-West Union 153 
 
 Hoffman, David A., M.D Oskaloosa 530 
 
 Hoggatt, Lucian Q Ames 497 
 
 Hogin, Hon. James L Sigourney 215 
 
 Holbrook, Norman B Marengo 508 
 
 Holmes, Robert Cedar Rapids 247 
 
 Holyoke, Thomas C, M.D Grinnell 294 
 
 Horr, Asa, M.D Dubuque 50 
 
 Hosford, Abraim P Clinton 430 
 
 House, John G., M.D Independence .... 266 
 
 Howe, Samuel L Mount Pleasant . . 223 
 
 Howell, Harrison S Keokuk 236 
 
 Hubbard, Hon. Asahel W Sioux City 33 
 
 Huff, Henry L Eldora 126 
 
 Huft", Sanford W., M.D , Sigourney 474 
 
 Hughes, Joseph C, M.D Keokuk 239 
 
 Hunt, Hon. Daniel Avoca 522 
 
 Hunter, Hon. John D Webster City 259 
 
 Huntsman, Henry C, M.D Oskaloosa 246 
 
 Hurley, Hon. James S Wapello 626 
 
 Huston, William L., M.D Marengo 524 
 
 Hutchings, Joseph J Winterset 42.1; 
 
 Ireland, Alexander B., M.D Camanche 299 
 
 Iseminger, William, M.D Denison 696 
 
 Jaeger, Hon. Edmund Keokuk 69 
 
 James, Samuel A Sigourney 450 
 
 Jones, Gen. George W Dubuque 785 
 
 Jones, Maston H Bloomfield 710 
 
 Jones, Wesley Burlington 383 
 
 Joy, Hon, William L Sioux City 73 
 
INDEX. 
 
 789 
 
 Joyce, David Lyons 329 
 
 Karr, Hamilton L Osceola 764 
 
 Keatley, Col. John H Council Bluffs 303 
 
 Keck, 'Joseph Washington 31 
 
 Kellogg, Major Racine D . Garden Grove ... 715 
 
 Kelso, James S., M.D Ackley 423 
 
 Kilburn, Francis A Montezuma 572 
 
 Kimball, Hon. Aaron Cresco 618 
 
 Kincaid, Col. George W Muscatine 752 
 
 King, Hon. John H Hampton 683 
 
 King, William F., D.D Mount Vernon . . . 660 
 
 Kinne, Hon. Samuel H Lansing 571 
 
 Kirk wood, Hon. Samuel J Iowa City 367 
 
 Kister, Hon. Israel Bloomfield 613 
 
 Knapp, Hon. Joseph C Keosauqua 26 
 
 Knapp, Thomas B Iowa Falls 600 
 
 Knox, Rev. James Cedar Rapids 566 
 
 Knox, James H Indianola 705 
 
 Lake, Col. Jed Independence .... 384 
 
 Lamb, Chauncey Clinton 375 
 
 Lambert, William S., M.D Albia 770 
 
 Laub, Henry C Denison 558 
 
 Lauman, George C Burlington 405 
 
 Lauman, Gen. Jacob G Burlington 406 
 
 Lawrence, Hon. Albert H Lemars 761 
 
 Lawrence, Solmon L Wilton 104 
 
 Lea, Claiborn Keosauqua 706 
 
 Lea, Rutledge Keosauqua 674 
 
 Leach, Hon. Wm. B Cedar Rapids .... 386 
 
 LeClaire, Antoine Davenport 363 
 
 Leonard, Hon. Harvey Davenport 400 
 
 Leonard, Hon. John Winterset 786 
 
 Lewis, Hon. Charles H Cherokee 368 
 
 Lewis, William C, M.D Clermont 528 
 
 Lindley, Hon. Stephen N Newton 493 
 
 Lockridge, William Nevada 456 
 
 Loring, Daniel W Oskaloosa 766 
 
 Lucas, William D Ames 750 
 
 Luse, Hon. Zephaniah C Iowa City 390 
 
 Lyman, Joseph Council Bluffs, . . . 759 
 
 Lyon, Captain Orlo H Rockford 553 
 
 McAllister, Charles, M.D Spencer 498 
 
 McAyeal, Rev. Robert A., D.D ... . Oskaloosa 727 
 
 McCall, Thomas C Nevada 775 
 
 McClelland, Josiah R., M.D Leon 711 
 
 McCluer, Benjamin, M.D Dubuque 397 
 
 McCrary, Hon. George W Keokuk 605 
 
 McGavren, George H., M.D '.Missouri Valley. . 765 
 
 McGuire, John F Clinton 455 
 
 Mclntire, C. C Osceola 561 
 
 Mcjunkin, Hon. John F Washington 24 
 
 McKean, Rev. James Anamosa 649 
 
 McKean, Hon. John Anamosa 650 
 
 McKnight, William W Winterset 642 
 
 McMahan, Oliver Lyons 420 
 
 McNutt, Hon. Samuel Muscatine 685 
 
 McPherson, Smith Red Oak 674 
 
 McRae, Rev. Thaddeus .' Cedar Rapids 458 
 
 Maclay, John and Co Dubuque 479 
 
 Mahin, Hon. John Muscatine 675 
 
 Mahony, Hon. Dennis A Dubuque 783 
 
 Maish, George H Des Moines 777 
 
 Manning, Edwin Keosauqua 510 
 
 Mansfield, Eber L., M.D Cedar Rapids 756 
 
 Mathews, Robert N Rockford 260 
 
 Maxwell, Archibald S., M.D Da-enport 579 
 
 Maxwell, Hon. Hugh W Des Moines 696 
 
 Mayes, William B Jefferson 714 
 
 Maynard, Henry H., M.D Tipton 717 
 
 Mehlhop, John Dubuque 753 
 
 Merrell, Hon. Nathaniel A DeWitt 313 
 
 Merrill, Hon. Samuel Des Moines 14 
 
 Merritt, Col. Wm. H Des Moines 737 
 
 Meservey, William N Fort Dodge 719 
 
 Meyer, Hon. John Newton 720 
 
 Miller, Edmund Waterloo 439 
 
 Miller, Hon. George R Mason City 383 
 
 Miller, George W Waterloo 379 
 
 Miller, Hon. William E Des Moines 763 
 
 Mills, Oliver ? Lewis 760 
 
 Mitchell, Hon. G. C. R Davenport 48 
 
 Mitchell, Hon. Isaac J Boonesboro 403 
 
 Mitchell, Hon. Thomas Mitchellville 547 
 
 Mixer, Henry M., M.D New Hampton . . . 324 
 
 Montgomery, Benjamin F Council Bluffs . . . 328 
 
 Mooar, Hon. Daniel Keok uk 437 
 
 Moore, Hon. Napoleon B Clarinda 739 
 
 Morgan, Albert W., M.D DeWitt 347 
 
 Morse, Hon. George A Corning 542 
 
 Mott, Hon. Frederick Winterset 702 
 
 Moulton, Mo.ses M Monticello 428 
 
 Murphy, Hon. Jeremiah H Davenport 677 
 
 Murdock, Hon. Samuel .Elkader 399 
 
 Nash, John A., D.D Des Moines 60S 
 
 Neidig, Abraham H., A.M Marshalltown .... 429 
 
 Nelson, Levi B Toledo 622 
 
 Newbold, Hon. Joshua G Mount Pleasant . . 8 
 
 Newcomb, Daniel T Davenport 559 
 
 Newman, Hon. Thomas W Burlington 320 
 
 Noble, Hon. Reuben McGregor 529 
 
 Nowlin, Hon. Hardin Waterloo 454 
 
 Ogilvie, Adam Muscatine 407 
 
 Olney, Stephen B., M.D Fort Dodge 263 
 
 Olshausen, Jolin J., M.D Davenport 374 
 
 Osborne, Henry, M.D Council Bluffs. . . . 664 
 
 Palmer, Hon. Le Roy G Mount Pleasant . . 749 
 
 Park, Castanus B., M.D Grand Junction . . 672 
 
 Parker, Charles C, M.D Fayette 357 
 
 Parker, George H Davenport 741 
 
 Parrott, General James C Keokuk 269 
 
 Parrott, Hon. Matt Waterloo 588 
 
 Parry, Charles C, M.D. Davenport "77 
 
 Parsons, Albert W Burlington 490 
 
 Parsons, Robert F., M.D AUerton 746 
 
 Parvin, Hon. Theodore S., LL.D. . .Iowa Citv 310 
 
 Patterson, Hon. John G Charles City 729 
 
 Patterson, Col. William Keokuk 550 
 
 Peasley, James C Burlington 359 
 
 Peck, Washington F., M.D Davenport 285 
 
 Perkins, Charles G Onawa 643 
 
 Perkins, Hon. Jeremiah Adel 738 
 
 Phillips, John M Council Bluffs 327 
 
 Phipps, Albert Cherokee 711 
 
 Piatt, Hermon C Tipton 735 
 
 Pitman, Edward K Leon 744 
 
 Pitzer, JohnA Winterset 734 
 
 Pollock, Samuel M Dubuque 340 
 
 Pond, S. P Keokuk 268 
 
 Porter, Hon. John Eldora 369 
 
 Potter, Harvey Jefferson 740 
 
 Powers, Hon. Julius H New Hampton ... 730 
 
 Pratt, Hon. Henry O Charles City 735 
 
 Price, Hrn. Hiram Davenport 41b 
 
 Putnam, Joseph D Davenport 630 
 
 Quimby, George Burlington 359 
 
 Rand, Elbridge D Burlington 237 
 
 Randall, Hon. Elisha Mason City 2^7 
 
 Read, Samuel G. A., A.M., M.D. . . Algona ...... 494 
 
 Redhead, Wesley Des Moines 102 
 
 Redman, William H Montezuma 427 
 
 Reed, Joseph L Wilton 290 
 
 Reeve, Col. Arthur T Hampton '35^ 
 
 Reeve, James Baldwin Mavsville -ic-, 
 
 Reiniger, Hon. Robert G Charles City 1:75 
 
 Renwick, Hon. James Davenport ... \:^t 
 
 Renwick, William Davenport 58 
 
 Reupke, Schmidt and Schwarting. .Davenport . .. . 604 
 
 Reynolds, George M New Hampton . 2-'9 
 
 Reynolds, James H Fort Madison .... 306 
 
 Rice, Hon. Byron Des Moines 88 
 
 Rice, Hon. James Osceola. r7i 
 
 Rice,JoshuaM Lyons "" 280 
 
79° 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Richards, Charles B Fort Dodge 230 
 
 Richardson, David W Davenport 208 
 
 Richman, De Witt C Muscatine 503 
 
 Richman, Hon. Jacob S Davenport 545 
 
 Riley, Louis A Wapello 751 
 
 Robertson, James M., M.D Muscatine no 
 
 Robertson, William S., M.D Muscatine 767 
 
 Robinson, Stephen E., M.D West Union 315 
 
 Rogers, Hon. Charles J Dubuque 122 
 
 Rogers, Hon. John N Davenport 70 
 
 Rogers, Jacob W West Union 445 
 
 Rohlis, Hon. M. J Davenport 24S 
 
 Rose, Hon. Samuel L Rose Grove 249 
 
 Ross, Hon. Lewis W Council Blutfs, . . . 4^9 
 
 Ross, Thomas J Nevada 463 
 
 Roszell, Charles A. L Clarksville 646 
 
 Rothrock, Hon. James II Tipton 772 
 
 Ruddick, Hon. George W Waverly 635 
 
 Rumple, Hon. John N. W Marengo 443 
 
 Russell, Edward Davenport 333 
 
 Sales, Lorenzo H., M.D Leon 5S1 
 
 Sampson, Hon. Ezekiel S Sigourney 200 
 
 Sapp, Hon. William F Council Bluffs, . . . 370 
 
 Saunders, Presley , Mount Pleasant . . 642 
 
 Schranjm, John S Burlington 3S7 
 
 Scobey, Rev. Zephaniah D Favette 307 
 
 Scofield, Darius, M.D Washington 628 
 
 Scofield, Gen. Hiram Washington 620 
 
 Sears, Hon. Epenetus H Sidney 662 
 
 Secor, Hon. David Des Moines 377 
 
 Seevers, Hon. William H Oskaloosa 776 
 
 Selbv, Hon. Llovd Corvdon 547 
 
 Shannon, Julius'W Elkader 388 
 
 Sharp, Hon. Hiram T Atlantic 613 
 
 Shaw, Benjamin F Anamosa 574 
 
 Shaw, George S Davenport 385 
 
 Shaw, Col. William T Anamosa 444 
 
 Shelley, James M Keokuk 414 
 
 Sherman, Hon. Buren R Des Moines 440 
 
 Shoemaker, Samuel II De Witt 331; 
 
 Shrader, John Clinton, M.D Iowa City 360 
 
 Sinnett, Samuel Muscatine 112 
 
 Sloan, Hon. Robert Keosauqua 721 
 
 Smedley, Col. Abel B Cresco 689 
 
 Smith, Anderson J., M.D De Soto 551 
 
 Smith, Hon. Delano T Marshalltown .... 623 
 
 Smith, Hon. John J Van Meter 376 
 
 Smith, Tames S Iowa Falls 541 
 
 Smith, Joel W., M.D Charles City 576 
 
 Smith, Col. Milo Clinton . . . ." 486 
 
 Smith, Milo P Marengo 708 
 
 Smith, Samuel F Davenport 343 
 
 Smith, Hon. Sherman G Newton 415 
 
 Smith, William R., M.D Sioux City 404 
 
 Smyth, Hon. Robert Mount Vernon . . . 535 
 
 Spencer, Charles H Grinnell 552 
 
 Stac3',John S Anamosa 325 
 
 Staples, George M., A.M., M.D Dubuque 477 
 
 Starker, Charles H. W Burlington 557 
 
 Starr, Hon. Henry W Burlington 398 
 
 Stein, Simon G Muscatine 467 
 
 Stewart, Hon. Jacob W Davenport 380 
 
 Stewart, Hon. William G Dubuque 393 
 
 Stewart, William H Muscatine 601 
 
 Stiles, Hon. Edward H Ottumwa 722 
 
 Stivers, William H Toledo 500 
 
 Stockton, Hon. Thomas R Sydney 703 
 
 Stone, Joseph C, M.D Burlington 389 
 
 Stone, Hon. John Y Glenwood 7 
 
 Stone, Thomas J Sioux City 408 
 
 Stone, Hon. William M Knoxville 573 
 
 Sloneman, Hon. John T McGregor 671 
 
 Stout, Hon. Henrv L Dubuque 3150 
 
 Stubb.s, Hon. Daniel P Fairfield 668 
 
 Sweatt, Charles West Mitchell 418 
 
 Swigart, William C Maquoketa 309 
 
 Taylor, Hon. Robert H., M.D Marshalltown 436 
 
 Teesdale, John Mount Pleasant . . 704 
 
 Temple, Henry Atlantic 585 
 
 Temple, M. L Osceola 469 
 
 Thickston, Rev. Thomas F Council Bluffs. . . . 707 
 
 Thompson, Benjamin W., M.D . . . .Muscatine 134 
 
 Thompson, Hon. William G Marion 344 
 
 Tilford, John St. Clair Vinton 496 
 
 Todhunter, Lewis Indianola 778 
 
 Toll, Major Charles H Clinton 555 
 
 Tracy, Hon. Joshua Burlington 533 
 
 Traer, James C, M.D Vinton 488 
 
 Traverse, Hon. Henry C Bloom field 595 
 
 Trimble, Hon. Henry H Bloomfield 692 
 
 Tults, Hon. John Q.. Wilton 586 
 
 Tuthill, Hon. William H Tipton 434 
 
 Tuttle, Gen. James M .Des Moines 79 
 
 Tuttle, Hon. Marcus Clear Lake 210 
 
 Underwood, Hon. James Eldora 80 
 
 Underwood, Myron, M.D Eldora 338 
 
 Vandever, Gen. William Dubuque 278 
 
 Van Sandt, N. L., M.D Clarinda 619 
 
 Vest, John W. H., M.D Montezuma 612 
 
 Viele, Hon. Philip Fort Madison ... 94 
 
 Von Coelln, Hon. Carl W Des Moines 426 
 
 Walden, Hon. Madison M Centerville 770 
 
 Walker, Benjamin K Northwood 347 
 
 Walker, John D Wilton 136 
 
 Walker, William W Cedar Rapids .... 265 
 
 Wain, Elijah D Mount Vernon . . . 640 
 
 Walton, Josiah P IVJuscatine 657 
 
 Ward, Charles H Des Moines 87 
 
 Ware, Jesse C, M.D Fairfield 478 
 
 Warren, George H Tama City 480 
 
 Washburn, Lyman H Muscatine 499 
 
 Wasson, Jesse, M.D La Porte City 348 
 
 Waters, William B., M.D Marshalltown .... 747 
 
 Watson, Samuel H Vinton 712 
 
 Watson, William, M.D Dubuque 655 
 
 Weare, John Cedar Rapids 55 
 
 Weaver, Gen. James B Bloomfield i5 
 
 Webster, Wesley W Muscatine 638 
 
 Weiser, Horace S Decorah 330 
 
 Wells, William M Oskaloosa 326 
 
 Wetherell, Aaron D., M.D Knoxville 598 
 
 Wheeler, Hon. Loring De Witt 345 
 
 Whiting, Timothy Mount Pleasant . . 713 
 
 Wilcox, Phineas C. . . . ." Independence .... 130 
 
 Willey, Andrew J., M.D ; Mount Ayr 724 
 
 Williams, Hamlin B Glenwood 561 
 
 Williams, Hon. Morris J Ottumwa 599 
 
 Williams, Major William Fort Dodge 784 
 
 Williams, Willis F Vinton 725 
 
 Williamson, Hon. William W Des Moines 314 
 
 Wilson, Hon. David S Dubuque 396 
 
 Wilson, E. H., M.D Osceola 723 
 
 Wilson, Hon. James F Fairfield 780 
 
 Wilson, Hon. Thomas S Dubuque 366 
 
 Wilson, Hon. W. M Osceola 732 
 
 Winchester, Sheldon G Eldora 346 
 
 Winslo w, Hon. Horace S Newton 1562 
 
 Witham, Charles E., M.D Wilton 295 
 
 Woodbridge, Enoch D Nashua 721 
 
 Woodin, George D Sigourney 276 
 
 Woodruff, Marcus C Dubuque . .• 258 
 
 Woods, Peter N., M.D Fairfield 593 
 
 Woodward, Hon. Jerome S Independence .... 279 
 
 Worley, Joshua, M.D Belle Plaine 687 
 
 Wright, Hon. George F Council Bluffs 336 
 
 Wright, Hon. George G Des;Moines 771 
 
 Wright, George H Sioux City 337 
 
 Wyman, Rufus H., M.D Keokuk 554 
 
 Young, George T Leon 688 
 
 Young, Hon. Josiah T Des Moines 140 
 
 Zeigler, Samuel B West Union 565 
 
 Zuver, Hon. Joseph R Sioux City. . . 645