USA > Iowa > Mills County > A biographical history of Fremont and Mills Counties, Iowa > Part 27
USA > Iowa > Fremont County > A biographical history of Fremont and Mills Counties, Iowa > Part 27
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Mr. Morton was elected judge on the Democratic ticket, in 1852, but on the passage of the " Kansas-Nebraska Bill" he severed his connection with that party, and soon became a prominent leader of the Re- publicans. He was elected governor of In- diana in 1861, and as war governor became well known throughout the country. He received a paralytic stroke in 1865, which partially deprived him of the use of his limbs. He was chosen to the United States senate from Indiana, in 1867, and wielded great influence in that body until the time of his death, November 1, 1877.
JOHN B. GORDON, a brilliant Confeder- ate officer and noted senator of the United States, was born in Upson county, Georgia, February 6, 1832. He graduated from the State University, studied law, and took up the practice of his profession. At the be- ginning of the war he entered the Confederate service as captain of infantry, and rapidly
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rose to the rank of lieutenant-general, commanding one wing of the Confederate army at the close of the war. In 1868 he was Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia, and it is said was elected by a large majority, but his opponent was given the office. He was a delegate to the national Democratic conventions in 1868 and 1872, and a presidential elector both years. In 1873 he was elected to the United States senate. In 1886 he was elected governor of Georgia, and re-elected in 1888. He was again elected to the United States senate in 1890, serving until 1897, when he was succeeded by A. S. Clay. He was regarded as a leader of the southern Democ- racy, and noted for his fiery eloquence.
S TEPHEN JOHNSON FIELD, an illus- trious associate justice of the supreme court of the United States, was born at Haddam, Connecticut, November 4, 1816, being one of the noted sons of Rev. D. D. Field. He graduated from Williams College in 1837, took up the study of law with his brother, David Dudley Field, be- coming his partner upon admission to the bar. He went to California in 1849, and at once began to take an active interest in the political affairs of that state. He was elected alcalde of Marysville, in 1850, and in the autumn of the same year was elected to the state legislature. In 1857 he was elected judge of the supreme court of the state, and two years afterwards became its chief justice. In 1863 he was appointed by President Lincoln as associate justice of the supreme court of the United States. During his incumbency, in 1873, he was appointed by the governor of California one of a com- mission to examine the codes of the state and for the preparation of amendments to the same for submission to the legislature.
In 1877 he was one of the famous electoral commission of fifteen members, and voted as one of the seven favoring the election of Tilden to the presidency. In 1880 a large portion of the Democratic party favored his nomination as candidate for the presidency. He retired in the fall of 1897, having served a greater number of years on the supreme bench than any of his associates or predecessors, Chief Justice Marshall coming next in length of service.
JOHN T. MORGAN, whose services in the United States senate brought him. into national prominence, was born in Athens, Tennessee, June 20, 1824. At the age of nine years he emigrated to Alabama, where he made his permanent home, and where he received an academic education. He then took up the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1845. He took a leading part in local politics, was a presi- dential elector in 1860, casting his ballot for Breckenridge and Lane, and in 1861 was a delegate to the state convention which passed the ordinance of secession. In May, of the same year, he joined the Confederate army as a private in Company I, Cahawba Rifles, and was soon after made major and then lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth Regiment. In 1862 he was commissioned colonel, and soon after made brigadier-general and as- signed to the command of a brigade in Vir- ginia. He resigned to join his old regiment whose colonel had been killed. He was soon afterward again made brigadier-gen- eral and given command of the brigade that included his regiment.
After the war he returned to the prac- tice of law, and continued it up to the time of his election to the United States senate, in 1877. He was a presidential elector in 1876, and cast his vote for Tilden and Hendricks.
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He was re-elected to the senate in 1883, and again in 1889, and 1895. His speeches and the measures he introduced, marked as they were by an intense Americanism, brought him into national prominence.
W ILLIAM MCKINLEY, the twenty-fifth president of the United States, was born at Niles, Trumbull county, Ohio, Jan- uary 29, 1844. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and received his early education in a Methodist academy in the small village of Poland, Ohio. At the outbreak of the war Mr. Mckinley was teaching school, earning twenty-five dollars per month. As soon as Fort Sumter was fired upon he en- listed in a company that was formed in Poland, which was inspected and mustered in by General John C. Fremont, who at first objected to Mr. McKinley, as being too young, but upon examination he was finally accepted. Mr. McKinley was seventeen when the war broke out but did not look his age. He served in the Twenty-third Ohio Infantry throughout the war, was promoted from sergeant to captain, for good conduct on the field, and at the close of the war, for meritorious services, he was brevetted major. After leaving the army Major Mc- Kinley took up the study of law, and was admitted to the bar, and in 1869 he took his initiation into politics, being elected pros- ecuting attorney of his county as a Republi- can, although the district was usually Demo- cratic. In 1876 he was elected to congress, and in a call upon the President-elect, Mr. Hayes, to whom he went for advice upon the way he should shape his career, he was told that to achieve fame and success he must take one special line and stick to it. Mr. Mckinley chose tariff legislation and he became an authority in regard to import duties. He was a member of congress for
many years, became chairman of the ways and means committee, and later he advo- cated the famous tariff bill that bore his name, which was passed in 1890. In the next election the Republican party was overwhelmingly defeated through the coun- try, and the Democrats secured more than a two thirds majority in the lower house, and also had control of the senate, Mr. Mckinley being defeated in his own district by a small majority. He was elected gov- ernor of Ohio in 1891 by a plurality of twenty-one thousand, five hundred and eleven, and two years later he was re-elected by the still greater plurality of eighty thou- sand, nine hundred and ninety-five. He was a delegate-at-large to the Minneapolis Re- publican convention in 1892, and was in- structed to support the nomination of Mr. Harrison. He was chairman of the con- vention, and was the only man from Ohio to vote for Mr. Harrison upon the roll call. In November, 1892, a number of prominent politicians gathered in New York to discuss the political situation, and decided that the result of the election had put an end to Mc- Kinley and Mckinleyismn. But in less than four years from that date Mr. McKinley was nominated for the presidency against the combined opposition of half a dozen rival candidates. Much of the credit for his suc- cess was due to Mark A. Hanna, of Cleve- land, afterward chairman of the Republican national committee. At the election which occurred in November, 1896, Mr. Mckinley was elected president of the United States by an enormous majority, on a gold stand- ard and protective tariff platform. He was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1897, and called a special session of congress, to which was submitted a bill for tariff reform, which was passed in the latter part of July of that year.
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C INCINNATUS HEINE MILLER, known in the literary world as Joaquin Miller, " the poet of the Sierras," was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1841. When only about thirteen years of age he ran away from home and went to the mining regions in California and along the Pacific coast. Some time afterward he was taken prisoner by the Modoc Indians and lived with them for five years. He learned their language and gained great influence with them, fight- ing in their wars, and in all modes of living became as one of them. In 1858 he left the Indians and went to San Francisco, where he studied law, and in 1860 was ad- mitted to the bar in Oregon. In 1866 he was elected a county judge in Oregon and served four years. Early in the seventies he began devoting a good deal of time to literary pursuits, and about 1874 he settled in Washington, D. C. He wrote many poems and dramas that attracted consider- able attention and won him an extended reputation. Among his productions may be mentioned " Pacific Poems," " Songs of the Sierras," "Songs of the Sun Lands," " Ships in the Desert," " Adrianne, a Dream of Italy," "Danites," "Unwritten History," " First Families of the Sierras " (a novel), " One Fair Woman " (a novel), "Songs of Italy," "Shadows of Shasta," "The Gold- Seekers of the Sierras," and a number of others.
G EORGE FREDERICK ROOT, a noted music publisher and composer, was born in Sheffield, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, on August 30, 1820. While working on his father's farm he found time to learn, unaided, several musical instru- ments, and in his eighteenth year he went to Boston, where he soon found employ- ment as a teacher of music. From 1839
until 1844 he gave instructions in music in the public schools of that city, and was also director of music in two churches. Mr. Root then went to New York and taught music in the various educational institutions of the city. He went to Paris in 1850 and spent one year there in study, and on his re- turn he published his first song, "Hazel Dell." It appeared as the work of " Wur- zel," which was the German equivalent of his name. He was the originator of the normal musical institutions, and when the first one was started in New York he was one of the faculty. He removed to Chicago, Illinois, in 1860, and established the firm of Root & Cady, and engaged in the publication of music. He received, in 1872, the degree of " Doctor of Music" . from the University of Chicago. After the war the firm became George F. Root & Co., of Cincinnati and Chicago. Mr. Root did much to elevate the standard of music in this country by his compositions and work as a teacher. Besides his numerous songs he wrote a great deal of sacred music and pub- lished many collections of vocal and instru- mental music. For many years he was the most popular song writer in America, and was one of the greatest song writers of the war. He is also well-known as an author, and his work in that line comprises: " Meth- ods for the Piano and Organ," " Hand- book on Harmony Teaching," and innumer- able articles for the musical press. Among his many and most popular songs of the war time are: " Rosalie, the Prairie-flower," " Battle Cry of Freedom," " Just Before the Battle," "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys are Marching," " The Old Folks are Gone," "A Hundred Years Ago," "Old Potomac Shore," and " There's Music in the Air.". Mr. Root's cantatas include "The Flower Queen" and "The Haymakers." He died in 1896.
PART II.
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
OF
FREMONT AND MILLS COUNTIES,
IOWA.
THE P' YORK PUR Y MARY
TILLENFIN ITION
FREMONT AND MILLS COUNTIES, IOWA.
HON. JOHN Y. STONE.
An enumeration of those men of the pres- ent generation who have won honor and public recognition for themselves, and at the same time have honored the state to which they belong, would be incomplete were there failure to make prominent refer- ence to the one whose name initiates this paragraph. He holds prominence as an em- inent lawyer and statesman, a man of high scientific and literary attainments, a valiant and patriotic soldier, and as one who occu- pied a most trying position during the most exciting epoch in the political and military history of this country in which he bore himself with such credit as to gain him the respect of all. He has been and is distinct- ively a man of affairs, and one who has wielded a wide influence. A strong mental- ity, an invincible courage, a most determined individuality have so entered into his makeup as to render him a natural leader of men and a director of opinion. A resident of Glen- wood, Mills county, his reputation is not bounded by the confines of the state, for he is known throughout the country in connec- tion with his political and professional la- bors. He is a western man and the enter- prise and determined spirit that enabled so
many native sons of Illinois to win national distinction have been manifest in his career.
Mr. Stone was born in Sangamon coun- ty, Illinois, April 23. 1843. On both the paternal and maternal sides he is descended from old southern families, his ancestors being among the early settlers of Virginia and North Carolina. Ex-Governor William M. Stone, of Iowa, is authority for the state- ment that two brothers of the name of Stone came to America in 1620 on the Mayflower, one of whom took up his abode in New Eng- land, while the other settled in Virginia, and from the latter Mr. Stone is descended. Tradition tends to prove this statement, as do all the records of the family that are available. The paternal grandparents of Mr. Stone were Spencer and Elizabeth ( Har- gis) Stone. The former was a native of Virginia and in early life removed to Ken- tucky, whence he emigrated to Illinois dur- ing the pioneer epoch in the history of that state, when William Langford Stone, father of John Y., was but six years of age. In 1853 the grandfather came to Mills county, Iowa, and entered one or more sections of land on Silver Creek from the government or bought it from settlers. In the fall of 1856 he returned in a covered wagon to Illinois to get William Stone's three children, their
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mother having died in February. His son William could not then leave Illinois, but the grandfather brought the boy and his two sisters, younger than he, the old gentle- man and our subject sleeping under the wagon at night, while the bed was made within the wagon for the girls. Jefferson Stone, an uncle of our subject. and his fam- ily also accompanied the party. They left their Illinois home on the Ist of September, arriving at their destination on Silver creek, on the 13th of that month. In December of January following the father of these children also came to them. The trip was a very interesting one to the children. They journeyed westward over the prairies, crossed the rivers, camped out by night and prepared their food by the aid of fires built along the roadside. Spencer Stone developed his wild land into a well culti- vated farm and thereon made his home until some time after the close of the Civil war, when he returned to Illinois, spending the evening of his life near Clin- ton, where he died at the age of eighty years. His father was in the war of 1812 and in the old Indian wars, and the story has come down the line of time that upon one of his hunting expeditions in the woods of Ken- tucky among hostile Indians, he was con- scious of the fact that he was being watched by an Indian and at length discovered the red man in a hollow tree, and shot him before the Indian, who was taking aim at him, could fire.
William Langford Stone, Mr. Stone's father, was a native of Kentucky, born in 1822, and followed agricultural pursuits throughout his entire life, with the exception of a few months passed in Athens, Illinois, during which time he engaged in the coop-
ering business. He married Mary Ellen Mc- Lemore, a daughter of the Rev. Young and Nancy ( Plumley) Mclemore. Her father was an old-time Methodist preacher and school-teacher, and from him John Young received his second name. Both he and his wife were natives of North Carolina. Mrs. Stone died in Athens, Illinois, in February, 1856. She was born in or near Knoxville, Tennessee, and in early womanhood gave her hand in marriage to William L. Stone, who was at that time twenty years of age. They became the parents of three children, a son and two daughters. As before stated, the children accompanied their grandfather to Iowa and a few months later the father also took up his abode in Mills county. For two years he rented land from his father, and his son, then usually called by his second name-Young-assisted him in its opera- tion. He then purchased eighty acres of land, making small payments thereon, and from that property the father and son devel- oped a farm and built thereon a log house. About the close of the Civil war William L. Stone moved across to the west side of Sil- ver creek, and bought land there until he finally had a farm of five hundred or more acres, on which he died in August, 1899, at the advanced age of seventy-seven years. He was again married in 1857. his second union being with Sophia Patrick, a noble woman, a daughter of one of the later set- tlers of the community. She was born near Cumberland, Maryland, and she became the mother of three children who are yet living. She was also to her step-children a devoted and loving mother, being possessed of noble qualities, of. kindly manner and of genial disposition. She still lives upon the old homestead on Silver creek, near Silver City,
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
in Mills county, and her stepson feels for her the deepest affection, as one from whom he had received a mother's tender care and attention in his youth, and he finds great pleasure in visiting the old homestead and in maintaining the affectionate relations of his boyhood days.
It is with pleasure that we enter upon the task of compiling a brief life-history of Mr. Stone. although it is impossible in the space at our command to do full justice to one whose life activities have been so varied, and whose fields of usefulness have been along so many lines. He has truly won the proud American title of a self-made man. In his boyhood he had the privileges of the common school, but he was early trained to labor. He first entered school when seven years of age, and later was for four years a student at AAthens, Illinois. He then accompanied his grandfather to lowa, where his advan- tages were limited to the district school. He learned rapidly and soon distanced his class- mates, manifesting special aptitude in his studies. AAfter reaching the Hawekye state he attended school through the winter season, while in the summer months he worked on the home farm in the manner usual to farm- er lads of that day. Steadily he worked his way upward step by step, ever making the most of his opportunities for advancement. Ile eagerly embraced every opportunity for acquiring an education. At the age of sev- enteen he entered the high school in Glen- wood, lowa, there pursuing his studies through the scholastic years of 1860-1. In the meantime he had devoted all his leisure hours to reading and study and thus became familiar with many books with which many young people of the time were totally unac- quainted. In the country school he had
studied algebra, geometry and Latin. These were not in the regular curriculum, but the teacher, a Mr. Perry Crosswait. was a well educated man and assisted him in his studies along these lines-unusual in the common schools of the day. It is still told of him on Silver creek that he distanced all competitors in all studies and that he "spelled down" all the schools within a radius of many miles : and even about twenty years ago, when the spelling-school mania took possession of the country, and when there was a grand "spell- ing" tournament at Glenwood. he met and unhorsed all comers except his partner, Mr. S. V. Proudfit.
Mr. Stone early formed the desire to en- ter the legal profession. Before he was eighteen years of age he had secured a copy of Walker's American Law, and he devoted every leisure moment to studying the prin- ciples of jurisprudence. However, there was a pause in his legal study and a sudden change in his young life. War clouds gath- ered, there was a call to arms and his pa- triotic spirit was aroused. He put aside all personal ambitions and projects for the time being, and on the 9th of October, 1861, offered his services to the government, join- ing Company F. Fifteenth lowa Infantry, under Captain E. C. Blackmar, of Glenwood. Before they left for the field he was ap- pointed a corporal. In his boyhood's happy days he entered most heartily in- to everything which elicited his sympa . thies, and so with war. After the or- ganization of the company it remained in Glenwood until the 10th of November, when the troops were driven in wagons-for there were no railroads-to Eddyville, where they took the cars for Keokuk, lowa. He rap- idly mastered military tactics, and notwith-
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standing his inferior rank was often deputed to act as drillmaster for his company. He quickly acquired a knowledge of all the rou- time and minutiæ of military life and of the army regulations. On the 19th of March, 1862. the Fifteenth, on a drizzly day, in the presence of assembled thousands of the peo- ple of Keokuk, embarked on a steamer for Benton Barracks, St. Louis. Concerning the embarkation a historian of Iowa troops has said: "Never shall I forget that mem- orable and sacred moment, when the boat, bearing the precious load of that noble reg- iment of patriots called the Fifteenth Iowa Volunteers, pushed off amid the huzzas, God- bless-you's and floating handkerchiefs from houses and steeples, as far as the eye could reach. It was, indeed, a moment worth a life-time. The regiment moved down the majestic river, Mississippi, and the rain con- tinued to patter on the windows of the Gate City as though nothing had happened; the handkerchiefs continued to wave till long after the boat passed beyond the vision, and it was some time before the hospitable city. realized that the Fifteenth had gone-many to return with new honors and pleasing fame, others to find 'glory and the grave' on the battle-fields of the south."
At Benton Barracks the regiment re- ceived their new Springfield rifles and took supplies ; and a few days later they were ordered to the front, going down the Miss- issippi and up the Ohio and Tennessee rivers in the steamer Minnehaha, to take part in the great battle of Shiloh. Their boat reached the wharf at four o'clock A. M., and two hours later they heard the roar of battle. At eight o'clock that morning, the 6th of April, they were off the boat, receiving their ammunition, after which they marched
about three miles, and at ten o'clock were in the thickest of the battle with McClellan's di- vision on the right. In this battle the Fif- teenth and Sixteenth Iowa regiments fought together. By some error the Fifteenth was taken into the conflict across an open field, marching by the right flank instead of mov- ing in line of battle. Being under a heavy musketry and artillery fire the regiment lost severely in going in. The line of battle was formed in the woods after crossing the field, under a terrific rain of lead and iron. Col- onel Reid was dangerously and Major Bel- knap severely wounded. Captain Blackmar and First Lieutenant Goode, of Corporal Stone's company, were severely wounded, and the command of the company devolved upon Lieutenant Throckmorton, of Sidney, Iowa. In two hours the company and regi- ment lost more than one-third of their num- bers. In marching through the underbrush Corporal Stone lost his bayonet, which in some way was pulled out of his scabbard. That part of the field had been the scene of a hard conflict just before, and many dead Union soldiers of some other command were lying around. From the scabbard of one of them having the same kind of gun, Corporal Stone took the bayonet and put it in his own scabbard. Captain James G. Day, then of Company I, and afterward judge for many years of the district and supreme courts of Iowa, was dangerously wounded near Cor- poral Stone, who with others placed the wounded officer on a horse, whose rider had been killed or wounded, and started him to a place of safety. Captain Day had been first lieutenant of Mr. Stone's company and had helped organize it, and lived at Sidney, in Fremont county, Iowa. Afterward Cor- poral Stone himself was wounded by a spent
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grapeshot, but not dangerously. It was a bitter and disastrous day to the regiment and never afterward did it have so terrible a conflict, except before Atlanta, on July 22, 1864.
After the battle of Shiloh the command engaged in slow approaches to Corinth and the siege of that important point. One day while close up to the enemy Corporal Stone was on duty on the advance picket line. Hle had three men under him at a post a few hundred yards in advance of the main guard, and in front of this post one of these three was placed as a vidette at a rail fence about a hundred yards in advance. When the German lieutenant, who could not speak English plainly, gave Corporal Stone his in- structions he was understood to say that if the vidette was fired upon the Corporal should immediately go forward with the other two men to support him. Once dur- ing the day several shots were fired at this vidette by some of the enemy across a small field. The corporal promptly took his two men to the front to support his vidette. The firing attracted the attention of Lieutenant Colonel Dewey of the Fifteenth Iowa, who was the grand officer of the guard for that day, and he came dashing up rapidly on horseback with his escort to see what was the matter. Not finding the corporal and the two men at the post, the colonel with his usual impetuosity began to storm about their deserting their post. But presently he as- certained they were out in front and he sent out after them and demanded of the corporal why he had left the post. On being informed of the instructions the corporal had received. the colonel said: "Well, you either misun- derstood him or he got things mixed. My orders were that if the vidette was fired
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