USA > Iowa > An illustrated history of the state of Iowa, being a complete civil, political, and military history of the state, from its first exploration down to 1875; > Part 77
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During the gubernatorial career of Gov. Merrill, extending through two terms from Jan. 1868, to Jan. 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, standing by the side of Gov.
Fairchild of Wisconsin. He rendered very efficient service in placing the slackwater navigation between thc Mississippi and the lakes, in the way of ultimate and grand success. In his message to the thirteenth general assembly, direct reference was made to the subject, placing it in a very in- telligent manner before the minds of the people. The thirteenth general assembly had provided for the build- ing of a new state house and made an appropriation of $150,000. The work was begun, and on Nov. 23, 1871, the corner stone was laid in the presence of citizens from all parts of the state. On this occasion, the governor deliver- ed the address, which was an able production, giving a historical review of the incidents culminating in the labors of the day. It was replete with importaut facts, indicating patient re- search - was logical and argumenta- tive - full of eloquence with the fire and genius of American patriotism, worthy the occasion, reflecting credit on its author. Thus have been re- viewed the leading features in the record of a busy life, and there can be no more fitting conclusion, than the closing words of his last public mes- sage, on the eve of surrendering the robes of office to his chosen succes- sor. He says: " I cannot close this my last message without expressing to the people of Iowa, my grateful ac- knowledgment for the generous confi- dence they have reposed in me. Dur- ing the four years of my service to the state, I have received from them a support, a sympathy and an encour- agement 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 ob- servation, has been called to keep con- stant watch of the whole field, can grasp in thought and feeling the history and growth of our com- mon wealth. While discharging my duty, to be diligent in aiding the development of our state, to labor for the success of our schools and chari- ties. and to temper mercy with justice, it has been my privilege to realize the intelligence, justice, and humanity of our people. In severing my connec- tion with the state government, I can-
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not close this communication with- out hearing my willing testimony to the fidelity, zeal and industry of the various officers of the state, and those associated with me in the different agencies of the government dur- ing my administration of its affairs. I shall ever carry with me in my re- tirement a grateful remembrance of the friendship and courtesy which have always marked our official rela- tions. To have served the state at this time of its greatest prosperity, and to have been permitted to aid, in an official station in laying the founda- tions of her future greatness, may justly be regarded as an honor. But there is an honor, too, in being a pri- vate citizen of such a state; and as I pass from the one station to the other, permit me to unite with you in dedi- cating ourselves, our commonwealth and our country anew to freedom and to God."
George W. Cleveland. He was born in Georgia, Franklin county, Vermont, Dec. 1, 1816. His father was a farmer, and young George performed the healthful discipline of farm labor during the years of his minority. His education was confined to winter terms of the district school, and two or three terms at St. Alban's Academy. At this place he received the cordial friendship and encouragement of Lu- ther B. Hunt, a prominent lawyer of the place, which is remembered with gratitude by his ward. At the age of twenty-one, he engaged as clerk in the house of Geo. M. Kidder, of Highgate, Vermont, with whom he remained two years. He then went to Phillipsburg, Lower Canada, where he continued his lahors for two years as elerk in a gen- eral merchandizing store, after which he engaged in business for himself, and married Miss Adelia Walbridge, of Vermont, but at the time residing in Canada with her parents. Subse- quent to this event he went to Mon- treal where he engaged in business for a little more than two years, when he returned to Stanbridge, where he had been married, and engaged in exten- sive business, moving forward with an intelligent zeal which was crowned with grand success. In the spring of 1855, he disposed of his business inter- ests, and started westward, arriving in Des Moines, Iowa, on the 11th of
April of the same year, and engaged in land and brokerage business. He invested largely in real estate, and the financial crisis of 1857 found him ill prepared to meet the new demands oc- casioned by changes in the financial world. For five years he was consid- erably embarrassed, being reduced al- most to poverty ; but finally succeeded in liquidating every claim. It was during this period ot adversity that he lost his truly faithful wife, whose pres- ence would have cheered, and whose counsel would have directed his mind through the darkest elouds of the com- ing years. Being left with a family of two children, his misfortunes were doubly heavy to be borne. From 1862 to 1865, he was engaged in various speculations with tolerable success. In the spring of 1865, he was elected mayor of Des Moines, in which posi- tion he served for three successive terms. At the beginning of his term of office, there was a large indebted- ness on the city, which, prior to the expiration of his second year, was very much lessened. During his term of office, the cemetery was largely im- proved, and Mr. C. labored with his own hands several months without compensation. As mayor, he was ever faithful to his trust, and consei- entious in the performance of every duty. He has ever been an active re- publican, and was a delegate to Iowa City, 1856, at the organization of the party in Iowa. In 1872, he was one of the first in Des Moines among the republicans to espouse the liberal movement, and at the nomination of Greeley and Brown, was prepared to give them his hearty support. He was a delegate to Davenport for the organ- ization of the liberal party, and also a delegate from the state to the Cincin- nati convention, which placed a lib- eral ticket in the field. Mr. Cleveland was called to fill these and many other honored positions, because in him was recognized the ability for the same, and in no case did he ever heget, in the minds of the people, an unfavor- able disappointment. Like other men, he has had his trials, but never failed to secure their benefits. His zeal, industry and integrity of charac- ter, as manifest by the general tenor of an upright life, have drawn to him very many friends.
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Henry Bascom Hendershott was born in Miami county, Ohio, May 15, 1816. His father, David Hendershott, was a native of New Jersey and of German extraction. His mother was a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, of Welch ancestry. His parents moved from Ohio to the then territory of Illinois in the fall of 1816, settling in the county of Madison. The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm and was early innured to those habits of industry and toil which have charac- terized his whole life. His father having settled in Illinois at so early a day, young Hendershott was deprived of the benefits of other than the most common schools. There he attended during the winter terms, frequently walking thereto two and three miles. His early education was, therefore, necessarily limited. In the fall of 1835, he, unaided and alone, started on foot, with litte means, to Illinois col- lege at Jacksonville. On his way to college, after he had been on the road a day and a half, he overtook a mover, Mr. Dollarhide, who was going to Burlington, then called " Flint Hills," in Iowa. Dollarhide was moving with an ox team, and seeing our young hero traveling afoot and alone, and learning that he was on his way to college, he invited him to share his method of traveling and ramp lite, which he most gladly accepted. He remained with Mr. Dollarhide until he reached Jacksonville. On reaching the college our subject had hut $2.50 in the world, and a scanty wardrobe. He at once presented his case to the college officials, the president then be- ing Rev. Edward Beecher, by whom he was told at once to regard himself as a student at college. With the col- lege, at that time, there was connected a large farm as also a work shop. On this farm and in the shop he toiled at such hours as he could spare from his studies, receiving a credit. on college expenses, twelve and a half cents per hour. He thus worked and studied, keeping up with his classes until the fall of 1837, when finding it necessary to engage in some employment from which to realize the means of support, he left the college and went to Bur- lington. At this place he clerked in the post office, under Dr. Enos Lowe, for some months. He then wrote in the recorder's office for John MI. Gar-
| rigness. During his clerkship in these offices he occasionally, as he could find time, read law under the guid- ance of Judge David Rorer and M. D. Browning, then and yet of Burlington. On the 6th of May, 1839, at the age of twenty-three, he was appointed dep- uty clerk of the district court of Des Moines county, under John S. Dun- lap. This appointment was conferred upon him by Hon. Chas. Mason, then judge of that court. He remained in this office about two years, continu- ing the study of law under the same instructors. He was admitted to the bar in 1841. The year following he went to Mt. Pleasant, in Henry county ; remained there but a short time. From here he went to Fairfield, Jef- ferson county, remaining in this latter place until Dec., 1843, when he settled at Agency City, in the county of his present residence. On the 16th of Feb., 1844, he was again appointed by Judge Mason clerk of the district court of the county of Wapello. He held this office until September fol- lowing. Dec. 19, 1845, he was ap- pointed by James Clarke, then gov- ernor of Iowa, to the office of district prosecutor, for the seventh district of Iowa. On the 17th of Sept., 1846, Gov. Clarke commissioned him colonel of the 2d regiment, 1st brigade, 4th divi- sion of the Iowa militia. Mr. Hen- dershott settled in Ottumwa, where he resided, May 16, 1844; and as clerk of the court it became his duty, under an act of the legislature, to organize the county, which he did that year. On the 10th of April, 1847, he was commissioned by Hon. Geo. W. Jones, then surveyor general of Wisconsin and Iowa, as one of his deputy sur- veyors. While holding this post he subdivided six townships of govern- ment land into sections. At the De- cember term, 1848, of the supreme court of the United States, he was ap- pointed by that court to the highly honorable and responsible position of commissioner for Iowa to act in conjunction with Mr. Jos. C. Brown, commissioner on the part of Missouri, in running and making the boundary line between the states of Iowa and Missouri. Mr. Brown died, and Robt. W. Wells, then judge of the United States district court for Missouri, was appointed to succeed him. Judge Wells, finding that the duties of com-
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missioner would interfere with those of his judgship, resigned, and Hon. Wm. G. Minor was appointed to suc- ceed him. This boundary was run and marked by the commissioners in the spring and summer of 1850, and a report of their work was made to the states and the court in the fall of this year. This report was entirely satis- factory to the states concerned and to the court, and was in all respects con- firmed, and was the final act of settle- ment of the vexed boundary difficulty between Iowa and Missouri.
The subject of this sketch was elect- ed in the summer of 1850, to represent the counties of Wapello, Monroe and Lucas in the state senate, in which he served four years. He was a member of the committee on judiciary of the senate. and took an active part in the work of forming the code of 1851. January 21, 1851, he was elected a member of the Iowa Historical and Geological Society. He was clerk of the city council of Ottumwa in 1852 and 1853, and in 1855, and again in 1859, was made a member of the city council. He was elected judge of the district court for the 2d judicial dis- trict in 1857, in which office he served with great credit to himself and ac- ceptably to the bar and people. It may be said without disparagement to others, that the reports of cases de- cided by the supreme court of the state will show a less proportion of Judge Hendershott's rulings reversed than those of any other judge in the state. He was an honest, painstaking, hard working judge, and brought to the discharge of the duties of his office strong practical sense, clear judgment, and a settled purpose to be right. Ou retiring from office, the bar tendered to him a complimentary supper, at which resolutions complimentary to the services of the judge were passed. Since 1850, with the exception of the time he was actually engaged in the duties of state senator, and during the term he acted as judge of the court, Judge Hendershott has been actively - engaged in the practice of his profes- sion, and is now engaged therein, standing at the head of the bar in his county, and ranks as a safe, able, and honest lawyer among the bar of his district and state. In the many sta- tions he has filled, both professional and official, he has brought to their
duties integrity, industry, and ability. His honesty as an officer, lawyer, and citizen, has never been questioned. As a speaker at the bar, or on the stump, he is fluent, earnest, and forcible, and though not flowery, he carries convic- tion to hearers, whether court, jurors, or people. Judge Hendershott was married on the 8th day of June, 1845, to an accomplished lady, Miss Mary W. Jeffries, daughter of Judge Paul C. Jeffries. He is the father of seven sons and one daughter, all of whom, as also his wife are living. As a citi- zen he is highly esteemed, and as a lawyer he is implicitly trusted; and while he is not rich in this world's goods, he is in easy circumstances. What he is, and what he has, are the fruits of his own energy, industry and ability, save and except that aid and encouragement which have been con- tributed by his affectionate, intelli- gent and frugal wife, and a kind and confiding people. In society, he and his family hold a high position. In politics Judge Hendershott has always been, and is yet, a democrat of the old school. Politics with him is not a trade, but a principle. In his younger days, he was always actively engaged in political canvasses - in the thick- est of the fight-but now and for many years back, he has not engaged actively in political strife, and in fact it might be said that he has retired from that arena. He is not a church member, but is understood to lean stronly to the belief in the ultimate salvation of all mankind.
This brief sketch presents a career which the youth of the country may safely and profitably emulate.
George B. Smyth was born at Ris- ing Sun, Ohio county (formerly Dear- born), Indiana, on the 14th day of Oc- tober, 1828, at the home of his grand parents, at which time his father was engaged in the wholesale dry goods business in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. In the year 1837, his parents moved south to Bayou Sara, West Fe- liciana Parish, Louisiana, at which point they died in the year 1840, and he entered as a clerk in the wholesale house of John C. Morris, Esq., an Irish gentleman of large means, who did at that time a large and successful bus- iness, where he remained until 1843, when he obtained a situation as sec-
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ond clerk on the steamer "Belle of Arkansas." She was then running from New Orleans up the Ouichita river to Camden, Arkansas, occasion- ally making a trip up Bayou Barthol- omew, and on such trips you could stand upon the hurricane deck and break the branches off the trees, from either side of the boat, and to turn the boat around, her stern was backed in- to a little creek, a hauser or line put out, down stream, from the bow of the boat, several turns made around the capstan, while the crew, with the live- ly " heave, o, he," would merrily turn the capstan. When the cotton season was over, the boat would make an oc- casional trip to St. Louis. After leav- ing the river, he returned again to Rising Sun, where he remained for one year, teaching, as assistant teacher, with Prof. Barwick, in the seminary there, after which he made two voy- ages to New Orleans, on what was called " broad horns," in those days, now better known as flat boats, re- turned again to Rising Sun, and was engaged there in mercantile pursuits, as clerk, until the spring of 1849, when he emigrated to Keokuk, Iowa (where he has since, and still resides), land- ing there on the morning of the 15th of April, and at once entered into a clerkship, in the largest mercantile house in the place, viz, with Messrs. C. Garber & Co., making his first trip through the interior of Iowa, during the summer of that year, for that firm, on horse back, traveling through some fifteen counties, which were thinly populated, but Keokuk being situated at the foot of the lower rapids, was then the distributing point for nearly one-half of the state of Iowa, as far northwest as Ft. Dodge, which was then a government post. In the fall of 1850 (October 1), he was married at Fort Madison, Iowa, to Martha M. Chambers, daughter of John and Sarah Chambers, formerly of Zanesville, Ohio. In the spring of 1851 (May 1), he joined Mr. A. L. Connable and Richard Cunningham, in the purchase of the stock of groceries, then owned by H. W, Sample & Co., commencing the wholesale grocery business under the firm name of Connable, Smyth & Co., under which firm name, and that that.of Connable & Smyth, a large and successful grocery business was con- ducted for fifteen years, then the larg-
est business of the kind done in the state, during which time he made an- nual, and sometimes semi-annual trips by private conveyance, through up- wards of forty counties in Iowa, and hence, has seen that portion of the state rise from its wild state; first, the pioneer hut, yet hospitable home of the weary or belated traveler, with its small fields, and good cheer; then the palatial farm house, with its broad acres, and large fields, the fruit of honest indus- try, until the interior of the state now buds and blossoms as the rose; rich in soil and agricultural productions, and teeming with a restless, industri- ous, and energetic class of farming population who, with their successors and emigrants, who are continually making Iowa their home, bid fair to make lowa one of the most prosper- ous states in the union, as it is now one of the most prosperous in the northwest. In 1864, he engaged in the pork and beef packing business, and, with Mr. Cunnable, erected one of the largest packing houses in the west, built of stone, with the improve- ments added to it, in 1871, that of ice department and ice houses, fitting it for summer curing as well as winter, it is now one of the most complete packing houses in the west; has a ca- pacity to pack one hundred and fifty thousand hogs per annum, winter and summer, and in the years 1873 and 1874, ninety thousand hogs were cut there, forty-six thousand of them in the summer, and the balance in the winter. In 1868, Mr. Connable retired from active business, and he purchased his interest in the pork house property, and has since and is still conducting that business, packing now largely for the European markets, under the firm name of Geo. B. Smyth & Co. Besides being an active business man, Mr. Smyth has always felt, and taken a live- ly interest in public matters, mu- nicipal, local, state, and national, real- izing that our state, and even our coun- try (which is yet scarcely one hun- dred years old), were in a formative condition, and willing, so far as he could, to lend his aid to give form to our institutions, that would tend, in education, and in all directions, to the elevation of the masses of the people, and the establishing of all our institu- tions on the basis of integrity and morality, which are the only true base
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to build upon, and however political policy may at times waver from them, the voice and wisdom of the people should make them their sheet anchor.
In the early history of railroads in our state, Mr. Smyth took an active interest in their inception and con- ยท struction, as corporator, solicitor for subscriptions, with which to build them, director, and he was for several years president of the Des Moines Valley Railroad during its construc- tion and while it was under lease and contract. Years after, when this road became embarrassed, and it was de- termined by the bondholders and other parties in interest to commence foreclosure proceedings he was
elected vice president of the compa-
ny, and the executive and general management of the company was placed in his hands during the two years of litigation previous to the en- tering of the foreclosure decree of the court, during which time he had to protect the rights and interests of the bondholders against many conflict- ing claims, which were persistently pressed by opposing counsel, and as this was in the prosperous days of railway construction, before the panic, many intricate points and questions arose, that we were without precedent to govern, making the position both a very responsible and laborious one, during which time he executed deeds for upwards of two million and a quarter of dollars' worth of land, all the remaining lands in a grant of four hundred and sixty-six thousand acres, into which a large majority of the
bondholders funded their bonds. When the foreclosure decree was en- tered, he was appointed, by the court, special receiver, in which capacity he served until the road was sold out, and bid in by the respective parties in interest. He is now connected with the northwestern part of the same road, now the Des Moines and Fort Dodge Railroad, as director, and has charge of the land matters connected with that road, as land commissioner. Through his efforts in Washington City, some fifty thousand acres of ad- ditional lands have been obtained, as belonging to that interest, and he is now striving on a liberal basis to har- monize all the conflicting interests that have grown up in connection with this old land grant, which is the
] oldest and most complicated grant in the state. Last year he settled upon very liberal terms, with some seventy settlers in Webster county, who had made improvements on some ten thousand acres of the company's lands. In the organization of schools, before the days of our present public school system, he took a prominent part, and more recently was one of the corporators, and is now one of the trustees of the Parsons College, at Fairfield, Iowa, which promises to be one of the best educational insti- tutions in our state; also was promi- nent in the organization of banks, in- surance companies and other local or- ganizations. In 1858, he connected himself with the Presbyterian church and has been an active member there- of since that time, both in a private and official capacity; was chairman of two building committees that su- pervised the construction of two churches for that body, the latter one of the largest and most complete church buildings in the state, of which the talented and very able Dr. Willis G. Craig, D. D., is pastor, and has been for the past thirteen years. Du- ring the troublous times of the rebel- lion, Keokuk, lying on the Missouri state border, and having, with Lee county, the county in which it is situ- ated, previous to that time generally given large democratic majorities, and Mr. Smyth having up to the breaking out of the war affiliated with the democratic party, and a very intolerant feeling having grown up in the minds of the people in the year 1863, he was nominated for mayor and elected by a large majority, and was instrumental in bringing about a more tolerant state of feeling during the war; and since its close, Mr. Smyth has acted with the republican party and voted the republican ticket. In 1868, the settlement, by compro- mise, of the large municipal indebt- edness of the city of Keokuk, created mostly in behalf of aid to railroads centering there, Keokuk having al- ways been a large railroad center, aud now is one of the largest railroad cen- ters in the state, was placed in his hands, without any solicitation upon his part, and almost plenary authority was given him relative to same. After spending the larger portion of two years in New York city, during
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