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 80
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acts of charity and beneficence be known only to himself, and is one of the most modest and retiring of men.
Isaac Mosher Preston was born April 25, 1813, at Bennington, Vermont. In 1814, his father and family removed to Onondaga county, New York, where he resided till his death in 1849. Sarah, his wife, died in November, 1832. The father of Isaac M., was a farmer, with a large family, engaged in the clearing up of a new farm, in the then wilderness of New York. He was in moderate circumstances, with no facil- ities for educating his children. He served for a short time before the treaty of peace as a volunteer in the revolutionary war. Isaac Mosher Preston, at the age of 16 years, was given his time to provide for himself. Thus thrown upon his own resources, without means or education, he learned the carpenter and joiner's trade, and worked at this business till 1840, when he resolved to study law. He was married in Seneca county, New York, April 3, 1836, to Mary Jane Fa- cer, daughter of Charles Facer; emi- grated to Iowa with his wife and two sons, Joseph H. Preston and Edmund C. Preston. He first stopped at Iowa City; from thence removed to Mar- ion, in Linn county, in November, 1842, where he still resides, and has the proud satisfaction of enjoying the confidence of the community where he has lived for the last 31 years. He studied law with Asa Calkin, of Iowa City; was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law Octo- ber 26, 1842, in Marion, Linn county, Iowa, where he has continued the practice from thence to the present time. On the 19th day of December, 1845, he was appointed by James Clark, governor of the territory of Iowa, district attorney for the 18th district of Iowa, and discharged the duties of this office for two years. On the 17th day of February, 1846, he was appointed and commissioned by James Clark, governor, colonel for the 3d regiment, 2d brigade, 2d division of the militia of Iowa; assisted in organizing troops for the Mexican war; but his regiment was not called for, nor engaged in actual service. In 1843, he was elected probate judge for the county of Linn, and reelected
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office for six years, and declined a re- election. On the 3d day of March, 1847, by the advice and consent of the United States senate, he was appointed and commissioned by James K. Polk, President of the United States, dis- trict attorney for the state and distriet of Iowa, and discharged the duties of this office till the elose of President Polk's administration. In 1848 he was elected to the house of representatives of the general asssembly of Iowa, and discharged the duties of a member of the house of representatives for two years. In 1850, he was elected senator for the senatorial district, composed of the counties of Linn, Benton and Tama; discharged the duties of sena- tor in the general assembly for four years, and participated in the memor- able contest which resulted in the first election of Hon. James Harlan to the United States senate. During his legis- lative term his associates in the sen- ate and house of representatives con- aisted of such members as W. F. Cool- bagh, Alvin Saunders, afterwards gov- ernor of Nebraska, James W. Grimes, late senator of the United States, Hon. J. M. Love, now U. S. district judge, Hon. James Grant, Maturin L. Fisher, W. E. Leffingwell, George W. Wright, now United States senator. During the session of 1851, the legislature composed of such men, adopted and enacted the code of 1851, which su- perseded the common law forms of practice, and changed the entire ju- dicial system of the state.
Ezekiel E. Cooley was born in Victory, Cayuga county, New York, on the 12th day of January, 1827, where he resided, enjoying excellent school advantages until the age of thir- teen years. His father, who was aBap- tist clergyman, then removed to Her- mon, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., and afterward to Denmark, Lewis county, and thence to Brownsville, Jefferson county, where he died in June, 1846, holding the pastoral charge of the Baptist church there. During the last three years of this period, the sub- ject of this sketch was most of the time in attendance at the Black River L. & R. Institute in Watertown, N. Y., where he prepared himself for en- tranee into Hamilton College. The death of his father frustrated this plan for the time being, and the idea
¡ of a college course was finally aban- doned. At the age of seventeen, he commeneed teaching, and in August, 1847, he went to Kentucky to engage in that vocation, loeating in the town of Cynthiana, with a cash capital of seven dollars, all told. Here, too, he commeneed the study of the law, un- der the pupilage of Judge Trimble, and in June, 1849, was admitted to the bar. Returning in August, 1849, to St. Lawrence county, N. Y., he re- sumed teaching for a time, taking tem- porary charge of one of the public schools in Ogdensburg, and reading law at the same time, in the office of Hon. A. B. Janes, devoting the last six months exclusively to the office, and on the 2d of September, 1850, was, on examination, admitted to the bar of that state. Up to this time, life had been with him a struggle. The eon- test between poverty and ambition had been a severe one, but the latter aided by an indomitable will, indus- try and frugality, finally conquered. He at once entered upon a successful practice at Hermon, remaining there two years and then removing to Og- densburg and forming a copartner- ship with George Morris, Esq., under the firm name of Morris & Cooley. This copartnership continued two years, and in October, 1854, being then the only surviving member of his family, he struck out for the west and finally located in Decorah, Iowa, then a small town of twenty houses and great expectations. He at onee identified himself with the town and county, and took an active part in pro- moting their interests and growth. Seleeting at an early day the spot for his own future residence, he acquired the title to it as soon as convenient, and has since erected a home upon it, acknowledged the most delightful in that lovely "Gem City." Through his representations, many acquaint- ances in the east were induced to come here and locate and contribute to the business, growth and prosperity of the town. In September, 1855, he formed a copartnership with Wm. L. Easton and Leonard Stranding, both from Lowville, N. Y., in the banking and real estate business, under the firm name of Easton, Cooley & Co., from which has since grown the First National Bank of Decorah, a highly prosperous and ereditable institution.
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At the April election, 1855, he was elected prosecuting attorney for Win- neshiek county, for the term of two years. In the first organized move- ment for the construction of a railroad from McGregor, made in 1856, he took a leading part, rendering effi- cient aid in the organization of the company known as the North western R. R. Co., and in securing subscrip- tions to the capital stock, and was giv- en the attorneyship of the company. A survey was made and work was commenced. During the first year of its existence the efforts of the com- pany were quite successful, and the prospects of a railroad to Decorah were flattering indeed. But the finan- cial crisis of 1857 was a crusher upou all these, and the enterprise went down. It was again revived and again went down and so on, until fin- ally the fifth effort was crowned with success, and in September, 1869, De- corah had a railroad, which has prov- ed itself alike profitable to the com- pany and the city, beyond all pre- vious expectations. The occasion of its completion was one of much re- joicing in Decorah, upon the celebra- tion of which event, Mr. Cooley was called upon and delivered the oration. In Feb. 1856, an effort was made to remove the county seat from Decorah to Freeport, then the rival of Decorah and situate three miles distant. Un- der the statute authorizing it a peti- tion was presented to the county court (Hon. David Reed county judge), signed by about 400 of the friends of Freeport, asking an order submitting the question of relocation to the voters of the county at the then ensuing April election, and naming Freeport as the point. It was evident to the people of Decorah that if a vote were ordered, she would lose the county seat. Mr. Cooley was chosen their attorney, and upon the presentation of the petition, represent- ed them in opposition, with a remou- strance signed by about double the · number of names contained in the petition, Judge Williams of Clayton - county, and L. Bullis of Decorah, op- pearing for Freeport. The attorneys for the petitioners argued to the court, that under the terms of the statute, it was imperative on the court to order an election, while on the other side it was claimed as the people were expressly given the right to remon-
strate, and as a remonstrance was pre- sented, the ordering of an election be- came discretionary with the court, and that under all the circumstances of the case, as shown to the court, the making of such an order would be but the abuse of discretion. The con- test was a bitter one, but the court, ap- preciating the force of the Decorah argument, denied the order, and his decision was afterward affirmed by the district court on certiorari. And so Decorah retained the county seat. The following year a fine court house was erected and this vexing question was put to rest.
In June, 1857, Decorah was incor- porated as a town, the legal proceed- ings for which were had under Mr- Cooley's supervision, and in the or. ganization of the town corporation that followed thereupon, he was, with- out opposition, elected president of its board of trustees. In October fol- lowing, he was elected on the republi- can ticket to represent Winneshiek county, in the seventh general assem- hly, which, being the first under the new constitution of the state then but recently adopted, was one of much labor and importance. Here he served as chairman of the committee on fed- eral relations, and as a member of the judiciary committee, and the com- mittee on township and county organ- izations ; on the latter of which he op- posed, as premature for Iowa, the township supervisor system that was by a subsequent legislature adopted, and afterward tried and repudiated. He also served on many select com- mittees, in all of which positions he was active and efficient in the dis- charge of duty. Iu 1861, he was ap- pointed postmaster at Decorah, which office he held two years and resigned. He afterward offered his services in the army of the union, and, in Sept. 1864, he was appointed by President Lincoln, commissary of subsistence in the volunteer service, with the rank of captain of cavalry, which position he held until, in October, 1865, he was, on the recommendation of the commissary general, for meritorious services, brevetted major, and com- missioned by President Johnson, and in November following, received an honorable discharge. Afterward, in 1868, and again in 1870, he received the earnest support of the republican
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party of Winneshiek county for the congressional nomination of the party, but the rival claims of competing candidates prevailed, and, without re- gret on his part, he was permitted to remain in private life. He afterward stumped his congressional district for the republican nominees. As a law- yer, he has quick perceptions, reasons closely, and enjoys a reputation for soundness and reliability. He is ar- dently attached to his profession, and bas a high regard for its purity and honor. Through habits of steady and strict attention to business, he has es- tablished a successful and remunera- tive practice, and taken a front rank in his profession. In his religious views he indulges liberal sentiments, not perhaps quite orthodox, entertain- ing great respect for the teachings of the Bible as the foundation of true re- ligion and civilization, and deferring kindly to the religious belief of others. He was early disciplined to the habit of self-reliance, and this feature ex- hibits itself in all his affairs. He pos- sesses an ardent nature that draws to him many friends, while it often, in the heat of county politics, has made him enemies. To the former he adheres firmly - he was never known to turn his back upon a friend - toward his enemies, he is sometimes implacable. He, nevertheless, has a forgiving dis- position, and is ever ready to overlook a personal injury. His surroundings, so far as they are under his control, indicate a refined taste. Through in- dustry and foresight, aided by econ- omy, without parsimony, he has ac- quired a competence; at the same time it can be truly said of him that he has lived and given his best exer- tions to the good of others, more than to himself. In March, 1856, he mar- ried Miss Jane M. Rhodes, then of Dubuque, and has two sons. His social connections are pleasant, and his domestic relations the happiest. Whatever success in life he has had, hc ascribes largely to his observance of the adage, "whatever is worth do- ing at all is worth doing well." Pres- ent address, Decorah, Winnesheik Co., Iowa.
Hon. Clabourn C. Wilson was born in Hardin county, Ken., July 23, 1833. (This is the same county in which Abraham Lincoln was born.) He was
raised on the farm until he was twelve years old, when he was taken with white swelling, and went on crutches for four years. He was educated in the common school and in the semi- nary, and was quick to learn. He commenced life as a school teacher, at 17, was married at 19, and became a dry goods merchant. Being inexpe- rienced, he failed in business, and, in 1856, he came to Keokuk county, Iowa, where he struggled with pover- ty for a time, but, by dint of energy, arose to competency and to position in society. He quarried stone, acted as scribe, and was again and again justice of the peace. In 1861, he commenced the study of medicine, and began to practice in Springfield, Keokuk county (his present home), in 1865. He is now president of the Medical Association of Keokuk coun- ly; has been postmaster at Spring- field for the past nine years; was elected to fill a vacancy in the legisla- ture in the fall of 1872, and was thus a member of the extra session in the winter of 1873. He began to sell dry goods in Springfield, in 1865, and has two stores in operation, and prosper- ous. In character, he is positive and independent; quick to anger; full of Kentucky blood to resent an insult, but is ever ready to forgive and forget ; is a Mason; is not a church member, but is a Baptist in faith. The maiden name of his wife was Elizabeth Har- ned. They have seven children, have a pleasant home and a bright outlook for the future.
Hon. Joseph C. Knapp was born in Vermont and educated there; came to Keosauqua, Iowa, in 1843, where he commenced the practice of law. He has resided in the same place since that period. He was appointed judge of the third judicial district of Iowa (then composed of the counties of Van Buren, Davis, Wapello. Mahaska, Keokuk and Jefferson), in 1851; was appointed attorney of the United States for the district of Iowa, in 1852, and again in 1856; was the Demo- cratic candidate for judge of the su- preme court, in 1870, and the candi- date of the same party for governor, in 1871; was elected, for four years, judge of the second judicial district of Iowa (composed of the counties of Van Buren, Davis, Appanoose, Wayne,
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Lucas, Monroe and Wapello), in 1874; Dane county, Wis., in 1851; attended was married to Miss Sarah A. Ben- ton, niece of Senator Geo. G. Wright, Dec. 10, 1849. They have three daugh- ters, the two eldest of whom are mar- ried and gone from the parental roof; the youngest is yet with the parents in : their beautiful and finely furnished home.
Hon. Martin Luther Edwards was born at New Milford, Litchfield coun- ty, Conn., Nov. 6. 1810; removed with the family to Wanoick, Orange county, N. Y., in 1821, and to Canfield, Mahoning county, Ohio, in 1826. His early advantages for education were only moderate, but well improved. He also engaged, when young, in the activities of life; worked with his father at chain making and painting; taught school and read law as the years passed along; went to Indiana, in 1837, and engaged in the business of raising silk; became a minister of the Universalist denomination, and preached from 1841 to 1851, a part of the time in Ohio, and a part in Henry and adjoining counties, Iowa. On his removal to Iowa, in 1847, he settled at Mt. Pleasant, where he now resides; was elected judge of Henry county, Iowa, Aug., 1851, and served four years. He was admitted to the bar of the same county in 1864, but being otherwise engaged, has practiced very little. As member of the city council and mayor of Mt. Pleasant, as well as trustee, secretary and member of the board for the Insane Hospital of Iowa, through many years, he has done a noble work. He has a mild and even temperament, is active and accurate in business, and reliable and faithful in trusts committed to his care. He was married in June, 1844, to Miss Lucy Loring, daughter of Hon. O. R. Lo- ring, of Washington county, Ohio. They had no children that lived to any age, and his Lucy left him for the land beyond time's troubled tide, May 29, 1870. He now has a comfortable and quiet home, and calmly waits the rewards of the better world.
Hon. Edward Gee Miller was born in Cornish, York county, Maine, Sept. 3, 1840. He early attended school ; but obtained the best help from the in- structions of his well cultured step mother, during vacations; removed to
school winters, and worked on the farm summers, until 1858, when he en- tered the state university at Madison, in which he remained most of the time (teaching school winters) until April, 1861, when he cnlisted in Co. K, 1st Wis. volunteers; was appointed to recruit the 20th Wis. volunteers, May, 1862; raised a company and was commissioned captain the following August, a position he held until mus- tered out, July, 1865. On his return home he was appointed deputy clerk of the county court in Madison. In 1867, he was married to Miss Mary J. Klinefelter, and removed to Lincoln township, Black Hawk county, Iowa, where he often held county and town offices, and in 1873, was elected state senator from his district, for the full term of four years. He is a prohibi- tionist, is in favor of woman's suffrage; but not in favor of the restoration of the death penalty. His mother, Sa- rah Gee, who died when he was four years old, was an English lady, with " blue blood " in her veins, and second cousin to Lord Byron. He has a plain but comfortable residence, a noble wife, three children, one gone (not lost), and two living; a son and a daughter.
Dr. Edward H. Hazen was born in Elyria, Ohio, April 12, 1834. His early advantages for education were good and well improved, and he wished to complete a full college course; but being physically frail, this object was abandoned for a more practical course of study, mixed with manual labor, tending to develop physical strength. At length he stud- ied medicine in Ohio, and attended medical lectures at Ann Arbor, Mich., in the winter of 1860-61; joined a Michigan regiment in the early part of the war, was honorably discharged, and entered the regular army as hos- pital steward, and served in the gen- eral hospitals three years, under sur- geons Porter, Summers and Page, was discharged June 22, 1865; attended the medical college in Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated therein in the spring of 1866; practiced one year in Buffalo, N. Y .; came to Davenport, Iowa, in 1867, and opened an office and attended to general practice; but made a specialty of diseases of the eye
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and ear; was lecturer in the state | their lavish board. He is wealthy in university, on ophthalmology and otol- gold, brick blocks and goods; but wealthiier in good nature, friends and business thrift and credit. Like his forefathers, he is a Presbyterian, and has no time to try the paths of poli- tics. ogy. He traveled in Europe during the summer of 1872, seeking new phases of these diseases and new rem- edies for them, and has since estab- lished an infirmary in Davenport for the care and treatment of eye and ear patients. The buildings are tastefully built, and happily adapted to the end in view. He has been president of the Scott county Medical Society, vice- president of the Iowa and Illinois Ontial district Medical Association (secretary of both for years), and pres- ident of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences. He pays his debts, is strictly religious, and is attached to the Congregational form of church government. He married Miss Sullia Freeman of Lancaster, Ohio, in 1874. They have two little ones of even age in the land of the blest; have an in- come ample for all the calls and needs of life and hope in the outlook of the future.
Theodore W. Barhydt was born at Newark, N. J., April 10, 1835. His parents removed the same year to Schenectady, N. Y., where the family relations had resided for years. His grandfather, Barhydt, was a sol- dier of the revolution, and quarter- master in the war of 1812. Mr. T. W. Barhydt was favored with a good com- mon school education, and also two years of instruction at the Schenectady Academy; after which he worked with his father at the boot and shoe business, until he obtained a clerkship in a store. He removed to Iowa in 1855, and was appointed post master at Burlington in 1856. In 1859, he engaged in the boot and shoe business, and was very successful; so much so that in 1870, he, with a few others, or- ganized the Merchants National Bank of Burlington, of which he was elect- ed president; a relation he has held up to this time, and under his man- agement the bank has been one of the most successful in the state. Quite young he married Miss Eleanor Chris- tiancy, of Schenectady, to whom he pays a fine compliment in saying that " he owes very much of his success in life to her admirable counsels." They have no children, but usually have a crowd of friends to enjoy their beauti- tul home and the cheerful bounties of
Roderick Rose was born at Smiths Falls, Ontario county, N. Y., May 5, 1838. He received a good academical education, and engaged in mercantile life, in which he continued until the " panic " of 1857, when he was thrown out of employment, and came west to Davenport, Iowa. Failing there to obtain a situation to suit him in his former business, he engaged in school teaching, and employed his leisure time in reading law. In 1871, he was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in 1872, in which he still con- tinues. In 1871, he was elected county superintendent of common schools in Scott county, and resigned the office shortly after his election. In 1875, he was elected mayor of the city of Dav- enport, Iowa.
Lawrence McCarty was born in Ireland, April 27, 1838; had very poor educational advantages, although his father, as a farmer, was in com- fortable circumstances. He removed to America in 1857, and engaged in the grocery business in Dubuque till 1863, and afterward followed the same business in Manchester, Iowa, until 1867, when he removed to Sioux City to prosecute the same business. As city treasurer, director of the Sioux City Savings bank, and the chamber of commerce, as well as a worker in city improvements and in the interests of education, he has acted a noble part. In religious belief he is an earnest Catholic, and as a business man, hon- orable and reliable. In 1863, he mar- ried Miss Eliza Clinton, of Manches- ter. They have an active and intelli- gent family of children, and a quiet and interesting home.
Prof. Geo. F. Magoun was born in Bath, Maine, March 29, 1821; grad- uated at Bowdoin college in Septem- ber, 1841; studied theology one year at Andover theological seminary, and one at Yale; taught in Plattville academy one year, and then studied another year at Andover; preached
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at Shullsburg, Wis., and Galena, Ill., | from 1847 to 1851; removed to Bur- lington, Iowa, in 1852, and became the settled pastor of the Congregation- al church in Davenport in 1855, and pastor of the Congregational church in Lyons iu 1860; was elected president of Iowa college in 1862, yet acted as pastor at Lyons until July, 1864. Here a cloud came over his home, in the death of his companion and a dear child; and while he accepted the presidency of the college, he had leave to visit Europe until March, 1865; saw much of England, Scotland, Bel- gium, Holland, France, Germany and Switzerland; was inaugurated presi- dent of the college in July, 1865: has taught logic, political economy, meta- physics, evidences of Christianity, etc., preaching a large part of the time on Sabbaths in pulpits destitute of pas- tors in Iowa and Illinois since that period. The financial prospects of the college have brightened under his hand, until now its valuation is $206,112. He is an earnest Congrega- tionalist, attached to the New England theology; is a tireless worker in the interests of philosophy and education, but no lover of secret associations or societies. The maiden name of his former companion was Miss Abby A. Hyde, of Bath, Me., and that of his present, Elizabeth Earle, of Bruns- wick, Me., the latter a lady of fine cul- ture and attainments. They have a beautiful home near the college build- ings, and an honored place in the hearts of those who know them well.
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