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 82
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83
He took active and prominent part in conducting the debates on the vari- ons bills for appropriations necessary to save the nation's life. He sustained, with patriotic devotion, the enroll- ment and conscription act, providing
soldiers in the field, and in aid of the military operations against the rebell- ion; making a speech with telling force in favor of calling out colored men and engrafting them in the mili- tary service. He was reelected to the thirty-ninth congress; he was again assigned to duty on the ways and means committee. He advocated and secured an amendment to the pro- posed hankrnpt act, so as to save the homestead of the debtor. The civil rights bill was also ably advocated by him, and he worked and voted to pass it over Prest. Johnson's veto. The freedman's bureau was again sus- tained by his help, till other securities were obtained for the freedmen. He introduced and advocated the passage of a bill to prevent whipping and other cruel punishments of freedmen in the southern states. He introduced and passed through the house, a bill to transfer the control of Indian af- fairs to the war department, and to regulate the management of Indian tribes. In 1866. a combination of per- sonal and political interests, while Mr. Kasson was yet engaged in his duties at Washington, defeated his re- nomination for a third term after seventy.eiglit ballots in the conven- tion. This result gave dissatisfaction to the friends of Mr. Kasson, which soon kindled into a spirited division in the party. In March, 1867, he was solicited by the postmaster general to undertake the negotiation of definitive postal treaties with various European governments. He sailed in April of that year, on this mission, and negoti- ated new treaties with Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzer- land, Italy and Germany ; thns gather- ing in the fruits of his labors in the postal congress of 1863. During his absence on this duty, his fellow citi- zens of Polk county elected him to the general assembly of the state, and have ever since insisted npon reelect- ing him to the same office, whether he was at home or absent. In 1870, he made an extensive tour, embracing Europe, Egypt, the Holy Land, Syria, Turkey and Greece. It was not a mere trip of pleasure, but was made profitable in studying the customs, manners, religion and system of gov- ernment of the various nations which he visited, besides storing his mind
728
TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
with a better knowledge of the wants | and is also a lawyer by education; for of his race. In 1872, he was elected to his oratory is of that clear, and at- tractive character which holds the hearer as by a band of iron, and the force and honesty of his logic take the judgment captive. the forty-third congress, and is re- elected to the forty-fourth and cen- tennial congress, being the fourth term of the service of his district in that capacity. Mr. Kasson has never sought an office, but the office has always sought the man.
Hon. C. C. Cole. Probably few men in the northwest, certainly none in Iowa, have deserved and secured greater popularity than the present chief justice of the Iowa supreme court. He was born in Oxford, Che- nango county, New York, June 4, 1824, where he passed the earlier por. tion of his life. He received a good academic education, and at the age of twenty-two he entered the law school of Harvard University, where he re- ceived a thorough legal training. Im- mediately after leaving Harvard he removed to Frankf rt, Kentucky, and took charge of the legislative depart- ment of the Frankfort Commonwealth. He returned to his former home in New York state, and June 24, 1848, was married to Amanda M. Bennett, a lady with whom he had been ac- quainted from childhood. He located at Marion, Crittenden county, and was admitted to the bar, and began in earnest the practice of the law. He was often employed in all the import- ant contested trials and in the higher criminal practice he never had a client whom he undertook to defend convicted. In May, 1857, he moved to Des Moines, Iowa, where he soon obtained an extensive and lucrative practice. In December, 1863, he took an active part in the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home, and was one of its trustees until June, 1865, when he was elected its president. In 1865, he organized a law school in Des Moines, which is one of the most de- servedly popular institutions of the kind in the west. In 1864, he was elected by over 40,000 majority as one of the judges of the supreme court, and in 1870, was reelected by an equal- ly large vote. For several years he has edited the Western Jurist, an able and widely circulating periodical published in Des Moines. Has also edited a new and largely annotated edition of Iowa reports. Judge Cole is what is termed a lawyer by birth,
Hon. Caleb H. Booth was born in Delaware county, Pennsylvania. He lived on a farm until the age of twelve, when his father died. He was then sent to school at a fine class- ical institution in Burlington, New Jersey, where, under the tuition of the celebrated quaker mathematican, John Gummere, be studied mathemat. ics, Latin and French, and made a specialty of preparing himself for an engineer. At seventeen, he had an offer of a position as engineer on the Camden and Amboy railroad. But he was not at liberty to accept it on account of his father's instructions to his guardian to have him study a pro- fession. The one chosen was that of the law ; he studied three years, and on the 3d of May, 1836, was admitted to the bar. Gen. Booth erected a steam sawmill, and also engaged in mercan tile business. In 1838, he engaged in mining; in 1839, Gen. Booth was elected to the legislature; in 1841, he was elected the first mayor of Du- buque, and has served several times since in the council; in 1848, he was appointed by President Polk, surveyor general of the land district embraced in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, and filled the office with credit and satisfaction to all concerned; in 1851, and until 1857, Gen. Booth engaged in selling land warrants, and until the time of the crash in 1857, was the most extensive operator in the state. This great crash ruined his pros- pects as it did thousands of others in the west. He has been continuously connected with railroads from the year 1856 to the present time in various ways. He has been a great money making and money loosing man; in 1843, he struck one of the biggest lodes ever opened in Dubnque, from which 7,000,000 pounds of lead were taken; in the fall of 1872, Gen. Booth, was elected a member of the fourteenth general assembly on the Republican ticket, he having voted that ticket since the war. Gen. Booth was mar- ried in 1838, to Miss Henrietta Eyre, a native of the same town where he was
729
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
born, and was blest with two child- ern; he and his wife arc both mem- bers of the Episcopal church; of which church he is senior warden.
Hon. Geo. G. Wright, United States senator, was born in Bloomington, In- diana, March 24, 1820, and graduated from the university of that state in 1839. He studied law with his brother, Hon. J. A. Wright, and in 1840, was admitted to the bar. He removed to Iowa the same year, and settled in Keo- sauqua, Van Buren county, on the 14th of November. In 1847, he was prose- cuting attorney for Van Buren county ; in 1848, he was elected to the state senate, and served in that capacity two terms; in 1853, he received the whig vote of the general assembly for United States senator, but was defeated; in 1854-5, he was elected chief justice of Iowa; in 1859, he declined a nomina- tion ; in 1860, a vacancy occurred in the bench of the supreme court, and Gov. Kirkwood appointed Judge Wright to fill the place. He accepted, and occupied it till the next general election, when he was elected to fill out the unexpired term of Judge Stock- ton. At the general election in 1865, he was reelected for a term of six years. On the 18th of January, 1870, Judge Wright was elected to the sen- ate of the United States for a full term. In politics, Senator Wright was origin- ally a whig. In 1850, he was nom- inated, against his earnest protest to the contrary, by the whig convention, in the first district, for congress. Al- though not elected, he succeeded in effecting a considerable reduction of the then overwhelming democratic majority. February 25, 1875, Senator Wright wrote a letter, declining a re- election to the senate; returned to Des Moines and engaged in the practice of law, as senior in the firm of Wright, Gatch & Wright. He has been one of the most faithful friends of his state and country in the political cam- paigns of the last fifteen years, and especially for the last four or five, but has not accumulated a fortune. He delivered his first speech in the cam- paign of 1875, on Saturday, September 4th, at Hillsboro, Henry county, Iowa. The State Register thus speaks of it: " We give Senator Wright's speech as completely as possible, for the reason that to him, more than to any other
man in Iowa, the people look with the most confidence for an honest, frank and logical discussion of all political questions. His caudor and fairness, too, make his speeches (independent of all mere partisanship) of great pop- ular interest and value. Purity and power both considered, Senator Wright stands to-day the highest of all our public men in Iowa. The people im- plicitly believe in his honesty, because in a lifetime of official service he has never proved else than honest; and they know he is strong, because he has been tried in several of the most ex- alted positions in our public service, and ever and always found the man for the place, and a leader of the people. This speech which we publish to-day, is worthy of the man and the party." Senator Wright has also been the un- tiring friend of education, and has often filled responsible positions in re- lation to school interests, with the greatest fidelity and acceptability. He is a member of the Methodist Episco- pal church, and president of the board of trustees of the Simpson Centennary College, at Indianola. In October, 1843, Senator Wright was married to Miss Mary H. Dibble, of Van Buren county, daughter of Judge Dibble, for- merly of New York.
Hon. J. B. Grinnell was born in New Haven, Vermont, in 1822, and is a son of Myron Grinnell, an intelli- gent gentleman, who frequently held places of honor and trust. He grad- nated at Oneida College, N. Y., with honor, and subsequently receiving at Middlebury College, Vt., the honorary degree of A. M. He was also a grad- nate of Auburn, New York, Theolog- ical Seminary,and commenced preach- ing at Union Village, N. Y., where he remained three years. He then filled a Congregational pulpit one year in Washington, D. C., where he preached the first antislavery sermon remem- bered in that city. After this he dis- pensed the gospel to a congregation at New York for three years. In 1854, Mr. Grinnell having an enter prising spirit, resolved to move west, and met others who wished to join him : he was a strong temperance man ; he supplied the Congregtional pulpit at Grinnell, and brought it up to a footing on which it has risen to be a large society. In 1856, he was elected
730
TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
to the senate of Iowa, on the issue of free schools and opposition to slavery ; he was chairman of the committee on schools and universities, and intro- duced and advocated the law which thereafter made education free to every child in Iowa. Mr. Grinnell continued to take an active part in politics, warmly espousing republican principles, and was a delegate to the convention which nominated Mr. Lin- coln for president, in 1860. In 1862, he was elected to a seat in the house of representatives, from the fourth district of Iowa; he was reelected in 1864, and at the close of his second term, retired. In congress lie was an advocate of a protective tariff; he was a strong partisan and never wavered in his support of the union cause; he is the reputed founder of several towns in Iowa and Kansas; he has been director in the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad Company ; he is now actively engaged in building the A. K. & D. Railway, and is president of several roads incipient; he is styled by the press as the busiest man in the country; he is emphatically a public man; he was admitted to the bar in 1858, hut had a taste for set- tling cases rather than prosecuting them. Mr. Grinnell was married in 1852, to Miss Chapin, of Springfield, Mass., and has two daughters, now members of the Iowa College. His elegant residence is within a stone's throw of the Union depot for the C., R. I. and P., and Central Railroad, of Iowa, and he is at home in the pro- gressive young city named in his honor, and which will perpetuate his deeds, both in what it has and what it has not; on the one hand the educa- tional institute, and on the other hand not a single saloon. He has reason to be proud of the city and its reputa- tion.
Hon. Cyrus Clay Carpenter, late governor of Iowa, was born in the town of Hartford, Susquehanna county, Penn., Nov. 24, 1829. Ere his birth, the rugged forests which once covered the hills of his father's and of his grandfather's early home, had given away before the axe of the hardy and toiling woodman, and the marks of civilization, i. e., fields, cottages, churches and school houses appeared on every side. Hence, the means of
mental and of moral culture thronged his early path and challenged his attention. While he was but a child, his father and mother were both borne to the grave; his mother when he was ten and his father when he was twelve years of age. And their last sickness was so severe and protracted that they left little or no property behind them. Hence, young Carpenter was obliged to work for his bread. He went first to learn the trade of clothier, at which he worked for some months, but not being pleased with that occupation, he tried farming, which he followed for some years, attending the district school during the winter months.
At eighteen he commenced teaching school, and for the next four years divided his time between teaching and attending the academy in Hart- ford. When twenty-two years old he came to Johnson, Licking county, Ohio, where he engaged in teaching school for one and a half years, and working on the farm in the summer. Iu 1854, he turned his face westward, stopping at various points in Illinois and Iowa, but not being satisfied, he still kept moving, until his arrival in Des Moines, then a town of some twelve hundred inhabitants, far from market and not affording any favor- able prospects of coming greatness as a central commercial city of wealth and influence. On account of the low state of lis finances he was compelled to prosecute his search for a location on foot, which he did, traveling the whole distance to Fort Dodge, where he arrived June 28, 1854, and which was his home until his removal to Des Moines. On this lonesome jour- ney, his entire worldly possessions were contained in a carpet sack which he carried in his hand. At Fort Dodge he soon found employment as as- sistatant to govornment surveyor, in dividing townships immediately west of the Fort. The contract was soon completed and the employers returned to head quarters, where Mr. Carpenter assisted his landlord in cutting hay ; but after working a few days, he was employed to run the compass for Leech & Bell, of Davis, who had a contract of goverment surveying in what is now Palo Alto and Kossouth counties. In the early part of Jan., 1855, he returned to Fort Dodge, and not having employment for a few
731
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
weeks, he engaged in teaching school. Early the next spring he was em- ployed to take charge of a set of hands, and survey a contract taken by Haggard, of Dubuque. After the completion of this work he returned to Fort Dodge and opened a private land office. At this branch of in- dustry he found profitable employ. ment. He was an active republican and was naturally chosen as candidate for the state legislature. He was elected in the fall of 1857, and took his seat in the session of 1858. In 1861, on the breaking out of the rebel- lion, he volunteered his services and was appointed to a responsible posi- tion and assigned to duty as a com- missary of subsistence. Serving in this department as a captain. In 1864, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and assigned to duty on the staff of Gen. Logan. At the close of the war, he went with his corps to Louisvile and was mustered out in Aug., 1865, having the rank of brevet colonel. Returning to Fort Dodge he set him- self about the improvement of a piece of land of which he was owner. In 1866, he was elected register of the state land office, which required his removal to Des Moines, In 1868, he was reelected, and in 1870, refused the nomination. In 1871, he was nomi- nated for governor, and in the fall, was elected to fill the office of chief execu- tive of Iowa for two years. He has filled many important offices since that period.
Gen. W. W. Belknap was a gradu- ate of the New Jersey college, at Princeton, in the class of 1848. He studied law with H. Caperton, Esq., at Georgetown, D. C., and was the partner of Ralph P. Lowe, afterwards governor of Iowa. In 1851, he located at Keokuk, and practiced his profes- sion successfully. In 1857 and 1858, he was elected to serve in the Iowa legislature, as a democrat. He entered the army as major of the fifteenth Iowa infantry, commanded by Col. Hugh T. Reed, about the 19th of October, 1861, and engaged in his first battle at Shiloh, in the army of the Tennessee. He served on Gen. McPherson's staff, and figured in the campaigns in Ten- nessee under both Generals Sherman and Grant, and by the latter his ser- vices were very highly esteemed. On
July 22, 1864, at the battle of Atlanta, where Gen. McPherson was killed, he distinguished himself so highly as a commander, that he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers. After the capture of Atlanta, he marched with Sherman to the sea, and finally to Washington, taking a prominent part in all the actions of the brilliant campaigns of Sherman. Since his appointment as secretary of war, he has served in the cabinet of President Grant with great acceptation, both to the administration and the country. He is acknowledged to be one of the most successful of secretaries of war. At the commencement of the second pres- idential term of Gen. Grant, Gen. Belknap was reappointed secretary of war, and still holds the portfolio of that office.
Hon. Alonzo Abernethy was born in Sandusky county, Ohio, April 14, 1836. In 1839, his parents moved to Bellevue, Ohio, where he received the rudiments of a common school edu- cation during the winter months, working on the farm during the sum- mer seasons, until seventeen years old. In 1854, he taught school at a salary of $13 per month. Having accumu- lated the sum of $60, he went to Bur- lington, the seat of the nearest educa- tional institution. He remained here nearly three years. He then entered the University of Chicago, and pur- sued his studies until 1861, when he left the senior class and enlisted in company F of the 9th Iowa infantry ; he reënlisted in 1864, and remained with the regiment until the close of its eventful career. He held responsible offices in the war, having been orderly sergeant, second and first lieutenants, and as captain of his company he led it in the " battle above the clouds " on Lookout Mountain. Returning to Fayette county, he was elected as its representative in the Iowa legislature, and participated in the session of 1866. In 1870, he was called to Des Moines as principal of the Baptist College of that city. In 1871, he was elected as superintendent of public instruction of the state of Iowa, and in 1873, was reëlected, and in 1875, was unani- mously renominated for a third term. His private and public life is blame- less and praiseworthy ; he joined the Baptist Church at the age of sixteen,
732
TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
and has ever since maintained his connection with it. In 1868, he mar- ried Miss Louisa E. Eaton, an estima- ble lady of Fayette county. He is a man of much energy of character, devoted to duty, and is a close student.
Hon. Caleb Baldwin was born in Washington county, Penn., April 3, 1824. He was a graduate of Wash- ington College, in 1842. In 1846, he began the practice of law in Fairfield, Iowa. He was elected prosecuting at- torney for Jefferson county for three successive terms. In 1855, he was appointed judge of the district court, by Gov. Grimes, to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of the Hon. W. H. Seevers. In 1857, he moved to Council Bluffs, his present place of residence. In 1859, he was elected one of the judges of the supreme court of the state. In 1864, hie de- clined a reëlection to the bench; he resumed the practice of law. In 1865, he was appointed district attor- ney for the district of Iowa. In 1874, he was appointed one of the judges of the court of commissioners of the Alabama claims, which position he occupies at the present time.
Hon. John Russell was born at Kettle Bridge, county of Fife, Scotland, Oct. 8, 1821. He enjoyed limited
school privileges until fifteen years of age; at that time his father appren- ticed him to the trade of stone cutter, and he served a full term of four years. He acquired a love for literature, and imbibed liberal political principles, and took an active part in the charter movement. After accumulating mon- ey enough to defray the expenses of his passage, he resolved to emigrate and proceeded to Liverpool. He set- tled in Pittsburgh and engaged in cutting stone; after working at his trade a few months his uncle per- suaded him to engage in trade, and loaned him money. He succeeded well, and in nine years acquired about $2,000. In 1853, he conveyed his family to Jones county, and has since been numbered among the suc- cessful farmers of Iowa. In 1861, he was elected as representative of the county in the Iowa legislature; he held this office for five consecutive terms, in 1868, was chosen speaker, and displayed good ability as a pre- siding officer. In 1870, Mr. Russell was triumphantly elected auditor of state, and was reelected in 1873. Mr. Russell retired in 1875; but he has exhibited such force of character, such skill and conscientiousness, in every public position he has filled, that he has left a clear and enviable record.
One of the Most Popular and Best Selling Books of the Season. -
NOT A NOVEL OR ROMANCE, BUT HISTORY AND FACT.
AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY
OF THE
BORDER WARS
OF TWO CENTURIES,
Embracing a Narrative of the Wars with the Indians in all parts of the United States, from 1650 to 1876.
BY CHARLES R. TUTTLE,
Author of the " Genersl History of the State of Michigan," " History of Iows," " History of Kansas," "History of Indisna," "History of Wisconsin," etc.
The Only Complete Work Ever Published on the Indian Wars.
This work embraces in a very pleasing style of narrative, a complete his- tory of all the thrilling wars with the Indians in the United States and Cana- das, from 1650, down to the present year. Nearly one-half of the volume con- sists of thrilling accounts of Border Wars west of the Rocky Mountains, never before published, including the Modoc War, the wars with the Apaches and other Indians, together with a very interesting description of the wonder- ful physical features of the country. It is positively the only complete work on the Border Wars of North America ever, written. It has been compiled and written from the most reliable sources, and constitutes a volume of great value to the family and public library.
We want an Agent in every County of the Union to canvass for this mag- nificent work. It is richly and profusely illustrated, and contains over 600 large octavo pages of reading matter. For special terms, and full particulars, address,
R. S. PEALE & CO., Chicago, III.
pourcyroma
O pring Gr arin
Miota
afumingl
VERburg
mix Hesper Hoplund
Vi Durches
ton
it
OBImftonf
Springwater
Decprahy
idéewas
Freeport union
AKPEL QElon Valali
aukof Waterville
Conover
Harpers Fy
Frankvilleo
Rossi illeg
Asor
Assiany 6 Postales
astala
pland Innesheik
Eldorado
Charabout
at
9 Vetion.
Po\ Kidsor
Elkader warten g Garna
onayten
Guttenberg
bald
Penn
Scott Cent
Jefferson
Buenas "hepaton
bokand
Rutnavn
Buffalo for Forestv.
Greeley Auisono
er
az lto
Dlaupton
PitneyRo cottages
SME Hopeo
ofolay
HI .. A
PEALE'S RAIL ROAD - 8℃
TOWNSHIP MAP. OF
DWA.
PUBLISHED BY
Richard S.Peale,
Nº 159 Adams St. CHICAGO. 1876.
O
Bethel
ORichfield
ohona
OFcuryfers
Bench C
PEALE'S RAIL ROAD. TOWNSHIP MAP.
OF
Wadsworthff
PaloAlto]
iHartley JostinL.
Shelton
9,6
Spencer
Carry
USSOTH
Mason Cy
Castalia
Rockfor
CHICKASAW
Postidle
0
O'BRIEN
L
A
Chamal'rrlant Alsona +
WSIy HAN COCK CERROG
RIDO
N.Hampton
Blair DO
9 MarbleRock Ginest
Fryd Mankspor
Ofaspers
Marque
SwanL
Rolfes
Crown Pt of
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.