USA > Iowa > Polk County > Des Moines > Des Moines, the pioneer of municipal progress and reform of the middle West, together with the history of Polk County, Iowa, the largest, most populous and most prosperous county in the state of Iowa; Volume II > Part 158
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 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128 | Part 129 | Part 130 | Part 131 | Part 132 | Part 133 | Part 134 | Part 135 | Part 136 | Part 137 | Part 138 | Part 139 | Part 140 | Part 141 | Part 142 | Part 143 | Part 144 | Part 145 | Part 146 | Part 147 | Part 148 | Part 149 | Part 150 | Part 151 | Part 152 | Part 153 | Part 154 | Part 155 | Part 156 | Part 157 | Part 158 | Part 159 | Part 160 | Part 161 | Part 162 | Part 163 | Part 164 | Part 165 | Part 166 | Part 167 | Part 168 | Part 169 | Part 170 | Part 171
MRS. MARY E. BIEGHLER.
Mrs. Mary E. Bieghler, who lives in Madison township and is a widow of the late Harrison H. Bieghler, was born on the 30th of October, 1847, in Licking county, Ohio, and is a daughter of W. B. and Eliza (Moore) Hanger. The father was a native of Virginia and the mother of Ohio, but they located in Illi- nois about 1856, and there the father died four years later, at the age of fifty- three years. The mother and daughter again started west in the spring of 1861 and settled in Polk county, Iowa, where the mother passed away in 1904, having reached the venerable age of ninety-two years.
In 1865 Miss Hanger became the wife of Harrison H. Bieghler, who was born near Darlington, Indiana, on the 6th of December, 1839. His parents, Solomon and Magdalena Bieghler, were natives of Germany, who came to America in their youth and were married in Ohio, after which they removed to Indiana. In 1849 they came to Iowa and located on a farm in this county, where they passed away, the father in 1881, at the age of eighty-three years, and the mother in 1884, at the same age. They were the parents of eleven children, the son Harrison being the ninth in the order of birth.
Harrison H. Bieghler received a common school education, remaining under the paternal roof until he had reached the age of nineteen years, at which time the wonderful stories he heard of the fortunes made in western mining camps proved too alluring and in 1859 he started with a company of enthusiastic gold seekers for California, crossing the plains with an ox team. He remained on the western coast for two years and in 1861 he returned by the water route. In less than one year he enlisted in Company B, Twenty-third Iowa Volunteer In- fantry, and went south in defense of the Union. He saw much active service, remaining at the front almost three years, and was wounded in the arm at the Battle of Spanish Fort, Alabama, which necessitated his being sent to the hos- pital at New Orleans, where he remained about six weeks. He was present at
1341
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
the siege of Vicksburg and all other engagements in which his regiment partici- pated, being promoted to the rank of corporal during the period of his service, and mustered out as such at Davenport at the close of the war. He was at home on a furlough when his regiment received their final discharge. .
After returning from the war, Mr. Bieghler purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Madison township, which he farmed for twenty years, and then sold the property and bought one hundred and seventy acres on sections 21 and 28 of the same township, where his widow still resides. He engaged in general farming and stock-raising, making a specialty of buying and feeding cattle for the market, in which undertakings he met with a fair degree of success. He passed away in 1903 and was laid to rest in the cemetery at Hopkins Grove, this county.
Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bieghler. Arthur C., the eldest, after completing the course of study in the district schools, attended the Des Moines Business College for two years and is now manager of the Mitchell Automobile Company, Chicago. He is married and has one child. Harry N., who also received a commercial education, later learned the barber's trade, which he is now following in Los Angeles, California. He married Miss Abbie Wiley, of Madrid, Iowa, and has three children. Oscar E. is also married and has two children. After graduating from the pharmacy department of Highland Park College, Des Moines, he engaged in farming near Ankeny, this county, where he continued to reside. Enoch B., a graduate of the Iowa Business College, is employed by the Interurban Railway Company of Des Moines, in which city he is living. Walter E., who also acquired a commercial education, married Miss Elizabeth McLean, of this county, where they reside, and they have one child. Roscoe W., a graduate of the Des Moines high school. Alice E., the youngest child and only daughter, passed away at the age of twenty-two years.
The family always attended the services of the University Church of Christ in Des Moines, of which the father and mother were both members. The father was a member of the Masonic fraternity and he was also identified with the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic, under the auspices of which organiza- tion his funeral services were conducted. He was a man possessed of many sterling qualities, and although nearly a decade has elapsed since his demise, he is still remembered in the community where he resided and spoken of in terms of the highest respect. Mrs. Bieghler and the two youngest sons, Walter E. and Roscoe W., live on the old homestead where they engage in general farming and stock-raising. She has lived in this county for fifty years, during which time she has made many friends, owing to her gracious manner and kindly spirit, whose regard has increased with the passing years.
HOWARD W. BYERS.
Howard W. Byers occupies a central place on the stage of public activity, making his impress felt upon the political situation of the state and also upon the proceedings of the bar. For several years he has been regarded as one of the most distinguished lawyers of Shelby county and has been called upon to fill sev- eral positions of honor and trust, now serving as attorney general of the state. A native of Wisconsin, he was born in Woodstock, Richland county, on the 25th of December, 1856, of American parentage, and, like most boys, his education was obtained mainly in the common schools. It was in 1873 that he accompanied his parents on their removal from Wisconsin to Iowa, the family locating in Hancock county, where he spent four years. In 1877 he became a resident of
1342
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
Shelby county and his home has since been in Harlan with the exception of three years spent at Earling.
Mr. Byers began life for himself as a farm laborer, devoting his time to that occupation from his fifteenth to his twentieth year. Having obtained a good practical education, he next engaged in teaching school for about five years and was subsequently employed as clerk in a general store until thirty years of age. We next find him as a law clerk and student and after two years' preparation he was admitted to the bar in 1888 and has since practiced in Harlan. As time passed he secured a liberal and representative clientage and was soon recognized as one of the most prominent lawyers of that section of the state. He has been con- nected with various important cases and his law business has brought him promi- nently before the public in a professional capacity.
Not only as a prominent representative of the bar is Mr. Byers known in Iowa, but he is also recognized as a leader in republican politics. He was elected a member of the twenty-fifth general assembly and served as speaker of the house during the twenty-sixth regular and extra sessions. He was also a mem- ber of the twenty-eighth general assembly and in 1898 was a candidate for con- gress from the ninth district and lacked only seven votes of the nomination. He was made chairman of the republican state convention held at Cedar Rapids when Governor Cummins was first nominated for chief executive of the state and was temporary chairman of the state convention held in Des Moines in March, 1908. Recognizing his ability as a member of the legal profession, he was chosen attorney general in November, 1906, and so acceptably did he fill that position that he was reelected in 1908. He is a republican of the progressive type, but never allows party interests to interfere with the discharge of any public duty that devolves upon him and is a man who commands the confidence and high regard of all with whom he comes in contact either in public or private life. He is particularly alive to the interests and vital questions of the day, whether of a professional or political nature, and his labors and efforts have been of a most practical character, while at the same time he works toward high ideals.
CAROLYN M. OGILVIE.
Carolyn M. Ogilvie, who established and now publishes and edits the Mid- western Magazine at Des Moines, a paper devoted to the development of the middle west, is a native of Oskaloosa, Iowa, and a daughter of Dr. Robert A. McAyeal, D. D. She traces her ancestry back to the Baliols of Scotland on one side and to William the Conqueror on the other, and also to the Waldenses' and the Huguenots. Her father, who came of Scotch-Irish ancestry, was a man of superior education and of the highest manhood. He became a pioneer of Iowa and was a power in politics from 1858 on through the period of the Civil war. He wedded Mary Ellen Sharpe, a representative of the Sharpe family of Mary- land, of notable ancestry. Mrs. McAyeal survives and is now a resident of Amesbury, Massachusetts.
Reared in Oskaloosa, Carolyn Margaret McAyeal was graduated from the high school of her native city and afterward from the high school of Lawrence, Massachusetts, subsequent to which time she pursued a course in the Monmouth (Illinois) College. Broadly educated, she became a high school teacher, devot- ing her life to that work prior to her marriage, which was celebrated in Law- rence, Massachusetts, in 1888. She has for a number of years been prominent in journalistic circles of the state, having purchased and managed the Mail and Times of Des Moines, with which she was thus connected from 1903 until 1906. In the following year she began the publication of the Midwestern Magazine, now in its fifth volume. This publication is devoted to the development of the middle
1343
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
west and has met with phenomenal success both in the accomplishment of its purpose and in its financial results.
Mrs. Ogilvie is prominently known in literary and club circles. She belongs to the Eastern Star and the P. E. O. Society, having previously served as presi- dent of Chapter Q. She is likewise president of the Newspaper Women's Club of Des Moines and ex-president of the Iowa Press and Authors Association and of the Abigail Adams Chapter, D. A. R. She is entitled to membership in nearly all of the patriotic societies of America through ancestral connection. She is likewise a member of six other clubs and belongs to both the East and West Side Commercial Clubs of Des Moines. Her religious faith is that of the Christian Science church. Superior intellect combined with practical purpose has made her work at all times an effective force for good.
OSCAR STRAUSS.
Oscar Strauss needs no introduction to the readers of this volume, for he is a representative of one of the old and prominent families of the city and, more- over, has established himself as an able representative of the bar. He was born in Des Moines, September 23, 1876, his parents being Moses and Nannie (Schloss) Strauss, of whom extended mention is made elsewhere in this volume. His education was acquired in the public schools and, passing through consecutive grades, he was graduated from the Des Moines high school with the class of 1894. He afterward entered the State University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he won his Bachelor of Philosophy degree on the completion of the scientific course in 1896. He took up preparation for the practice of law in the Iowa State University and was graduated in 1899 with the LL.B. degree. Im- mediately afterward he located in Des Moines and has built up a good practice. He has not sought the assistance of partnership relations, but has remained alone, and his worth and ability have commended him to the professional support of the public and he is now accorded a liberal clientage which is constantly increas- ing in volume and importance. He is interested in politics and public matters and his cooperation can always be counted upon to further any movement for the general good, yet the major portion of his time is given to professional duties, and his devotion to his clients' interests is proverbial.
Mr. Strauss votes with the republican party and fraternally is connected with the Masons and the Elks, his membership in the former being with Capital Lodge, No. II0, A. F. & A. M .; Des Moines Consistory, S. P. R. S. ; and Za-Ga- Zig Temple, of the Mystic Shrine. He is rated as one of the most respected and popular young men of the capital city.
THOMAS L. HOSMER.
Mr. T. L. Hosmer, one of the well known young business men of Des Moines, is associated with his father in the Hawkeye Transfer & Storage Company. Mr. Hosmer was born at Carsonville, Michigan, December 16, 1885.
Upon graduating from the high school, he attended Grinnell College for two and one-half years. The two years following his departure from college were given to the advertising business, his first position being on the advertising staff of the Daily News, and later as advertising manager for Chase & West Furniture Company, being the first man they ever had to give his entire time to their work. In 1900 he severed his connection with that firm and entered upon the duties of his present position.
1344
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
In 1909 Mr. Hosmer wedded Miss Grace W. Brookmiller, a daughter of Mr. F. H. Brookmiller, of this city.
He takes great interest in church and Sunday school work, for the past four years having had charge of the boys department of the Highland Park Presby- terian church. The sincerity and excellent results of Mr. Hosmer's work are shown by the remarkable increase of attendance in this department of the Sunday school under his supervision.
Mr. Hosmer is popular with the younger business men of Des Moines and among them has many substantial friends.
GRANVILLE N. RYAN, M. D.
In the front rank of the medical profession of Des Moines stands Dr. G. N. Ryan, one of the most extensive practitioners of the city.
Granville Nimrod Ryan was born in Parmleysville, Kentucky, May 23, 1870, a son of Thomas and Matilda (Young) Ryan. Both parents were natives of the Blue Grass state and representatives of old Kentucky families.
The Ryan family came originally from Ireland at an early day, one branch settling in New York and another in Virginia. The latter branch have been largely professional men. The grandfather of our subject, Dr. Wm. H. Ryan, was one of the prominent surgeons of southern Kentucky and had three brothers and a son who were also successful practitioners. The latter, Dr. J. R. Ryan, had charge of one of the large smallpox hospitals in the south during the Civil war, and shortly after located at Colfax, Iowa, where he established a sanitarium known as the Hotel Ryan, and engaged in active practice for many years, treat- ing thousands of people from all parts of the country.
Thomas Ryan, the father of our subject, was for many years a general mer- chant at Parmleysville, and was prominently identified with the republican party in Kentucky. During the Civil war he helped organize five regiments for the Union army, and his business suffered numerous raids as a northern sympathizer. In 1880 he came north and located at Colfax, Iowa, where he engaged in the hotel business until a few years ago when he retired. He is still living there, hav- ing attained the age of 79 years.
Our subject's mother, Matilda Young, was a daughter of E. J. Young, a planter and large slave owner of southern Kentucky, who freed his slaves when emancipation became a national issue. She died January 16, 1902, at the age of sixty-two years.
Of the children of Thomas and Matilda Ryan four sons and one daughter reached maturity : William H. Ryan, general manager of the Penn Mutual Insur- ance company at Brooklyn, New York; George Ryan, a professional decorator of Kansas City, Missouri; Drs. Granville N. and Charles J. Ryan of Des Moines, and Belle A., wife or Marshall Broughton, of Middleborough, Vermont.
Granville N. Ryan received his early education in the public schools of Colfax, and after graduating from high school, in 1889, took a two-years' literary course at Cornell University. In 1892 he entered Rush Medical College, from which he graduated with the degree of M. D. May 22, 1895.
Owing to the illness of his father, Dr. Ryan was obliged to work his way through college, teaching in country and public schools during parts of each year while attending Cornell, and working in the drug store of his uncle, at Colfax, throughout his medical course. In this latter connection, however, he received more than financial remuneration as the old doctor proved a valuable preceptor in his medical studies.
1345
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
After graduation Dr. Ryan received an appointment as interne at St. Eliza- beth's hospital, in Chicago, where he spent one year. He then came to Des Moines and has since been engaged in the general practice of medicine and surg- ery in this city, covering a period of fifteen years. During this time he has taken various post-graduate courses in Chicago and New York, in special studies of internal medicine and the treatment of women and children.
His offices occupy a large and well appointed suite in the Capitol City Bank building, where, associated with his brother, Dr. Charles J. Ryan, one of the leading young surgeons of the city, he is assisted by an able staff of nurses and attendants.
Dr. Ryan has held the chair of pediatrics in the medical department of Drake University for a number of years, and is a member of the consulting and attend- ing staffs of Mercy and the Methodist hospitals. He is also medical examiner for the Penn Mutual, Northwestern Life, and Des Moines Life Insurance Companies, and for various fraternal orders. For the past ten years Dr. Ryan has been in attendance at the annual meetings of the American Medical Association held in various parts of the country, and is also a member of the Polk County, Iowa State and Missouri Valley Medical Societies, and the Des Moines Pathological Society.
He has kept constantly in touch with the advance of medical science and has been an occasional contributor to the current literature of the profession on the subject of social evils, or "the black plague."
In all civic affairs Dr. Ryan has taken a keen and active interest. With other members of the medical profession he was active in the establishment of the Swedish-Lutheran hospital; was largely instrumental in raising the two hundred thousand dollar fund to keep Drake University at Des Moines, to which he was one of the most liberal contributors, and was also active in securing funds for the erection of the Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian Association buildings.
Dr. Ryan's political affiliations are with the republican party, while his social memberships are in the Country Club, Hyperion Field and Motor Club, and the Grand View Golf Club. Fraternally he is a K. of P., an Elk, and a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and a Shriner.
On March II, 1896, at Chicago, Dr. Ryan was united in marriage with Miss Louise Rowe, a celebrated pianist and singer, who contracted consumption and died April 12, 1900. June 10, 1903, he married at Louisville, Kentucky, Miss Miriam Pickens, daughter of Dr. S. K. Pickens, a prominent physician of Albany, Kentucky. For ten years prior to her marriage Miss Pickens had made her home with an aunt, Mrs. James E. Chilton, of Louisville, and had there attended Hamp- ton College, where she graduated in 1901. Dr. and Mrs. Ryan have one son, Gran- ville Chilton Ryan, born June 1, 1906.
The family reside at 1411 Capitol Avenue, opposite Franklin Square Park, where five years ago the Doctor built a beautiful home of the Dutch-Colonial type.
FRANK L. HALL.
Frank L. Hall, president of the Corn Belt Land & Loan Company, with head- quarters in Des Moines, has for many years been actively interested in the land and loan business. He is widely known as a leader in a specialty in which he has from the beginning of his business life shown remarkable adaptability. He is also one of the large land owners and operators of Iowa. He is a native of Monmouth, Illinois, and was born June 10, 1865. The father, Michael Hall, was born in Kentucky and removed to Warren county, Illinois, in his boyhood with his father, Robert Hall, and other members of the family. The grandfather, in the early thirties, long before settling in Illinois made many trips through Illi-
1346
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
nois, traveling on horseback, and acquired large land interests in what is known as the military tract of Illinois, and other lands in the vicinity of where Belle- ville is now located. He was one of the pioneers of Warren county and was a leader in that section in the early days. Michael Hall engaged in agriculture and stock-raising in Illinois and attained a goodly measure of success. He died in 1894. The mother of our subject, Candis Miller, before her marriage, was a daughter of Barton Miller and removed from Kentucky to Monmouth, Illinois, with her parents in her girlhood. She passed away in 1894.
Mr. Hall, of this review, received his preliminary education in the public schools of Monmouth and later attended college at Abingdon, Illinois. He was naturally attracted to the land business and at the age of nineteen years, while still in school, began dealing in land. He also engaged in general agriculture and has ever since his early manhood been identified with farming, stock-raising and the land and loan business. He made his headquarters at Monmouth until eleven years ago, but his business called him to many states, as he had branch offices at a number of other points. In addition to buying and selling land, he owned and operated ranches and raised and sold cattle upon an extensive scale. In 1901, owing to its central location, he removed to Des Moines and has since continued in the land, loan and agricultural business. He was one of the organizers in 1907 of the Corn Belt Land & Loan Company, of which he has since been president, he and his brothers practically owning the company; which is one of the most important concerns of the kind in this part of the country.
In December, 1884, Mr. Hall was married to Miss Minnie Younkin, of St. Louis, Missouri, and three children were born to them, William Edwin, Leone and Myrtle. The son, William Edwin, is now secretary of the Corn Belt Land & Loan Company and gives fine promise as a business man. Mr. Hall was again married in 1901, to Miss Jessie M. McCrery, a native of Monmouth, Illinois, and to them one child was born, Dorothy. Politically he is identified with the democratic party. At Monmouth he took an active part in politics and served for several years as mayor. He was a Bryan presidential elector in 1900 and was nominated for congress, but declined to make the race on account of im- portant private interests which demanded his close attention. Fraternally he is connected with the Elks and in religious belief with the Christian church. A man of unusual energy and force of character, keen business judgment and large executive ability, he has made a success of his business and gained recognition as a material factor in the development of important sections of the country.
NEWTON. LAMB.
A man ever thoughtful of the comfort and happiness of others and a safe guide and advisor, Newton Lamb will be remembered as a public-spirited and progressive citizen of Polk county. He was born in Wayne county, Indiana, August II, 1818, coming of ancestry which has been traced to the time of Wil- liam Wallace, the patriot of Scotland, whose troubles with King Edward I of England led to his death. The family originally lived in England but on account of sympathy with the Scottish cause removed to Perthshire, Scotland. James Lamb, the progenitor in America, came from Perthshire in 1776, being impelled by a love of liberty and a desire to assist the colonies in the Revolution. He fought under General Greene and on account of his activity against the mother country was disowned and disinherited by his relatives in Scotland. Several years after the Revolutionary war he was married to Hannah Boone, a first cousin of Daniel Boone, of Kentucky, and settled in Bourbon county, that state. He was bitterly opposed to slavery and on account of his opposition to this institution he moved to Wayne county, Indiana, in 1811, where he bought fourteen hundred acres
NEWTON LAMB
1349
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
of land, for which he paid two dollars per acre. The country was new and the woods abounded in wolves, deer, bear and numerous other wild animals, Indians also roaming at will and often alarming the women of the household by their threatening appearance. The present city of Richmond, Indiana, was then a trading post and a large part of the state was an unbroken wilderness. Mr. Lamb was a soldier in the army under General Anthony Wayne and assisted materially in promoting the advancement of the section in which he established his home. He and his sons built one of the most substantial residences in the county, the building being made of stone which they were two years in hauling. It still stands and is one of the interesting historical landmarks of Wayne county. The father died at the age of eighty-five years from injuries which he received by being thrown from a horse, and his wife passed away at the age of seventy. In the family were eight children : James, Betsy, William, John, Catharine, Han- nah, Joseph B. and Jane. William Lamb, the father of our subject, passed the greater part of his life at Richmond, Indiana.
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.