USA > Iowa > Black Hawk County > Historical and biographical record of Black Hawk County, Iowa > Part 18
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R. P. Love.
191
RALPH P. LOWE.
RALPH P. LOWES
40
HE fourth Governor of the State, and the seventh of Iowa without reference to the form of govern- ment, was Ralph P. Lowe. He was born in Ohio in 1808, and lived just three-fourths of a cent- ury. He came to the Territory of Iowa in 1839 or 1840, when he was a little over thirty years old. He settled in Muscatine, where in a short time he became prominent in local affairs and of recognized ability in questions of public policy. While yet residing in that city, he represented the county of Muscatine in the constitu- tional convention of 1844 that framed the rejected Constitution.
After this constitutional convention, Mr. Lowe took no further part in public mat- ters for a number of years. He removed to Lee County about 1849 or '50, where he became district judge as a successor to George H. Williams, who was afterward famous as President Grant's Attorney Gen- eral. He was district judge five years, from 1852 to 1857, being succeeded by Judge Claggett. In the summer of 1857
he was nominated by the Republicans for Governor of Iowa, with Oran Faville for Lieutenant - Governor. The Democracy put in the field Benjamin M. Samuels for Governor and George Gillaspy for Lieu- tenant Governor. There was a third ticket in the field, supported by the American or " Know Nothing " party, and bearing the names of T. F. Henry and Easton Morris. The election was held in October, 1857, and gave Mr. Lowe 38,498 votes, against 36,088 for Mr. Samuels, and 1,006 for Mr. Henry.
Hitherto the term of office had been four years, but by an amendment to the Consti- tution this was now reduced to two. Gov- ernor Lowe was inaugurated January 14, 1858, and at once sent his first message to the Legislature. Among the measures passed by this Legislature were bills to in- corporate the State Bank of Iowa ; to pro- vide for an agricultural college ; to author- ize the business of banking; disposing of the land grant made by Congress to the Des Moines Valley Railroad; to provide for the erection of an institution for the education of the blind ; and to provide for taking a State census.
No events of importance occurred dur- ing the administration of Governor Lowe, but it was not a period of uninterrupted prosperity. The Governor said in his biennial message of January 10, 1860, re-
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viewing the preceding two years: "The period that has elapsed since the last biennial session has been one of great dis- turbing causes, and of anxious solicitude to all classes of our fellow citizens. The first year of this period was visited with heavy and continuous rains, which reduced the measure of our field crops below one-half of the usual product, whilst the financial revulsion which commenced upon the At- lantic coast in the autumn of 1857 did not reach its climax for evil in our borders until the year just past."
He referred at length to the claim of the State against the Federal Government, and said that he had appealed in vain to the Secretary of the Interior for the pay- ment of the 5 per cent. upon the military land warrants that the State is justly en- titled to, which then approximated to a million of dollars. The payment of this fund, he said, " is not a mere favor which is asked of the General Government, but a subsisting right which could be enforced in a court of justice, was there a tribunal of this kind clothed with the requisite juris- diction."
The subject of the Des Moines River grant received from the Governor special attention, and he gave a history of the operations of the State authorities in ref- erence to obtaining the residue of the lands to which the State was entitled, and other information as to the progress of the work. He also remarked "that under the act authorizing the Governor to raise a com- pany of mounted men for defense and pro- tection of our frontier, approved February 9, 1858, a company of thirty such men, known as the Frontier Guards, armed and equipped as required, were organized and mustered into service under the command of Captain Henry B. Martin, of Webster City, about the first of March then follow- ing, and were divided into two companies, one stationed on the Little Sioux River,
the other at Spirit Lake. Their presence afforded security and gave quiet to the settlements in that region, and after a ser. vice of four months they were duly dis- banded.
"Late in the fall of the year, however, great alarm and consternation was again felt in the region of Spirit Lake and Sioux River settlements, produced by the appear- ance of large numbers of Indians on the border, whose bearing was insolent and menacing, and who were charged with clandestinely running off the stock of the settlers. The most urgent appeals came from these settlers, invoking again the protection of the State. From the repre- sentations made of the imminence of their danger and the losses already sustained, the Governor summoned into the field once more the frontier guards. After a service of four or five months they were again discharged, and paid in the manner prescribed in the act under which they were called out."
Governor Lowe was beaten for the renomination by Honorable S. J. Kirkwood, who was considered much the stronger man. To compensate him for his defeat for the second term, Governor Lowe was appointed one of the three judges under the new Constitution. He drew the short term, which expired in 1861, but was returned and served, all told, eight years. He then returned to the practice of law, gradually working into a claim busi- ness at Washington, to which city he re- moved about 1874. In that city he died, on Saturday, December 22, 1883. He had a large family. Carleton, one of his sons, was an officer in the Third Iowa Cavalry during the war.
Governor Lowe was a man of detail, accurate and industrious. In private and public life he was pure, upright and honest. In religious faith he was inclined to be a Spiritualist.
195
SAMUEL }. KIRKWOOD.
F
SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD.
AMUEL JORDAN KIRKWOOD, the fifth Governor of the State of Iowa, was born December 20, 1813, in Harford County, Mary- land, on his father's farm. His father was twice married, first to a lady named Coulson, by whom he had two sons, and, after her death, to Mary Alexander, by whom he had three children, all sons, the youngest of whom is the subject of these notes. The father of Governor Kirkwood was a native of Maryland, his ancestors having settled there previous to the Revo- lution ; his mother was born in Scotland, and both parents were strict members of the Presbyterian church.
When ten years old young Kirkwood was sent to Washington City to attend a school taught by a relative named John McLeod. He remained at school four years, when he entered a drug store at Washington as clerk, in which occupation he continued till after attaining his majority, with the excep- tion of about eighteen months spent in teaching in York County, Pennsylvania. In 1835 Samuel left Washington and set- tled in Richland County, Ohio, where he assisted his father and brother (who had re-
moved from Maryland there) in clearing a farm. In 1841 he entered, as a student, the law office of Thomas W. Bartley, afterward Governor of Ohio, and in 1843 was admit- ted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Ohio. He then engaged in the practice of law with his former preceptor, Mr. Bartley, forming an association which con- tinued for eight years.
From 1845 to 1849 he served as prose- cuting attorney of his county. In 1849 he was elected as a Democrat to represent his county and district in the constitutional convention. In 1851 Mr. Bartley, his part- ner, having been elected to the supreme judiciary of the State, Kirkwood formed a partnership with Barnabas Barns, with whom he continued to practice until the spring of 1855, when he removed to the West.
Up to 1854 Mr. Kirkwood had acted with the Democratic party. But the measures proposed and sustained that year by the Democracy in Congress, concentrated in what was known as the Kansas-Nebraska act, drove him with hosts of anti-slavery Democrats out of the party. He was be- sought by the opposition in the " Richland district" to become their candidate for Congress, but declined. In 1855 he came to Iowa and settled two miles northwest of Iowa City, entering into a partnership with his brother-in-law, Ezekiel Clark, in the
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milling business, and kept aloof from pub- lic affairs. He could not long conceal his record and abilities from his neighbors, however, and in 1856 he was elected to the State Senate from the district composed of the counties of Iowa and Johnson, and served through the last session of the Legislature held at Iowa City and the first one held at Des Moines.
In 1859 Mr. Kirkwood was made the standard-bearer of the Republicans of Iowa, and though he had as able and popular a competitor as General A. C. Dodge, he was elected Governor of Iowa by a majority of over 3,000. He was inaugurated January 11, 1860. Before the expiration of his first term came the great civil war. As Gov- ernor, during the darkest days of the Rebell- ion, he performed an exceedingly impor- tant duty. He secured a prompt response by volunteers to all requisitions by the federal Government on the State for troops, so that during his Governorship no " draft" took place in Iowa, and no regiment, except the first, enlisted for less than three years. At the same time he maintained the State's financial credit. The Legislature, at its ex- tra session in 1861, authorized the sale of $800,000 in bonds, to assist in arming and equipping troops. So frugally was this work done, that but $300,000 of the bonds were sold, and the remaining $500,000 not having been required, the bonds represent- ing this amount were destroyed by order of the succeeding Legislature.
In October, 1861, Governor Kirkwood was. with comparatively little opposition, re-elected-an honor accorded for the first time in the history of the State. His ma- jority was about 18,000. During his second term he was appointed by President Lin- coln to be Minister to Denmark; but he declined to enter upon his diplomatic duties until the expiration of his term as Governor. The position was kept open for him until that time, but, when it came, pressing pri-
vate business compelled a declination of the office altogether.
In January, 1866, he was a prominent candidate before the Legislature for United States Senator. Senator Harlan had re- signed the senatorship upon his appoint- ment to the office of Secretary of the Interior by President Lincoln, just before his death, but had withdrawn from the cabinet soon after the accession of Mr. Johnson to the Presidency. In this way it happened that the Legislature had two terms of United States Senator to fill, a short term of two years, to fill Harlan's unexpired term, and a long term of six years, to immediately succeed this; and Harlan had now become a candidate for his own successorship, to which Kirkwood also aspired. Ultimately, Kirkwood was elected for the first and Harlan for the second term. During his brief senatorial service, Kirkwood did not hesitate to meas- ure swords with Senator Sumner, whose natural egotism had begotten in him an arrogant and dictatorial manner, borne with humbly until then by his colleagues, in deference to his long experience and emi- nent ability, but unpalatable to an inde- pendent Western Senator like Kirkwood.
At the close of his senatorial term, March 4, 1867, he resumed the practice of law, which a few years later he relinquished to accept the presidency of the Iowa City Savings Bank. In 1875 he was again elected Governor, and was inaugurated January 13, 1876. He served but little over a year, as early in 1877 he was chosen United States Senator. He filled this position four years, resigning to become Secretary of the In- terior in President Garfield's cabinet. In this office he was succeeded, April 17, 1882, by Henry M. Teller, of Colorado.
Governor Kirkwood returned to Iowa City, his home, where he still resides, being now advanced in years. He was married in 1843 to Miss Jane Clark, a native of Ohio.
r. M. Stone
.
WILLIAM M. STONE.
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WILLIAM M. SIONE.+
HE subject of this brief sketch was the ninth to hold the position of Governor of Iowa, and the sixth to fill the office under the State organization. He held the office four years, from 1864 to 1868.
William Milo Stone was born October 14, 1827, a son of Truman and La- vina (North) Stone. His great-grandfather on both sides of the family was in the seven years' struggle for independence. His grandfather, Aaron Stone, was in the second war with England. Truman Stone moved to Lewis County, New York, when the son was a year old, and six years later to Co- shocton County, Ohio.
Like many other self-made men, William M. had few advantages. He never attended a school of any kind more than twelve months. In boyhood he was for two seasons a team-driver on the Ohio Canal. At seven- teen he was apprenticed to the chairmaker's trade, and he followed that business until twenty-three years of age, reading law
meantime during his spare hours, wher- ever he happened to be. He commenced at Coshocton, with James Mathews, who afterward became his father-in-law; con- tinued his readings with General Lucius V. Pierce, of Akron, and finished with Ezra B. Taylor, of Ravenna. He was admitted to the bar in August, 1851, by Peter Hitch- cock and Rufus P. Ranney, supreme judges, holding a term of court at Ravenna.
After practicing three years at Coshocton with his old preceptor, James Mathews, he, in November, 1854, settled in Knoxville, which has remained his home since. The year after locating here Mr. Stone pur- chased the Knoxville Journal, and was one of the prime movers in forming the Repub- lican party in Iowa, being the first editor to suggest a State convention, which met February 22, 1856, and completed the or- ganization. In the autumn of the same year he was a Presidential elector on the Republican ticket.
In April, 1857, Mr. Stone was chosen Judge of the Eleventh Judicial .District. He was elected judge of the Sixth Judicial District when the new Constitution went into operation in 1858, and was serving on the bench when the American flag was stricken down at Fort Sumter. At that
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time, April, 1861, he was holding court in Fairfield, Jefferson County, and when the news came of the insult to the old flag he immediately adjourned court and prepared for what he believed to be more important duties-duties to his country.
In May he enlisted as a private; was made Captain of Company B, Third Iowa Infantry, and was subsequently promoted to Major. With that regiment he was at the battle of Blue Mills, Missouri, in Sep- tember, 1861, where he was wounded. At Shiloh, the following spring, he commanded the regiment and was taken prisoner. By order of Jefferson Davis he was paroled for the time of forty days, with orders to re- pair to Washington, and if possible secure an agreement for a cartel for a general ex- change of prisoners, and to return as a prisoner if he did not succeed. Failing to secure that result within the period speci- fied he returned to Richmond and had his parol extended fifteen days; repairing again to Washington, he effected his pur- pose and was exchanged.
In August, 1862, he was appointed by Governor Kirkwood Colonel of the Twen- ty-second Iowa Infantry, which rendez- voused and organized at Camp Pope, Iowa City, in August, 1862. The regiment was occupied for several months in guarding supply stores and the railroad, and escorting supply trains to the Army of the Southeast Missouri until January 27, 1863, when it re- ceived orders to join the army under Gen- eral Davidson, at West Plains, Missouri. After a march of five days it reached its destination, and was brigaded with the Twenty-first and Twenty-third. Iowa regi ments, Colonel Stone commanding, and was designated the First Brigade, First Divis- ion, Army of Southeast Missouri. April I found Colonel Stone at Milliken's Bend, Louisiana, to assist Grant in the capture of Vicksburg. He was now in immediate command of his regiment, which formed a
part of a brigade under Colonel C. L. Harris, of the Eleventh Wisconsin. In the advance upon Port Gibson Colonel Harris was taken sick, and Colonel Stone was again in charge of a brigade. In the battle of Port Gibson the Colonel and his com- mand distinguished themselves, and were successful. The brigade was in the reserve at Champion Hills, and in active skirmish at Black River.
On the evening of May 21 Colonel Stone received General Grant's order for a gen- eral assault on the enemy's lines at IO A. M. on the 22d. In this charge, which was unsuccessful, Colonel Stone was again wounded, receiving a gunshot in his left forearm. Colonel Stone commanded a brigade until the last of August, when, being ordered to the Gulf department, he resigned. He had become very popular with the people of Iowa, and they were determined to make him Governor.
He was nominated in a Republican con. vention held at Des Moines in June, 1863, and was elected by a large majority. He was brevetted Brigadier-General in 1864, during his first year as Governor. He was inaugurated January 14, 1864, and was re- elected in 1865, his four years in office closing January 16, 1868. His majority in 1863 was nearly 30,000, and in 1865 about 16,500. His diminished vote in 1865 was due to the fact that he was very strongly committed in favor of negro suffrage.
Governor Stone made a very energetic and efficient executive. Since the expira- tion of his gubernatorial term he has sought to escape the public notice, and has given his time largely to his private business in- terests. He is in partnership with Hon. O. B. Ayres, of Knoxville, in legal practice.
He was elected to the General Assembly in 1877, and served one term.
In May, 1857, he married Miss Carloaet Mathews, a native of Ohio, then residing in Knoxville. They have one son-William A.
203
SAMUEL MERRILL.
L ME RRILL
OLONEL SAM- UEL MERRILL, the seventh Governor of the State of Iowa, the successor of Governor Stone, is among the men of the West who have been called from private life to places of trust on account of their peculiar fitness for office. He was born in the town of Turner, Oxford County, Maine, August 7, 1822. He is of English ancestry, being a descendant on his mother's side of Peter Hill, who came from the West of England and set- tled in Saco, Maine (now known as Bidde- ford), in 1653. From this ancestry have sprung the most of the Hills of America. On his father's side he is a descendant of Nathaniel Merrill, who, with his brother John, came from Salisbury, England, and settled in Newburg, Massachusetts, in 1636.
Abel Merrill married Abigail Hill, June 25, 1809, in Buxton, Maine. They soon moved to Turner, where they became the parents of eight children, Samuel, the sub- ject of this sketch, being next the youngest, the fourth and youngest son in the family, and in the eighth generation from his Pil- grim fathers.
Samuel was married first to Catherine Thoms, who died in 1847, but fourteen months after their marriage. In January, 1851, he was again married, his second wife being a Miss Hill, of Buxton, Maine. To this union there have been born four chil- dren, three of whom died young, the eldest living to be only two and a half years old.
At the age of sixteen he moved with his parents to Buxton, where his time was mostly engaged by turns in teaching and in attending school until he attained his majority. Having determined to make teaching a profession, he set out for that purpose toward the sunny South, but, as he says, he was " born too far north " for his political comfort. Suspicion having been aroused as to his abolitionist pro- clivities, and finding the elements not al- together congenial, he soon abandoned the land of chivalry for the old Granite State, where he engaged for several years in farming.
In 1847 he removed to Tamworth, New Hampshire, where he embarked in mer- cantile business in company with a brother. In this, as in all his business enterprises, he was quite successful. Not being satisfied with the limited resources of Northern New England, he determined to try his good fortune on the broad prairies of the new and more fertile West. Accordingly,
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in 1856, he turned his face toward the set- ting sun. He made a final settlement at McGregor, Iowa, where he established a branch house of the old firm.
During all these years of business Mr. Merrill took an active but not a noisy part in politics. In 1854 he was elected as an Abolitionist to the New Hampshire Legis- lature, at the same time General N. B. Baker, ex-Adjutant General of lowa, was Governor of the same State. In 1855 he was returned for a second term to the Leg- islature. In Iowa he was equally fortunate in securing the good will of those who knew him. His neighbors and those who had dealings with him found a man who was honest in his business, fair in his deal- ings, social in his relations, and benevolent in his disposition. He took an active in- terest in the prosperity of the town and ever held an open hand to all needed chari- ties. These traits of character had drawn around him, though not realized or intended by himself, a host of personal admirers. This good will resulted in his being nomi- nated for a seat in the State Legislature, and he was the only one on his ticket that was elected. The Legislature met in extra session in 1861 to provide for the exigencies of the Rebellion, and in its deliberations Mr. Merrill rendered effective and unselfish service.
He continued in business at McGregor until the summer of 1862, when he was commissioned as Colonel of the Twenty- first Iowa Infantry, proceeding immediately to Missouri, where active service awaited him. Marmaduke was menacing the Union forces in Central Missouri, which called for prompt action on the part of the Union Generals. Colonel Merrill was placed in command of a detachment of the Twenty- first Iowa, a detachment of the Ninety-ninth Illinois, a portion of the Third Iowa Cavalry and two pieces of artillery, with orders to make a forced march to Springfield, he be-
ing at Houston, eighty miles distant. On the morning of the 11th of January, 1863, they having come across a body of rebels, found them advancing in heavy force. Colonel Merrill immediately made dis- position for battle, and brisk firing was kept up for an hour, when the enemy fell back. Colonel Merrill now moved in the direction of Hartville, where he found the rebels in force under Marmaduke, and from six to eight thousand strong, with six pieces of artillery, while Colonel Merrill had but 800 men and two pieces of artillery.
In this engagement the rebels lost several officers and not less than 300 men in killed and wounded. The Union loss was seven killed and sixty-four wounded, five captured and two missing. The regiment performed severe marches and suffered much in sick- ness during the winter. It was assigned to the Thirteenth Corps, General John A. Mc- Clernand; fought gallantly at the battle of Port Gibson; and while the impetuous charge of Black River bridge was being made Colonel Merrill was severely, and re- ported fatally, wounded. The battle of Black River bridge, the last of the series of engage- ments during the campaign of Vicksburg in which the rebels fought without their fortifi- cations, was a short but bloody combat. While Colonel Merrill was leading his regi- ment in this deadly charge he was wounded through the hips. This brought his mili- tary career to a close. Suffering from his wounds, he resigned his commission and re- turned to McGregor, but was unable to at- tend to his private affairs for many months.
In 1867 he was chosen Governor to suc- ceed William M. Stone. He was inaugu- rated January 16, 1868, and served till January II, 1872, being re-elected in 1869. After the expiration of his term of office he returned to McGregor, but as soon as he could adjust his business interests he lo- cated in Des Moines, where he is now President of the Citizens' National Bank.
Clbmention .
1
CYRUS C. CARPENTER.
207
CYRUS C. CARPENTER
ROM his numerous offi- cial positions, and the ability with which they have been filled, Cyrus C. Carpenter, the eighth Governor of the State of Iowa, deserves to be remembered as one of Iowa's foremost men. He is a native of Sus- quehanna County, Pennsyl- vania, and was born Novem- ber 24, 1829. His parents were Asahel and Amanda M. (Thayer) Carpenter, both of whom died be- fore he was twelve years old. His grand- father, John Carpenter, was one of nine young men who, in 1789, left Attleborough, Massachusetts, for the purpose of finding a home in the "new country." After various vicissitudes they located upon the spot which they called Harford, in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the township in which Cyrus was born. This location at that time was far from any other settlement, Wilkesbarre, in Wyoming Valley, near the scene of the celebrated Indian massacre, being among the nearest, though fifty miles away.
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