USA > Iowa > Black Hawk County > History of Black Hawk County, Iowa, and its people, Volume II > Part 14
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
131
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
of a well known song and one very popular among dairymen, "Everybody Milks in Iowa."
In 1909 Mr. Sadler was united in marriage to Miss Nona Ricker, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and they have a daughter, Shirley Jane. The parents are members of Grace Methodist Episcopal church and Mr. Sadler belongs to Helmet Lodge, No. 89, K. P. He is likewise a member of the Town Criers Club, the Commercial Club and Board of Trade, and the United Commercial Travelers. He has never allowed personal interest or ambition to thwart his public activities and cooperates in many measures for the general good. Whether in public or private connections he is energetic and persistent in action, swift in decision, quick in perception and stable in purpose.
ASHLEY ATWOOD DUNHAM.
When the machinery of public service is kept in good running order the average citizen does not stop to think of all the labor, care, foresight and execu- tive ability which this involves, but such qualities are just as indispensable in the management of public utilities as in the control of individual business enter- prises. In Ashley Atwood Dunham Waterloo has a chief of her fire department of which she has every reason to be proud, for he has made an excellent record in this connection from the old days of a volunteer fire department until the present time when he is at the head of the fire-fighting forces of the city.
Mr. Dunham was born in Canada September 16, 1864, and there resided until he reached the age of seventeen years, when he came to Waterloo, where he learned the baker's trade, which he followed for three years. He then went to Montana, where he spent two and a half years working in the mines. Upon his return to Waterloo he took up carpentering and was identified with that trade until 1895, when he engaged in the grocery business, which he still conducts under the firm name of Dunham & Sohner. Theirs is a well appointed establishment, supplied with a large line of staple and fancy groceries, and the business methods of the house are in keeping with the highest standard of commercial ethics. A liberal patronage is accorded them and as a result of their honorable methods and earnest desire to please their patrons their business is growing year by year.
Mr. Dunham was the last chief of the volunteer fire department of Waterloo, acting in that capacity from 1899 until 1904. The rapid growth of this city seemed to make it imperative that a pay department be established, which was done in 1904, and Mr. Dunham remained as chief. He knows every inch of ground in the city and has carefully systematized the work of the department, rendering a great conflagration almost an impossibility. He has secured the latest improved fire-fighting apparatus and is most capable in directing the efforts of his men when their services are called upon.
Mr. Dunham has been married twice. He first wedded Matilda Sohner, who died about eleven years ago, leaving two daughters, Alice and Agnes. Following the demise of his first wife Mr. Dunham wedded her sister, Mary Magdalene Sohner, their marriage being celebrated in 1909.
132
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
Mr. Dunham is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, of the Fraternal Union and the Yeomen, while in Masonry he has attained high rank, being connected with the blue lodge and also with the chapter, council, com- mandery and Shrine. A resident of Waterloo from the age of seventeen years. he is widely known here and his public service as well as his business connections have established him high in the regard of his fellow townsmen, who entertain for him good-will and great esteem.
HIRAM BROWN HOXIE.
Hiram Brown Hoxie is treasurer of the Waterloo Fruit & Commission Com- pany, of which he was one of the principal organizers, and he is still actively interested in the business although he has now reached the age of seventy-eight years. Advanced age, however, need not suggest as a matter of course idle- ness or want of occupation, for when one has wisely used his time and his talents, his powers increase and he grows stronger mentally and morally as the years go on, giving out of the rich stores of his wisdom and experience for the benefit of others. Such is the record of Mr. Hoxie, who was born in Cayuga county, New York, November 25. 1836, a son of Jonathan Johnson and Lydia (Brown) Hoxie, both of whom were natives of the state of New York. The father was born in Middletown, August 27, 1810, acquired a public-school edu- cation and afterward engaged in teaching in the schools of Canada. He served as captain in the state militia. He devoted his early life to the business of a carpenter and contractor but afterward became a merchant. In his later years he and his wife joined their son, Hiram Brown Hoxie, in Waterloo, where the mother passed away in 1887, while the father, surviving for twenty years, died on the 12th of March, 1907. They had a family of four children, of whom Hiram Brown Hoxie is the eldest. Augusta Elmina, born at Summer Hill, Cayuga. county, New York, August 1, 1840, became the wife of Henry Otis Landphere and resides in Cortland county, New York. Charles Henry, born February 19, 1844, died in Waterloo in August, 1914, survived by a widow. Ellen Violetta, born at Summer Hill, New York, January 9, 1847, became the wife of George S. Brown and both are now deceased.
Hiram Brown Hoxie was reared at home and acquired a common-school education. After reaching manhood he was employed for some years in his father's store in Summer Hill, New York, and afterward became identified with the lumber business, in which he continued actively until after the outbreak of the Civil war. His patriotic spirit being aroused by the continued attempt of the south to overthrow the Union, he put aside all commercial and personal con- siderations and enlisted as a member of Company B, Seventy-fifth New York Regiment. In 1863 he was commissioned a lieutenant of Company B, Eighty- eighth United States Colored Infantry, with which he served until honorably discharged in the fall of 1864 following the consolidation of regiments.
Mr. Hoxie then returned to his home in New York and engaged in land speculation and in the purchase and sale of live stock, both branches of his busi- ness bringing to him creditable success; but the opportunities of the middle west
HIRAM B. HOXIE AND FAMILY
135
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
attracted him and in 1868 he made his way to Iowa, purchasing a farm in Barclay township. Black Hawk county. The land was wild and undeveloped and there were no improvements upon the place in the shape of buildings. He erected a frame house sixteen by twenty-four feet with a kitchen lean-to. and thereafter began the development of the fields, breaking the sod. planting the crops and in due time gathering good harvests. Year after year he continued to successfully cultivate his farm until January 1. 1888, when he removed to Waterloo to enter upon the duties of county sheriff. to which office he had been elected in the fall of 1887. Loyalty and fidelity characterized his discharge of the work of the office and he made such a creditable record during his first term that he was reelected on three successive occasions. remaining the incumbent in that office for four terms. He retired from the position as he had entered it-with the confidence and good-will of all concerned. He was afterward engaged for three years in foreclosing mortgages, selling bankrupt stocks of goods, acting as receiver and in other such positions. In 1899 he became one of the dominant factors in the organization of the Waterloo Fruit & Commission Company, with which he was actively engaged until 1912. and he is still treasurer of the company: although he has largely relegated to others the management and active control of the business.
In 1870, at Mount Carroll, Illinois. Mr. Hoxie was united in marriage to Miss Ruth A. Pierce, who was born in Lapeer. New York. June 13. 1844. a daughter of Ezariah and Margaret (Hilsinger) Pierce. Her grandfather. Nathaniel Pierce, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, March 2. 1783. He was a farmer by occupation and on his removal westward settled in Cortland county, New York. On the trip he was accompanied by two cousins: William Saunders, who was the author of a series of spelling books and readers widely used in the public schools: and Charles Saunders, who afterward became an influential member of the bench and bar of New York city. Nathaniel Pierce was united in marriage to Nancy Harvey, who was born February 25. 1788. and died in Cortland county, New York.
Ezariah Pierce was born in Cortland county. New York. April 17. ISII. acquired a common-school education and was reared as a farm boy. Before the era of railroad building in central New York he bought and hauled produce to New York city and upon the return trips would take back a load of merchandise. For years he engaged in selling ties to the railroads. also supplying cordwood. which was the fuel used in the engines, and likewise engaged in the sale of lumber. He wedded Margaret Hilsinger, who was born in Schoharie county. New York, and was a representative of one of the early Dutch families from Holland. The death of Ezariah Pierce occurred in Cortland county. New York. in 1854, and his wife passed away in the same county, February 27, 1860. They were sincere and consistent members of the Christian church. In politics Mr. Pierce was a whig and he held numerous local offices, the duties of which he discharged with promptness and fidelity. In their family were two children: Ambrose, who was born in 1840 and died in early manhood : and Mrs. Hoxie.
The latter was born at Lapeer, New York, June 13. 1844, and was graduated from a private school of Marathon, New York, known as the Marathon Academy. She afterward entered the Cazenovia Seminary and still later was graduated from the Oswego (N. Y.) Normal Training school. She then took up the
136
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
profession of teaching in the city of Oswego and was connected with the schools there until 1870, when she came to the west to teach. After a short stay at the home of her cousin, Judge Hilsinger, in Sabula, Iowa, she became the wife of Hiram Brown Hoxie. For a brief period following her marriage she taught in the Normal Institute at Iowa Falls. To Mr. and Mrs. Hoxie have been born three children : Wirt P., who holds the office of county attorney in Black Hawk county ; Nellie Ninon, who is the wife of Cecil E. Kell, of White River, South Dakota, and has one living child, Cecil Edward, who was born in White River, July 8, 1914; and Ralph J., the secretary and manager of the Waterloo Fruit & Commission Company.
Since age conferred upon him the right of franchise Mr. Hoxie has voted for the men and measures of the republican party. Fraternally he is connected with Waterloo Lodge, No. 105, A. F. & A. M., and also the Royal Arch chapter at Waterloo. He is likewise a member of the Waterloo Commercial Club and is thus active in the movements promulgated for the benefit of the city and the extension of its trade relations. He is widely and favorably known throughout Black Hawk county, where he has now lived for forty-six years. There are few phases of its growth and development with which he is not familiar and at all times he has been an interested witness of its growth and advancement and in various ways has contributed to the upbuilding of this section. He is highly esteemed and his warmest friends are those with whom he has long been asso- ciated-a fact which indicates that his career is one which will bear close investigation and scrutiny.
SIDNEY D. SMITH, M. D.
Dr. Sidney D. Smith is one of the successful young practitioners of medicine and surgery in Waterloo and has already won an enviable reputation in profes- sional circles of Black Hawk county. His birth occurred in Watertown, New York, on the 8th of September, 1884, his parents being Stephen R. and Jennie (Mendell) Smith, natives of Jefferson county, New York. Colonel Sidney J. Mendell, the maternal grandfather of our subject, held the rank of colonel in the Thirty-fifth New York Regiment during the period of the Civil war. In 1866 he took up his abode among the pioneer settlers of Franklin county, Iowa, where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in 1909, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. Stephen R. Smith, an agriculturist by occupa- tion, resided on his farm in Jefferson county, New York, until 1907 and since that time has made his home in Rochester.
Sidney D. Smith obtained his early education in the public schools and sub- sequently attended Union Academy of Belleville, New York, from which he was graduated with the class of 1903. In the fall of 1906 he entered Cornell Medical College and in 1910, after two years' study in Ithaca and two years' instruction at New York city, won the degree of M. D. He afterward spent about fifteen months as an interne in the J. Hood Wright Hospital in New York and on the expiration of that period came to lowa on a visit. Being attracted to Waterloo and believing it to be a favorable field for a young medical practitioner, he opened
137
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
an office and has since remained here, having built up an extensive and lucrative practice. He has recently been elected coroner of Black Hawk county and in that capacity is also making a most creditable record.
On the 24th of June, 1914, Dr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Ruba M. Christie, of New York city. He is a popular member of the Waterloo City Medical Society and is identified fraternally with the following organizations : Waterloo Lodge, No. 105, A. F. & A. M .; Helmet Lodge, No. 89, K. P .; and Waterloo Lodge, No. 328, L. O. M. He conforms his practice to the highest professional ethics and has already won flattering success for one of his years.
BURTON E. WILSON.
Burton E. Wilson, a real-estate and insurance agent of Waterloo, in which city he has made his home for eleven years, is a native of Illinois but has been a resident of Black Hawk county through four decades. His father, Samuel Wilson, became one of the pioneer settlers of this county and is still living at Hudson at the venerable age of eighty-two years. He was born in Herkimer county, New York, in 1832 and in early manhood wedded Mary A. Sutton, whose birth occurred in Oswego county, New York, in 1835 and who is also yet living. At the time of the Civil war he became a member of Company F, Eighty-second Regiment of New York Volunteer Infantry, and was in the service for three years and four months, after which he was honorably discharged because of physical disability. In the meantime, however, he had participated in a number of hotly contested engagements and had proven his valor and loyalty on various battlefields. Following the war Mr. Wilson brought his family to the middle west. He lived for a time in Illinois and then came to Black Hawk county, where he carried on general farming.
Burton E. Wilson, brought to Iowa during his early boyhood, was reared in Black Hawk county and acquired his education in its public schools until he left the Waterloo high school. Later he entered Tilford Academy and in early manhood taught school in both Black Hawk and Benton counties. He then turned his attention to general farming and stock-raising and was thus closely associated with the agricultural interests of the county for a considerable period, but in 1903 left the farm and removed to Waterloo, where he established a real-estate and insurance office and is still engaged in that business in addition to carrying on his farming interests. He has largely owned the real estate in which he has dealt in Waterloo and Black Hawk county, making purchases out- right rather than selling on commission. He is likewise greatly interested in western lands. Each year he has built a few houses in Waterloo for sale or rent and his business is thus proving an element in the improvement and adorn- ment of the city. He also conducts a general business in all branches of insur- ance and the policies which he writes represent a large figure annually. He like- wise has other business connections. He is financially interested in still other lines which contribute to his individual success and at the same time are factors in public prosperity.
138
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
In 1898 Mr. Wilson was united in marriage to Miss Celia Glenny, a daughter of Alexander Glenny. They hold membership in the First Congregational church of Waterloo, of which Mr. Wilson is now clerk. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias and Odd Fellows lodges, the Modern Woodmen camp and the Sons of Veterans. He is also identified with the Chamber of Commerce, with the Waterloo Club, the Town Criers Club and the Waterloo Traveling & Business Men's Association. His interests and activities have been constantly broadening in their scope and in their usefulness. He finds time for all of the duties that devolve upon him in different relations and in connection with his fellow towns- men attempts to meet the public needs while at the same time he carefully con- duets his business affairs. He is a self-made man and one who is deserving of much credit for what he has accomplished, for personal energy and industry have been the foundation upon which he has builded his success.
HON. HORACE BOIES.
Hon. Horace Boies was twice governor of Iowa, serving as chief executive of the state from 1800 until 1894. He has probably been mentioned more fre- quently and more prominently throughout the United States than any other resident of Iowa. His capabilities naturally qualify him for leadership and upon the history of the commonwealth he has left an indelible impression, his efforts being for many years one of the potent elements of progress and improvement here. He was born in Aurora, Erie county, New York, December 7, 1827, a son of Heber and Hattie (Henshaw) Boies. The father was a farmer in moder- ate circumstances and was a soldier of the War of 1812. He was descended from French ancestry, the family name being originally Du Bois. The orthography, however, was changed by some of the earlier AAmerican ancestors to its present form. The first of the family who came to this country was David Boies, who settled in Blanford, Massachusetts. His family numbered several children, one of whom was Joel Boies, grandfather of the Hon. Ilorace Boies. The governor's mother was the daughter of a farmer of English descent, who served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war.
Horace Boies was reared in the usual manner of farm lads to the age of six- teen years and after reaching the age of ten years he worked on the home farm in the summer and attended the district schools in the winter seasons. On reach- ing the age of sixteen he decided to start out in the world in order to make his own living and, leaving his home in the Empire state, made his way westward to Wisconsin. He spent four years in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, working as a farm hand through the summer seasons and teaching or attending school in the winter months. In 1847 he returned to New York and there on the Ioth of May, 1848, married one of his schoolmates, Miss Adella King, who was then nineteen years of age. Through his wife's influence he entered a law office, that of S. S. Clark, of Boston, Erie county, New York. He did farm work and chores to pay his expenses and Mrs. Boies supported herself by teaching school. He was endowed by nature with strong mentality and he applied himself with such thoroughness to the mastery of legal principles that at the end of two years
139
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
he was enabled to pass the required examination which secured him admission to the bar. He then engaged in general practice and followed his profession in or near Buffalo and throughout the surrounding district until 1867. No dreary novitiate awaited him. His powers as a lawyer were soon manifest and his cli- entage steadily increased. He became, too, a recognized leader in political circles and was elected to the lower house of the New York legislature.
Mr. Boies was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife in 1855. In the spring of 1857 he visited Waterloo, Iowa, and again in the winter of 1857 and 1858. It was during that winter that he married Versalia M. Barber, a daughter of the late Dr. Barber, of Waterloo, and in the spring of 1867 he came to this city and continued in practice until elected governor. He was one of the most distinguished members of the Iowa bar. At different times he was in partner- ship with H. B. Allen, who retired at length on account of failing health; with Judge Couch, who was elected to the district court; and James L. Husted, who remained with him until Mr. Boies became Iowa's chief executive. In the mean- time his sons, E. L. Boies and Herbert B. Boies, had been admitted to the bar and had joined the firm, which later became known as Boies & Boies. For some time after the governor's retirement from office he gave some attention to his practice but spent much of his time on his farm in Grundy county. The later years of his life have been spent there and in southern California, where he is now making his home.
Governor Boies has one child by his first marriage, now Mrs. John ,Carson, of Mount Vernon, Iowa. To his second marriage were born three children : E. L .; Jessie B., who died January 1, 1894; and Herbert B., of Waterloo, now serving as district judge.
Governor Boies has never belonged to any church or society other than the Good Templars, which he joined in his boyhood days. He was the first democrat elected governor of Iowa after 1855 and the only one to hold that office in over half a century. It is a credit to his party as well as to himself that he was one of the three or four ablest governors the state ever had. It has been the simple weight of his character and ability that has carried him into the positions of prominence which he has occupied. As a lawyer he was sound, clear-minded and well trained. The limitations which are imposed by the constitution on federal powers are well understood by him. With the long line of decisions from Marshall down, by which the constitution has been expounded, he is familiar, as are all thoroughly skilled lawyers. He is at home in all departments of the law, from the minutiae of practice to the greater topics wherein is involved the consideration of the ethics and the philosophy of jurisprudence and the higher concerns of public policy. But he is not learned in the law alone, for he has studied long and carefully the subjects that are to the statesman and the man of affairs of the greatest import-the questions of finance, political economy. sociology-and has kept abreast of the best thinking men of the age. In his practice he proved felicitous and clear in argument, thoroughly in earnest, full of the vigor of conviction, never abusive of his adversaries, imbued with highest courtesy, and yet a foe worthy of the steel of the most able opponent.
That he was reelected governor in a state that has been a recognized repub- lican stronghold speaks volumes concerning his ability, and an enumeration of those men of the present generation who have won honor and public recognition
.
140
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
for themselves and at the same time have honored the state in which they belong would be incomplete were there failure to make prominent reference to Horace Boies, who held distinctive precedence as an eminent lawyer and statesman, as a man of marked intellectual attainments and one who conducted himself with signal capability, dignity and honor in the highest office within the gift of the people of the state, winning the respect of all. A strong mentality, an invincible courage, a most determined individuality have so entered into his makeup as to render him a natural leader of men and a director of public opinion. His influ- ence has been felt not only in Iowa but throughout the country, for his views have carried weight in councils where the best thinking men of the nation were assembled for the discussion of vital and significant problems.
BENJAMIN J. RODAMAR.
Benjamin J. Rodamar is now living retired in Waterloo after long, close and successful connection with the agricultural interests of this section of the state. He came to Black Hawk county on the 14th of April. 1869. and through all the intervening years has been a loyal and valued citizen of the community. Ilis birth occurred in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, in 1845 and he was only about eighteen months old when his mother died. Through the period of his boyhood and youth he lived with different people and he learned to know the full mean- ing of the question "What is home without a mother ?"
It was in March, 1868, that Mr. Rodamar made arrangements for having a home of his own in his marriage to Miss Susan Fike, also a native of Somerset county, Pennsylvania. A year later he started for the west with his young bride in search of a favorable location and on the 14th of April. 1869, they arrived in Black Hawk county, where they have since resided. For a time Mr. Rodamar worked by the day at driving oxen and at any other employment which he could secure. Thus the summer passed and in the following winter he secured a posi- tion as teacher of a school. This was not his initial experience in that profession, for he had already taught for nine years in Pennsylvania and was principal of a school at Meyersdale, Pennsylvania, in 1867. In 1870 Mr. Rodamar turned his attention to farming. purchasing eighty acres of land in Eagle township. The tract was entirely destitute of improvements, being just as it was when it came from the hand of nature. No road to Waterloo had at that time been laid out and in those early years he met many of the hardships and difficulties incident to pioneer life. At that early period when he wished to take his grain to market he would have to unload his wheat and carry it on his back across the sloughs and then get the wagon and oxen across and reload. Thus he would go on until he reached the town, where he would sell ofttimes at a very low price. Many were the evidences of frontier life which surrounded him, but by diligence and careful planning Mr. Rodamar won success and kept adding to his holdings from time to time until within the boundaries of his farm were comprised four hundred and eighty acres of rich and productive land which he brought to a high state of cultivation.
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.