USA > Iowa > Floyd County > History of Floyd County, Iowa : together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 37
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Judge Ruddick has emphatically a logical mind, and is remark- able for clearness of perception and comprehensive grasp of the details of a case. He has great executive ability, and ever proves himself to be impartial in his decisions. Many lawyers have recommended him for the Supreme Bench of the State. He has always been a Republican, and generally draws more than the
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party vote. He is of full medium height, good proportions and dignified bearing. He was married Dec. 15, 1859, to Mary Estelle Strickland, of Andover, Ohio.
Hon. Robert G. Reiniger, Judge of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit, was born in Seneca Co., Ohio, April 12, 1835, and is a son of Gustavus and Rosa (Durr) Reiniger, natives of Wurtemberg, Ger- many, who emigrated to this country, after they were married, in 1832, settling in the above-named county upon a farm. Here the subject of this sketch was reared and attended school. At the age of seventeen he commenced the study of law, at Tiffin, Ohio, at the same time attending college. He was admitted to the bar in September, 1856, and in March, 1857, he came West and settled in Charles City, where he formed a partnership with his elder brother, G. G. Reiniger, in the practice of law and in real-estate exchange, and insurance business. In 1858 Irving W. Card was admitted in partnership, and the firm of Reiniger, Card & Reini- ger continued until Jan. 1, 1861.
In May, 1861, Mr. Reiniger enlisted for the war, entering the army in July as First Lieutenant of Company B, Seventh Iowa Infantry, which company was engaged in the battles of Belmont (Mo.), Fort¿ Henry, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth, Inka, second battle of Corinth, the campaign against Atlanta under Sherman, ending with the battle of Jonesboro, when Atlanta was evacuated. In 1862 Mr. Reiniger was promoted to be Captain. In 1864, shortly after the surrender of Atlanta, he returned home and re- sumed the practice of his profession. In the fall of 1865, his brother removed to Missouri. Oct. 10, 1870, the Governor ap- pointed him Judge of the Twelfth Circuit, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Ruddick, who was appointed District Judge. At the succeeding general election, in October, 1871, he was elected to fill the rest of the unexpired term, and he was re-elected in 1872, 1876 and 1880.
As a jurist he is cautious, conscientious and candid, speaks clearly and to the point; and in his manner he is unpretentious and easy. He is now a member of the firm of Reiniger & Balch, bankers in Charles City, and is a Director in the Charles City Water-Power Company. He has been President of the Twelfth District Legal Association, organized in 1871, and likewise Presi- dent of the Charles City Chess Society. He attends the Congre- gational church and society, is a Royal Arch Mason, and in poli-
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tics a Republican. He has a fine residence, and owns considerable property in Charles City.
Nov. 18, 1867, he married Mary E., daughter of Dr. William M. and Ann Palmer, of Charles City. She is a native of Maine, and is also an attendant of the Congregational church. Robert G., Jr., born in March, 1880, is their only child.
THE BAR OF THE PAST.
Attorneys at law who have been residents of Floyd County, and practiced their profession at the courts of the same, but who are now either deceased or moved away, are embraced in the follow- ing sketches:
Hon. David Wiltse, Judge of Floyd County for several years in early times, moved from this county many years ago, and in 1880 died in Illinois. He was a fair lawyer, an honorable man, and for a long time he was a partner with Judge Fairfield. He was also County Surveyor many years.
O. P. Harwood was a member of the early bar of Floyd County, a resident of St. Charles City, and his name therefore appears in some of the early passages ot this volume.
Wilson Lane came to Charles City from Southern Illinois, and was admitted to the bar at Decorah, Iowa. He located in Charles City in 1877, and practiced law and loaned money until 1881, when he removed to Janesville, Wis., to take charge of the estate of his wife's father. He was an officer in the late war.
Irving W. Card became a partner in the firm of Reiniger, Card & Reiniger in 1858, and retired from it about three years afterward. In 1868 he was elected District Attorney on the Re- publican ticket, by 1,211 votes to 403 for.W. A. Stow, his Dem- ocratic opponent. Mr. Card some years ago removed to Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, where he is now Postmaster.
J. B. Hunt, of Nora Springs, killed himself with opium, under rather peculiar circumstances. March 24, 1871, he went to Mason City, by special invitation, to deliver a lecture on "Beauty." Some waggish fellows at that place, knowing that Mr. Hunt was weakened in his mental powers, received him into the village with a sort of mock ovation. During the delivery of his lecture he was observed to be considerably excited and frequently to take and eat something from a little box he had in his vest pocket. After the lecture he went to bed at his hotel, where he was found
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dead the next morning. The little box was found to contain opi- um. He probably had taken too much of the deadly drug.
G. G. Reiniger, deceased, was one of the first lawyers of Charles City. He was a graduate of the Ohio bar; studied law at Tiffin, Ohio, then engaged in the practice of law in Charles City; was the most prominent and successful attorney in this part of the State. He was a partner with R. G. Reiniger, his brother, after- ward with D. W. Carr, now of Mason City. During the hard times of 1857 he lost heavily, from which he never recovered, but continued the practice of law until 1865, when he removed to Franklin County, Mo., where he died. He was a German, and could not fully manage the English pronunciation ; yet a mạn of fine legal ability and a sort of father to the Floyd County bar, many of whom hold him in grateful remembrance for his kind- ness. He was a whole-souled gentleman, and an enemy to no one. He died Oct. 5, 1869, in Union, Jefferson Co., Mo., leaving a wife and five children.
Robert Nelson Mathews was a native of New York, and was born in Clinton County, May 5, 1809. He was the son of John Mathews, a farmer and mechanic, who came from England, and settled near the line of New York, in Canada. Mr. Mathews spent his youth and early manhood at the East; married Caroline A. Horr in 1834, and in that year settled in Kane County, Ill., building the first frame house on the site of 'Aurora. He opened a farm and continued in agricultural pursuits until 1846, when, having read law at Aurora, he was admitted to the bar, and com- menced practice at Little Rock, Kendall County, continuing in his profession there for eight or nine years. His practice was ex- tensive and profitable. During four years of his residence in Kendall County, he served as County Judge, "an office for which his sound judgment and administrative talent admirably qualified him. In 1853 he was elected to the Legislature, and was associated in that body with such men as John M. Palmer, S. M. Cullom and John A. Logan. Mr. Mathews introduced the first bill for the protection of wild game. About this time he became interested in Government lands west of the Mississippi, particularly in Iowa and Nebraska, where he prospected considerably, making entries and finally selecting his home at Rockford, on the beautiful Shell Rock, where he settled on the 1st of January, 1857. Here for twenty years he toiled hard to build upa town, leading off in every enterprise which tended in that direction, up to the time of his
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death, which occurred on the 31st of May, 1877. Judge W. B. Fairfield, of Charles City, a long and intimate friend, pronounced his funeral oration, and thus spoke of Mr. Mathews as a lawyer: " As a lawyer, Mr. Mathews was well read, thoroughly versed in its principles, clear in his perceptions as to fact and law, and the relation of one to the other, lucid in statement, logical in reasoning. Although in his latter years he rarely conducted the trial of a cause in court, he frequently brought cases to the bar whose trial was intrusted to younger members of the profession. In all these cases, however, there was this that was noticeable-they were prepared. Not only was the law clearly defined and the authorities digested, but the preparation of the testimony insignificant in sequence was masterly. The introduction of witnesses and testi- mony was so arrayed that as fact after fact and incident after in- cident_ was developed they, constituted, in simple order of array, an argument at once clear and logical. No man at the bar in this district understood better the value and the weight of testimony." The last eight or nine years of his life he was a banker, and was successful in this, as in every other enterprise in which he engaged. He left a large property in the village of Rockford, a farm of eleven hundred acres two miles south of town, another farm six- teen miles away, in the edge of Franklin County, and other prop- erty scattered here and there. Mr. Mathews was elected one of the supervisors of Floyd County, when the law establishing such an office went into operation, and while in that office was instru- mental in freeing the county of very heavy obligations in the form of railroad bonds. He took pride in the accomplishment of this work, and the tax-payers felt that they owed him a heavy debt of gratitude.
In his oration already referred to, Judge Fairfield thus spoke of the character of Mr. Mathews:
" As a man, he was of large brain, large heart and generous im- pulses. He had a will that would have been imperious, if there had not lain back of it a rare kindliness, and a quick sympathy. Little children liked him, and dumb animals never feared him; both certain indices of a kindly and sympathetic nature. He was a man given to hospitality in its broadest sense, and while he was not munificent in his giving, he was, according to his convictions of right, very generous. No person ever went hungry from his door, and the waif and the wanderer found at his table food, and under his roof shelter, cheerfully and unquestioningly given. To
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the poor, and those who by force of untoward circumstances or the chariness of nature, had been placed in position inferior to him, he was kind and gentle; to his equals, courteous, though sometimes brusque; to his friends he was sincere, reliable, unswerving; to- ward those who disliked him, he was independent, and often- times defiant; as a neighbor, kind and obliging; as a creditor, lenient and forbearing, and as a counselor, shrewd and safe."
Mr. Mathews was in feeble health for two or three years before he died, and for five or six weeks took not enough food in the ag- gregate for an ordinary meal. How he could live as long as he did is a mystery even to the medical scientists. He was a member of the Masonic order, and was buried according to their ritual. The number of people in attendance was so large that no church in town could hold one-third of them, and services were held in the open air. Between 150 and 200 members of the Masonic fra- ternity were in attendance. It was by Mr. Mathews' request that Judge Fairfield officiated.
The wife of Mr. Mathews died on the 29th of August, 1853. She was the mother of three children, only one of them now liv- ing. A daughter, Annie R., died in infancy, and Oscar, when about ten years of age. Ralph C., the only surviving member of the family, was born Dec. 13, 1836, at Aurora, Ill., and is now nearly forty-six years old. He was trained to business in his father's office at an early day; was in the mercantile trade several years, commencing in 1860. For the last eleven years he has been a banker, for a portion of the time in partnership with his father, and latterly in company with O. H. Lyon. He has a wife and one child. His wife was Jennie E. Lumley, daughter of Ed- ward Lumley, of Michigan. Their son, Oscar L., is nineteen years old. Mr. Mathews is now of the firm of Mathews & Lyon, his partner being O. H. Lyon, many years a merchant in Rock- ford, and afterward a member of the Legislature. Floyd County has very few better business men than Mr. Mathews, who inherits from his father the elements of success, namely: honest, energetic industry.
D. W. C. Hayes, attorney, was born and educated in Water- town, Jefferson County, N. Y .; was admitted to the New York bar, and afterward practiced law in Wisconsin; located in Charles City in 1868. He practiced law here one year, then went to Winne- bago County, until in 1874, he returned to Charles City and prac- ticed law until he removed to Chicago in 1879.
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In 1879 he became a strong temperance worker, and was elected president of the Tribe of Jonathan. He made a successful and use- ful canvass of Floyd County, in 1879; is at present engaged in the grocery business in Chicago.
J. Evans Owens, an attorney of high standing, was born April 21, 1847, at Unadilla, N. Y. After graduating at the home high school, he entered Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y., when eighteen years of age. A year afterward he took charge of the Rome Academy, as principal. Not long after this he left that position to study law with Hon. D. P. Loomis, of Unadilla. He was admitted to the bar in 1869, and in the next year, having married Eliza, daughter of the late Josiah E. Owens, he came West and settled in Charles City, which was his residence until his death. His career was an open book, to be read of all men; and a purer, more unselfish, honorable record is rarely spread before men. He held office as City Attorney,¿member of the City School Board and Alderman. As a lawyer he stood high, as a public officer he was faithful, and as a citizen he was worthy of the highest place in the affections of the community. Being a man of principle, he was a thorough going reformer, or, if you please, leader in philanthropic enterprises.
During the first week of December, 1881, he went to Minneapo- lis on business, where he was struck down by that dreaded disease, typhoid pneumonia, land died on the morning of Dec. 23, follow- ing. He wasburied in the Charles City Cemetery, the funeral be- ing attended by the members of the bar in a body, the city officers, and a large concourse of other citizens.
Hon. John G. Patterson was born in Clinton County, Penn., Sept. 3, 1831. His parents were Robert and Eleanor (Bowers) Pat- terson, both reared on the frontier and accustomed to the hard- ships and perils of border life. The Pattersons are originally from the north of Ireland, and are of Scotch-Irish descent. They settled in Pennsylvania at an early day. The Bowers were also early settlers there, from Germany. From his parents John in- herited a strong and hea dy, together with indomitable energy. When he was two years old, his parents removed to Seneca County, Ohio, where John, the third of a family of sixteen children, grew to the age of eighteen, with a grave'experience of solid work upon his father's farm. During this time he attended school winters, and picked up the rudiments of an education. From this time until he was twenty-two, he attended the spring
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and autumn terms of the Republic Academy, teaching during the winter months, and working on the farm in summer. In the autumn of 1854, with ten dollars in his pocket as his whole avail- able capital, he commenced reading law in the office of Penning- ton & Lee, of Tiffin, Ohio. He was admitted to the bar in September, 1856, and in June, 1857, came to Charles City and engaged in the practice of his profession. Every old settler here knows the struggles of the young attorney, poor in pocket, but rich in ability and capacity for work, and how splendidly he suc- ceeded; gradually accumulating a handsome property, and at the same time gaining a reputation as one of the foremost legal men of the State. In 1861 he formed a law partnership with S. B. Starr. In 1873 A. M. Harrison was admitted to the firm. In 1863 Mr. Patterson was elected State Senator; was re-elected in 1867, serving eight years. He was chairman of the committee on township and county organizations for three sessions; was on the judiciary committee three sessions, and chairman of the rail- road committee the last session. He was sent to the Legislature especially to aid in securing a land grant for a railroad on the forty-third parallel of latitude. He labored unceasingly to effect that object; and to him, more than to any other man, is due the securing of that grant. An abler, or more industrious man never represented Floyd County in the Legislature, and he gained for himself while there a State reputation. After retiring from the Legislature he took an active part in politics, and was recog- nized as a power in the Fourth Congressional District. He was a staunch, uncompromising Republican, and his voice was always on the side of right. At home, he was ever alive to the interests of his city and county, and was always one of the foremost in devis- ing means for their advancement. He took an active part in the formation of the Charles City Water-Power Company, working against all discouragements, sparing neither time nor money, until the success of the scheme to improve the Charles City water- power was fully assured. He was a large share-holder in the company, and held the office of its secretary till his death. Mr. Patterson was first married in 1856, to Miss Hester E. A. Quiggle, of Pennsylvania. She bore him eight children, six of whom sur- vived her. She died in 1872. In 1874 he was united in marriage to Mrs. Sarah Smith McCann, daughter of Judge Elvin Kendrick Smith, of Northern New York, and niece of Governor Silas H.
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Jenison, of Vermont. This wife survives him, and is guardian of of the minor children. Mr. Patterson's death occurred Oct. 29, 1878, from a railroad accident on the Iowa division of the C. M. & St. P. Railway. He was instantly killed. Thus closed his earthly career. In the prime of life and full vigor of manhood he passed away. Selecting from the many articles in the newspapers of the day, we quote the following:
"Mr. Patterson was no common man. In saying that in his death a great mind has fallen, we mean it in no trite or common sense, for he was great. He was great in the leading idea of his life; great in his convictions; great in the elements of his well- rounded character; great in his eloquence; great in his courage; great in his intellect; great in his capacity for work; and great, above and beyond all, in his abiding faith in the ultimate triumph of the eternal principles of right, justice and humanity. But
who can speak of the virtues of his every-day life, of the tender, almost idolatrous regard felt for him by his family; of the great heart, that always had a responsive throb of sympathy for all in trouble or distress? Who shall speak of him as a friend? Tried and true, when he put his hand to the helm, there was no going backward. He was so genial in his intercourse, possessed a sym- pathy so spontaneous, was so kind, affectionate and generous, there seemed combined in him all those qualities which challenged the love and admiration of those who best knew him, and endeared him to the hearts of all his friends. As a thinker he was vigor- ous and adhered tenaciously to his opinions; as an orator he had few superiors; as a companion for social hours, his quick percep- tion, and keen zest of mirth, made him pre-eminent; as a lawyer he stood at the head of the bar of the Fourth District, and in him Iowa loses one of the brightest stars in her diadem of brilliant attorneys. His loss is one that will be felt, not alone for to-day, but for a generation to come."
Of his six surviving children, Eleanor, the eldest, is wife of Ray Billingsley, a leading attorney of Vinton, Iowa. The eldest son, William Robert Patterson, is in the wholesale house of Franklin Mc Veagh & Co., of Chicago. The second daughter, Minnie V., is the wife of Frank Harwood, of this city. The third daughter, Rosa, is wife of William F. Carter, a merchant of Clear Lake, Iowa. The two minor children, John Edward and Daisy Hester, are still at home.
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THE PRESENT BAR.
Samuel B. Starr, of the firm of Starr & Harrison, has been actively connected with the legal profession of Charles City since October, 1855, and is the oldest member now living of the Floyd County bar. A son of Chauncey and Nancy Starr, nee Arnold, of New York, he was born in Brownville, Jefferson County, that State, on Jan. 17, 1824. His father died in 1832, his mother in 1828, having been the parents of five children. Samuel B. attended school at Brownville until sixteen and was then matriculated in Block River Institute at Watertown, New York, where he remained three years. He began the study of his chosen profession in Watertown, and also taught school there until Jan. 15, 1847, when he was admitted to the New York bar at Albany. Hepracticed in Watertown until 1848, then opened a mercantile store at Orleans, New York, in partnership with another gentleman, and conducted this business and prosecuted his profession until the winter of '49, when, drawn thither by the current then prevailing, he went with a party to the gold fields of California, remained two years and cleared $2,500. He returned to Orleans and resumed his business and practice. He was married there to Adeline Hughes in May, 1855. She was born in Orleans, a daughter of Daniel and Ruth Hughes. Of two sons born of this marriage one is living, S. H., who is engaged in the boot and shoe trade in this city. In Octo- ber, 1855, Mr. Starr came to Charles City, where he has success- fully prosecuted his profession since. He held the office of County Prosecuting Attorney from 1856 to 1859, and has been City Attor- ney. He is a member of the A. F. & A. M. fraternity, St. Charles Lodge, No. 141. In politics he was first a Jackson Demo- crat, then a Free-soiler, and since the organization of the Republi- can party has been one of its strongest supporters.
T. A. Hand, attorney at law, a member of the firm of Hand & Spriggs, of Charles City, Iowa, was born near Albany, New York. His parents were Lemuel P. Hand, of Albany, and Mary S. Eddy, of Pittstown, New York. The family consisted of four sons and one daughter, the subject of this sketch being the eldest child, and they removed from Albany to Chicago, Illinois, in 1848.
In 1856 T. A. Hand came to Charles City, Iowa, and entered upon a course in " the art preservative " in the Intelligencer news- paper office, then owned by Hildreth & Carver, and continued to work in that office until 1862, when he commenced the study of
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law at Charles City in the office of G. G. & R. G. Reiniger. In June, 1863, he left Charles City and went to Leavenworth, Kansas, and worked at the case as a compositor in the office of the Leaven- worth Conservative, but in September of that year went to the Territory of Arizona and published the Arizona Miner at Prescott, the then capital of the Territory, until the spring of 1865, when he returned to Charles City, Iowa, and in 1866 re-commenced his law studies in the office of R. G. Reiniger, and was admitted to prac- tice in 1871. He was married to Mary Cheney in 1869, and they have one child, a daughter, now (1882) about five years old.
Porter W. Burr, City Attorney of Charles City, was born in Mercer, Somerset Co., Maine, Feb. 1, 1852. His parents were L. N. and Mary B. (Wiley) Burr, natives of Maine. In early life his father was a merchant and also engaged in running a starch manufactory and tannery. He is now living at Davenport, Iowa, engaged in the life-insurance business. He and wife are members of the Congregational church, and have had a family of three sons-Milton B., one of the missing at the battle of Baton Rouge, La .; L. N., Jr., who died at Davenport, and Porter W., subject of this sketch. He attended school in Farmington, Maine, until fifteen, when he came with his parents to Davenport, and in 1872 gradu- ated from Griswold College, and in 1873 from the Iowa State Law School. He read law in Lincoln, Nebraska, one year, then came to Nora Springs, Floyd County, where he practiced law with his father-in-law, the late Hon. W. P. Gaylord, under the firm name of Gaylord & Burr, until January, 1877. In the fall of 1876 he was elected Clerk of Courts of Floyd County, and held that office until January, 1881, when he opened his present law office, and in March, 1881, was elected Mayor of Charles City, and in March, 1882, City Attorney of Charles City. He married Miss B. V. Gaylord, April 17, 1876. She was born in Rock Grove Township, Floyd County, and was a daughter of the Hon. W. P. Gaylord and Sarah E. (Slater) Gaylord, old settlers of Floyd County. Mrs. Burr is a member of the Episcopal church. They have one daugh- ter, viz .: Mary E., born Feb. 14, 1880. Mr. Burr is a member of Granite Rock Lodge, Nora Springs, I. O. O. F., and A. O. W. W., of Charles City Lodge, No. 158, and of the Iowa Legion of Honor, also a member of the Board of School Directors for Charles City-independent district. In politics, he is a Republican. Mr. Burr is one of the prominent members of the Floyd County bar.
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