USA > Iowa > Webster County > Fort Dodge > History of Fort Dodge and Webster County, Iowa, Volume II > Part 2
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Edward Lowry, the father of Dr. James D. Lowry, was reared in his native country and there remained until 1856, when he crossed the Atlantic to the United States. In 1869 he came to Iowa, settled in Fort Dodge and began working at railroading. His demise, here occurred in 1897, when he had attained the age of sixty-three years. His wife was called to her final rest in the year 1878. Both were devout communicants of the Catholic church. They were the parents of eight children, six of whom grew to maturity, namely: Catharine, who is a resident of Fort Dodge; John B., also living in Fort Dodge; Joseph A., of Des Moines; James D., of this review; Thomas F .; and Edward V., deceased.
James D. Lowry was reared in Fort Dodge and attended the parochial and public schools in the acquirement of an education, completing the high-school course in 1896. Having determined upon the practice of medicine as a life work, he entered the college of medicine of the State University of Iowa, which institution con- ferred upon him the degree of M. D. in 1901. Opening an office in Fort Dodge soon afterward, he has here practiced continuously since and has had well merited success as a representative of the medical profession. He belongs to the Webster County Medical Society, the Iowa State Medical Society and the American Medical Association and thus keeps in close touch with the most advanced methods of the fraternity.
Politically Dr. Lowry is a republican, believing firmly in the prin- ciples of that party. He was elected to the office of county coroner in 1906 and has been twice reelected since that time. Fraternally he is identified with the following organizations: Fort Dodge Coun-
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cil, No. 613, Knights of Columbus; the Catholic Order of Foresters; the Woodmen of the World; the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks; and the Eagles. He is a devoted communicant of the Catholic church and a popular member of the Country Club of Fort Dodge. His residence is at No. 199 North First street, and in both profes- sional and social circles of his native city he is well known and highly esteemed.
JONATHAN PRENTISS DOLLIVER.
Politician-ship develops into statesmanship along readily discern- ible lines. Honor and incorruptible integrity are fundamental forces in the evolution and are aided by a broad, cultured liberal mind, dis- cernment, forcefulness, decisiveness and indefatigable energy. In- dividual character has much to do with the change and no politician can aspire to enter into that higher rank of men of nation-wide repu- tation and usefulness, who is not, first of all, an honest man. These are standards of statesmanship and judged by them the late Senator Jonathan P. Dolliver, who passed to his final rest on October 15, 1910, orator, lawyer, representative and United States senator from Iowa, stands forth in exalted prominence. His death was a distinct loss to the American nation and to its social, economic and political life.
Senator Dolliver was born near Kingwood, Preston county, Vir- ginia, in the section of that state which is now West Virginia. Febru- ary 6, 1858. His father, James J. Dolliver, was one of the dis- tinguished men in the Methodist Episcopal ministry and was an active factor in the development of that church. He was a man of ability along religious lines, guided unerringly by a humane and human spirit, which won him the confidence and affection of his parishioners. He was married in 1855 to Miss Eliza J. Brown, a daughter of Robert Brown, a native of Preston county, West Virginia. Five children were born to this union: Robert H., who has followed in his father's footsteps in a useful and distinguished career as a Methodist minister ; Jonathan P., the subject of this sketch; Victor B., born in 1861, who followed the profession of law in Fort Dodge, Iowa, until his death; Margaret Gay; and Mary H., the wife of E. R. Graham, of Evanston, Illinois.
Jonathan P. Dolliver was educated in public schools in West Vir- ginia and with his brother Robert entered the University of West Virginia, from which he was graduated in 1875. He made wise use of every educational opportunity and when he had, concluded his col-
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
Or, LENOX AND O INDATIONS.
Lower P. Doliver
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
STOR, LENOX AND
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lege career engaged in teaching school. He followed this occupation for one year in Sandwich, Illinois, preliminary to a legal career. The profession of law had always attracted him. In pursuance of his ambition he spent the next year in the offices of his uncle, John J. Brown, a prominent attorney in Morganstown, and laid the founda- tion at this time of an eminent career. He interrupted his studies for one year to return to Sandwich, Illinois, where he accepted the posi- tion as principal of the high school. In 1878 he resumed his legal studies and with his brother, Robert H. Dolliver, invested all his savings in law books. They eventually came to Fort Dodge, Iowa, where they opened a law office. The story of their early career is the usual record of struggle every young lawyer experiences. Young and practically unknown, they had few assets be- yond youthful energy and undaunted hope. Time, however, and suc- cess after success gradually brought them a clientage. The future senator early in his career showed decided talent and understanding of situations and questions of a public nature and gained a reputation which spread throughout the surrounding counties for his brilliant oratory. He was frequently called upon to make public addresses and his work in the lecture field at this period of his life is even now remembered. What reputation he had was entirely local, however, and limited by the boundaries of his adopted state. His political ca- reer when it began was meteoric. He was a comparatively unknown lawyer, with a local reputation for oratory and with no important connection with republican politics in the state. In 1884, however. lie was invited to take the temporary chairmanship of the republican state convention, held at Des Moines, and on that occasion made a speech. The state of Iowa rang with his words and the nation echoed with their broad significance. Mr. Dolliver found himself famous. He at once became a man of national prominence. His brilliant mind was recognized by republican leaders and his talents were hailed as national assets in the republican campaign. He was called east and took a conspicuously successful part in the memorable campaign which nominated James G. Blaine as the republican can-
didate for the presidency of the United States. Senator Dolliver accomplished effective work in the republican cause by his inspiring and convincing addresses, in which he analyzed the situation in a wonderfully clear manner. In every ensuing campaign Senator Dolliver assisted his party and was always on hand when help was needed in an emergency. His career in the United States congress began in 1888. His nomination as republican representative came
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unsolicited, it may be said, as a gift of the people of Iowa to a well beloved citizen. In 1886 Senator Dolliver's friends in the tenth Iowa congressional district tendered him the republican nomination for congressman. A prominent figure connected with this event was Cyrus C. Carpenter, of Fort Dodge, former governor of Iowa and ex-congressman from the tenth district. Senator Dolliver, however, was defeated by the election of A. J. Holmes, of Boone county, and the event marked a crucial period in his public life. Two years later he was unanimously nominated in the republican convention held at Webster City and was elected by a large majority over his nearest rival. Never since that time did he meet setbacks in his political career. He was renominated by acclamation and elected to the United States house of representatives every year up to and including 1900.
Senator Dolliver's activities in public life were distinguished by a broad and liberal knowledge along social, economic and politi- cal lines. His character molded his political destiny to final triumphant success. He had a record of never giving his vote to an unworthy or useless cause and his career in its entirety was marked by intelligent labor in the promotion of the welfare of state and nation. His identification with the United States senate began in 1900. On July 14, of that year, Senator John H. Geer passed away and his death left a vacancy in the upper house of con- gress. Senator Dolliver seemed the logical man for the office. His friends rallied to his cause and on August 22, 1900, Governor Shaw appointed him United States senator to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Geer. The favor and approval with which this ap- pointment was received by the people of Iowa was a surprise even to Senator Dolliver's most intimate friends and showed the strength of his political following in an adequate and gratifying manner. When the unexpired term was completed and Senator Dolliver came up for election there was no opposition to his candidacy. He was elected unanimously by both houses of the legislature in 1902 and reelected by acclamation in 1908. He served in the United States senate with conspicuous ability, until his death, in 1910, giving his influence to that progressive movement in his party inaugurated to better existing conditions in government and nation. It was well known to every prominent political leader in 1900, but perhaps not to the general puh .. lic, that Senator Dolliver was strongly urged to become a candidate for vice president on the ticket with Mckinley in 1900. In a memo- rial address Hon. Lafayette Young, of Iowa, speaking of this, said : "After Dolliver had served in the house and his reputation had be-
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come national he was frequently mentioned for the office of vice pres- ident, and some months before his death there had been a conspicuous expression that he would some time be president. Just before the convening of the republican national convention held in Philadelphia in 1900 a great western newspaper suggested Senator Dolliver for vice president. The movement grew to be one of importance. I was a delegate to that convention and received a telegram from my asso- ciate delegates, already at Philadelphia, to come on at once, prepared to help the Dolliver movement and to prepare a speech to be used in placing him before the convention. I proceeded at once to Philadel- phia and our political activities began. We opened headquarters. We secured banners and a band of music. Then we began to inquire in relation to our candidate. We discovered that he was stopping with friends in a Philadelphia suburb and that he was much uncon- cerned in regard to the suggestion of his name. He was urged, and yet his enthusiasm did not grow. He was asked to go before the Iowa delegation and finally did so, but with half-unconcerned and lukewarm spirit. The Dolliver enthusiasm had not reached Dolliver; but his friends continued their campaign in his behalf. Congres- sional associates visited headquarters and urged the movement for- ward; but the Senator said that he could not afford to be vice presi- dent : that the social requirements were too many. The only other name mentioned for vice president was that of Colonel Roosevelt. Colonel Roosevelt's friends were urging him not to be a candidate and not to accept the place, giving as a reason that four years later they hoped to nominate him for president. This, then, was the situation : Senator Dolliver's friends were urging him to accept the vice presi- dential nomination, regardless of his future, and Colonel Roosevelt's friends were determined that he should not accept, having in mind his future. I have always believed that if Colonel Roosevelt had not con- sented to accept the nomination Senator Dolliver would have been the nominee, and thus the whole course of history might have been changed. The negotiations and consultations among party leaders were numerous. Senators Platt, of New York, and Quay, of Penn- sylvania, then conspicuous in party management, were anxious for the nomination of Colonel Roosevelt, to make what they called a 'well- balanced ticket,' meaning that men of different types should be chosen for the two great offices; but these party leaders were unable to secure Colonel Roosevelt's consent. A little later in the proceedings these two senators, now dead, left the field, placing everything in charge of Senator Mark Hanna. Senator Hanna was chairman of the repub- lican national committee. With his usual energy he undertook to Vol. 11-2
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ascertain the situation. It is doubtlessly true that he knew the situa- tion. There had been so much in the way of diplomacy between the camps that the situation was generally known to active party men. The first thing Senator Hanna did was to call upon Senator Dolliver and his friends. Learning that the Senator did not have his heart in the cause, he asked the Senator and myself to go with him to call upon Colonel Roosevelt for the purpose of securing an acceptance or an unequivocal refusal. Colonel Roosevelt had all the time refused to say that he would not accept the nomination for vice president, re- fusing to assume that the office was beneath him for the reason that he regarded it as a great office. We called upon Colonel Roosevelt. Senator Hanna asked him, 'Colonel Roosevelt, will you accept the nomination for vice president ?' As I remember it, the Colonel re- sponded, 'I will, at your hands and at the hands of the entire republi- can party.' Then Senator Dolliver turned and with a smile said, 'It is all over. My name shall not be used.' Senator Hanna asked Colonel Roosevelt who would present his name. The Colonel turned to Senator Dolliver and Senator Dolliver turned to me, remarking that 'You can just change your speech a little and nominate the Colonel.' Senator Hanna then, turning to me, said, 'It is up to you, young man. My speech nominating Dolliver had already gone out to the Press Association and had to be suppressed by wire. This is the story of the vice presidency at Philadelphia, briefly told."
One of the best estimates of the work and character of Senator Dolliver is found in Munsey's Magazine of September, 1912, and reads as follows :
"It does injustice to none to say that there was but one Dolliver in the generation in which he made his record of public service. When he died, he was the acknowledged leader of what was then known as 'insurgency' within the republican party.
"The great things of which Dolliver was so large a part wlien they were yet small have moved on and on. We have got far enough away from their beginnings to make it hard to realize what a heroic figure he was, as he stood in the senatorial forum but three short years ago, defying the agents of privilege and 'regularity,' warning them that they had entered upon a course in which the nation could not and would not follow them.
"For his answer, he was read out of the party that he had served and honored from boyhood; but that was the least of his concerns. He knew that the vast majority of the party were with him in senti- ment and sympathy; he had confidence that in due time that fact would declare itself, and he would be vindicated.
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"It was not the passion of a moment that made Dolliver defy and flaunt the ruling powers of his party. He had been slow to believe that influences of the most reprehensible sort had secured a grip upon it that menaced the very spirit of popular institutions. He served nearly a quarter of a century in congress, a devoted party man, before he became convinced that the destinies of the nation could possibly be insecure in the control of his party. He found, on occasion, it is true, that the men who represented his party's leadership in legislation were frequently unresponsive when he urged upon them policies that he confidently believed to be in the interest of the whole country ; but still he hesitated to believe that his party, as such, had fallen into the control of bad influences, and could no longer be trusted.
"The first awakening came to him in 1906, when he assumed congressional leadership of the movement for strengthening the inter- state commerce laws. He found the powers of party, or regularity, of capitalized privilege, not only in his own party, but in the opposi- tion, hostile to that movement. He began to wonder, to surmise, to contemplate the possibilities involved in such a situation; but, by dint of a magnificent fight, the needed legislation was at last passed, and to Dolliver it seemed for the moment a vindication of his theory that his own party could finally be trusted to meet any emergency of public service.
"Following closely upon this came the experience of the tariff session of 1909. Dolliver believed in a different tariff program than that which the party leaders had adopted. He was sincere, and believed that liis was the only program that any sincere man could accept. He could not, this time, bring the ruling coterie to accept his views. Week after week, month after month of that session, Dol- liver and the little host that gathered at his back, fought for con- cession, and gained none.
"In the end they were steam-rolled out of the fight, and the law was passed as the bosses wanted it. Then Dolliver realized, as he had never done before, that there was serious doubt whether his party could be trusted. He became frankly, openly insurgent against the whole scheme of things, against the entire existing regime of the party's government.
"Patronage was withdrawn, social ostracism was imposed, politi- cal destruction was menaced; but Dolliver would not turn back. He liad at last formed his purpose. The party to which he had given his career and his talents must be reformed-from within.
"That was the message he gave the country in his last public
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utterances. He used all he possessed of eloquence, of sarcasm, invec- tive, irony, appeal, to win a following among the people in congress and out, who could see as plainly as he could. He came up to leader- ship almost in a day. Other men had been plodding that same path for years before he had entered upon it; but when he became con- vinced that his duty carried him along with them, he went to the head of the line. He was the great popular figure, the favored orator, the Mirabeau of the insurgent movement.
"'Here is our real leader,' the country first vaguely felt, then began to say aloud.
"It turned to him as the man who could if that lay in any man's power, save the republican party and bring it back to the higher ideals of its founders. He was strong with party men, because he had always been the most loyal of them all. They knew that Dolliver would go as far as any to save the party; but they knew, too, that he wanted to save it for service to the nation, not as a monument of longevity in senility. They believed in him.
"That is why Dolliver, had he lived, would have been the leader He occupied the great, big place in the popular imagination. The people loved him, believed in him, and rose to those magnificent appeals that none so well as he could formulate and deliver.
"Had he lived, he would, in all human probability, have been the nominee of the republican party, this year, for the presidency. He was never hated by the men who could not agree with him. He would have become the meeting-point of many men and many minds. The public would have demanded him; the organization, weakened and fearful, would have yielded. He would have been nominated, the party would have substantially united at his back, and he would have led it to higher planes, to nobler purposes of true usefulness, than it has known in many years.
"Just on the eve of this magnificent opportunity that almost every- body, better than he, saw was opening to him, death came and ended it all. He had known for a long while that his hold on life was inse- cure; that organic disorders had weakened his heart; that he might go suddenly, and at any time. Knowing that, he never spared him- self, never avoided the heat and burden of the day. Rather, he sought to do more than his share.
"But for the excesses of study and effort which he imposed upon himself during the tariff session of 1909 and the railroad session of 1910, Dolliver would probably be alive to-day. He knew the danger he was inviting when he assumed those labors. He gave up his life and the brilliant prospect of a triumphant climax to his career, in his devotion to what he believed the duty of the hour.
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"He did more than any other man to make the forward movement the power it now has become in this nation; and he offered himself as the richest sacrifice that was laid on its altar. As truly as ever a soldier in the trenches, he gave his life for his country."
On November 20, 1895, Senator Dolliver was united in marriage to Miss Louise Pearsons, a daughter of George R. Pearsons, of Fort Dodge. Mrs. Dolliver was born in Vermont but has spent her life since she was two years of age in Iowa. She is a graduate of Wel- lesley College in the class of 1889, and her intellectual attainments were a cooperant factor in her husband's brilliant and useful work in the world. Senator and Mrs. Dolliver were the parents of three children, Margaret Eliza, Frances Pearsons and Jonathan Prentiss. On October 15, 1910, Senator Dolliver died. Political opponents clasped hands over his grave in the universal brotherhood of sorrow; party lines disappeared before the Grim Reaper and his work is today a vital factor in the life of Iowa and of the nation. One of our fore- most statesmen, gifted with political ability second to none, his death marked the passing of a man who had gained the esteem and love of the people of his state, prominence and distinction in America, and honor throughout the world.
JAMES BLAKELY WILLIAMS.
No history of Fort Dodge would be complete without ex- tended reference to James Blakely Williams, who was but twelve years of age when he first visited the site of the city. It had been selected as an army post but it was not until the following year that the city was laid out, with his father as one of its promoters and incorporators. From that period until his death he lived here and his life work became an integral chapter in the history of the community. James Blakely Williams was born in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, May 11, 1836, a son of Major Wil- liam Williams and Judith Lloyd ( McConnell) Williams, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania, the birthplace of the latter being Huntingdon. Of the five children born to them, two sur- vived, James Blakely and Mary Augustine, who became the wife of J. F. Duncombe. The father, Major Williams, was a banker in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, until 1849, when attracted by the opportunities and advantages of the growing west, he left his native state. He was born in Greensburg, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, December 6, 1796, and was reared and
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educated among the frontier men of that period, men who had served in the Revolutionary war and had participated in the contest with the Indians for the supremacy of the country. In early life Major Williams became well versed in military tactics and it was his desire to enter upon a military career. When sixteen years of age he obtained his father's consent to join the army but circumstances arose that made this course impossible. He visited both Pittsburg and Carlisle, where schools were es- tablished for cavalry and flying artillery. Events, however, forced him to turn his attention to a commercial rather than a military career and he obtained the position of teller in the Westmoreland Bank of Pennsylvania at Greensburg. This was one of the forty banks chartered during the administration of Governor Snyder. After serving in that capacity for some time he resigned his position and began the manufacture of salts on the Kiskiminitas river. With his father's death the responsibility of providing for and educating the other children of the family devolved upon Major Williams, a burden which he assumed willingly, recognizing at once his obligation in that direction. About that time he accepted an appointment which gave himt charge of seven different mercantile establishments, the principal one of which was at Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. It was while there that he was married on the 19th of August, 1830, to Miss Judith Lloyd McConnell. On the completion of the canal he re- moved to Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, where he opened and conducted a store, and while there he was tendered the appoint- ment of teller of the Exchange Bank of Pittsburg, which position he accepted, removing to the latter city. The bank determined to establish a branch at Hollidaysburg and Mr. Williams returned to that place to become cashier of the new institution, with which he was thus connected for some years. On the 15th of May. 1842, his wife died and about that time he was tendered the command of the Third Regiment in the Fenian cause, intended to act in concert with Smith O'Brien in Ireland. This regiment was made up mostly of officers and soldiers who had served in Mexico.
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